7 weeks before the start of the new season. As reported by Dobell.
No DoC, no head coach now.
7 weeks before the start of the new season. As reported by Dobell.
No DoC, no head coach now.
Ian Westwood in charge.
Great! Can't believe it's taken so long - it's been 4 months since GD first aired the possibility. I wonder whether there will there be straight replacements for Head Coach & DoC, or a whole new Coaching structure ?
"You can take the boy out of Atherstone, but you can never take Atherstone out of the boy !"
"The Bears and the (footballing) Foxes for ever !"
Andy wrote:
Ian Westwood in charge.
Temporary or he is the new Head Coach?
"You can take the boy out of Atherstone, but you can never take Atherstone out of the boy !"
"The Bears and the (footballing) Foxes for ever !"
Good. This should have happened months ago. I wish Robinson well, but he wasn't the man to deliver success.
Bald_Reynard wrote:
Andy wrote:
Ian Westwood in charge.
Temporary or he is the new Head Coach?
No idea, all sorts going it seems. Tony Frost replacing Keith Cook apparently.
Just got this email:
'As part of the restructure Mark Robinson leaves his role as First Team Coach – which he’s held for four years – by mutual consent.
Former Assistant Coach and lifelong Bear Ian Westwood takes over first team affairs with immediate effect and will focus on preparing the team ahead of the new season start on 4 April. The 42-year-old made more than 250 appearances for the Bears across all formats, including 159 First Class games in which he scored more than 8,000 runs.'
I think right decision overall. But it's been so late in the off-season and he's just gave a few quotes last week. "Mutual consent" seems to infer it took him a while to agree. It's the timing that's surprising more than anything.
Yes, agree, the timing is very late with the season only 7 weeks away but it had to be done. I hope Robinson finds something as he has a good record for success but he was not very proactive on bad performances and made excuses which most could see through.
An underwhelming email to members.
Goodness knows why we need to incorporate Birmingham Phoenix. Most of the appointments look like sticking plasters. Not sure it’s appropriate to use nicknames for people you’ve sacked. The only good thing was the picture of the Warwickshire flag!
Andy wrote:
Bald_Reynard wrote:
Andy wrote:
Ian Westwood in charge.
Temporary or he is the new Head Coach?
No idea, all sorts going it seems. Tony Frost replacing Keith Cook apparently.
Cookie was Operations Manager wasn't he ? If so, TF will be going into a non-coaching role. Thats another thing that's been a long time coming, a lovely bloke but out of his depth as lead Batting Coach.
"You can take the boy out of Atherstone, but you can never take Atherstone out of the boy !"
"The Bears and the (footballing) Foxes for ever !"
Tayls79 wrote:
I think right decision overall. But it's been so late in the off-season and he's just gave a few quotes last week. "Mutual consent" seems to infer it took him a while to agree. It's the timing that's surprising more than anything.
Yep, awful timing. Amazing, that they've had 4 months since the end of the 'Review' to do this - and George D flagged the likelihood up then.
"You can take the boy out of Atherstone, but you can never take Atherstone out of the boy !"
"The Bears and the (footballing) Foxes for ever !"
Looks like they were worried about being sued.
Has now left us in the lurch!
Hard to see the appointments as reassuring.
Frost role combination of operations, data and overseeing pitches.
BosworthBear wrote:
>...Goodness knows why we need to incorporate Birmingham Phoenix...
Agree. The email was about re-structuring the coaching of a first class cricket team. No requirement to mention that hundred.
It looks like a lot of this is in line with what many on here have been asking for - Robinson goes, Tony Frost is no longer batting coach, a Bear (Ian Westwood) is now first team coach. But the timing is unfortunate so close to the new season. I think we can assume that the "mutual" bit of Robinson's departure involved a lot of persuasion and that he really didn't want to go.
To defend Tony Frost, as none of us here have experienced his coaching, it is hard for us to truly judge if he is, or isn't, a good coach.
He could be the best coach in the world, but our players are totally uncoachable, or they just fail to apply what they worked on when in the middle.
Based on some of the dismissals over the past few seasons it seems a very credible explanation.
In reply to a couple of comments. The "mutual consent" has just happened with Warren Gatland as head coach of Wales rugby, the WRU were celebrating it was done like this as it saved them paying out his contract. My guess is same happened with Robinson, he held out and this week was the deadline at which the club would sack him. So maybe it is actually a good outcome not to have to pay him out. Re Frost as batting coach. I think he could do it in isolation, seems one player per season makes good progress on their batting, but not overall and couldn't help multiple people at the same time. Perhaps he was more suited as batting mentor rather than someone with squad responsibility.
Tayls79 wrote:
In reply to a couple of comments. The "mutual consent" has just happened with Warren Gatland as head coach of Wales rugby, the WRU were celebrating it was done like this as it saved them paying out his contract. My guess is same happened with Robinson, he held out and this week was the deadline at which the club would sack him. So maybe it is actually a good outcome not to have to pay him out. Re Frost as batting coach. I think he could do it in isolation, seems one player per season makes good progress on their batting, but not overall and couldn't help multiple people at the same time. Perhaps he was more suited as batting mentor rather than someone with squad responsibility.
Perhaps worry about having to pay out big compo to Robinson, could be why no DoC appointment hasn't yet been made? Didn't know how much we could afford to spend on a DoC!
With Frosty going from LEAD Batting Coach (and I agree with a few here, he might be good in a one-to-one role, but not as the main guy) and Westie 'moving upstairs', there must be a big shake up of the Coaching team coming.
PS I'm pleased TF has got responsibility for overseeing pitches - of course, that's where he started working after retiring from playing. And he will still be able to be used for batting 'mentoring'.
'The only good banker, is the Lickey Banker!'
Although I was never as anti - Robinson as some (most?) of you it's probably as well to move on. What I don't understand is the order - I would have thought you appoint a director of cricket / performance and let that individual have final say on who coaches the various teams. The coaches and DOC then put the teams together , that way the people responsible make the decisions and the people making the decisions are responsible. We seem to have gone the other way, players, coaches, DOC.
Also a bit surprised Tony Frost has been moved aside. I'd say our batting is in pretty good order? Young players: Mousley, Bethell and Yates have established themselves in at least one format and Bethell and Mousley have played for England. Hamza will hopefully join them. Davies has just had his best season in first class cricket and the departed Burgess converted from a good keeper who couldn't bat well enough to make a county side to an excellent number 7. Seems good to me, perhaps the view is that Westwood was a bigger factor than Frost?
Anyway best of luck to the new appointees and looking forward to 2025 at Edgbaston.
A pretty thorough summary of the changes that have happened and those that will.
"You can take the boy out of Atherstone, but you can never take Atherstone out of the boy !"
"The Bears and the (footballing) Foxes for ever !"