If anyone thought they might get an easy ride in week one of the new season, that must have been removed on opening night.
The thing about pressure is no matter how much experience you’ve had dealing with it, there is no guarantee you will handle it any better than anyone else this time round.
In pro sport no one is exempt.
Read more from Brian Smith at SmithySpeaks
Brisbane’s failure to make the big season opener a real contest seemed to be indicated early by the attendance numbers – surely a disappointment for Broncos bosses. It’s a great honour and opportunity for any club be granted that huge TV focus; the whole footy world is watching the season opener, especially when playing the premiers.
Sure it was Thursday night, but I thought Queensland was the home of footy these days?
Souths dominated from the beginning, so that might have killed off the atmosphere but it all seemed a bit unusual, like the pressure was already on the Broncos.
So too was Wayne Bennett’s return to Brisbane. His comments seemed very unlike him, bouncing from “it could take five years”, to “we have trained great and are ready to go”.
It sounded like someone in the front office told him that ticket sales were sluggish but his coaching experience told him to play it all down, lower the expectation, take the pressure off his players and staff.
The head coaching instinct was right.
Post-game it was more of trying to rectify his “predictable” reference to Souths’ style of play. It looked reactionary because Blind Freddy could see the progression in the Rabbits’ attack already in 2015, and Bennett would have known that.
There is no argument that both his international-laden Broncos of the past were predictable – predictably bloody brilliant that is. But just like Souths were in taking the Broncos apart, the Broncos’ gun teams of the past had so many players with great talent that leaving ‘predictable’ as the only tag for the champions looked silly.
The hole got a little deeper. But since when does Australia’s premier sporting coach need to explain himself?
Describing his team’s performance as ‘playing like the club has for the past couple of seasons’ was very negative and more than a little demeaning to those involved.
And then singling out Sam Thaiday’s performance? Very un-Bennett like.
It looked like the experienced coach had started to really see the size of the job and the huge expectation. He has handled all of that so well in the past, so what made his responses stand out? Pressure.
One coach who stuck to the often-used plan for dealing with pressure was Des Hasler. Post-game his suggestion of inviting the referees boss and match referee into the press conference was viewed by some as humorous, but the NRL didn’t so. The $10K suspended fine will have every coach on their toes in every press conference from now on. Deflecting the pressure to others will need a different application in 2015.
That pressure was the result of the match, no doubt. Despite the final scoreline, the Panthers’ team performance humbled the Bulldogs and the style of footy they played seemed to frustrate everyone in blue and white – not just the coach.
Josh Reynolds lost it at times and he too will be under tremendous pressure when he finally returns from his eight-week injury. His continued ‘madness’ in high-energy performances have crossed over into foul play too many times. Controlling his emotions when he and his team need to change the momentum of a losing performance will be a huge task for such a wholehearted player.
Titans board members will also be under huge pressure this week. Should they re-instate those players under criminal charges? A narrow loss to the Tigers might have been a victory if Greg Bird, Dave Taylor and Beau Falloon had played.
Coaches Paul Green, Shane Flanagan and Andrew McFadden will all be keen to reverse the early pressure of disappointing performances after such huge build-ups. It’s not just losses that build pressure – performance matters too.
Geoff Toovey has been in the vortex from day one as head coach of the Sea Eagles. He has handled pressure every week for a few seasons now, but the thing about pressure is, it takes its toll. It’s difficult to maintain good decision making.
Meanwhile, the guys who live with it most seemed to avoid it for this week – well done to the NRL match officials!
The NRL may have found a way to ease the pressure burden on their performers. Let’s hope that leads to more high-quality performances throughout the season.
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