Mick Potter has finally been announced as the next coach of the Wests Tigers after ridiculous amounts of speculation by the media. There were no less than three other coaches who were “signed and sealed” according to some journos, and none of them were Mick Potter.
Potter has had stints at the Catalan Dragons, St Helens and Bradford Bulls in Super League, and at best you would describe his coaching performance over there as below average.
He did OK with the Dragons and was eventually poached by St Helens. However at Saints he just didn’t do much at all. In fact, he is one of their least successful coaches in the last decade. He then went on to the Bradford Bulls where he didn’t do much again, and actually spent the last few months there coaching for free after the club went broke.
It is beyond me why NRL clubs keep looking towards Super League for coaches that weren’t good enough to get a job in the NRL in the first place. It is not like they get any better coaching the rubbish we see out of Super League each year.
Of all of the coaches that needed to head to the UK to get a gig, only Michael Maguire was any good, and he was always only going over there to wait for a decent job in the NRL to be offered to him.
On the other end of the scale, well, its not pretty. Brian McClennan heads up the list, taking the Warriors from a Grand Final team to a record breaking failure in the span of 24 games. You also have the likes of Matthew Elliott who has a career losing record in the NRL with two different clubs.
I personally believe that NRL clubs would be much better off promoting assistants from within their own set up than looking at failed Australians in Super League.
One thing that is not being talked about all that much is the fact that many of the jobs are not wanted by aspiring coaches. Career coaches on the up don’t want to walk in to terrible situations and have to deal with some clubs that from the outside look like a mess.
I think to some degree that is a big risk, there are only 16 top Rugby League clubs in the world you can coach for, and you’re probably better off getting your foot in the door than letting chances slip by. Then again, waiting for a great job to become available like say the Broncos, Bulldogs, Storm or the like, you know you’ll have a decent club to work with.
So now, the Tigers finally have a new coach. Lets see how long this Super League ring in lasts…
I’ll make my bias known here Freak, I’m a Tigers fan. His tenure with St. Helens leaves a little to be desired as he should have walked away with at least one premiership, but don’t his efforts with Catalans and Bradford cannot be underestimated. Things were not working with Sheens, and despite the finishes of 2010 and 2011, the culture was still toxic with nepotism and a seemingly carefree attitude toward poor performance. Potter will bring something to the Tigers that Sheens cannot: change. After a disastrous 2012, Potter cannot simply do any worse with the roster he has. Of course I could be wrong, but I’ll save final judgement until the end of the year.