NRL 2021: Q&A with Cronulla Sharks coach John Morris

Two young forwards have caught the eye of Cronulla coach John Morris over the off-season – and it’s bad news for a SuperCoach stud of 2020.

It was a season like no other for the 16 NRL head coaches, facing unprecedented challenges as they tried to get the best out of their teams.

For John Morris and his Cronulla Sharks, it was a year in which they reached the finals but ultimately couldn’t keep pace with the best teams in the league.

He opens up about the season from hell, about the young guns on the way up, and about Shaun Johnson’s recovery from injury in our Coaching Clipboard series.

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Sharks coach John Morris managed to get his team to the finals in 2020. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Michael Carayannis: You’ve had a chance to reflect on 2020. What did you get out of the season?

John Morris: It was a year like no other. The challenges of COVID and the impact it had on everyone was not appreciated enough. The playing group and the staff – the mental side of it was very difficult.

We had 18 back-to-back games into finals and that was hard. You saw a lot of coaches rest their players – I did the same. Players were battered. For us to be playing finals footy in the year it was, while bowing out earlier than I had hoped, it was still a good outcome. It’s well documented the adversity we’ve been under. We lost Matt Prior, Josh Morris and unfortunately what happened with Bronson Xerri was really hard to handle.

We blooded some young talent and played finals footy for the second consecutive year.

What positive do you take out of the season?

The emergence of our youth. When I went through our top 17 players at the end of the season in terms of most game players – there were 12 or 13 who had player under 50 games.

Royce Hunt’s emergence was a highlight for the Sharks. Picture: Brett Costello

That’s been a vast difference to recent Cronulla sides. For most weeks we had about 1300 games of experience which is about 1500 down on what it’s been over the years. Giving the debutants their first game was a massive highlight. As was the emergence of Sifa Talakai, Toby Rudolf and Royce Hunt, who all came to us on train and trial contracts. To have the year they had was a real shining light. It gives me optimism heading into this year that they will push the starting players.

What is your big message in pre-season?

Defence is number one but we also have to get fitter. The game went to another level with the ball in play and the six-again rule. I look at Penrith and Canberra and the class of the Roosters and the Storm. They are all fit, athletic and can repeat high-speed efforts. That’s what your training has to look like.

We will be making sure our training is specific to what the game demands.

Everything we do will be based on defence this year. We conceded 24 points a game which wasn’t good enough. To be a top-four defensive side in 2020 you had to concede less than 16 point per game, so it’s not a huge amount we have to improve by. But over the pre-season it will be our focus. I’m confident we will make big improvements in this area.

Josh Hannay took over at the Cowboys after Paul Green was sacked. Picture: Alix Sweeney

There are a few changes in the coaching and support staff, what can they bring?

Craig Sandercock has moved on to the Bulldogs however I have been able to replace him with Josh Hannay. I really admired what he did during his time as interim coach at the Cowboys. I saw a difference in the way they played which to me is a sign of a good coach. The playing group changed their style and were competing much harder. He is a good coach on the up.

We’ve had a couple of changes in our high performance – Nathan Pickworth joins us from the Dragons, as does Tony Grimaldi. I wanted to go for someone like Tony with the experience he had as a player and coming out of the Bulldogs he knows what hard work looks like. It suits the theme of where we are going.

Paul Gallen is still on board as a specialist forwards coach and, in exciting news, Luke Lewis will be joining us this year as a specialist coach and work specifically with our back-rowers and edge players. There is no doubting what these two achieved at the club and I’m hoping they will pass on that experience and winning culture into our youthful squad.

Shaun Johnson on the turf after tearing his achilles. Picture: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

Shaun Johnson, what is the best case scenario we can see him back on the field after his torn Achilles?

Round eight is best case. It’s not something you can rush and you’re looking at a minimum six months. Just the way Shaun plays and his explosiveness and his ability to change direction we have to make sure he will be nice and strong before he can make any return. We’re hoping for certain he will play before round 10. It will hurt given he had one of his best years. He will be back bigger and better.

Will anyone miss the start of the season?

We won’t see Royce Hunt until round six while Talakai is also expected to miss a few of the opening games.

Who do you expect to partner Chad Townsend in the halves?

Connor Tracey finished the year with the No. 6 on his back, which was a deserved reward for his consistent performances throughout the year. He was our utility hooker and got a game or two in the halves.

Connor Tracey looks set to start in the halves. Picture: AAP Image/Joel Carrett

His versatility was his great strength but it also worked against him because he filled that place on the bench. I know deep down he wants to grab one of those halves positions.

Matt Moylan has had some challenges with his hamstrings which means it may be more conducive for him to play in the halves than fullback in the earlier stages of the year. If he gets his body strong enough I think he can play fullback for us.

Matty, Connor, Brayden Trindall and Luke Metcalf, they will tussle for that other halves spot. That’s why the pre-season is so important because there are spots up for grabs.

Who are some of the young and emerging guys you’re looking forward to next season?

I have a high opinion of Teig Wilton. He will challenge Briton Nikora and Sifa for that back-row spot. I was really impressed with the season Braden Hamlin-Uele had, playing every game. He played 65 minutes in the semi-final against Canberra and I felt he got the upper-hand on Josh Papalii. That gives me a lot of hope.

A couple of young guys you might not have heard about include Franklin Pele, who is a big, powerful front-rower. He could be anything.

Franklin Pele.

Jenson Taumoepeau.

Jensen Taumoepeau is an outside back. He is a really good kid and is at NRL level. A couple of exciting guys there who we hope can make their debut.

We brought in Luke Metcalf, who was named in the team of the (2020) Nines. The pace we saw him show in that tournament would have him rivalling some of the quickest players in the NRL. I have high hopes for Luke.

You had success in bringing Connor Tracey back to the club, can Luke follow a similar path?

Both we didn’t want to lose. Luke was with me in the under-20s and Manly went in hard for him and signed him for three years. I started playing him fullback because of his pace alone. He sat behind Tom Trbojevic for the past three years and has grown as a player. Driving from Engadine to Manly was wearing thin. He is keen to be back at his junior club. Living around family will bring out the best in him.

You’re off-contract at the end of the season. Does this change your focus?

No, it doesn’t. It’s something that is going to be going on in the background. No doubt it’s been a challenging two years but to play finals football in my first two years as coach is something I’m very proud of. We are really building for the future. We handed out debuts to 12 rookies. I would love to be able to extend my tenure here for the next few years so we can go out into the market and bring in some really key players. We haven’t been able to do that in recent years because of salary cap constraints. We can finally do that in 2022. I have some key players I want to target. If we can work out something in the near future that would be great.

The Sharks were a little off the pace from the best teams all year. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

You didn’t beat a top-eight side last season. How much did that play on the players’ minds?

You’d have to speak to the players. It showed during the finals game in Canberra that we were clearly up to it. In rounds one and two we should’ve won against South Sydney and Melbourne. We scored more tries but lost to Parramatta. There were a number of top-eight sides we should’ve beaten but the history books show we couldn’t get it done. To be fair it reflected where we finished which is eighth.

No doubt we have to stand up to those really good sides so we can get some confidence against them. That’s where we were a little bit off the pace last year. We will address that and get some aim to get good scalps early this year so we don’t carry any mental demons. I’m not too fussed by it as last year is gone. It’s about what is in front of us.

What do you need to see from your side to make sure you’re in the top eight or top four next year?

It comes back down to defence. What hurt our defence was our ability to hold onto the footy. We had the lowest completions out of the NRL. We made a lot of errors out of our own end and we were pretty ordinary in our discipline in letting teams come out of their own end in defence. We need to tidy up some of those discipline areas and control where and how the opposition gets the ball.

If you look at Penrith, they had one of the highest completions and the best kicking game so they could build pressure. They don’t beat themselves. That comes with experience.

We had lots of inexperience but I’m not worried by that. I’m actually excited by it because over another pre-season with that experience they will get a better understanding of how we want to play at this level.