2022 Season General Discussion Thread

[Firetruck]

What is the real story??

It is not for me to publish. I was aware of the real story because of my family’s friendship with Scott’s manger, Smokey Robinson.

[Titanic]

It is not for me to publish. I was aware of the real story because of my family’s friendship with Scott’s manger, Smokey Robinson.

Sometimes it’s better just to not post what will develop into innuendo … followed him from his Isa days and nothing would surprise me.

[SCoast Titan]

It is not for me to publish. I was aware of the real story because of my family’s friendship with Scott’s manger, Smokey Robinson.

Fair enough mate. It is a shame that our inaugural captain wants nothing to do with the club

[The Birdman]

Fair enough mate. It is a shame that our inaugural captain wants nothing to do with the club

It's a shame our inaugural captain decided to stop putting in after 2010 and then got butthurt when the club moved him on.

[gotitans101_]

It's a shame our inaugural captain decided to stop putting in after 2010 and then got butthurt when the club moved him on.

There was probably more to it than that, just like there is to the Mead/Mal story. In fact, the latter pisses me off a lot more than the Prince thing. Fact of the matter is the club's culture just stinks and it shows in our performances week after week, year after year. Supposedly this is Mal's area of expertise but I'm not sure other than attracting Fifita here what he has brought to the club?

I don't know why but our board members seem to escape any sort of scrutiny every time these discussions come up. Mexican Titan posted a list of our board members in the gameday thread last weekend, I wonder for how long each of them have been in their respective roles at the club? We need to do something, even if it means future endeavouring some of those faceless men behind the scenes and replacing them with people who have a clue and a motivation about where they want to take the club. Because atm, it's just not working, we cannot go on blaming the coach, assistant coaches & players every time we're in this mess (which has been the majority of the past 12 years).

Like I said, the Broncs had a huge cleanout and look where they are today. They signed ex Storm CEO Dave Donaghy who took over the reins as Chief Executive Officer last year. Ben Ikin as their Head of Performance. There were more but names escape me atm. So I have actually taken the stance of other names in the media whose opinions are that sacking the coach will solve nothing, as bad as he might be as a coach.

[coreythompson]

This season is write off due to Erin Clark
And not trusting in Mitch Rein

[5 Year Contract]

I feel like we just dont hear from Mal anymore. Its just a waste of money he brings nothing to the club. Doesnt even live int he area anymore. Not be a broken record but f**k me do they need to sort up top first before we start cleaning out below

[Hail Sezer]

There was probably more to it than that, just like there is to the Mead/Mal story. In fact, the latter pisses me off a lot more than the Prince thing. Fact of the matter is the club's culture just stinks and it shows in our performances week after week, year after year. Supposedly this is Mal's area of expertise but I'm not sure other than attracting Fifita here what he has brought to the club?

I don't know why but our board members seem to escape any sort of scrutiny every time these discussions come up. Mexican Titan posted a list of our board members in the gameday thread last weekend, I wonder for how long each of them have been in their respective roles at the club? We need to do something, even if it means future endeavouring some of those faceless men behind the scenes and replacing them with people who have a clue and a motivation about where they want to take the club. Because atm, it's just not working, we cannot go on blaming the coach, assistant coaches & players every time we're in this mess (which has been the majority of the past 12 years).

Like I said, the Broncs had a huge cleanout and look where they are today. They signed ex Storm CEO Dave Donaghy who took over the reins as Chief Executive Officer last year. Ben Ikin as their Head of Performance. There were more but names escape me atm. So I have actually taken the stance of other names in the media whose opinions are that sacking the coach will solve nothing, as bad as he might be as a coach.

I reckon you're close here GT but I've got a different angle on where we're falling down as an organisation. There's quite a few levels between the coaching staff and the board, which leads me to where I believe our biggest issue is...and that's our entire Football Department.

Quickly on the board - I know we're all looking for accountability but without our current board members the club would've folded years ago. That has been fairly well documented publicly as well. Their contributions and administration are probably one of the biggest positives in the past 5 years. NRL team aside, objectively as an organisation, there's multiple metrics to say they're in the best position they'e ever been. Which is why when the NRL side performs so poorly it is even more frustrating because it's undoing all of that work and at the end of the day that's all a fanbase really cares about, and rightly so. Where it could be seen that the board hasn't met the mark IMO is building an elite football department, and even with limited means this is where we're really substandard.

The Broncos did well to bring in Donaghy but that's the advantage they get being the Brisbane Broncos. Unfortunately for most clubs it isn't as simple as go and buy the best CEO in Rugby League, fight the Storm in court over it with your bottomless pit of money and influence, win, and off you go. But it's also their football department that also took a huge leap.. Peter Nolan was their head of recruitment and got shafted with Simon Scanlan (great operator, previously managed their junior pathways) taking over his role, and Ikin came in effecively as their Head of Football which is an incredibly important position in any club. Then they went and beefed this department up further by employing Ballard as Head of Performance, O'Farrell as NRL Contact Coach, and even some bloke as a Football Data & Insights Analyst. This is complementary to their Coach, 2 assistants, and a plethora of football support staff that were already there.

Now lets look at the Titans football department. Anthony Laffranchi is our Head of Football. He got this role by being promoted internally after a few years of experience and somehow has evaded all responsibility. His support team is Ezra Howe (head of recruitment), Mal Meninga (ring-in to help with recruitment and whatever else) as a part-timer. Then you add in the coaching + S&C staff (of which we currently don't have). Not just the number of staff, but the quality of staff, is a mile off IMO. We're never going to be able to compete with the Broncos in this sense because they're cashed up and get their pick of whoever they want, but we need to be significantly better. Especially when we've got an inexperienced coaching staff and NRL squad

[lonegull]

HS well put, a great insight and it opens your eyes up.

[gotitans101_]

Great post HS, just one thing though; someone has to be making those decisions to employ or promote guys like Laffranchi, Mal, etc right? They don't just get the job themselves. I understand the board largely saved our asses all those years ago but surely that still does not mean they should continue escaping accountability because of it? Because if we keep going the way we are we won't have a club. Isn't it their job to get the Head of Football right?

[Hail Sezer]

Great post HS, just one thing though; someone has to be making those decisions to employ or promote guys like Laffranchi, Mal, etc right? They don't just get the job themselves. I understand the board largely saved our asses all those years ago but surely that still does not mean they should continue escaping accountability because of it? Because if we keep going the way we are we won't have a club. Isn't it their job to get the Head of Football right?

Spot on mate, and I'm not suggesting they escape accountability at all, I just think it's wise to seperate the forest from the trees a bit when we're looking at where the priority focus needs to be that will move the needle the most in the short-term. Can see what you're saying and you're not wrong at all.

Unfortunately when the team is improving on the field (whether we agree with that statement or not they objectively went from last to 9th, and 9th to 8th), the football department looks to be doing a fair job (at least enough to retain the same staff and keep "building"). Fast forward to now and our regression has forced the Board to review & assess where things are really at (much like the Broncos did) and they'll have the opportunity to make improvements. So in short, I can give them the BOTD for where we are, but the same mightn’t be said if they cant improve where we're going. And for me that starts with improving the football department.

[Whats Doing]

I just don’t see too much ensuring accountability of the football operations by the Board. You will probably remember the talk from Annersley about 5 years ago to the members and the KPI’s set for the football team. As I recollect, they have failed to meet most of those indicators since. The Board should be more proactive and it does not take 5 or more years to transform clubs as seen by Broncos, Cowboys and Sharks who have transformed themselves within 12 months.

The Board needs to be more decisive, demand results and if not achieved, move them on irrespective of their reputations and standing in the game.

I am not saying the Board has been poor and far from it, but from my perspective they are no where decisive enough and demanding results and accepting mediocrity for far too long

[Titanic]

Have we forgotten that the Titans is a privately owned club and really only accountable to their shareholders. Yes we are members but calls for changes to the board are way out of line … try calling Fox and get Murdoch sacked for lack of transparency for example. I’m with you in sentiment but it’s misdirected. Laffranchi et al are the targets.

[Whats Doing]

Have we forgotten that the Titans is a privately owned club and really only accountable to their shareholders. Yes we are members but calls for changes to the board are way out of line … try calling Fox and get Murdoch sacked for lack of transparency for example. I’m with you in sentiment but it’s misdirected. Laffranchi et al are the targets.

I may not have worded it the best but I was referring to the Board being more decisive on moving on personnel who are not performing in the football department, not moving on the Board.

[gotitans101_]

Have we forgotten that the Titans is a privately owned club and really only accountable to their shareholders. Yes we are members but calls for changes to the board are way out of line … try calling Fox and get Murdoch sacked for lack of transparency for example. I’m with you in sentiment but it’s misdirected. Laffranchi et al are the targets.

Fair enough. That's basically saying they're bulletproof, and if that's the case, then we really are destined to repeat the same mistakes over, and over, and over again until the inevitable happens and they won't have a club to run at all. I wish my job allowed me to constantly miss my KPIs without any sort of repercussions whatsoever.