This time last year new Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson was a nobody in the National Rugby League. He had just signed his maiden first grade contract and was starting at the bottom as all aspiring coaches do.
You could argue Robinson had it easier than other rookie mentors. He did after all have new signings like Michael Jennings, James Maloney and a bloke called Sonny Bill Williams at his disposal.
But many did not believe this influx of star power would be enough to make the Roosters a threat. Some even went as far as suggest the tricolours would struggle to make the playoffs.
How wrong they were.
Robinson’s Roosters swept all before them in 2013, eventually winning an epic grand final against the dogged Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles.
The easy thing to do is suggest the Roosters have an open chequebook and can buy their way out of trouble. That they were riddled with superstars and men who can do what others can’t.
That’s the easy way out.
If grand finals are won with individual moments then premierships are won by the coach almost a year earlier.
Undoubtedly Robinson spent many sleepless nights back in the summer of 2012 altering plans, tinkering with possible line-ups and planning the perfect new culture that would eventually turn these players from teammates into brothers.
A coach can plan for every scenario through a rugby league season from the comfort of their own desk. Yet rolling with the punches and reacting as you want when those scenarios play out is an entirely different beast.
The Roosters held the NRL trophy up in October.
But that was only made possible by Robinson.
So here we are, on the road to season 2014. Coaches across the land are tinkering behind closed doors, adjusting battle plans and adjusting them again.
Old heads like Wayne Bennett, Craig Bellamy and Des Hasler know their plans.
Together the trio have shared no less than 57 torturous off seasons.
So spare a thought for Paul Green and Brad Arthur who are both, as we speak, in their very first off season. No longer apprentices, both men have everything to gain and everything to lose in this cutthroat world we call the NRL.
Green, a talented representative halfback in his day, has made a meteoric rise through the coaching ranks and after only two short seasons coaching the Wynnum-Manly Seagulls, Green was picked up by the Roosters in 2013 to coach their Holden Cup outfit.
But now the former Rothmans Medal winner has to turn the North Queensland Cowboys from perennial underachievers into premiership winners.
With Johnathan Thurston leading a talented roster, Green has the ingredients to finally hand the diehard North Queensland fans that elusive title.
Whether Green is up to the task is yet to be seen.
At the other end of the spectrum, Brad Arthur has been given the toughest job in Australian sport. Somehow, Arthur has to help turn the tide at Parramatta and make the Eels consistently competitive once more.
The job ahead of Arthur makes Trent Robinson look like Vince Lombardi or Sir Alex Ferguson.
Such is the task; spare a thought for the likes of Arthur and Green.
Two rookie coaches about to take the journey of their lives, and perhaps, create a whole new successful era for their respective clubs.
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