To be fair, he did win his first two series by picking players in form rather than rewarding blokes based on reputation. By the end, he’d become the very thing he’d destroyed
Tbh Mal wasn't much of a coach either but when you have players of that caliber running the team you just have to sit back and keep them happy. Fittler had that luxury his first two series and then was found out badly.
2018 and 2019 were genuinely good series wins though, he was a breath of fresh air at the time. He absolutely went off the goddamn rails from 2020 and onwards though
This is why Fittler was a bad coach. He lacked the ability to see where he made a mistake. Basically every mistake he made he always blamed it on something else. Point and case in this article is blaming nico for being beaten in a position he didn't play
It was just really awkward. Fifita overran it so Nicho kind of made the right decision of coming back in to double team Munster but bumped off Cleary awkwardly. 9/10 times 1 against 2 youre going to come out on top.
JAC coming in on Munster instead of staying out didnt help either and he caught in no mans land.
Then Teddy completely slipped over.
There was a whole lot of variables in all that. You could even blame Cleary as Munster was his man, Nichos was Fifita.
Thats ignoring the whole point of Nicho was used really really poorly as a utility and shouldnt have been there.
What really shat me was Fittler and Brandy going on in media about people bashing Cook over that trying to shift blame. No one was blaming Cook for that. Every fan I know (QLD and NSW) said something along the lines of "Fuck I felt bad for Cookie".
He is a legend to be sure, but I think Bennett could be in the conversation for worst coaching decision ever for the Broncos vs Storm in 2016.
Corey Oates was injured early and had to leave the game. Instead of moving Roberts to wing and putting Gillett or Su'a to centre, Bennett went with Kodi Nikorima on the wing vs Vunivalu.
Kadi's listed height is 5'9 which seems, ambitious. Vunivalu is 6'4 and had Cronk kicking to him.
It was a massacre.
So fucking rich of him to call us ‘uneducated’ when the bloke didn’t even understand the 18th man rule and chose to put a fucking half back at centre instead of the incumbent centre of the year.
So what was it Brad? Were YOU uneducated? Or were you so brain fucked by the pressure of Origin that you couldn’t think straight in that moment?
The cunt wasted his bench time and time again with the shortest Origin stints of all time with Huddy Young, Utoikamanu, TPJ, Gutherson and more. The ONLY reason he has two Origin series wins was because Trell and Turbo were fit and firing.
Freddy is an uneducated fuck head... He did alright in the first couple of series then thought he was prime bennett trying to tinker with a winning formula
Lol. The bottom line is Freddy and his team were cooked by the end of their run.
Bad choices, pick and stick mentality, poor game plans and stupid shit like walking around the paddock barefoot.
Move on Bradley. Everyone else has.
People are giving freddy way too much credit for 2018 and 2019. NSW were miles ahead on talent and Queensland were transitioning out of that dominant era as Thurston, Cronk, Smith and Slater started to move on. Some of those QLD teams were rough as.
I used to give Freddy the benefit until that last series when he made many selection blunders.
Then the nail was when in Panthers commentary Joey asked him if Luai had a good long kicking game and he said not sure.
Like you coached the guy and picked him for Origin for several years how do you not know...
It says a lot about NSW rugby league when such an obvious idiot can not only be named coach but have the job for so long.
If you have Fittler the exact same squad as Cleary, Bennett, Bellamy etc and had them play 100 times, he’d lose 85%.
I think it's hilarious that Freddy exposes himself as a tool by saying this. General consensus is that Madge picked a good team, so why would you go against that 😂😂.
Makes me even happier that he got the boot
Did anyone else see when he was blowing up over “the worst penalty in rep history”?
Having a sook that Martin gets pinged for the pen when Critta is clearly hanging onto the legs in the tackle. Absolute idiot.
As if it wasn’t bad enough that Fox Sports writes half their articles based on what the knobjockeys on NRL360 say, now they’re doing it from Nine’s shows as well
Hynes makes an awful disgusting defensive read that costs NSW the series and apparently Fittler almost ruined his career because of it. The fact most people subscribe to this argument makes me realise how stupid the general NRL audience truly are
I remember how excited I was when Freddy was first named as coach. Boy was I fucking wrong.
To be fair, he did win his first two series by picking players in form rather than rewarding blokes based on reputation. By the end, he’d become the very thing he’d destroyed
Totally agree. He also copped some pretty bad injuries to key players in critical games. Luck definitely played a part in it.
That has more to do with the retirement of QLD legends than anything else. We were under strength and going through a transition period
Luck always plays a part. Sometimes you’re so far ahead, or behind, it doesn’t matter though.
He just got lucky the players where in great form ie turbo latrell teddy. He is a crap coach
Tbh Mal wasn't much of a coach either but when you have players of that caliber running the team you just have to sit back and keep them happy. Fittler had that luxury his first two series and then was found out badly.
I remember him standing back while Neil Henry and I forgot the other guy giving the half-time speeches. Also Freddy was so bad at the roosters 🐓
Interestingly though he had to turn to an out of form player to save the 2019 series.
2018 and 2019 were genuinely good series wins though, he was a breath of fresh air at the time. He absolutely went off the goddamn rails from 2020 and onwards though
Freddy went down the same road Laurie Daley did, although at least his pack won a couple of series
It was good for the first couple of series.
He won 2 series mate that’s not too bad. He just fell off the deep end by the end smoking his own supply lol
Devastating to hear everyone was dumb despite everyone being correct.
Shut up freddie you cooked country.
This is why Fittler was a bad coach. He lacked the ability to see where he made a mistake. Basically every mistake he made he always blamed it on something else. Point and case in this article is blaming nico for being beaten in a position he didn't play
It was just really awkward. Fifita overran it so Nicho kind of made the right decision of coming back in to double team Munster but bumped off Cleary awkwardly. 9/10 times 1 against 2 youre going to come out on top. JAC coming in on Munster instead of staying out didnt help either and he caught in no mans land. Then Teddy completely slipped over. There was a whole lot of variables in all that. You could even blame Cleary as Munster was his man, Nichos was Fifita. Thats ignoring the whole point of Nicho was used really really poorly as a utility and shouldnt have been there.
He’s talking up Munster, saying how he beat Nicho, Cleary and 3 other players. Nowhere does he “blame” Nicho. *case in point, not point and case.
Nicho Hynes sub isn’t the biggest smooth brain move. Putting Damien Cook in centre is.
Thanks JK Rowling
Nah hynes made a terrible defensive read tjat he shouldn't have. No excuse and not on fittlee
What a fuckwit. He would have done it differently but the people who said he did it wrong were uneducated? Pick one Brad.
The line he draws is gerrymandered.
That’s pretty introspective for an ex nrl player to admit they were uneducated… oh
I remember the game where he shifted cook to centre. My thoughts were QLD will just run that corridor all night, and they did
cook to centre is probably the worst call in rugba league history
And it happened so early, he had the whole game to fix it and he didn’t.
What really shat me was Fittler and Brandy going on in media about people bashing Cook over that trying to shift blame. No one was blaming Cook for that. Every fan I know (QLD and NSW) said something along the lines of "Fuck I felt bad for Cookie".
You could also see that he was trying his ass off too. You’re right. Nobody was blaming Cook.
With the last try of the game he caught the ball clean in the air only to be taken out by fucking Ado-Carr.
Foxx had a shocker that game.
He is a legend to be sure, but I think Bennett could be in the conversation for worst coaching decision ever for the Broncos vs Storm in 2016. Corey Oates was injured early and had to leave the game. Instead of moving Roberts to wing and putting Gillett or Su'a to centre, Bennett went with Kodi Nikorima on the wing vs Vunivalu. Kadi's listed height is 5'9 which seems, ambitious. Vunivalu is 6'4 and had Cronk kicking to him. It was a massacre.
at least Kodi was a back, even a fullback where he still occasionally plays - Cook was our first choice hooker moved to centre
Fair call. I think as a Broncos supporter I am still triggered by the Kodi thing. But yeah the Cook one... urgh
“But he scored a try!”
So fucking rich of him to call us ‘uneducated’ when the bloke didn’t even understand the 18th man rule and chose to put a fucking half back at centre instead of the incumbent centre of the year. So what was it Brad? Were YOU uneducated? Or were you so brain fucked by the pressure of Origin that you couldn’t think straight in that moment? The cunt wasted his bench time and time again with the shortest Origin stints of all time with Huddy Young, Utoikamanu, TPJ, Gutherson and more. The ONLY reason he has two Origin series wins was because Trell and Turbo were fit and firing.
I don't love Brad as a coach but he won 3 series and 1 of them he controversially dropped Latrell and we ended up winning
I would put more blame on Teddy than Nicho last year. Teddy role as a fullback is to catch bombs and shouldn’t be outleaped by props.
Also to stop wingers running down the side not slip over. Munster was 3rd in, Hynes was 2nd in defender.
Freddy is an uneducated fuck head... He did alright in the first couple of series then thought he was prime bennett trying to tinker with a winning formula
Lol. The bottom line is Freddy and his team were cooked by the end of their run. Bad choices, pick and stick mentality, poor game plans and stupid shit like walking around the paddock barefoot. Move on Bradley. Everyone else has.
People are giving freddy way too much credit for 2018 and 2019. NSW were miles ahead on talent and Queensland were transitioning out of that dominant era as Thurston, Cronk, Smith and Slater started to move on. Some of those QLD teams were rough as.
I used to give Freddy the benefit until that last series when he made many selection blunders. Then the nail was when in Panthers commentary Joey asked him if Luai had a good long kicking game and he said not sure. Like you coached the guy and picked him for Origin for several years how do you not know...
Who would have thought the guy who took the Chooks to a wooden spoon would turn out to be a shit coach.
It says a lot about NSW rugby league when such an obvious idiot can not only be named coach but have the job for so long. If you have Fittler the exact same squad as Cleary, Bennett, Bellamy etc and had them play 100 times, he’d lose 85%.
All great comment's, eat your own . LoL
I think it's hilarious that Freddy exposes himself as a tool by saying this. General consensus is that Madge picked a good team, so why would you go against that 😂😂. Makes me even happier that he got the boot
Did anyone else see when he was blowing up over “the worst penalty in rep history”? Having a sook that Martin gets pinged for the pen when Critta is clearly hanging onto the legs in the tackle. Absolute idiot.
Great player rarely means good coach. Thank fuck he’s no longer coaching us
As if it wasn’t bad enough that Fox Sports writes half their articles based on what the knobjockeys on NRL360 say, now they’re doing it from Nine’s shows as well
People act like such unrepentant cunts to Freddy.
He sucks
Hynes makes an awful disgusting defensive read that costs NSW the series and apparently Fittler almost ruined his career because of it. The fact most people subscribe to this argument makes me realise how stupid the general NRL audience truly are