In well over a decade on the coaching staff of both the Melbourne Storm and Sydney Roosters, Adam O'Brien has never coached his own team.
But Newcastle powerbrokers insist his appointment as head coach of the Knights for the next three seasons is not a gamble and are confident he can end the club's six year finals drought.
Official confirmation that O'Brien had the job came on Monday night, just two weeks after former coach Nathan Brown handed in his resignation. David Furner and Cameron Ciraldo have been thrown up as potential coaching assistants but the final decision on his staff will rest with O'Brien.
The speed of his appointment has done little to quell speculation he was sounded out for the position weeks ago with suggestions it was already a done deal before Brown departed. But Knights CEO Phil Gardner said the club had acted quickly to get the right man amid talk coaches at a number of other clubs are under pressure heading into the off-season.
"There is not a lot of high calibre candidates out there," Gardner told the Newcastle Herald. "It's a small gene pool and it's a tough gig so we acted as quickly as we possibly could to ensure we got the best candidate. And the best candidate we believe is Adam so we are extremely happy with the appointment."
Gardner again denied any deal was done with O'Brien before Brown's departure.
"The rumour the deal was done with Adam is certainly not true," he said. "Nathan resigned, he wasn't terminated but once we were in that situation, we had to move quickly. We sprang into action with Brian [director of football Canavan] in charge of the process to identify who the right head coaches would be.
"The names that came up were Craig Fitzgibbon, Adam O'Brien, Jason Ryles, Cameron Ciraldo, David Furner and Kristian Woolf. Brian contacted them either through their managers or directly to get to a shortlist."
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Gardner reinterated the first time he met O'Brien was the middle of last week during the interview process and said it was the first time the length and financial aspect of his deal was discussed.
"Adam then addressed the Wests board," he said. "Ultimately, he and David Furner were the only two candidates interviewed for the head coaching job."
Canavan said he had done a lot of ground work and spoken to a number of people in relation to O'Brien and his coaching credentials including the likes of Storm coach Craig Bellamy.
"We looked very closely at Adam O'Brien's experience across the game in all aspects of his coaching," he said. "He's been 11 years with Melbourne Storm where he was the senior assistant coach, he's coached attack, defence, he's been a development coach, a transition coach and he's done a lot of work on the people management side. This year, he continued that on at the Roosters.
"We believe he's ideally suited to take us forward with the right support mechanisms around him."
