NRL 2020: Why Trent Barrett is ready to be Canterbury Bulldog’s next coach
Moments away from being named Canterbury’s next head coach, Trent Barrett’s elevation into the box seat for the role has been met with confusion and uncertainty from fans and commentators.
NRL
Don't miss out on the headlines from NRL. Followed categories will be added to My News.
“Sometimes in life Trent, you’ve got to eat a shit sandwich.’’
Wayne Beavis, one of rugby league’s original kingmakers, has a drawer full of advice.
None of them sway too far from the bleeding obvious.
Which is why, after resigning as head coach of Manly in 2018, Trent Barrett phoned his long-time mentor.
Beavis, who retired that same year as an accredited agent after 36 years, told the out-of-work coach the same thing he’d told many of his former clients including Brad Fittler, Trent Robinson, James Maloney, Shane Flanagan, Anthony Griffin and Jarryd Hayne.
So what did Barrett do? He bit down hard..
Kayo is your ticket to the 2020 NRL Telstra Premiership. Every game of every round Live & On-Demand with no-ad breaks during play. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >
With a notepad and pen, Barrett took himself last July all the way inside the inner-sanctum of the All Blacks.
Knowing that if he ever did return to the NRL coaching hot seat, he needed to be a smarter coach than the one he was at Manly, Barrett wanted to learn, apply self-growth, but also feel reaffirmed his own coaching systems and weekly planning wasn’t outrageously far away from the greatest sporting team on earth.
In camp every day ahead of the All Blacks’ 16-16 draw with South Africa in Wellington last year, Barrett stood at the hip of former New Zealand coach Steve Hansen, watching, sitting in on coaches’ meetings, writing notes and visualising how he would adopt the world-class standards of the rugby union team at his next NRL post, should it ever arrive.
He even took notes on the meticulous work ethic, pride and passion of the All Blacks bus driver.
Barrett’s chew of the sandwich his straight-shooting mentor suggested has included opening his mind to other sports and business models that boast consistent success.
So the 41-year-old has been reading books every night.
Barrett’s current read, according to his mates at Penrith, is called Flawless Execution, a 215-pager about how the techniques and systems of American fighter pilots can help improve critical decision-making.
And then there’s the commitment to his players at Penrith where he’s an assistant coach, which also suggests more about Barrett’s desire and motivation to return to the coaching furnace.
Every week this season, Barrett spends three hours a day in his car, leaving home at 4.45am to drive from the south coast to Penrith before walking back in the door to see his four young children for the first time at 6.30pm.
Piece by piece, he is absorbing and appreciating that when he does return, he will do so with a far greater understanding of what did and didn’t work at Manly.
Moments away from being named Canterbury’s next head coach and their 35th in 85 years, Barrett’s elevation into the box seat for the role has been met with confusion and uncertainty from fans and commentators.
They point to his inconsistent results as Sea Eagles head coach: 13th in 2016, sixth in 2017 and 15th in 2018.
They also point to the turbulence and emotionally driven decisions that led to Barrett’s departure.
They include his vow to never pick Jackson Hastings in first grade after the rookie half’s altercation with star halfback Daly Cherry-Evans; Blake Green’s early release to the Warriors with no back-up half at the club, and claims that he was too “matey” with the players.
They’re all headlines that upon reflection, as Barrett told the Bulldogs hierarchy in a Zoom call last Monday, he could’ve avoided and handled better. But more importantly, he knows exactly how to avoid them happening again.
The mob also query, without even mentioning the bottom-four roster, why amid three separate factions and dysfunction at Canterbury board level, why Barrett would risk his second and almost certainly final chance at NRL coaching on the unsettled Bulldogs.
It’s a risk not even Melbourne Storm supercoach Craig Bellamy would entertain.
But what Barrett has learned — both from his time away and his experience at Manly — is that all he can and must focus on is coaching.
The Canterbury board, the factions, the tangled salary cap or even supplying his own plastic furniture if he has to, like he famously did at the Sea Eagles, are all elements out of his control.
The daily preparation of his players, instilling club standards and a game plan his charges trust and can execute, is what he can deliver. That’s what he’s paid to do.
These are some of the notes that are written down in his notebook, as well as words of advice from Hansen that arrive via text message most days.
Having become one of rugby league’s first player agents in 1984, Beavis, 78, proudly calls himself one of the game’s “great survivors”.
At which point during this phone call, his loyal wife Gail sings out from the background, “and so am I’’.
MORE NEWS
Bulldogs pay out coach Dean Pay’s contract in full
Next target: Bulldogs finally open ‘war chest’
Beavis signed Barrett from Temora at the age of 15 and the pair have been solid ever since.
“We’ve never had one stink,’’ Beavis said.
Which prompts an immediate question: “If you have never had an argument together, why would you encourage Trent to take the Bulldogs job, given the turmoil at the club and in the full knowledge that if it doesn’t work, this could be his last chance as an NRL coach?”
“If the Bulldogs select him, Trent will handle this job with consummate ease,’’ Beavis said.
“He will return with no one to blame from the past, no finger pointing, no bagging anyone, but with a greater set of tools for the experience he’s had.
“It was a good life lesson for him at Manly and he’ll be much stronger, wiser and more informed than he ever was.
“The time away from the game has given him an opportunity to look deeper into the game and reflect and understand what it’s all about.’’
Originally published as NRL 2020: Why Trent Barrett is ready to be Canterbury Bulldog’s next coach
Roosters coach Robinson airlifted to hospital after gas explosion
Sydney Robinson coach Trent Robinson and his wife Sandra have been airlifted to hospital following a gas explosion accident in the Hunter Valley.
Cook’s appeal for Hunt to not walk out on Dragons
Damien Cook has revealed halfback Ben Hunt is a “big reason” why he’s joining the Dragons in 2025, launching an appeal for the star veteran to not quit the club as it eyes a drought-breaking finals berth.