NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry)
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@crucial Yep - and if Conrad had come out and said Hammer was a c#nt, I'd have accepted it.
Or even if he'd said nothing at all, then I'd be more damning of Hammer.
But, he didn't. He said...
"It's not often when a head coach leaves that none of the players actually want him to go. We all love him, love what he's done for the club and he'll be sorely missed," Smith said today.
"True character is often revealed in the fullness of time and in years to come all the players under him now will look back on him now and say how much he did for the club."
That's a pretty glowing endorsement and I've heard nothing from the Hurricanes that were in that latter team to discount it.
He was also pretty popular at the Crusaders and he seems to be getting along pretty well at the Highlanders.
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@chris-b When Hammett first took over he said "judge me on my results" and as a Canes fan we gave him the benefit of the doubt, before swiftly realising he was far too inexperienced, lacked any real tactical coaching ability and obviously had no idea how to communicate with the melting pot of athletes in that Canes environment. Don't forget guys like Gear and Weepu also signed elsewhere as they knew it was probably career suicide sticking with a team that was being coached by someone completely out of his depth.
In my mind the return of players like Nonu and the introduction of local & experienced coaches in the form of Plum and Boyd probably reflects the true reason our results improved.
Mark Hammett may well be a successful coach down the track and may go on to coach a team to a Super title, but his time at the Canes was a failure because he wasn't ready to take on a position like that. He should have done his time at NPC level before getting a gig like that, something that still baffles me today.
So no, he doesn't deserve credit for the 2016 title.
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@canes4life said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
@chris-b When Hammett first took over he said "judge me on my results" and as a Canes fan we gave him the benefit of the doubt, before swiftly realising he was far too inexperienced, lacked any real tactical coaching ability and obviously had no idea how to communicate with the melting pot of athletes in that Canes environment. Don't forget guys like Gear and Weepu also signed elsewhere as they knew it was probably career suicide sticking with a team that was being coached by someone completely out of his depth.
In my mind the return of players like Nonu and the introduction of local & experienced coaches in the form of Plum and Boyd probably reflects the true reason our results improved.
Mark Hammett may well be a successful coach down the track and may go on to coach a team to a Super title, but his time at the Canes was a failure because he wasn't ready to take on a position like that. He should have done his time at NPC level before getting a gig like that, something that still baffles me today.
This is his comment after the Matthew Rees book.
"In hindsight, I think I probably tried to move things ahead too quickly, with regards to player workloads and gameplans/techniques, without understanding the nature of the northern hemisphere competition and the culture of the club.
"This was a big learning I took out of my time there and have taken those learnings into all my future coaching roles since."
Note this happened after the Canes. One of the biggest gripes about his time in Wellington was that he didn't understand the culture of the club and immediately set to change it to his way. It didn't work for him (results wise) there and didn't work again in Cardiff. He says he has now learned his lesson.
I always had the impression that Conrad Smith was happy for the culture to change as he also didn't feel accepted (probably the wrong word there) and the changes meant that he could do his job better. Hammetts ways suited Conrad. -
@crucial You could also read it that things were a bit of a shambles at Cardiff and Hammer immediately saw the need for change.
One thing I distinctly remember on this board was Canes' fans mocking Hammer for his focus on culture.
It's subsequently become pretty obvious that this is of huge importance to successful sports teams!
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@chris-b said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
@crucial You could also read it that things were a bit of a shambles at Cardiff and Hammer immediately saw the need for change.
One thing I distinctly remember on this board was Canes' fans mocking Hammer for his focus on culture.
It's subsequently become pretty obvious that this is of huge importance to successful sports teams!
I think we mocked his focus on culture change that affected playing style as well.
All fair enough to have a no dickheads policy and get a team tighter but he threw the baby out with the bathwater trying to turn the Canes into the Saders.
He took a generation of incoming players that grew up admiring and trying to emulate their local heroes like Cully, Lomu, Umaga, Rodders etc and tried to turn them into Tim Batemans -
This thread is hilarious.
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@crucial Yep - and I'll agree that he didn't come up with a decent gameplan. Boyd and Plumtree added that.
But, I think implemented a necessary cultural revolution and if he hadn't, you guys could have spent the last five years being the Blues!
@Canefan - by far the biggest loss of the defectors was Cruden. He played a key role in winning Rennie two titles.
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@canes4life the Coach the Canes had to have, you know like that loss the ABs had to have before the 2011 and 2015 WC victories
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@nepia said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
@chris-b And there you are - thought you'd been abducted by aliens. Following the same reasoning I am impressed with how Foster built the Chiefs so that Rennie could win with them.
It was also impressive how Vance Stewart set up the Crusaders in 1996 so that Wayne Smith could benefit and eventually win in 1998.
The work that Jed Rowlands and Frank Oliver did in setting up the Blues for Sloane/Henry to win in 2003 was impressive too.
Also, it was great how Hammett got rid of Nonu so that he could rebuild the team for four years of mediocrity and this allowed Boyd to bring Nonu back to get the Canes to the finals and set them up for the win the following year.
Nick White must be pleased with Auckland's win on the weekend. He built that team. Get that man a coaching gig in Ta$man.
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@act-crusader said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
@canes4life the Coach the Canes had to have, you know like that loss the ABs had to have before the 2011 and 2015 WC victories
Haha a loss or two, or three, or even five I could take. But four years of consistent utter dross was a bit much.
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@daffy-jaffy said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
@hooroo officially 20,130.
That would be the largest turnout to a final in quite a few years? Capacity at Canterbury isn't that in the temp ground is it?
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@kirwan said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
And I can’t stress how bad the weather was, would have interesting to see how many would have turned up if the weather was better.
Did you go too? I managed to get a few beers into Duluth at the races beforehand.
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@hooroo said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
@daffy-jaffy said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
@hooroo officially 20,130.
That would be the largest turnout to a final in quite a few years? Capacity at Canterbury isn't that in the temp ground is it?
I was at the 2010 final at AMI/Jade. Less than 3,000 people.
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@hooroo said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
@kirwan said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
And I can’t stress how bad the weather was, would have interesting to see how many would have turned up if the weather was better.
Did you go too? I managed to get a few beers into Duluth at the races beforehand.
Yep, remember that All Whites game I went to with you? Crowd as at least as crazy as that.
