NRL: Tough at the top... but even tougher at the bottom

Wayne Bennett could win consecutive titles with the Dragons. Photo / Getty Images

Who'd be a coach? Michael Brown investigates the NRL trend of booting out unwanted coaches early in the season - a practice that often has dubious results.

Carlo Ancelotti found out minutes after Chelsea's final game of the English Premier League season that he was being sacked.

Avram Grant found out less than an hour after West Ham were relegated, one week before the end of the season.

At least those two lasted that long. Fellow Premiership bosses Chris Hughton, Sam Allardyce, Roy Hodgson and Roberto Di Matteo weren't that lucky. In Hughton's case, he was dismissed even before the halfway stage of the season.

It's what happens in football, particularly English football. There were 49 managerial changes in the English professional leagues this season (there are 92 professional teams), with others likely to happen in the off-season.

There is also an increasing tendency to announce coaching changes early in a season in this part of the world - with mostly dubious results.

Already Matt Elliott, John Lang and Rick Stone will be replaced in the NRL in 2012 - but all three will remain in their posts until the end of the season. That is despite the fact that, in Elliott and Stone's case at least, their clubs don't think they are good enough to continue. Lang, 60, says he will retire at the end of the season but the Rabbitohs have largely under-achieved under his stewardship and he might have struggled to secure another contract anyway. In Super Rugby, former Springboks coach Jake White will take over at the Brumbies next season as caretaker coach Tony Rea tries to salvage some sort pride from an increasingly dysfunctional side. It was known as early as April last year that Ian Foster was finishing up with the Chiefs at the conclusion of this season.

That doesn't make sense. If the Chiefs knew Foster wasn't the man to bring success, then surely they had to bring someone else in.

There are two schools of thought about announcing a replacement early but keeping the incumbent in place until the end of the season. One is that it demotivates both the coach and players because it's clear the club have already given up on a season. The other is that, depending on the character of the coach and players, it improves the situation because it provides certainty and transparency.

There are different forces at work in both Super Rugby and the NRL to football, for example. The absence of relegation means a rugby or NRL club can effectively give up on a season (relegation from the Premier League costs a club as much as £40 million) - and can so without paying out a coach's contract.

Former Australian rugby league international Ben Ikin is a fan of NRL clubs announcing changes early: "The rugby league system makes it transparent so everyone knows," he says.

"Players want to know who will be coaching a club because they need to make decisions, too."

Penrith have yet to announce a full replacement for Elliott, who is in his fifth season with the Panthers, but former Penrith and NSW Origin coach Phil Gould will come in as football operations manager.

Ikin said that would ensure players wouldn't become complacent, even though they didn't know who their next coach would be. He also felt the Panthers hadn't appointed anyone because the person they wanted was probably still under contract elsewhere.

"There are cases when clubs act straight away, like Cronulla did with Ricky Stuart last season and Brisbane in getting rid of Ivan Henjak [before the season started]," Ikin says. "Things would have to be pretty dire for a club to get rid of a coach straight away. In most cases, the guy is not damaging the joint so they can keep him in there."

Wayne Bennett could win consecutive titles with the Dragons despite having already announced he will replace Stone at Newcastle next season. But Bennett is a special case commanding unique respect.

The same thing happened at the Waratahs in 2008 when Ewen McKenzie was told early in the Super 14 season he didn't need to come back to work the following year. The players liked McKenzie and played for him, falling only to the Crusaders 20-12 in the final.

The Brumbies present the most curious case. In 2004, David Nucifora was the victim of player power yet they still won the competition that year. It could be argued a team containing George Gregan, Stephen Larkham, Stirling Mortlock and Ashley Harrison largely coached itself - but it must have been awkward in the changing shed.

Mental skills coach Dave Hadfield says it depends on the characters of both the players and coach. Their ability to remain professional affects whether they compete as hard as they can when it's known a coach is on his way out.

"But human beings being the imperfect creatures we are, self-interest tends to creep in," he says, pointing to the example of the Brumbies this season. "In New Zealand we do things pretty well and with more dignity than overseas. We usually wait until the end of the season [to make a change]."