Delivering a spray to players might yield limited results, writes Paul Kent
COACHES have been wary of delivering a halftime spray to fire up their troops, but the NRL is going through something of a renaissance with regards to the blow-up.
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BY now we all know that at halftime in Thursday’s unexpected thriller at Brookvale Oval South Sydney covered the dressing room camera, saving the innocence of a national audience.
Nobody wanted to lip-read the horrors that men speak, especially when they rack up a 16-0 lead after 16 minutes and not only fail to go on with it for the rest of the half, but actually let Manly sneak back into the contest.
Coach Michael Maguire, as they say, let them have it.
So we can only guess what was bubbling through coach Maguire’s mind when the Rabbitohs failed to score in the second 40 also.
Earlier this year Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan headed to the post-match press conference suitably chuffed at his team’s 30-2 win over St George Illawarra.
For those with keen ears, though, Flanagan’s press conference is backgrounded with the unmistakeable noise of Dragons coach Paul McGregor, from somewhere considerably off in the distance, delivering a spray to his team that was, by all reports, world class.
The NRL is going through something of a renaissance in this regard.
Coaches are far more wary of delivering the time-honoured spray that seemed to peek in the late 70s and early 80s, when regular television made the stakes greater than they ever were and rugby league coaches were approaching something near professionalism.
In those days a coach would watch a player and deliver a spray that was akin to a jockey smacking the backside of his horse with a whip.
It recalibrates their effort.
Players would walk away from the coach and the good ones would always turn up to training the next day and train a little harder and a lot smarter and play the same way, vowing to prove the coach wrong.
Things changed, though.
I am not sure anymore whether we are still in Gen-Y or have moved on to Gen-Z or beyond, but the most likely action after a spray nowadays is the player will leave training and the coach will go back to his office and within the hour the coach will receive a call from the player’s manager telling him he is not happy anymore at the club and they were wondering what their chances were of a release.
Wayne Bennett has adjusted his approach considerably.
Bennett could always get the best out of his team by delivering a spray as solid as any of them.
Now Bennett goes the other way.
They get the silent treatment. Players will go days without a nod from the coach.
McGregor has also reversed it somewhat.
If a player drops a ball or is careless or lazy at training the old way was to tell him to hit the ground and pump out some push-ups.
When it happens at the Dragons now McGregor makes every other player but the offender get down for push-ups. The offender must stand there and watch his teammates get penalised for his mistake.
Guilt, it seems, is the modern motivator.
Still, at times there is a need for a little old-school.
McGregor was so disappointed with his team after the Cronulla match, they paid for it several times over.
He identified the problem as no appetite for contact and knew there was only one way to fix it.
At training the following week the Dragons went through a drill, hard sprints followed by full-on tackling, then went around for more sprints followed by more hard tackling.
There were one-man tackles, two-man and three-man.
The only stipulation was that the ballrunner had to run as hard as he could and his teammates had to hit hard in defence. Anything less and they ended on the receiving end.
For an hour the Dragons belted each other.
By the end they were sorry and sore but reminded once again what contact felt like and, the following weekend, they out-toughed South Sydney 8-6 at the SCG.
They have not played soft since.
Now it is the Rabbitohs’ turn.
Maguire trains his team harder than most and Thursday night their reasons why.
Yet the early leader for Dally M Bonehead Play of the Year is Frank-Paul Nu’uausala. After last Saturday’s effort it will take some beating.
The Raiders were on their way to a solid win over Gold Coast when Nu’uausala shoulder-charged Ryan James in the back from a kick-off.
The Raiders had just conceded two tries in 10 minutes to have the Titans on their heels but Nu’uausala ignored that to square up on James for a prior offence.
Amazingly, afterwards Ricky Stuart was the calmest coach of the weekend.
He said nothing. He didn’t need to.
Nu’uausala’s teammates made their feelings clear.
Still, the best and greatest story of a coach punishing his players for a lack of effort still belongs to Tom Raudonikis coaching Western Suburbs.
It has been told once or twice before but deserves a freshen up.
They had a hill at Campbelltown the players called Heartbreak Hill and one look up the long, steep incline told you why.
After a particularly poor performance Raudonikis took his players to Heartbreak Hill and once there he took out a folding chair and a carton of beer and walked to the top.
Atop the hill he sat down and cracked his first beer, then told his players they were going to run up the hill and loop around him and go back down again and they were going to keep doing it until the carton was finished.
JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION — John Steffensen
Former Commonwealth Games gold medallist. Former wild child. Wide World of Sports host.
The Australian championships started at Homebush on Friday, is there anybody we should be looking for?
A lot of good athletes. A lot. The sport is on its knees at the moment the way it is governed but it will turn around. We have good young kids coming through. Ryan Gregson in the 1500m. Brooke Stratton (long jump). Ella Nelson (200m) ...
I’m not sure if you’ve read it, but after reading The Sports Gene, I wonder if we will ever win another Olympic gold medal?
I haven’t, but they told me I couldn’t win and I beat the world indoor champ, the world junior champ. If you train hard and give yourself an opportunity, who are they to say that?
Given that, who is a chance of winning gold at Rio?
It’s hard to single out one person. It’s track and field, the whole world runs.
Give me one.
I reckon Fabrice Lapierre can win gold in the long jump. He steps up on the big stages. He’ll jump s ... all year but once he gets on the big stage he’s a gun.
You said it will turn around, how so?
This is a rebuilding phase. There’s the Gold Coast (Commonwealth Games) in 2018. Tokyo (Olympics). In the next five to 10 years, we’re going to make big improvements, professionally and at corporate levels.
Sounds like you are still their favourite man?
I’ve been outspoken, that’s me.
A GOOD WEEK FOR
JASON Day secured his No. 1 ranking in the week he heads to the US Masters. Day and Adam Scott are the two hottest golfers on the planet as they head into Masters week, and golf is all about timing. Day has six wins in his past 13 starts, including his past two. Only Jack Nicklaus (1975) and Tiger Woods (2001) have added a Masters jacket off the back of two straight wins. It is eight years since Woods, now 40, won his last major.
A ROUGH WEEK FOR
INJURY finally got the better of Lauren Jackson, the Eighth Wonder of the World. Australia’s greatest ever basketballer, Jackson’s teary retirement after injury proved too much to overcome, costing her the chance to play at a fifth Olympics, brings an end to a career that saw her dominate around the world for her entire generation. Her retirement speech, declaring “Goodbye to my love ...” was all class.
DON’T MISS
SHE has a name as beguiling as her personality but that is not to be confused with the absolute dominance Winx brings to the track. The wonderful mare heads out in the Doncaster on Saturday (Channel 7, 5.10pm) as the undoubted superstar of The Championships. She is the new superstar of racing and trainer Chris Waller is starting to feel the pressure. The horse, thankfully, can’t read.
CHILL PILLS
BOBBY El-Issa’s comeback from acute myeloid leukaemia, often a death sentence, ended with a second in his first-up ride at Orange yesterday, a win any day. He then won the third race.
ANGRY PILLS
NEW Zealand’s approach to cricket is innovative and inspiring. But the decision to delay the spinners on a spin-friendly pitch at the T20 World Cup won’t rank among the highlights.
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Originally published as Delivering a spray to players might yield limited results, writes Paul Kent
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