Des Hasler, Craig Bellamy and Tommy Raudonikis: Rugby League’s greatest coach blow ups

From slaps in the face, to swinging shovels, frothy-mouthed sprays and a coach send off, rugby league has seen it all, long before Des Hasler lost the plot. These are the game’s greatest coach blow ups.

Des Hasler’s dressing room spray radiated pure anger but it could have been worse – at least he wasn’t swinging a shovel.

Not like – god bless his soul – the late Tommy Raudonikis when he was running out of ideas how to motivate his underperforming Wests team in in the 1990s and noticed a random shovel outside the dressing rooms.

“We went hopelessly in the first half,’’ Raudonikis once told me.

“I told Andrew Leeds to bring the shovel to the halftime address.

“I just gave it to the players and when I had finished, I grabbed the shovel and smashed the dressing room windows. It made such a noise that the television crews outside thought a bomb had gone off. We actually played better in the second half.”

Titans coach Des Hasler blows up after the loss to the Tigers, but it was hardly the worst coach spray of all-time. Picture: Fox League

The old fashioned Magic Spray is not what it used to be. Coaches in all sports find that a tub-thumping style can be deemed offensive among modern players.

Even Wayne Bennett, when recently asked what the biggest change in his 40-year career, said: “When I started in the 70s and 80s you could really bag a player over his defence and he would cop it and go and improve – if I used the same language today his mother or agent would be on the phone to the chief executive the next day.’’

But … but … there are still moments when lids pop off saucepans.

Former RL player Tom (Tommy) Raudonikis & new Wests coach at Western Suburbs Club, Campbelltown. Sport / Rugby League / Head

Hasler’s angry summons of his players after the loss to the Westst Tigers was not his first rodeo.

Fifteen years ago, during a furious halftime address at Parramatta Stadium, he pulled a door off its hinges and he was lucky it don’t land on topic of Jamie Lyon.

Another time he erected a whiteboard in front of the dressing room camera but go so animated he rose above it and fans could see him going off. Last year during the Olympics he blocked out the camera with the words “good luck to our Olympic athletes.’’ It fooled no-one.

Des Hasler once ripped a door of its hingers after spraying Manly following a loss to Parramatta.

Cyclone Des has not been the only hurricane force.

When Phil Gould was coaching the Panthers he once went down the sideline at Shark Park and started sledging referee Bill Harrigan who stopped the game, walked to the sideline and pointed Gould towards the dressing room as if he was sinbinning a player.

Some would be embarrassed but Gould had the slightly contrary look of a man wallowing in the theatre of it all.

Bill Harrigan, referee, speaks to Phil Gould, Penrith coach before sending him from field. 9 July 1994

Then there was the time Nathan Brown gave his St George team one of the biggest halftime sprays imaginable, not in the dressing room but on the field.

The theatre of it was accentuated when he slapped Trent Barrett on the cheek and grabbed the back of another players’ jersey when he went to leave the huddle.

Former Dragons coach Nathan Brown slaps Trent Barrett in an on-field halftime spray.

But for frothy-mouthed sprays in the modern era, no-one has had the volcanic impact of Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy.

Bellamy’s long-time captain Cameron Smith pulled back the curtain in his autobiography to brand Bellamy the game’s first canine coach.

No coach in the moden era has had the impact of Craig Bellamy when it comes to spraying players. Picture: Getty Images

“His nickname was Bellyache but we had others for him – including Dog Head, Dog Face and Dog Features,” Smith wrote.

“Anytime he was riled up or was carrying on in the coach’s box during a game he would start spitting or have saliva building up at the corner of his mouth.

‘“Look at this bloke!’ I’d joke. ‘It’s like a dog with rabies. He’s a rabid dog frothing at the mouth.’’

So the game’s coach of the century is, at heart, a “rapid dog.’’

Rugby league, we love you.

Originally published as Des Hasler, Craig Bellamy and Tommy Raudonikis: Rugby League’s greatest coach blow ups