Justin Langer’s bungled coaching situation draws eerie comparisons to the 1999 North Sydney Bears which saw captain Jason Taylor assume the top job after a player revolt
Back in 1999, the North Sydney Bears rugby league team was going through a rough patch.
Regular finalists during the six-year reign of their coach Peter Louis, they had lost a string of games midway through the season and were struggling to work their way out of the slump.
After yet another loss, Louis sat stony-faced next to his captain Jason Taylor as he was grilled at the post-game media conference.
After stonewalling one question after another, the usually affable, straight-talking coach had finally had enough.
‘Look,’ he said. ‘I can’t do this. You’ll have to ask your questions to JT (Taylor). He’s the one running the side now. I haven’t been in charge for weeks. I just sit on the sidelines during the games and come along to these press conferences, but I can’t lie anymore.’
And with that, he left the room, his coaching career over.
Langer unceremoniously resigned after an insulting six-month contract extension from Cricket Australia to stay on as coach – reportedly after the team’s stars mounted a mutiny
It turned out that the players had held a revolt a few months earlier. They had told the Bears management that they didn’t like Louis and wanted a change.
The Bears management handled things as they always did – badly. They told Louis to hand over the reins to Taylor but pretend to still be the coach until the end of the season.
It was a plan that was doomed to fail. Anyone who has worked around team sport for any length of time will tell you that letting the players have a say in the future of the coach is a recipe for disaster.
The North Sydney Bears no longer exist as a top-level club, but you have to wonder if some of their old executives are now working as consultants to Cricket Australia.
The way CA handled the contract negotiations that led to the resignation of Australian coach Justin Langer on Saturday could have come straight out of the Bears’ handbook.
Just like their bungling of the Tim Paine affair in November, it was mismanaged from the start.
The irony is that due to the success of the Australian team in the recent Ashes campaign, the stain of Paine’s fall from grace had been all-but forgotten by a cricket-obsessed nation.
We had a champion side led by the all-Australian boy in Pat Cummins. With the Ashes secure and the country’s first-ever T-20 World Cup shining in the trophy cabinet, the future looked bright.
To those with their ear to the ground there were still some faint grumblings about Langer in the dressing room, but that is always the case.
Cricket Australia completely mishandled the departures of former captain Tim Paine (left) and coach Justin Langer (right)
There is an old saying that there are two types of coaches – those who have just been sacked and those who are about to be.
Former rugby league player-turned-commentator Paul ‘Fatty’ Vautin once told me another truism: ‘The only players who like the coach are the ones he picks in his side. Everyone else hates him’.
There was a bit more to it than that with Langer. It wasn’t just the ones who couldn’t get into the side who weren’t pleased with his dictatorial style. Some of those guaranteed a spot were finding it grating as well.
It is well known that it all came to a head last August, with Langer meeting with senior players at the Gold Coast. He came away promising to tone down the aggression and hand over more responsibility to his assistants.
Which he did. It couldn’t have been easy. Justin Langer is no shrinking violet. He coaches like he played. Pugnacious, combative and obsessively result driven.
That was fine with some players. Marnus Labuschagne for one is known to have had no problems with Langer and would have been very happy to see him stay in the job.
Pat Cummins was obviously in the other camp, as we now know all-too-well following his train wreck interview with David Koch on Sunrise last week.
Pat Cummins failed to support Langer during a national interview with Sunrise last week, dodging questions about the coach’s future
Why Cummins agreed to go on the show, knowing that he would be asked to comment on Langer’s future, remains a mystery.
Was he trying to put pressure on CA to make the decision that he wanted them to make, or was he just naïve and thought a non-committal powderpuff of an answer would get him off the hook?
Either way, what is known for sure, is that Cummins – who walked off Bellerive Oval two months ago as the country’s ultimate blue-eyed boy – has had his image tarnished.
To have a former Australian captain in Ricky Ponting voice his ‘disappointment’ over the off-field actions of a current captain, as he did about Cummins on Saturday, is unheard of.
It’s believed several senior members of the Australian team, including Steve Smith, led the mutiny against Langer because they disliked his coaching style
Old players are coming out of the woodwork to defend Langer and attack those members of the current side who worked behind the scenes to get rid of him. It is an unseemly squabble that is doing nothing for team harmony or public opinion.
And Cricket Australia, by letting the whole affair drag out for as long as it did, are to blame.
If they had made their decision and acted on it weeks ago, Cummins would never have been put under such scrutiny.
Of course, CA still would have had to explain why they allowed themselves to be swayed by a group of disgruntled players after a year in which the team had lost just one game.
OK, so maybe not everyone liked Langer or his style, but where in his contract did it say that being the players’ friend was a requisite?
And where did the current players get the impression that playing for Australia should be an easy ride?
Past and present players and coaches have unanimously supported Langer, who won two Ashes series and the T20 World Cup in less than four years at the helm
Plus, who is to say that a gentler approach will bring better results? As one commentator said on Saturday: ‘The Australian cricket coach has just been sacked for being too tough. The England coach has been sacked for being too soft’.
Former England captain Mike Atherton said recently that ‘creative abrasion’ was important in a dressing room. Others might prefer the adage ‘you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette’.
Certainly not every player liked Bobby Simpson when he was coach, and Shane Warne, for one, never got along with John Buchanan – but like Langer, they got results.
The difference was that the older players waited until writing their biographies in retirement before knifing Simpson and Buchanan in the back. The current breed did it while Langer was still in the job.
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