Phil Gould

He then moved to the Roosters where he was assistant coach to Trent Robinson, won a premiership.

He then got the offer to go to Newcastle and be a head coach up there.

In the six years he was there, he made the finals on four occasions.

This is the team he took over that won three wooden spoons in a row.

They went from a 25% win record to a 46% win record, made the finals four years out of six.

All right, the pressures of head coaching, head coaching is not for everybody, all right, and they've come to a point where the Newcastle Knights felt that they needed to change.

The opportunity for us to get a bloke like Adam O'Brien in our system, a bloke who'd been assistant coach at the Melbourne Storm when they won a premiership, assistant coach at the Roosters when they'd won a premiership, and I spoke to Billy Slater and Cameron Smith, who played under Adam O'Brien at the Melbourne Storm, and said, what was he like in an assistant coach?

They said, one of the best we've ever had.

He said, it was absolutely outstanding.

So a coach that's both succeeded and failed at the NRL level, that has been a part of assistant coaching with the Roosters and the Melbourne when they've won premierships, why wouldn't you want a black belt in your system assisting your head coach?

Mike, I'll accept that answer.

Absolutely.

And Cameron's been a great support to him because he's been through the highs and lows of head coaching.

He's a brilliant coach.

He prepares his stuff really, really well.

He works hard for the team.

He's up at 4 a.m.

each morning helping the head coach.

That's what you want from an assistant coach.

It suits the narrative of the media and the negative people to ask these types of questions.