Super Rugby: Waratahs captain Michael Hooper casting a wide net for leadership inspiration
FROM premiership-winning AFL coach Paul Roos to motivational speaker Simon Sinek, Michael Hooper has some interesting podcasts playing in his car on the 40-minute trips from Manly to Daceyville for Waratahs training.
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FROM premiership-winning AFL coach Paul Roos to motivational speaker Simon Sinek, Michael Hooper has some interesting podcasts playing in his car on the 40-minute trips from Manly to Daceyville for Waratahs training.
The captain of the Wallabies and NSW, 26-year-old Hooper is leaving no stone unturned in his bid to become the leader Australian rugby needs to get out of the dire hole it now looks up from.
That starts with turning the Waratahs around in 2018, after a diabolic season last year when they finished third last.
So on his long trips to and from their new training base, and during breaks in between, Hooper immerses himself in the voices and words of high achievers and clinical thinkers on the issue of effective leadership.
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“Paul Roos and Simon Sinek I find really interesting, and they’re such good speakers,” Hooper said.
“And I’ve read about Melbourne Storm and other teams like that, you read about Tom Brady, or what the Philadelphia Eales did to beat Brady [in the Superbowl], just little articles that you pick some gold out of.
“I saw a quote the other day, ‘You’re not too busy, you’re just unorganised’. For me that was a good point, like if I’m supposed to meet up and talk to somebody and I say ‘I’m a bit busy’. You’re not busy, you just haven’t organised your day well enough so you can fit it in and do these things that can help you progress as a person.
“I feel like you hit a point where you just want to see if you can be better, I’m enjoying reading different things and how different people see the world.”
If the Tahs and Wallabies are to win major trophies this year, it will be on the back — and head — of Hooper.
As part of his evolution over the past 18 months, Hooper has learned to share more with teammates.
“It’s not being so guarded,” Hooper said.
“The Waratahs is a place that’s always filled with love, and the more people we have in there being themselves and being comfortable, then surely that’s got to correlate to good work doesn’t it?
“For everyone to be open and happy people is good.”
Managing others is tough at the best of times, but presiding over failure will test the limits of the strongest minds.
NSW’s failure last year, the Wallabies’ inability to win the Bledisloe Cup and Rugby Championship, proved fertile ground for Hooper’s education.
“The main thing I’ve learned is that you’ve got a heap of learning to do, you’re never a finished product,” he said.
“I don’t know how this is going to come across, but maybe you get a label beside your name and you fly by the seat of your pants a bit. You’re not winging it, you’re just doing what you think is right.
“There’s nothing wrong with that but in having this realisation that you’re very far from a finished product, you want to read more, and I’ve got a real taste for wanting to see how other people have done it.
“You hear some great stories, you can apply things you like. There’s a real thirst for knowledge there.
“There are characters within the game, everyone has different needs and wants, managing that is a bigger role than I initially thought to get everyone to train and play their best.”
Key to getting the Tahs training at their best were two meetings held last August — run by a facilitator — in which players could air grievances and offer thoughts on how they’d improve a season of four wins and 11 defeats.
“The point of the exercise was for everyone to air their laundry and nut out exactly what we agree are the changes we need to make,” Hooper said.
“They’re uncomfortable meetings, of course. But we had to get them done pretty quickly, because everyone starts doing their own thing; you’re into an NRC team or you go to the Wallabies or you move on from clubs.
“One thing we spoke about was that we physically weren’t up to scratch, so instantly they go we need to be physically better.”
Upon return to training at NSW following a gruelling Wallabies season, Hooper was pleased to see numerous teammates achieving personal bests in fitness testing last month.
“Guys have had a good preseason, they’ve got us to a base level, to a point where we can play the game we want to play and be competitive,” he said. “We were trying to play a game last year that we physically couldn’t play.
“So fitness and strength gets you to a point, then you have to add the layers of the game, then overarching all of that is the intent.
“Some of the stuff fans weren’t pleased about last year was that it looked like there wasn’t the intent. And that’s not the case. We were just trying to work out what the answer was and not getting it right.
“There was no division within the group, it was just a lack of clarity on what we needed to do going forward, not making quick fixes here or there.
“We were able to have those conversations because the Waratahs are never short of love; for wanting to play in the jersey, wanting to play in front of the fans.”
Those fans notoriously vote with their feet if NSW does not perform.
With the new season to kick off next Saturday at Allianz Stadium against South Africa’s Stormers, how does Hooper define his franchise to them now?
“The Waratahs are a hungry team; hungry to be better than people give them credit for at the moment,” Hooper said.
“We’re going to go through tough times during the year, but we’ve got a plan of what the team identity looks like and what we can draw back on throughout the year.”
He’s already been part of a winning Super Rugby campaign — NSW’s 2014 premiership when he led the side in Dave Dennis’ absence — and Hooper has won many big Test matches with Australia.
But the star flanker has only grown a bigger appetite for success as he’s come to grips with his standing at the top of the players’ steeple.
“I’m very unsatisfied, you want to squeeze the lemon for whatever it is in it, right until the last drop,” Hooper said.
“I’ve made some lifelong friends in this game, some great connections. But you want more.
“I’m greedy in that respect, I am enjoying it as much as I ever have because it’s changing for me.”