First-game Cowboys coach Todd Payten's decision to publicly call-out superstar forward Jason Taumalolo has been branded "unprecedented and brave" - yet perhaps "fraught with danger".
Payten followed his first match in charge of North Queensland, a poor 24-0 loss against Penrith on Saturday, with a strong critique of Taumalolo "cutting corners" in defence.
Payten also defended his decision to play the champion lock for only 51 minutes, a significant reduction on his usual game time in which he ran for just 71 metres; after averaging more than 200 metres per game last season.
"This is a long-term decision about Jase's health and my ambition to hold on to the job, I guess," said Payten, who is in his first NRL head coach role.
NSW State of Origin and former Sydney Roosters coach Fittler said that Payten would be well advised not to run his team with an eye on his own job security. He said that Payten had been "gutsy" to publicly target Taumalolo.
"One thing, if I was going to give him a warning, was if you start of sort of bringing in your own coaching career into it, then that's fraught with danger," Fittler said.
"As soon as you start coaching to keep your own job, that's usually the end.
"If that's your mentality and he came out and said - and even when he said it, he squirmed a little bit at the end of it - as soon as you start coaching to continue your own job, not to win and win for the club, then you just put yourself under pressure because players pick up on it.
"I just think the reaction over the next month, not even next week, it's over the next month or two, let's see how the group come together."
Parramatta great Peter Sterling said that Payten may not have been wrong in his criticism, yet it was a huge move to make.
"It's unprecedented and it's brave, to come out and isolate your best player and point out the flaws," Sterling said on The Sunday Footy Show.
"It's about accountability, no doubt about that, and he's trying to make a very, very strong point to his playing group.
"I'd love to know how Jason felt about it when he heard it. But to come out and to say that, here's a guy who he sees cuts corners and he doesn't want that to be infectious within his young players ... and a new coach coming in and saying that, first game ... like I say, it's unprecedented."
Cronulla great Paul Gallen interjected: "He must be pretty confident in the relationship he has with Taumalolo. He must be confident in that relationship, the fact that he can put pressure on him to bring the rest of the team up to standard.
"That's what he must think. As you said, it would be interesting to know what Taumalolo thinks about it but he obviously thinks he has that relationship with him."
Sterling added: "I don't dislike what I heard but I was surprised by it."
For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!
No comments:
Post a Comment