Brooks only partly to blame for Storm’s woes
By Tony Saxon, Guelph Mercury
There is something inherently distasteful about calling for a man’s job.
Oh, I get it. I understand that Jason Brooks is a coach, chose to be a coach and is utterly aware that at the end of the day, virtually every coach gets fired.
Watching, reading and listening to the blood lust surrounding the Guelph Storm bench boss these days is normal, but not any less distasteful for those that know how hard the man works and how much he cares.
There are so many factors contributing to what is wrong in Stormland these days that to make it all about Brooks is laughable. Where are the calls for underperforming players to be dumped? Where are the calls for meddling owners to sell the team?
This is not a defence of Jason Brooks the coach, because Brooks the coach, for the first 20 games this season, has not got the job done. That’s a fact. If things don’t change, he should and will lose his job.
But let’s not heap all the blame on Brooks, even though the buck will eventually stop with him.
Changing coaches might only be part of the fix. If you don’t improve the lineup, this group will not fare much better no matter who is coaching them.
The facts are the facts: the Storm is a team playing well below expectation with little sign of it being temporary. When that happens, your options appear to be change players, change the coach or do nothing.
Brooks is trying the first option. He is working hard on making trades to improve the team.
But the tight-knit hockey community can be a vicious one when they know you’re down. Teams know the Storm situation and are looking to get more than market value for the assets they are looking to move.
It is also pretty early to move assets that help you win games and fill seats in exchange for draft picks that will do neither this year.
