Daley tells Gus to keep his nose out of coaching job
ANTHONY Griffin is staying put until the end of 2020 – but Penrith players will become confused if Phil Gould continues to “dilute the power’’ of the head coach.
That was the blunt opinion of Laurie Daley a day after it was revealed Gould had spent half an hour blasting the players in the Belmore sheds after the 24- 10 trial loss against Canterbury as Griffin stood back and watched on.
Gould has ramped up his input at training and in video sessions during the summer to the point some are now questioning who is actually in charge at the foot of the mountains.
As Panthers officials confirmed Griffin would be going nowhere – and an early payout not once discussed – Daley, who came under fire from Gould after NSW’s Origin series loss last year, said ‘ Gus’ needed to let Griffin do the job he hired him to do.
“Gus has employed Anthony Griffin to coach the football team, and he’s the general manager,’’ Daley said on Sky Sports Radio’s Big Sports Breakfast.
“I know Gus has been a great coach and he has great ideas, but you have to let the coach run the show.
“You’ve employed him do that.
“If you start meddling in those affairs, things will get out of control pretty quickly, and the players will start to see it.”
Gould, one of the greatest minds in the game and a coach who led Penrith and NSW to glory, denied he had given to Griffin a halftime spray outside the sheds at Belmore on Saturday, and even slammed those reports as “rubbish’’.
Just eight days out from his team’s season opener against western Sydney rivals Parramatta at a packed Pepper Stadium, Panthers chairman Dave O’Neill defended the future of Griffin.
“One hundred per cent he is safe,” he said.