The NRL pre-season is here and we are now just under a month away from the regular season.
As Round 1 draws near, four-time premiership winner Peter Sterling sat down to discuss the big issues ahead of the upcoming footy season.
Here is what Sterlo had to say on some of the hot topics including the Warriors, Sea Eagles, Bulldogs, Titans and Rabbitohs.
Blake Green to the Warriors is one of the more underrated moves over the off-season. We saw what he could do with Daly Cherry-Evans at the Sea Eagles, can he steady the ship in Auckland?
You’ve asked the impossible question. I can’t get excited about the Warriors until they show me something. We went into previous seasons excited that Tuivasa-Sheck was at fullback, Issac Luke was at hooker and Johnson alongside Kieran Foran. Again, they’ve just been a distinct disappointment.
The quality of their squad demands finals football and they haven’t had it. And unfortunately in the last few seasons, and it might be the case again this year, I can sit here and say they’ll have a slow start to the season in the first eight games and then the middle eight games, which is Origin period, they’ll make a bit of a run and they’ll fade in the last eight games. That’s been their blueprint and somehow they’ve got to change that.
There’s pressure on Kearney obviously but I don’t know whether a change of coach is the answer there because they’ve had so many changes of coaches in such a short period of time anyway.
But I was surprised that Manly didn’t do more or whatever to keep Blake Green there. I thought he was the perfect foil for Daly Cherry-Evans, now whether they had salary cap issues which we know they’re going through some problems now. I wouldn’t have thought that he would be in huge money in comparison to others and maybe the Warriors played over for him.
(AAP Image/Daniel Munoz)
And he’s one of those rare players that actually went overseas and learnt his trade over there and came back a far better player than when he left. That seems to be an exception rather than the norm.
I think he’ll be good for the Warriors but he’s a steady player which is something that they need but there are so many other players around him that have to improve consistently for them to be the side they should be.
But I think Manly might struggle without, I know young Croker’s getting a lot of raps out there and Cherry-Evans comes off a very good season, but I think Blake Green allowed Cherry-Evans to have the kind of season that he did and was the kind of foil that really worked last year.
Another club in crisis, the Bulldogs have a new coach, new captain and new board. Can Dean Pay return them to their glory days?
I know that they are the family club and defensively they were always one of the best we’ve seen, and that’s what they’ve based their game around. It’s been a far cry from the Dogs of War for a while now but there was always a steelness and a resolute way they played their football.
They became predictable.
I love Des Hasler as an individual and a coach but they became predictable. What worked for them in regards to the way they played with their forwards linking with their backs. That was something new and it took other clubs a year or two to sort of get it but once they started doing video work on it – that’s why the Bulldogs didn’t score points because every team was coming at them and it became easy to defend.
Dean Pay has got to address that. He’s got to change the way they play their game. I think that it’s going to be a tough year for them, I think that the introduction of Aaron Woods and Kieran Foran, they’re quality signings but I don’t see Aaron Woods changing their game that much but Kieran Foran has the ability to really straighten their attack and play hard at the line which is something they haven’t done enough of, and play that shortside which he does well. If Kieran Foran can really find his mojo, that will help the Bulldogs.
(AAP Image/David Rowland)
I see them as a fringe eight side, I really do, because I think that there’s a lot for Dean Pay to come in. He’s had really good support, a lot of raps for Dean Pay in what he’s done for NSW Pathways. It’s a step up, he’s been under some good coaches obviously down at Canberra so he’s learnt his trade but his first year in, coming to a struggling club which hopefully have their off-field sorted out which will help their on-field. It’s a lot to get right in a short period of time.
We have Anthony Seibold coming into the Rabbitohs and Garth Brennan to the Titans. How do you think they will go in the first seasons as coaches?
They’ll learn a lot. Garth Brennan, you know when you have Phil Gould’s imprimatur then that’s a fairly strong recommendation and he’s done well with the players.
Hayne’s gone and there will be some good and some bad about that. He’s bought some talent to the Titans this year and I think that they can have a pretty good year under him while in fact he’s got a good reputation at Penrith and he’s won a lot of titles wherever he’s coached, he’s been successful. But again, first year in the top grade.
He’s going to be under pressure at some stage and I think Brad Fittler came out and said ‘You don’t know what being a first grade coach is until you’ve lost four on the trot.’ And at some stage I feel as though they will lose three or four in a row and then you’ll find out what first grade coaching is all about. He’s bought talent in, he’s recruited well but again I think they lack some depth.
Anthony Seibold – I think Dane Gagai is a really good signing. I’d be gutted if I was Nathan Brown at Newcastle, who’s losing a player of his quality.
(NRLPhotos/Gregg Porteous)
Greg Inglis is probably the key to them as well. They’re a different football team when he’s playing. We don’t think he’ll be there for the first fortnight but it would be nice for Souths fans and in fact the competition to have a superstar like Greg back.
Again, I’m not too sure about Souths. I think Adam Reynolds probably needs to change his game a little bit. He plays too deep and they need to play more at the line. And Adam Reynolds just needs to change a little bit of his game which I’m sure he probably has so again, Seibold comes with good recommendations but first year in he’ll be hoping that he can get his best team on the paddock every week as all clubs will but Inglis needs to be there for him to have a good year.
All the new coaches come in with good qualifications but first grade coaching is a different beast. To me, I’ve never been a first grade coach so I can’t speak with any experience whatsoever, but it seems to me that the best coaches in the competition understand that things are never as good as they seem and they’re never as bad as they seem and that’s the way they’ll have to coach with an evenness so across your playing personnel know what to expect from you, they know you’ll be honest with them and in the bad times, they don’t want to see too much difference they just want it to be business as usual.
I don’t think being a successful coach has ever come down to how good you were as a player, I’m sure that I could think of some instances along those lines where some of our best coaches weren’t necessarily stars on the field.
The smart coaches surround themselves by good opinion and then they pick and choose, they take all of that on board and then they make their own decision. And that comes back to having a really good football knowledge, and all of these guys, there’s never been an NRL coach that has had not much of an idea of the game but I think a lot of that comes down to the people that are around you.
Obviously the strength of your squad – good players make good coaches. I think it’s important for those new coaches to have the right people around them and people whose opinions they respect but in the end they make the decision after taking on all the information, and dissecting it and then making their own decision on that.
First grade coaches they live and die on their decisions but the better informed their decisions can be, especially by the people around them and their own thoughts, the better they’ll be at making those decisions.
Stay tuned for part three where we will discuss the Knights, Roosters and Cowboys.
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