South Sydney’s Anthony Seibold showing NRL it should cut back on coaching, not interchanges

DROPPING the interchange from eight to six is not going to fix all that’s wrong with rugby league, writes Paul Crawley, because the bigger issue is the way the game is coached.

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THE more and more you think about it, dropping the interchange from eight to six is not going to fix all that’s wrong with rugby league.

It might help. Then again, it might not.

Because the bigger issue, and this goes from NRL right down to under-6s, is the way the game is coached. Or, more to the point, over-coached.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Just look at how Anthony Seibold has freshened up South Sydney’s attack this year.

Last year, Souths played boring block plays time after time that would put you to sleep.

Now Seibold has them playing what’s in front of them. Attacking short sides. Spotting tired defenders. Playing numbers. Cutting back on structure.

Cody Walker is actually encouraged to back his ability.

Rabbitohs playmaker Cody Walker. Picture: AAP

Souths coach Anthony Seibold. Picture: Brett Costello

And we call this game-changing coaching? Isn’t it what Allan Langer and Kevin Walters did their entire careers?

It didn’t matter if it was a six-man interchange or unlimited for Alf and Kevvie. They just played footy like they were still in the backyard at Ipswich.

Alfie would put a grubber back behind the ruck and then keep kicking it like he was playing soccer, until eventually opportunity opened up and Alf ran away like a thief in the night.

I loved watching Alf. Just like Andrew and Matty Johns.

They mastered their tricks running and kicking around witches hats on the oval at Cessnock.

Then they took their show to the big league and it became the best entertainment on TV, bar none.

Joey would spot a weakness and he’d go after it, never letting up until the opposition coach cottoned on and made a change.

It didn’t matter if the interchange was six, eight, 10 or unlimited.

Broncos great Allan Langer.

Knights legend Andrew Johns.

Joey and Matty are forever complaining about modern halves not playing what’s in front of them.

But I’m not so sure it’s all the players’ fault.

From the moment kids start playing these days they are taught to conform, and as a result have their personality coached out of their football.

Unless they are lucky enough to be handed one of those coloured singlets the so-called “playmakers” wear, they’re not even allowed to run the ball from first receiver until they are 13 because if they get tackled, the opposition gets the ball.

It’s too silly for words.

How is it encouraging all kids to take chances?

How would that have worked for Artie Beetson?

League Immortal Arthur Beetson in his Balmain days.

When was the last time you went to the footy, even the junior footy, and saw a kid attempt a chip and chase?

I still remember seeing Brad Fittler play a schoolboy match when he was about 12.

All the kids had gathered to watch this young hotshot from Penrith because of his freakish step and, yes, his chip and chase.

Not because of how he wrestled the opposition at the ruck, or because he was the biggest kid in the district.

The thing is, how Freddy played at 12 was pretty much the footballer that blew us all away when he burst on to the scene in first grade, on his way to becoming one of the modern-day greats.

Freddy was famous for being Freddy.

Brett Mullins was another. Do you remember that miracle try from inside his own half against Brisbane in the early 1990s?

Brett Mullins (left) tries to give Terry Lamb the slip. Picture: David Gray

Mullins spotted Julian O’Neill, the Broncos fullback, had just gone off injured.

So Mullins went into dummy half and, late in the tackle count, he ran straight at the defence, chipped over the top then regathered, and chipped again.

It came from pure footballing instinct. You don’t coach that, but you sure can coach it out.

If you saw someone try it today they’d probably get hooked if it didn’t come off because it’s considered too risky.

Yet you think back to the days of Jack Gibson, Warren Ryan and Tim Sheens.

While they are considered the coaches who put rugby league on the path to where it is today, they all had a distinctive style.

I remember watching Phil Gould as a kid playing for Newtown and he caught the ball from a tap and kicked it back over his head.

Teams used to try and out-think the opposition. Now they copy them.

It’s like everyone wants to coach like Craig Bellamy and play like Melbourne.

Knights rising star Kalyn Ponga is old school. Picture: Getty Images

Then someone like Kalyn Ponga jumps out of the box and it makes you think back to when football was fun. Because Ponga plays NRL like he’s still in the schoolyard.

It doesn’t matter how many defenders they throw at him, he still finds a way to play his brand.

A skip and a step, a double pump and boom. That’s what you want to see.

Not block play after block play after another block play.

If we want to fix the game then we’re going to have to do more than drop two interchanges. Let players show their personality.

Employ coaches who dare to be different. I still look back to the 1994 season when it was six interchanges and that was the best year of footy I can recall.

But maybe it was as much about how they coached back then, as much as it was having six interchanges.

Because Alfie was Alfie and Joey was Joey and Freddy was Freddy. Sheens coached like Sheens and Wayne Bennett coached like Wayne Bennett, not Chris Anderson or Brian Smith.

And footy was fun. Not the rocket science they make it out to be today.

Originally published as South Sydney’s Anthony Seibold showing NRL it should cut back on coaching, not interchanges