Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson’s incredible NRL record revealed
As Roosters coach Trent Robinson pushes to become the game’s new No.1, we find the only man who still holds the wood over him — one of his player’s parents.
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Shane Flanagan, after tonight, will likely be the last man standing.
Not that he knew as much this week.
Or even when told, could really put a finger on why.
The secret to beating Roosters coach Trent Robinson?
Flanno isn’t even sure one exists.
Which is some concern given this 2016 premiership coach – and father to Roosters No.7 Kyle Flanagan — may be the only fella left anywhere with genuine claims to having the wood on rugby league’s new Supercoach.
“Really? Sounds like a nice stat,” Flanagan laughed yesterday from St George Illawarra HQ, where he now works as an assistant.
“But honestly, I had no idea.”
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In fairness, few would.
Yet of the 14 NRL coaches who have played Robinson on more than five occasions, only two now boast a winning percentage — Flanagan, and Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy.
According to Fox Sports Stats, the former Cronulla coach has won six of 10 games against the man going for a third consecutive NRL title in 2020, while Bellamy is much shorter — with eight wins in 15 appearances.
It means that if Melbourne do get rolled in their latest showdown with the reigning champs, well, it leaves only Flanno with a better than 50/50 success rate.
Which is some statistic, right?
Indeed, seven years after signing on with the Roosters for $250,000 — or in NRL terms, a pie and Coke — Robinson is quickly firming as the best NRL coach right now.
Undoubtedly, firming for the Mount Rushmore of greatest ever too.
Which isn’t a debate the man himself will give any oxygen.
Same as he’s unlikely to discuss, say, the possibility of donning a kangaroo fur jacket like that last man to earn a threepeat — the original Supercoach, Jack Gibson.
But we can.
Especially given that, already, Robinson has won three premierships quicker than any other man in history — including the likes of Gibson, Bennett, Phil Gould and Warren Ryan.
Same as tonight against Storm, the 43-year-old is looking to build on an outstanding head-to-head success rate that, with a win, sees him level with both Bennett and Bellamy — the greatest coaches of the NRL era — and well clear of others like Des Hasler (69 per cent), Ricky Stuart (70 per cent) and Brad Arthur (75 per cent).
But as for Robinson talking about it?
No chance.
In fact when asked about the greatest challenge presented by Bellamy teams, Robinson replied with a straighter bat than, say, Geoffrey Boycott playing for a draw on day five.
“I don’t find it challenging,” he said. “There is nothing there for me.
“At the Roosters, we get excited about playing every opponent.
“So I don’t rise and fall based on the opposing coach. If you change (your approach) for a coach, you’re heading in the wrong direction.”
But surely each coach puts their own signature on a side, right?
“Yeah, but that’s a different question,” he continued.
“What will the coach be saying to his team through the week? Through the year?
“How does that come out on the field?
“Then you go ‘OK this is the way they play, this is how we nullify it and this is how we attack it’.
“But that goes into your method of game planning for an opposition — it doesn’t change based on the experience of a coach.”
For us great unwashed however, Robinson versus Bellamy remains a genuine slobberknocker.
With the two coaches so similar according to Cooper Cronk – that halfback boasting titles with both — the greatest difference he can distinguish is “their dates of birth”.
At 60, Bellamy has 17 winters on his Roosters rival.
Yet good luck waiting much longer before Robinson takes that No.1 mantle Bellyache took himself from Bennett — whose record of seven NRL titles could, almost impossibly, one day prove a target.
So c’mon Flanno, what’s the secret to beating him?
“I agree with Robbo — you don’t change your approach for a specific coach,” he says. “You change depending on the style of a specific team.”
So how did you beat those Roosters teams coached by Robinson then?
“We made it a street fight,” Flanagan says simply. “Every time — stand ‘em up, drag ‘em out.
“In the first couple of years, we didn’t have the elite players like they did, so we wanted to drag them down to our level.
“Playing at Shark Park, it was often cold and wet too which suited us.
“Then as time went on – especially from 2015, when we got some really good players — we were able to change our style a bit.
“Go after points.
“But it was never about some personal battle I had with Robbo.
“Until you told me that statistic, I had no idea.”
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Certainly though, Flanagan knows enough about the Roosters coach to describe delivering them the 21-year-old son, and rising NRL star, he once coached himself as “a no-brainer”.
“Fantastic opportunity,” says Flanagan, who sat in on all meetings Kyle had with both Robinson and Roosters chairman Nick Politis.
“The maturity Robbo is bringing out in Kyle already, I’m not sure that would’ve happened if I were still coaching him.
“At the Roosters, it was never a given Kyle would play halfback. So he’s having to earn everything he gets.
“At home too, when he talks about his day, it’s always about how professional the place is.
“How organised.
“While initially the Roosters were thought of as Silvertails, I think now everyone just sees them as this incredibly professional organisation from top to bottom.
“And that rubs off on the way the players perform, but also prepare, turn up to training, even act away from training.
“I know with Kyle, they’re driving him to get better every day.”
Which undoubtedly, is a Robbo signature.
“With any Trent Robinson side, you know they’ll be fantastically prepared. ” Flanagan continues.
“You know they have skill, will start fast and, as proved in recent years, will stand and fight.”
Anything else?
“Yeah,” he says. “In the back of your mind, you just know they’ve also worked overtime to find that one weakness in you.”