NRL coaching crisis: Why Broncos, Bulldogs don’t get it
The coaching crises at Canterbury and Brisbane are the fault of their management not knowing what clubs like Parramatta, Manly, Melbourne and the Roosters do writes DAVID RICCIO.
NRL
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What the Bulldogs management aren’t seeing in Dean Pay is what the Eels hierarchy saw in Brad Arthur long ago.
What the Broncos management can’t comprehend is what the Raiders, Storm and Roosters have known for years.
It’s the reason why Cronulla haven’t appointed a head coach who has lived outside the Shire since John Lang flew down from Brisbane Easts in 1994.
And after not speaking to Manly chairman Scott Penn for seven years, it’s why Des Hasler took off his Canterbury polo shirt and picked up the phone in 2018 to come home.
“I think it was a defining moment when you know what the club needed,’’ Penn said of Hasler’s voice message after the short three-year stint, of a Northern Beaches outsider, came to an end.
What did Manly need? They needed Manly. Hasler is Manly.
“Des is a Manly man, demands success and will deliver the club results that our members and fans have come to expect,” the Sea Eagles press statement announcing Hasler’s return for 2019 read.
Just like Ricky Stuart is Canberra, Craig Bellamy is Melbourne, Trent Robinson is the Roosters and Arthur is the Eels.
It’s why former Broncos players — and the list is long — couldn’t fathom how Brisbane failed in overlooking club legend Kevin Walters for the coaching role and how seven months later they have failed again in not bringing him into the fold now.
This is what arguably the Broncos’ greatest centre, Steve Renouf, wrote in a column in 2018 before Anthony Seibold was appointed: “Kevin Walters is sitting there, ready to go.
“He was a major part of building the Broncos culture. He won five grand finals for the club as a player. He is a career coach who has done his apprenticeship. He ticks all the boxes.
“We have seen Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles appoint former great players like Bob Fulton, Des Hasler and Geoff Toovey as coaches and they either brought premierships to the club or made grand finals. They understood what made Manly tick.
“Kevin knows footy. More importantly, he knows Broncos footy. The players respect him and I reckon you will see a turnaround at the Broncos this year with him back as an assistant coach.”
What The Pearl is saying is there are those coaches who are employed by clubs like you would hire a carpenter to renovate your house. They do their work and move on to the next house.
Then there are clubs who employ coaches who own the damn house. They wake up each morning, mind racing with a demand for the long-term success of not just their club, but their entire community.
You can even throw the Dragons in this, too. Because in the same sentence that St George Illawarra coach Paul McGregor is said to be facing the sack, the favourite to replace him is one of their own in Dean Young.
What did Knights coach Adam O’Brien do just days after winning the 2019 premiership as Trent Robinson’s assistant at the Roosters? He caught a train from Central Station so he could get a sense of the hardworking community in Newcastle, where he was headed in 2020.
Former Sharks coach Shane Flanagan famously bought a boxing ring on eBay to save the club some money.
As one leading NRL coach told this column: “The fabric of the coach is the fabric of the club. How do you put a price on caring so much it hurts?”
These just aren’t coaches, but men who care much more about a place than just winning two points. They understand what makes a club tick. How so?
Arthur still has the blue and gold seat cushion his grandmother Joy received as one of the first Parramatta Eels football club members.
Are we measuring coaching ability on comfy cushions? No. It’s about the Eels knowing that Arthur will do just about anything for the club and is so deeply invested in the club and community, he would stay for less money, as was the case last season and is the case now for Pay at Canterbury.
A local junior and under-21s player for the Eels, Arthur remembers hitting golf balls on the top field behind the old Parramatta Stadium after training with “The Bear” Bob O’Reilly.
He remembers Friday night barbecues after training that all three grades would attend, and how now his daughter Charlotte is replicating that sense of spirit, club and family by organising an egg hunt for the players’ children every Easter.
Better still, duck down to the Rouse Hill Rhinos home ground every Saturday in junior footy season. Arthur will be there watching the under-11s, 12s and 13s play.
So long has Arthur stood on the sidelines at Guildford, Cabramatta and Ringrose Park at Wentworthville, those under-13 kids he first watched five years ago and has monitored ever since are about to enter his NRL squad next year.
With great respect to Wayne Bennett, with whom Canterbury have an interest in replacing Pay, the last place you’d find the wily old coach on a Saturday morning is watching the Berala Bears tackle St Christophers.
Stuart’s honest take-down of player agent Isaac Moses over the John Bateman saga this week was applauded by even the Raiders coach’s most vocal detractors. What we didn’t see was that Stuart was still seething several nights later, refusing to let go of the fact an outsider had tried to bring down the Raiders.
Stuart takes everything about Canberra personally. Just like Robinson at the Roosters, Bellamy at the Storm. And just like Pay does at the Dogs.