NRL in Cairns: South Sydney’s Jason Demetriou, Brock Schaefer and Joe O’Callaghan on rise from the Pride
If there was ever any doubt about the Northern Pride’s role in the rugby league pathway, this photo proves just what can be achieved from Far North Queensland.
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IF there was ever any doubt about the Northern Pride’s role in the rugby league pathway, this photo proves just what can be achieved from Far North Queensland.
Just under a decade ago, Brock Schaefer saw a commercial management position advertised by the Pride, Jason Demetriou, then based in England, applied for a head coach position after now-Queensland Rugby League heavyhitter Dave Maiden left, and Joe O’Callaghan was head-hunted and plucked from the school system south of Brisbane.
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Today, they will walk in to their old stomping ground, Barlow Park, as the chief operating officer, new head coach, and head of elite pathways and player development respectively of the NRL oldest, and grandest, club, the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
The trio remarkably crossed paths at Barlow Park back in 2013.
“Footy’s funny like that,” O’Callaghan said. ”If someone told the three of us we’d be at the Rabbitohs together in 2022, we probably didn’t think (that would happen) …”
But here we are.
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Demetriou is perhaps the most well-known and high-profile given his long apprenticeship in the game, and how has taken on the role of Souths coach from Dolphins-bound supercoach, Wayne Bennett.
He coached the Pride to the minor premiership in 2013 (a year they should’ve won the title - and believe us, they’re still filthy) before going one better to win not only the Queensland Cup premiership in 2014, but beat the highly-fancied Penrith Panthers a week later in the inaugural NRL State Championship.
Success followed Demetriou, who was on the coaching staff at the Cowboys when they won the 2015 title, then claimed the NSW Cup-NRL State Championship double at the Illawarra Cutters in 2016.
He joined Wayne Bennett at the Broncos in 2018, and worked with him as an assistant coach until last year - when Souths made the grand final but had their hearts broken by the Panthers.
Demetriou is tasked with delivering premiership No. 22.
Coincidentally, the last time the Pride hoisted any sort of silverware was the same day South Sydney won their 21st, and most recent, title.
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And he paid the Pride the ultimate compliment as to the role the club played in his journey to the NRL.
“I wouldn’t be where I am without those two years here, that’s for sure,” Demetriou said. “That was my first fulltime job as a head coach, in a very strong competition.
“The support I had from the CDRL, the support I had from Chris Sheppard, Brock and the board at the Pride, and the team as well, it was pretty special to be part of, and it gave me a real good grounding to get where I am now.”
And Demetriou said he’s the same man who enjoyed a stunning 80.4 per cent winning rate in his two seasons at the Pride.
“I like to think I’ve stayed true to who I am as a person and as a coach,” he said. “Obviously you change in terms of learning and technical coaching, things you learn from elite players - you pick some things up along the way. “(I’m) probably grumpier than I was when I was. I like to think I’m still the same bloke I was when I was here.”
Souths COO Schaefer said his time at the Pride provided him with the grounding any high-level NRL executive must have to excel.
Schaefer was the Pride’s CEO for the dual title win, and left in early 2015 to join the Rabbitohs’ charity arm, Souths Cares, and has risen through the ranks to one of the most important roles at the 114-year-old club.
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“My time at the Pride has without doubt got me to where I am at Souths,” Schaefer said.
“It’s really important to people in rugby league, whether you’re the CEO of the game, an exec at an NRL club, you need to understand what its like at the grassroots.
“When you work at a club like the Pride, where you’re in schools every day, in communities across half the state, but you’re there on game day filling the bar with beers, putting out signs, dealing with sponsors, doing every single gamut of running of an NRL club, you’re doing as one person.
“As a grounding and education, I’m so lucky to have spent time at the Pride, and I really mean that.
“I talk to my staff at Souths all the time about what they can learn by going back to the grassroots of the game, and I encourage it.”
O’Callaghan built what Schaefer said was the “best academy and development system in rugby league at the time”, then took on the head coaching role in 2015-16, making the finals in the first year.
He went on to a key development role at Wynnum-Manly and in the elite schools rugby league system, before eventually linking with Souths.
The shared history and trust of the three men has undoubtedly played a role in them rejoining forces.
It was a dealbreaker for O’Callaghan, who uprooted his life and moved his family to Souths just months before Covid came along.
“I only moved (to Souths) because of the respect and trust I have in these guys,” O’Callaghan said.
“Taking on that role, and knowing JD would be head coach one day, and where Brock was working his way up, only because of the respect I have for those two guys and knowing how good they are at their jobs, that’s the only reason I moved my family.”
For Schaefer, that trust and previous experience puts Souths in a commanding position as to their future, knowing full well there are men in crucial positions who can deliver sustained success to the club.
“Working with people you trust gives you confidence that you will be successful,” he said.
“In the case of JD, Joe and myself, we had great experiences working together in the past, we know each other really well, how we work, and where our weaknesses are.
“It makes it very easy to then set a vision and go and achieve it now we’re at Souths together. Deep down, the commonality at all successful teams is trust between the people involved, and we have a lot of connection and a lot of trust.”
matthew.mcinerney1@news.com.au
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Originally published as NRL in Cairns: South Sydney’s Jason Demetriou, Brock Schaefer and Joe O’Callaghan on rise from the Pride
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