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The 2018 season will see three new head coaches in the NRL – Anthony Seibold at Souths, Dean Pay at Canterbury and Garth Brennan at the Titans. How they’ll go is anyone’s guess, but they’ve all had good apprenticeships.
Before landing the Rabbitohs head coaching job, Seibold had stints as an assistant with Melbourne, Manly, Souths and the Queensland State of Origin team.
Prior to his appointment, Pay had assistant coaching roles at both Melbourne and Canberra, as well as a successful stint in charge of the New South Wales Under-20s.
He also has the instant credibility of having reached the heights of the game himself. Pay won a premiership with the Bulldogs in 1994 and played for both NSW and Australia while he was at the club.
But men like Trent Robinson prove that being a successful player isn’t a prerequisite for being a good coach – and there have certainly been some great players who weren’t able to translate that success to the coach’s box.
Brennan has coached both Penrith’s Under-20s and their New South Wales Cup team to premierships in recent years, as well as having had a season as an assistant to Anthony Griffin in the NRL.
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Legendary supercoach Jack Gibson once said that the best coach is usually the bloke with the best players.
On that front, Seibold arguably has the best cattle of the three rookies. Souths haven’t lost any big names for 2018, they have Greg Inglis returning from his knee injury, and have Queensland State of Origin star Dane Gagai joining them from the Knights.
But it’s in defence that Souths must improve. They conceded an average of 23 points a game last year, which was one of the reasons they finished 12th.
Pay will be rebuilding without long-serving leaders James Graham and Josh Reynolds, and has to sort out the club’s attack. Scoring an average of just 15 points a game last season to finish 11th. New signing Kieran Foran will be expected to make them more of a threat with the ball.
Brennan was no doubt influential in getting Bryce Cartwright to sign with the Titans, and the club has also picked up some handy 2018 signings like Mitch Rein, Michael Gordon, Jai Arrow and Brenko Lee. But they’ve also lost the likes of Chris McQueen, Tyrone Roberts and Jarrod Hayne.
Gold Coast finished second last in 2017, so there’s plenty of room to improve, especially their defence, having conceded a league-worst average of 26 points a game last season.
Whose shoes would you rather be in out of the three new head coaches?
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