Sports commentator Nathan Rarere says Stephen “Mooks” Kearney was removed from his head coach job with the NZ Warriors rugby league team in the cruellest way possible.
To be fired over the phone, mid-season stuck in Australia, Rarere says, is as bad as it gets.
Rarere suggests Kearney wasn’t given the best players to work with. Despite that, he noted that three weeks ago, the Warriors played the perfect game.
“If I were the chief executive, I’d look at Stephen Kearney, and go ‘well, I don’t think I’ve given you the best players that you can win with',” Rarere says.
“So I don’t understand how you go from that (perfect game) to being fired three weeks later.”
The veteran sportscaster reflected sentiments he had heard from NRL players.
They had confided in him that there is something missing from the Warriors culture that would create a winning mentality.