If you listen to what Mal Brown said at the time, then we probably would have been marginally better off than we are now if Northey had stayed longer. Because Brown was of the opinion that, although Northey was good at building team spirit, he had no tactical nous.
While Northey was able to get a lot more out of his players, I don’t know that he was good for their overall, long-term development. Because I don’t think many players had the necessary motivation and drive that his style of coaching compensated for. And I reckon it could only work for so long before it became too familiar to the players.
While his style worked against many Clubs, it really showed how flawed his approach was when up against the better teams. And it usually showed that the fire and brimstone approach wasn’t enough to cover all our deficiencies against these good teams and so came undone against them. It also showed how his style didn’t really help the players, because when the players had one of those days, as a group, it showed up the basics that were missing from the players.
Since those days, I think our problem has been, until now, that we have tended to finish just outside the 8, giving the impression that we might not be too far away, even though we were further away than most thought. I think Northey may have been too interested in looking after his job, and may have even been insecure about it, so would have kept us competitive, to keep his job, without us necessarily becoming a good team by design.
At least this way there’s no denying where we are at and can be in no doubt that we have to develop our playing list. Anyone would need their head read if they thought any different now.
