Worst Coaching Decision Ever?

[HunchoRooster]

No, it's not even remotely the worst nor was it bizarre.

We've got short memories sometimes.

Walker was shot on confidence, and not only that appeared to be playing contrary to the game plan.

It was not remotely unusual for him to be sent to reserves for a while, especially at his age. It isnt the first time Robbo has done such a thing, and Robbo is not unique among coaches for having done it.

What was unforseen was the injury Sam suffered. You can't plan for those, and unfortunately it happened at the cusp of being elevated back into firsts.

The injury occured after 40mins of reserve grade footy. It was bizarre as he was dropped for the reasons I mentioned in the original post but then they wanted him back straight away given the side performed even worse without him. There is no excuse or rationale for that. Robbo went back on his word and thus confirms the awful mistake of dropping Walker.

Now you are right, I am sure there are far worse coaching decisions and thats mainly what this thread is about. Discussing those. The Walker one just gave me the idea.

[On the Nose]

the sooner we get rid of this imposter the better I mean what has he ever contributed this club!

hopefully Nick can pull some strings and grab Brad Arthur or what’s Stephen Kearney up to these days????

What's more wide of the mark - the above comment or Robbo comparing Drew to Aubo?

[Rooster R]

Freddy as coach

[Bansai Pipeline]

What are the chances of getting the Walker brothers as offensive coaches?

[CombatChook]

I would argue that never changing the game plan to suit the opposition is an ongoing issue with Robinson. I mean, who does not know that the boys are going to run one or two out from the ruck, for 5 tackles, then shoot up a bomb, generally straight to the opposition fullback? Robinson even forced Cronk to adhere to this tactic, preventing him playing his natural game of kicking for field position. Now he's doing it to Walker. This is why Toops and Manu rarely see the ball. It's just totally predictable and somewhat akin to the bloody-minded way that English generals ran battles in WWI.

[Rooster36]

What are the chances of getting the Walker brothers as offensive coaches?

Great idea …

[Rooster36]

What's more wide of the mark - the above comment or Robbo comparing Drew to Aubo?

Is Trent Barret available?

[zac]

since sam was dropped things haven't gone well but that doesn't mean sam's being dropped caused that. just because something happened before another thing doesn't mean that thing caused it. e.g. it wasn't the '6 again error' in the 2019 gf that caused the raiders to lose.

was sam starring before he got dropped? no. has robbo dropped other future stars successfully before as part of their development? yes - manu and mitchell.
if the absence of sam walker has been the major factor in our poor showing then his injury was at least as important as his being dropped.

moving joey into 5/8 wasn't crazy. he'd played well there before - got dally m points. while it's a move that didn't work it's unfair to say that it was crazy, part of the worst coaching decison ever.

how was our season travelling before sam was dropped? not good and sam wasn't playing well. his game v storm was his worst for us so it's not as if the decision to drop sam tured a season that was going great into a failure

[On the Nose]

Was Sam starring before he got dropped? Compared to the rest of the team, I would say yes.
Moving Joey into 5/8th wasn't crazy? Keeping him there after multiple dud games was. Keeping Sualli in the centres was. Playing Drew at centre was.
How was our season travelling before Sam was dropped? I think better than our starts in recent years.
Ouch.. I stubbed my toe.

[Les Tricolores]

Worst ever decision? Look I disagreed with it at the time but it's not the first or last time that a coach has sacked a player to try and improve his performance. We weren't winning or gelling at the time, LOTS of people wanted to see Manu tested at #6 (heck - many on here saw that as a way of paying him $1m a season long-term) and difficult calls had to be made. It's disappointing that he then copped an almost season ending injury in reggies! Happens though.

Can't say it's up there with anything the Dragons, Tigpies and Doggies are doing. Ask their fans how we're having our worst season in a decade and are still nowhere near wooden spoon territory.

Calm the fark down peeps. The only thing I'm getting sick of is all the farking whinging and whining from so-called 'fans'!!!! UNITE... BACK YOUR FARKING TEAM... let Souffs fans do the heckling!

Holding our hopelessly woeful coach accountable for destroying this gun squad (his recommendation by the way) is called f*cking supporting your team

Anything less and you're complicit in this sh*tshow of a season

[tloos1999]

You lost me with Keary. It wasn't about form. It was about high risk plays in tight games like the Walker intercept pass at halfway line when we weren't even in a scoring position.

Radley is a loose cannon who deserves a kick in the nuts for his headbutt and general petulant behaviour. I have no problem with Radley defending with aggression though and I hope it continues.

I had no intent to seek your attention. But let us dissect. If you're telling me the basis for Walker's dropping was solely on his high risk plays, okay. But if that warranted exclusion from the side, then Keary is getting preferential treatment, because objectively has not been a contributor to this Roosters side for a number of recent years. The allure of Walker is his off limb play. He sure can do something silly, but most times he nails it, and has been our only sparkling light in attack since both Cronk/Latrell have left. For a leader such as Keary to have had such an indifferent past few seasons, yet still remain week in, week out in the side is bewildering. Instead it was the genius idea to ostracise our 20 year old halfback who is clearly the future. Truth is, no matter how much of a love fest you have with aforementioned players, both have been shadows of themselves and have deserved to be dropped numerous times, before Sam Walker did.

[Rooster_6]

- Braith Anasta at fullback.

- Letting Jamie Soward go

- Trying to buy the Bulldogs culture Mason/O'meley/Tonga/Anasta/Myles.

I've said it before plenty of times already but dropping Sam Walker isn't even close to Robbo's biggest blunders. It's founded in sound logic and good faith, if the logic was flawed then I would understand the the rhetoric around it but Robinson was faced with two creative halves, neither of which are great organisers and he had to make a call, he decided he wanted to develop Walkers game as a halfback to improve the combinations ability to organise the side and he thought the best way to do that was in reserve grade. That to me is sound, rational logic. I would've kept him in first grade but I can also accept a different opinion without getting emotional about it because I like Sam Walker as a player.

Robinson will never get the chance to vindicate his decision because he obviously got injured so we will never know if it could've been a good decision.

But I just can't get on board with the nonsense butterfly effect theories that he wouldn't have got injured had he not been in reserve grade or that it was the catalyst for our poor season as if we weren't just as poor with Walker in the side.

[rented tracksuit]

I hope the Brandon Smith signing won't end up being in this league.

Time will tell but it’s not looking good.

[JAF]

since sam was dropped things haven't gone well but that doesn't mean sam's being dropped caused that. just because something happened before another thing doesn't mean that thing caused it. e.g. it wasn't the '6 again error' in the 2019 gf that caused the raiders to lose.

was sam starring before he got dropped? no. has robbo dropped other future stars successfully before as part of their development? yes - manu and mitchell.
if the absence of sam walker has been the major factor in our poor showing then his injury was at least as important as his being dropped.

moving joey into 5/8 wasn't crazy. he'd played well there before - got dally m points. while it's a move that didn't work it's unfair to say that it was crazy, part of the worst coaching decison ever.

how was our season travelling before sam was dropped? not good and sam wasn't playing well. his game v storm was his worst for us so it's not as if the decision to drop sam tured a season that was going great into a failure

100% agree with this post Zac

[dice]

I had no intent to seek your attention. But let us dissect. If you're telling me the basis for Walker's dropping was solely on his high risk plays, okay. But if that warranted exclusion from the side, then Keary is getting preferential treatment, because objectively has not been a contributor to this Roosters side for a number of recent years. The allure of Walker is his off limb play. He sure can do something silly, but most times he nails it, and has been our only sparkling light in attack since both Cronk/Latrell have left. For a leader such as Keary to have had such an indifferent past few seasons, yet still remain week in, week out in the side is bewildering. Instead it was the genius idea to ostracise our 20 year old halfback who is clearly the future. Truth is, no matter how much of a love fest you have with aforementioned players, both have been shadows of themselves and have deserved to be dropped numerous times, before Sam Walker did.

You are conflating two issues:
1) "If you're telling me the basis for Walker's dropping was solely on his high risk plays" - risk assessment
2) "has not been a contributor to this Roosters side for a number of recent years" - form/ability

Walker cost us the Sharks game with an immature inability to properly assess risk. I am probably being kind. He needed some time out in naughty corner to reflect on his role as a game manager.