When was the last time we had a decent nrl coach?

[Guest]

And on that note, while waiting for fred.........Brian Smith

News today in the paper is that smithy has joined the brumbies coaching staff.

He's probably already getting busy getting all the brumby players mobile numbers ready on his phone for midnight sms.

[stsae]

What a waste, he was great at the Cowboys also.

I always find it amusing how Murray is considered better than a Smiff. Both have JuanFarkAll.

Murray is not and was not ever a great coach. I recall issues with him releasing Widders and Solimona and with Freddy wanting to retire while he was at our club. The were also issues at The Cows from memory.

Don't get me wrong I don't dislike the bloke, I don't dislike Smiff either, but neither are or ever will be "Great" coaches.

Those saying pRicky rode the tails of Murray, well didn't Murray ride the tails of Gus??? Gus re-built the club and deserves more credit than any coach since Gibbo, IMO of course.

[The Axe]

I always find it amusing how Murray is considered better than a Smiff. Both have JuanFarkAll.

Murray is not and was not ever a great coach. I recall issues with him releasing Widders and Solimona and with Freddy wanting to retire while he was at our club. The were also issues at The Cows from memory.

Don't get me wrong I don't dislike the bloke, I don't dislike Smiff either, but neither are or ever will be "Great" coaches.

Those saying pRicky rode the tails of Murray, well didn't Murray ride the tails of Gus??? Gus re-built the club and deserves more credit than any coach since Gibbo, IMO of course.

Agreed. Best coach since Laurie Freier. Lol

[Guest]

Graham Murray rode the coat tails of Phil 'Gus' Gould who had turned the club around from being a long term joke in to a powerhouse which stayed that way until his involvement within the club ceased. Graham Murray would not have achieved anything at our club had Gus not been able to bring Brad Fittler to the club. Our great club would have been in trouble in the late 1990's with mergers and culling of teams had we not been able to turn our fortune around. Darren Albert did more for Easts than Graham Murray did.

Gus Gould ranks among the greatest things to have ever happened to our proud and historic foundation club.

[mightyrooster]

Gus

Agree.
People saying Murray makes me laugh. He benefited from all the work done by Gus. Stuart did too for that matter.

[roosterproud]

Graham Murray rode the coat tails of Phil 'Gus' Gould who had turned the club around from being a long term joke in to a powerhouse which stayed that way until his involvement within the club ceased. Graham Murray would not have achieved anything at our club had Gus not been able to bring Brad Fittler to the club. Our great club would have been in trouble in the late 1990's with mergers and culling of teams had we not been able to turn our fortune around. Darren Albert did more for Easts than Graham Murray did.

Gus Gould ranks among the greatest things to have ever happened to our proud and historic foundation club.

are we talking better coach or, did the most for the club. we the members did the most for our club....fullstop.....
as for graham he did bring a few players to the team like fitzy.wingy. philips.mini.flan.green morley.mick crock.mullins.groath.

sticky did nothing but disasembled a great team, except for bonetti who retired.

the finch era(error ) was born

[Headless Chook]

are we talking better coach or, did the most for the club. we the members did the most for our club....fullstop.....
as for graham he did bring a few players to the team like fitzy.wingy. philips.mini.flan.green morley.mick crock.mullins.groath.

sticky did nothing but disasembled a great team, except for bonetti who retired.

the finch era(error ) was born

Murray's legacy was that he brought some young guys into the top grade for which we should be very grateful. I don't know how many of them he actually recruited himself, but I know Brett Mullins certainly wasn't one of the them. He didn't join the club until 2002 and only came then because of his friendship with Ricky Stuart

[Guest]

are we talking better coach or, did the most for the club. we the members did the most for our club....fullstop.....
as for graham he did bring a few players to the team like fitzy.wingy. philips.mini.flan.green morley.mick crock.mullins.groath.

sticky did nothing but disasembled a great team, except for bonetti who retired.

the finch era(error ) was born

What members did we have in the 1990's? In 2008 we were aiming for 5,000 members. The success of the club was bred on the field and that was done to Gus and Freddy and had little to do with the few members we had.

People like you would do well to remember that Stuart was the coach who took us to the #1 club in the world you ungrateful man.

[roosterproud]

ive been amember on and off since 76. thats east leagues club, then the footy club

[Cockadoodledoo]

I agree that Graham Murray was a pretty average coach but he did leave a legacy by giving youngsters like Mini, Cross, Crocker, Hegarty, Flannery etc a decent run. Whilst those guys almost all debuted under Gus, he was famous for flicking youngsters in favour of has beens when he got the chance. Who can forget the way he dumped Nathan Blacklock after a shocker against Illawarra where Rod Wishart absolutely man handled him. He didn't make any effort to keep him. I doubt the above youngsters would have been given as much faith by Gus as they were by Murray.

[milanja]

Regardless if you like him or not, sticky coached us to a gf win,wcc win and two other gf. murray and his players had second yr syndrome which is unacceptable with the team we had and the players according to freddy were almost hoping we didnt get a second chance in the finals.

[Guest]

Regardless if you like him or not, sticky coached us to a gf win,wcc win and two other gf. murray and his players had second yr syndrome which is unacceptable with the team we had and the players according to freddy were almost hoping we didnt get a second chance in the finals.

Totally agree. It doesn't matter who else gets mentioned only Jack & Ricky have done the proper job.

I have read posts where someone has posted that Murray rode on the back of Gus to take the team to the 2000 GF & that Ricky rode on the back of Murray to make the 2002 GF & win it or that it was all Gus's doing that we won the comp. It's ridulous.

The coach who was at the helm when we tasted glory are the ones who got us there. It's all due to them.

[Guest]

Totally agree. It doesn't matter who else gets mentioned only Jack & Ricky have done the proper job.

I have read posts where someone has posted that Murray rode on the back of Gus to take the team to the 2000 GF & that Ricky rode on the back of Murray to make the 2002 GF & win it or that it was all Gus's doing that we won the comp. It's ridulous.

The coach who was at the helm when we tasted glory are the ones who got us there. It's all due to them.

So by that logic you are saying that it was all Smith who got us to the 2010 GF. Now I love you like a brother me ol mate but I cant agree there.

[milanja]

So by that logic you are saying that it was all Smith who got us to the 2010 GF. Now I love you like a brother me ol mate but I cant agree there.

are you saying that freddie should get some credit for our 2010 yr cos he coached us to a spoon so it spurred the team to perform in 2010?

[Guest]

So by that logic you are saying that it was all Smith who got us to the 2010 GF. Now I love you like a brother me ol mate but I cant agree there.

I presume he had the most say being the head coach so I would give him the credit for it, I dont think he rode on the back of Freddys tail.

I must say ralphy I feel the Roosters were extremely lucky to make the 2010 GF. I mean that Tigers semi final could have gone either way in extra time, the refs put the whistle away. In saying that I feel the Roosters were ripped in the 2010 GF.