Written by Will Swanton ............
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sp...k/news-story/34985af0e62e0ecd14f9eff63ebe5b38
Trent Barrett is sounding like a bit of a sook. He’ll
pack up his desk and go in the not-too-distant future.
He’ll be entitled to drag the entire desk out the door — Tommy Turbo, mate, can you help me with this bloody thing? — because apparently he’s had to supply it himself.
And yet for all the frustrations of being understaffed and not having enough furniture at the Sea Eagles, Barrett is failing to mention a few crucial things he’s had in his favour during his doomed tenure. Three absolutely elite players … and a roster that should have made the NRL finals.
We’re not suggesting the Sea Eagles are at the cutting edge of sports technology. They’re not. If you’ve been to their training base at the NSW Academy of Sport, you know it ain’t the headquarters of the Dallas Cowboys.
Weekly schedules are delivered by carrier pigeon. Updates via smoke signals and a beating drum. The demountable offices look borrowed from Newport Public School. Maybe there’s electricity and Wi-Fi in there, maybe the modem’s buggered.
Look, there’s some glaring off-field deficiencies at the Sea Eagles but in a sense, who cares? Barrett has had the most important asset of all. The ears of capable players. It’s been his job to make it work. He’s failed. Instead of a premiership force, we’ve got the Liberal Party.
Barrett is right to gripe about having only nine full-time staff compared to the 20-plus at most other clubs and yet his predecessors in Des Hasler and Geoff Toovey were extremely successful in the same (or worse) environment. Even if the Sea Eagles have been sitting on milk crates trying to find Daly Cherry-Evans’ laptop charger so they can view the video of last week’s match without using up all the data on his phone, Barrett has still had enough quality at his fingertips to make the top eight. It’s only a 16-team competition. You have to be pretty ordinary to miss out.
He’s complained about having to supply the desk for his office. So what? It’s odd, but it doesn’t impact his coaching. His wife and kids had to clean the gym before his first day. Immaterial. He’s had to bring his own backyard furniture for the team’s common room. Hire chairs for the locker room. Again, rather bizarre, but irrelevant to his role of man management. He’s lamented a revolving door of chief executives and general managers of football. Ask most NRL players if a change of CEO is affecting their performances and they will laugh you back to the car park.
Continues at:
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sp...k/news-story/34985af0e62e0ecd14f9eff63ebe5b38