That's nonsense. Under Furner we lost eight of our first ten games. He brought over the hopelessly unfit Lolohea and kept picking him, amongst other bad decisions. If Lolohea had been a world beater and we hadn't been playing terribly then even if JJB or others were muttering behind the scenes they wouldn't have been listened to.
Before us Furner's tenure of the Raiders was a chaotic mess. He was only appointed there because of his links with the club (sounds familiar?) and his dad. If he had been anyone else he would have been gone more than a year before he was eventually kicked out, with a 43% win rate over five generally dire seasons.
Once he was hooked at the Raiders he didn't get a look-in as a first team coach anywhere else for SIX years until Leeds brought him in. Lots of NRL jobs came and went in that time. Nobody else was interested.