Ask Kenty: coaching merry-go-rounds, Melbourne's dynasty and the Bulldogs' spine dilemma

Paul Kent and Warren Livingstone worked through a stack of viewer questions on a special Ask Kenty edition of Kenty Blitz, covering club administration failures, Melbourne's remarkable consistency, the Bulldogs' halves experiment and whether modern rugby league has lost its identity.

Do clubs get better through multiple coach sackings?

Kent's answer was characteristically direct. The problem isn't the coaches, it's the people hiring them.

"Some of these clubs don't know, and they think they know. Owners think because they're footy fans who've grown up watching it all their life, they know the business. I've drunk Coca-Cola all my life but I couldn't run the company."

Kent recalled sitting in on PowerPoint presentations where coaches bluffed their way into jobs, only for those same coaches to be found out within months. He also referenced a case where a club rang a coach's former employers to check on him after he'd already been appointed, only to discover they couldn't believe he'd landed the job.

"The club that hired him thought they'd got a live one. He didn't last real long."

The answer to whether clubs improve through multiple coaching changes, he concluded, is complicated. They often eventually land on the right person, but the cost in time and culture is enormous.

Melbourne's dynasty

Responding to a viewer who questioned the Storm's credentials given their recent grand final losses, Kent was emphatic.

"Other than 2010 when they were eliminated through the salary cap, they've made the semi-finals every year since 2002. There hasn't been a club in any sport anywhere in Australia that has maintained that consistency."

He argued that what Melbourne have built goes far beyond premierships.

"They're the number one football club in Australia by a mile. Every other club is looking at how they do it. If you're a fan of any club and your team's in with a fight 24 years in a row, I can guarantee you it matters."

He contrasted that with the likes of the Dragons, Titans and Manly, whose fans are already kicking stones four rounds into a new season.

Are the Bulldogs tinkering too much?

A detailed question about Canterbury's shifting spine drew a nuanced response from Kent, who defended Cameron Ciraldo's mid-game decision to switch Crichton and Burton against Newcastle as genuine coaching rather than panic.

"He knows the game plan he gave his players and he's able to recognise halfway through it's not working. I thought it was a positive sign. I thought it was actually real coaching."

On the broader question of whether Galvin, Haywood, Burton and Tracey are all hybrid players being asked to play positions outside their natural roles, Kent agreed but offered historical context.

"Cooper Cronk never played halfback before Matt Orford left. Craig Bellamy quite openly said they did not have a halfback in their ranks. Darren Lockyer went from fullback to six. It can happen. You can turn players into the player you want them to be. The problem with the Bulldogs is the time frame they're trying to get it done in."

He was firm on one point: chopping and changing now would be counterproductive.

"You'll never turn Lachlan Galvin into a halfback if you put him at five-eight or lock. You'll never get Bailey Haywood to be a hooker if you put him back to lock. You have to learn the position by playing it. Canterbury is seeing it through."

Has the game lost its identity?

A viewer's question about cookie-cutter modern football resonated strongly with Kent, who used the Canterbury and Parramatta rivalry of the 1980s as his reference point.

"Canterbury won the 1980 grand final. They called them the entertainers. Three Hughes brothers, three Mortimer brothers, just throwing it around. Then Parramatta had six of seven backline players in Origin in one year. Then Canterbury came back under Warren Ryan with the dogs of war. They both won four comps in the 80s playing completely different styles."

The contrast with now was stark.

"You cut their heads off and give them a different jumper. You couldn't tell who's playing in the modern game. You wouldn't know if it's Manly or South Sydney. And I don't think that's necessarily for the better."

Kent argued the six-again rule is actually creating an opening for a different style to emerge, singling out the Walker brothers as coaches who could exploit the current game but can't get a job because boards are too conservative.

"No club will say you know what, let's give them a go. Because you get all the geriatrics on the board in their blazers going, 'If they don't win enough games we'll get blamed and I might lose my blazer and can't get a free feed in the corporate box on Sunday.'"

The deathbed promise

The episode closed with a repeat appearance from a persistent viewer named Peter Ferguson, who once again pitched his idea of an ultra-local derby where teams swap venues at half-time and play the second half at the opposition's ground.

Kent's response was as definitive as ever.

"Peter, I'll be on my deathbed and I'm still not going to agree with you, mate. Never going to happen. Dumbest idea I've ever heard. Peace to you, brother. Keep sending it in every week, but make sure you don't cut and paste it. Type it out."

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