By WW
November 26 2014
In an act of breathtaking decisiveness the board have not sacked Gary Mercer despite those members of the press corp who take an interest in the club saying that he has been axed. The club have moved quickly to quash 3 days of rumours with a brief statement which makes everything clear,
Gary Mercer did not have the ideal start to his tenure. It was 9 weeks before the club announced his arrival meaining that he had no time to work with the players before the season started. Too many changes made too soon makes life difficult for any coach. Add to that the bizarre transfer moves made by the directors in the close season and there you have it - a recipe for disaster.
We are lucky to have the B&I cup break before our trip to Jersey. This will give Tommy McGee some time to restore morale and get the squad playing rugby that they are comfortable with. He has some big problems to surmount but will be helped by the return of key players who had not been involved in the early season ordure.
On Friday night the lads are in South Wales. This has to be week 1 of the recovery programme so the result is secondary to the performance. I do not expect an overnight transformation but the green shoots of recovery might just pop up during the match.
On the second weekend in December we travel to Clifton Lane. Roth will be looking to further underline their credentials as the best club in the county. That will be a good indicator of any progress made ( it will also be a cracking day out for the fans). If we get anything from that match it will be game on for Jersey. If we get nothing from that match we then have the Warriors to contend with.
There are no easy fixtures for us. Every club will be looking to take points off us whilst we are still in turmoil. Tommy will stop the rot, of that I have no doubt. My only worry is that it is too late to salvage anything this season other than our pride.
Quote:Tassigny74
im afraid that team with flair was dismantled as soon as the season finished. the team we have now is really a new team. feel a bit sorry for gm tbh. they always say it takes a few years to build a team. Gibson / Hetherington etc are most to blame imo.
Quote:Carnegiette1
Yes we lost a lot of good players.
But we still have a lot of good players, who in the last few weeks have been playing more and more cluelessly. With lack of confidence, at times they look like headless chickens.
I am sure that Mercer has not been coaching them to drop the ball.........
A good coach provides the environment for a teamwith the ability we still have, to succeed. That is not happening.
I was lucky enough to see our only confident league win in Cornwall in September- Mercer was 4 days into the job......
Am I sorry it hasn't worked out? Yes of course, for him and the club. But would I be sorry to see him go? No not at all
Quote:leemingtyke
We're in the s@#te because of consistently poor decision making by the senior management - that's the root cause. All GM has done is increase the depth.
Quote:aitchw
On another note, Mallinder, Baxter and Richards didn't emerge fully fledged onto the coaching stage, they had work to do and who's to say Tommy can't develop into really good coach in time.
Quote:JDH
Lets just hold off that appointment for now!
Quote:ellishicks
So.. we manage without a coaching structure in place?
I don't know who people think we're going to get. As far as I can see, we wouldn't exist without the academy.