Waratahs coach Darren Coleman opens up on his and Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii’s future
Eliminated in the quarter-finals for the past two seasons, the heat is on the Waratahs - and coach Darren Coleman in particular. He speaks to Jamie Pandaram about what is different in 2024.
Rugby
Don't miss out on the headlines from Rugby. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Starting his third season in charge of the NSW Waratahs, coach Darren Coleman is starkly aware that the clock is ticking on his own future.
NSW executives are set to make a call on Coleman’s future within the first few weeks of the Super Rugby season, after the Tahs were eliminated in the quarter-finals in their past two campaigns, last year losing 41-12 to the Blues.
The off-contract Coleman addresses his tenure, regrets, his belief in this year’s squad, the impending departure of Mark Nawaqanitawase and arrival of Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, and the underrated player he expects to make a major statement this season in a wide-ranging interview.
JAMIE PANDARAM: I’ve got to ask about your future Darren. Have you been told that you’ve got four games to save your job?
DC: “I wouldn’t say save my job. I’ve got a three-year contract and the club will honour that.
“Obviously it’s in the club’s best interest that you get a decision early, and I like that because then I can get on with planning my life.
“And recruitment for 2025 is important. We’re right in the throes of that now. So if new players are going to come here or existing players are going to be retained, they want to know who the coach is.
“So yeah, we’ve spoken about early in the season, they’ll let me know how we’re going there. They’re obviously critiquing and reviewing the structures I’ve put in place and how we’re looking at the moment.
“I’m just going to keep my head down, make sure that the team performs well and performs consistently, and then the decisions will be made.
“I’ve got full faith in the CEO [Paul Doorn] and the board that they’ll do what’s right. If the organisation feel I’m in their plans, that’s great.
“If I’m not, I’ll be thankful they gave me the opportunity and I’ll get on with coaching elsewhere.”
JP: That is a lot of pressure.
DC: “Yeah, it is. It’s pressure, but also I’m pretty philosophical on it. I’ve been lucky, I’ve been coaching now as a full time coach for 25 years – I was actually here in 2000 as an assistant coach 23 years ago.
“So I’ll always be in rugby, and I’ll always find a job. My theory is if I wake up every day and my job is to hang out with a really motivated, enthusiastic bunch of footballers that want to want to work together, I’m living the dream.
“I’ve got ambitions to stay here, and I think we’re tracking in the right direction. But I understand it’s professional sport, and there’s a certain level of success you need to have.”
JP: It’s a tough first four games (NSW face Queensland, the Crusaders, Highlanders and Blues), where do you think the team can improve so you’re three and one, or four and 0 at that stage?
DC: “Where I think I came unstuck last year the most was worrying about where we’d finish the year.
“Myself as an inexperienced head coach at this level, Eddie-mania was around, we had the new stadium, we’d had a great 2022, I had personal ambitions to get us into the top four. And I felt in helping with the promotion of the game, I talked them up to try and build momentum and get people following us.
“As much as I want my team to do well, I’ve been in this sport for so long now that I want the sport to do well too. It’s important to me that rugby thrives.
“Now I’ve probably learned my lesson there. Did I put extra pressure on my team that I didn’t need to?
“So I’m very cliché. I’m just really focused on getting better each week and improving.
“The last pre-season I made some bold predictions around where we’d finish to, to try and generate interest, and get people along for that game one. I definitely learned my lesson. I think the best thing I can do for our sport is to get ourselves winning.”
JP: You’ve got the Reds in round one. Is there still the same level of hatred and rivalry between NSW and Queensland as there used to be?
DC: “We’ve done a lot in that aspect this year, 150 years, we’ve done a lot of work as a team on understanding our history and reconnecting with the past, and past players.
“We get them in round one and round 15, so if we can get dominance over the Reds it’s going to go a long way to setting up our season and starting with momentum. And you’d think if we’re there and thereabouts, round 15 is going to be an important fixture as well for our final finishing position. So, our results against them are really crucial.
“So I’ve tried to reconnect with a bit of that, the Reds rivalry. We’re going to build that as we go through the season.
“It potentially had dropped off because we just play so often now, and it’s not State of Origin as such.
“It’s hard to put shit on the Queenslanders when there’s five or six of them in our team, even on staff I’ve got a Queenslander. So it’s hard to call them banjo-playing toothless two-heads.
“But a couple of our senior players have spoken about what playing the Reds means to them. And there’s definitely extra bite in it.”
JP: You’re losing Mark Nawaqanitawase to the NRL after this season. How disappointed are you to see him go, and is league a threat to Super Rugby stocks?
DC: “Yeah I definitely do think it’s a threat, you can’t put your head in the sand. Marky leaving is a kick in the butt for us because he is a genuine rugby kid that was developed through rugby.
“I think special athletes like that, you’ll see bounce around a bit. Not that he’s conquered rugby, but his rationale to me made sense, ‘I had an interest league, I wanted to check it out at some point, if I don’t do it now and give myself the best chance because of my age, I don’t want to do it at 32 and be past my best athletically’. So it’s sad to see him go because he’s just made such great strides in the last two years in our program here, and really cemented himself as a world class player.
“Do I think he’s going for good? No, I think I think he’ll go and have a crack at it and good on him, it’s quite brave going into an unknown world.
“He’s going to find some real challenges with rugby league. But it’ll be good for him to get himself out of his comfort zone. And I’m really hopeful that he’s back here at the Tahs and back here with the Wallabies for our home World Cup [in 2027]. That’s a really strong lure.”
JP: Coming back the other way is Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii from the Roosters, and hopefully you’re around to coach him next year. Given the money he’s being paid, $5.35 million over three seasons, is his rugby stint bound to fail no matter what he does, because of the inevitable criticism that will come?
DC: “I don’t know Joseph personally. I had input as to, do we want him? And of course we did.
“My research on him was he’s just an ultimate professional, a good kid, humble, works super hard. And that was consistent with all the sources I checked.
“The amount of money he’s getting paid, it’s a bit of an anomaly in our sport. That was obviously Hamish [McLennnan] and potentially Eddie [Jones] working in that sphere, and they felt at that time it was appropriate and it got good publicity for the sport.
“But I’m pretty deep in my negotiations at the moment for 2025 retention and I think all players and agents understand that it was just an anomaly, a bit of a one-off.
“So I actually don’t think it’s caused too much stress – we haven’t lost a player because they’ve said ‘Well you’re paying Joseph this and not me’.
“So I definitely know the players won’t hold a grudge against him. No one begrudges anyone for taking a deal that’s good for them financially, because he’ll want to supply and provide for his family down the track.
“Will he be under pressure? Yeah. It’s a high pressure environment, particularly when everyone knows your salary and it’s an outlier like that. He’s going to be under pressure to perform.
“But from what I see, he has all the ingredients to do that; superb athlete, great kicker of the ball, which is really important in rugby, particularly for back three players. And I’ve watched him closely since he signed, even more so because I was interested in what sort of player was coming here, and I’ve been most impressed with his toughness and his physicality.
“For a kid he’s a tough hombre. He makes some real tough carries in the NRL which takes a bit of ticker to do.
“If I’m here or not, I think it’s a good thing for the Waratahs and I think he’ll be a very solid contributor.”
JP: You’ve got a lot of Wallabies in your squad, but tell me about one player who is under the radar, who you expect to excel and make a big statement this year?
DC: “I’d like to think now is Charlie Gamble’s time to shine.
“It’s a great story. Charlie was a prodigy through the New Zealand schoolboy and Crusaders systems, fell out of love with rugby, fell out of their system and ended up here playing subdistricts. Rugby wasn’t a big thing for him, he got hooked back in through Shute Shield and was on a really meagre contract from 2019 through the academy.
“And then all of a sudden he got his opportunity when Hoops (Michael Hooper) took his sabbatical in 2022, and he was amazing through that year, particularly the first half where he had an unimpeded run at the No. 7 jersey, he had three or four pretty close to consecutive man of the match performances, turned heads, Dave Rennie got excited about him being Aussie-qualified.
“And then he lost a little bit of momentum with Hoops back, because obviously Hoops was always going to have that No. 7 seven jersey. Charlie got moved to six, got moved to eight because we wanted him in the team.
“He got injuries, so didn’t springboard off 22 as much as we were hoping last year. But now he’s had a good off-season, he’ll get that first shot at number the number seven jersey. He’s probably one guy that’s not a big name Wallaby that I’m hopeful will really come on.”
JP: Putting you on the spot now, who is your best 10-12-15 combination?
DC: “It’s pretty easy to say that Tane Edmed and Lalakai Foketi will get the first shot at the 10 and 12. And 15, Max Jorgensen is probably favoured again to hold that, but he’s coming off a disrupted pre-season with his surgery, he hasn’t played yet and won’t play the trials.
“So Joey Walton is in that mix. Joe is a really underrated player, he’s filled in admirably over the pre-season as a 15, he is a natural 12 or 13.
“And then throw into the mix Will Harrison. If you think back to the 2020 and 21 seasons, he came onto the blocks as a 19-year-old, was in the Australian squad for some training opportunities, and has just had a horrid run with that knee injury. The beauty of Will is that while 10 is his best position, he can play 15.”
JP: Finally, why can Waratahs fans dare to dream in 2024?
DC: “We’ve got a committed group that really care about Waratahs rugby and are hungry to make amends for last year’s disappointment.
“We’ve got some boys that will be finishing up at the end of the year and heading to Europe have been long-time members. There’s that motivation.
“And I just think we’ve got an exciting roster. We’re a really stable coaching team, we’ve got a great home ground, and we’ve seen it in years prior that when the Tahs do well, the people come out and support them.
“That’s our goal, to get that footy stadium rocking again. And then momentum and confidence can take you anywhere.”
More Coverage
Originally published as Waratahs coach Darren Coleman opens up on his and Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii’s future
Join the conversation
Suaalii set for Grand Slam return after Kerevi banned
Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii is set for a hasty recall to the Wallabies starting side after Samu Kerevi was suspended for the rest of Australia’s Grand Slam campaign.
Read more
How Wallabies demolition job could hurt Grand Slam plan
For the Wallabies to emulate the feats of the legendary 1984 Australia side, there’s one area in particular they need to conquer – and their destructive win over Wales solved none of it.
Read more