Cleary is one hard hombre

IN the past month Ivan Cleary has once again proven what a superb coach he is.

IN the past month Ivan Cleary has once again proven what a superb coach he is.

There are two types of coaching.

The first kind is easy, in fact it's hardly coaching. It's when the side is winning and playing full of confidence. The players turn up to training early, they smile, they encourage, they want to be there.

In this case the coach rides his team like he's riding Black Caviar. He puts the whip away and simply guides them hands and heels, letting their confidence and ability do the rest.

Then there's the other type of coaching. It's tough, hard, thankless and it's what separates the top coaches from the ones on the coaching roundabout.

It's when the side is not just losing, but you don't see when the next win will come. The players are without confidence, everyone's agitated, on edge, training's not fun, discipline is waning, fingers are being pointed.

In this case coaches do one of two things. The poor ones go into denial. They try to convince themselves and everyone else that everything's OK, "a win's just around the corner, we're working hard, the calls aren't going our way, the scheduling is against us, global warming is distracting the players". We've heard it all before.

Meanwhile, the strong coaches make tough decisions. One of sport's greatest, the legendary Manchester United manager, Alex Ferguson, was once asked what was the one piece of advice he'd give to an aspiring coach. He replied: "Don't shy away from the tough decisions, which you know you must make. The moment you do you're going to fail."

Which brings me back to Ivan Cleary. A month ago I made the comment that I had no idea where Penrith's next victory would come from. At that time I saw their situation more grim than even Parramatta's. There was no spark, no energy and absolutely no confidence.

What would Ivan do? He made tough decisions.

Firstly he caused a sensation by dropping Penrith's marquee signing and No. 1 strike weapon, Michael Jennings, to the Windsor Wolves.

People questioned Cleary's sanity. Here was a team struggling to score points and he drops the side's one and only spark? But Cleary had had a gutful of Jennings' poor form and poor attitude.

Maybe Michael Jennings thought he was indispensable? Certainly the way he conducted himself off the field suggested he thought he could operate outside the boundaries of the club rules and regulations.

While a rugby league team needs its leaders, the best teams operate on a communist system. When it comes to effort, attitude and discipline, all players operate on a level footing, regardless of your pay packet.

When Cleary sacked Jennings he drew a line in the sand, he sounded a warning and the players immediately responded with a gutsy and spirited upset win over the Dragons.

But Cleary's next tough decision would make the Jennings sacking appear easy.

When Luke Lewis was appointed Penrith captain he described it as, "the proudest moment in his career". Lewis is not only a hell of a player but certainly one of the most popular in the game.

He's tough, uncomplicated and incredibly likeable.

So when Cleary decided to strip Lewis of the captaincy on the eve of last week's clash with Manly, there was outrage. Lewis was left shattered by the decision and would later describe it as, "a kick in the guts".

Blog with Buzz: Is Ivan on the right track at Penrith? Have your say from 12:30pm Friday.

But the side won. Not only won, but recorded their best victory of the year over the premiers, Manly.

On both occasions Cleary took a substantial risk by making unpopular decisions, but on both occasions those tough decisions proved correct ones.

Leadership is about making decisions. Great leadership is getting those decisions right. Ivan Cleary is addressing the culture at Penrith.

When Phil Gould took charge last year he was alarmed at what he saw, and knew drastic and immediate changes were needed. He thanked coach Matt Elliot for his efforts and moved the club in a new direction.

The players had become too comfortable. More concerning was that they had become comfortable in a culture of underachievement.

Incredibly, some of those players wanted a say in appointing the man who would replace the coach they'd been responsible for having sacked through their poor results.

And then they had the audacity to voice their disapproval when Gus refused to grant their wishes and sign caretaker coach, Steve Georgallis.

Gould knew he would need a coach who would be tough enough to endure tough times and strong enough to make strong decisions.

As a coach Cleary had proven those very qualities at the New Zealand Warriors.

Not only had he endured the pressure of the one club, one country team, but made some decisions along the way which almost had him lynched, notably sacking Steve Price as captain and replacing him with Simon Mannering. Price at the time was probably the most respected sports figure in New Zealand. He had a direct line to Prime Minister, Helen Clark and his standing had proved invaluable for the Warriors organisation.

But for whatever reason Cleary sacked him and replaced him with the unfashionable Mannering.

New Zealand blew up. Price blew up. The PM blew up. But Cleary's decision had proved correct, now even Price concedes that.

I played against Ivan quite a bit. He wasn't that big or fast, he wasn't particularly skilful, nor was he exceptionally evasive, yet he was a tremendous player. Obviously whatever is between his ears is what made him. The competitiveness, the smarts, the right feel for the game. It's held him in good stead for coaching.

In 1997 we played the Roosters in the pouring rain at home in Newcastle. We led 14-8, when on the full-time siren Andrew Walker chipped, chased , regathered and scored right in the corner to make the scores 14-12, with the kick to come from the sideline.

Cleary would take the conversion and everything was against him.

The field was a mud heap, the ball heavy, the vocal home crowd were jeering and we were in the in-goal area doing the type of sledging that the Australian cricket team would've been proud of. As Ivan walks back to his mark and is about to move in for the attempt he looks up, smiles, blows us a kiss and then slams the ball right over the black dot.

There have been a number of exceptional players of my generation who took on a first grade coaching job not long out of playing. Nathan Brown, Jason Taylor and Brad Fittler, all fell to pressures and relentlessness of the role.

Ivan Cleary remains. Ivan Cleary is one tough hombre.

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