{"id":57534,"date":"2021-04-13T10:58:47","date_gmt":"2021-04-13T10:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=57534"},"modified":"2021-04-13T13:58:34","modified_gmt":"2021-04-13T13:58:34","slug":"gallen-torn-by-sharks-harsh-morris-ousting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=57534","title":{"rendered":"Gallen torn by Sharks' 'harsh' Morris ousting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sharks legend Paul Gallen<\/a> says the club's decision to part ways with John Morris with immediate effect is "harsh", adding that he has been torn by the coaching saga. <\/p>\n

Morris' future was officially confirmed on Tuesday<\/a> after the club agreed to a three-year deal with Roosters assistant Craig Fitzgibbon<\/a> to be the coach from 2022 onward.<\/p>\n

Gallen questioned the club's messy handling of the coaching turnover and said he was confused by why Morris had been let go in the middle of a season.<\/p>\n

"I don't know why they didn't stick with him," he told 2GB's Wide World of Sports Radio.<\/p>\n

"I can understand them looking at other options and them not thinking John can take them to a premiership, but I think it's pretty harsh that he's not able to see out the year. <\/p>\n

\"Paul<\/p>\n

"He's done a good job to date and I feel extremely sorry for him. I thought to see out the year would have been the right thing to do, but who knows what they were thinking. <\/p>\n

"The other side of it is, had John Morris been telling (the players) what to do throughout the year and him not being there next year, maybe the club thought it wouldn't work."<\/p>\n

While Gallen is optimistic about the Fitzgibbon hire, and particularly the prospect of a coaching dream team with Panthers assistant Cameron Ciraldo and Storm coach Craig Bellamy, he admitted that the saga had put him in a tough position personally.<\/p>\n

"It's a hard one for me (because) I'm stuck right in the middle," he said.<\/p>\n

"Obviously I've dedicated my whole career to the Cronulla Sharks and they are my employer, so to go against what they're doing would be a stupid thing to do. <\/p>\n

\"Boyd<\/p>\n

"On the other hand, I played with John Morris, I've been coached by John Morris and I consider myself to be a personal friend of John Morris. <\/p>\n

"I've got to be honest, the way that it's been handled hasn't been great."<\/p>\n

Ciraldo is yet to agree to terms with Cronulla, but is widely expected to join the club as Fitzgibbon's assistant. <\/p>\n

It is also unclear whether Bellamy has discussed terms with Cronulla, but Gallen believes that the veteran coach is intrigued by the Sharks' pitch. <\/p>\n

"I was with Gus Gould last night on 100% Footy<\/em> and he actually phoned someone from Penrith about Ciraldo, he phoned Nick Politis directly, he phoned Fitzy directly to talk about what was happening and Craig Bellamy's name kept coming up," he said.<\/p>\n

\"Craig<\/p>\n

"Craig Bellamy has apparently not yet said no. He's very busy with the Melbourne Storm at the moment, but I don't think Craig Bellamy is the type of guy to string anyone along. <\/p>\n

"I don't think he's going to stuff the Cronulla Sharks around if he wasn't genuinely interested.<\/p>\n

"If they're able to get all three, I think it's massive and it's a huge coup for the club, I think it's unreal."<\/p>\n

The Sharks' decision on the coaching hire comes after players had pleaded with the club to make a definitive call. Gallen believes that the players will not be greatly impacted by Morris' mid-season departure.<\/p>\n

\"Wade<\/p>\n

"At least they've made a decision. This has been the whole issue with this situation, the Sharks haven't been prepared to go and make a tough decision," he said.<\/p>\n

"Now they've ripped the band-aid off and they've done it all in one day, so now we can all just move on.<\/p>\n

"That club and that playing group have faced a hell of a lot of things over the years and they are an extremely resilient club and a tough group of players. <\/p>\n

"Once you get on the field and you cross that white line, you have no excuses. You've got to go out there and do your job to the best of your ability. I don't see this as a reason for destabilising the Sharks' season." <\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/em>For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here! <\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sharks legend Paul Gallen says the club's decision to part ways with John Morris with immediate effect is "harsh", adding that he has been torn […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57534"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57534"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57539,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57534\/revisions\/57539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}