Legacy and an ability to lead a group of people – be it in a sports team, political party or any other group – must be one of the most challenging undertakings for anyone.
My coaching resume is limited to working with some young cricketers on their bowling action and coaching a U14 team in basketball, so I don’t come close to being an expert. However, in my opinion, the NRL has a shortage of coaching talent.
To me there are three coaches who are clearly the best in the league and it can be argued who is number one, two or three.
They would be Craig Bellamy, Wayne Bennett and Trent Robinson.
To me these three are clearly the best in the game at the moment. Now other clubs are employing coaches who are starting their careers or have past successes to fall back on, these names include Des Hasler, Michael Maguire and Anthony Seibold.
These names either have premierships to their name already, or in Seibold’s case they are in just their second season and already won a Dally M coaching award.
Having watched a number of different teams this year it seems to me that plenty have no idea what they’re doing in attack or defence. Teams like the Titans, Warriors, Knights and at times Manly and the Bulldogs have shown that they have no idea what they are doing on offence or defence.
To me this comes down to coaching. These teams are failing to put the work in that is needed to win on the weekend. They are not prepared to put their best display in.
Perhaps the two biggest concerns for coaching talent in the NRL is the regard that Nathan Brown and Ivan Cleary are held in.
Knights coach Nathan Brown during the Newcastle Knights training session at Balance Field in Mayfield, Newcastle, Thursday, August 23, 2018. (AAP Image/Darren Pateman)
I have at times heard Cleary mentioned in the same breath as Bennett and above Robinson. There to me is no evidence to support this. I would question his ability as a coach.
His last few years in charge of two different teams, they have had no idea how to attack. They just try to scrap for the 80.
It worked early last year for the Tigers beating the Storm and the Roosters but this style doesn’t win GFs. While the Tigers were perhaps low on talent last year, the same excuse does not exist this year for Cleary.
He has a number of classy rep players are at his disposal but with all this talent they have been at times awful and unwatchable. James Maloney and Nathan Cleary in particular seem like they only meet once a week on game day. This comes from a team that employs a man who is well regarded and lauded as a NRL coach.
Nathan Brown has had a tough, roller-coaster of a career. Taking over the Dragons, failing in going to the UK and now back in the NRL coaching the Knights, he has had a tough time.
He has a new team that on paper should make them highly competitive but they have struggled and the likes of Kalyn Ponga and Mitch Pearce are not playing as well as they were last year.
The Knights strike me as a team that can only attack going left. Jesse Ramien – an outstanding prospect – has turned into a hit-up specialist as a result.
Also on Brown he has been given a lot of credit for rebuilding the club with a much stronger roster, but I want to ask who has he developed or improved? Perhaps Mitch Barrnet? The rest of the players were bought at their peaks such as Dave Klemmer, Aidan Guerra, Pearce, Tim Glasby or any of their younger players.
Coaches such as Garth Brennan, Stephen Kearney, Paul McGregor and Brad Arthur along with those I have studied are to me just not up to the job of winning a premiership and will one day be sacked but who replaces them?
Perhaps clubs should look at the English Super league? Or maybe someone like Craig Fitzgibon or Jason Demitriou are ready to go? The NRL is facing a coaching shortage and clubs like the Storm, Rabbits and the Roosters are ready to take advantage.
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
Sheens to the Cows and Ricky Stuart to several clubs and even Bennett to the Knights gives a fair indication of the typical outcome. In theory if some coaches are so much better than the rest it would pay a weaker club to hunt them really hard with a huge bag of money. Trouble is it doesn't work unless you give him a great roster. The Eels and Raiders are perfect examples. Neither has had a dominant spine since winning titles and a whole heap of coaches have struggled.
Albo
Roar Rookie
Funny how those 3 best coaches seem to have the 3 best squads of players ?
John
Guest
I'd love to see a coach swap, probably not as extreme as say Bellamy to the cellar dwellers, but perhaps Bellamy to a side where roster on paper is strong, but the side is under-performing, somewhere like Cowboys, Broncos, Newcastle to see how much of an impact the coach has.
Superspud
Roar Rookie
A large part of a coaches job is in recruiting. It is the coaches responsibility to move players on who don't perform for him and get ones in who do. This is particularly important in the context of the salary cap. Stuart has had a questionable record over the years but I think he has nailed it this year. Paul Green I think has made poor decisions in recent years.
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
I'm not ready to agree that Robinson should be there. My granny could compete in the NRL with that roster and they made the top 4 last year on the back of some dubious refereeing (note in point the game against the Titans where every try was off a forward pass and the bunker gave a clanger to O'Sullivan). Robinson also pushes the laws and refs as much as the Storm (if not more), where Storm mastered the wrestle Roosters mastered the forward pass - especially off the ruck - and back play interference. Note chooks were doing poorly at the start of the year when the refs were on their crackdown - and then when they backed off (chooks flourished).
Charles Meurer
Guest
Good comments Paul! Take tonight the Dragons Canterbury game. Absolute cracker of a game. Coach Mary shows what he is capable he can do as a coach. There have been many who wanted his head but I never felt that He needed time and encouragement as to me I can see his potential.
RandyM
Guest
Smith made 4 grand finals with 3 different clubs. Has a win percentage of 52% over a long career. Pretty good. What I am saying, there are still people who think Bellamy can't coach cause he didn't win Origin...
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
The last NSW half to be rated very highly and live up to the tag was Johns. Fittler is the last 5/8 to fulfill his promise. Cleary seems to be a good half but signs of greatness are in short supply for me. He's got more nous than Pearce but isn't as quick or strong it seems. Take the best attributes of both and you'd have a champion perhaps.
mushi
Roar Guru
And to me I still think the rationale is flawed as it misunderstands the role of a coach, vastly overstates their impact and irrationally applies a threshold for adequacy that will never be reached by the average coach and just contributes to issues rather than solving them.
Paul
Roar Guru
Jacks, on paper, this is an easy question to answer but in reality, we won't know for at least another 10 years. I think he's actually peaked in terms of what he can offer a side, but we really won't know whether I'm correct till his career finishes. He's not a natural leader and does not appear comfortable in that role. His skillset is good but not great. The "great" playmakers, which is what Cleary's supposed to be, read the game extremely well and they did that from a young age in first grade. Cleary struggles with that, especially at SOO level where he simply follows the plan. I expect Penrith will dump him by the end of next season, but he'll be picked up by another bottom 8 side and will forge a 200 game career, assuming injuries don't get him.
Paul
Roar Guru
I think you're putting the cart before the horse, Jacks. ALL of these guys you mentioned imported players into their squad that would end up winning premierships, or at least being in contention to do so. Once you have that in place, it's relatively easy to set up and maintain a development group because you can bring them along at their own pace, without needing to rush them into first grade in order to win games. When they do get a game, they're protected by the more experienced players till they find their feet and/or get noticed by other teams and they move on. In Brown's case, he's had to use what promising juniors he has had in first grade way before they've been ready, simply because the side was not winning games. It's the same in ANY Club which is not winning; coaches will try all sorts of players till they get the right combinations. Once they get a winning group, THEN they can develop their juniors.
Jacks
Roar Guru
I agree coaches need time to show their wears and skills which is why I gave the likes of Dean Pay and Seibold a big pass they haven't had time to mold the team to what they want. But the likes of Arthur, McGreagor Brown in particular have had that time and to me they have been found wanting.
mushi
Roar Guru
We will never have enough coaches because our expectations are skewed and our timelines impatient. It is impossible for 16 people to simultaneously meet the unrealistic expectations of each fan base. Impossible. I'd say 5 to 6 max can mathematically do it, and that's for one season. If you don't challenge for a premiership every 3 years then you can't coach seems to be the prevailing wisdom, oh and you'd better win one after your 4th or 5th attempt otherwise you really can't coach and have wasted player talent. So it's impossible for there to be 16 good coaches, because of how we judge what a good coach is. I tried to get historic odds for clubs and from what I could find at the start of last year Brown's club was around 14th in premiership betting and Marys Dragons were 8th-10th. They exceed actual expectations (which included the guys "at their peak") but then revisionist history says they failed because their teams were further ahead of expectations at some point (which we perversely give them negative credit for by moving the baseline). If referees judged the game in the same way you'd be penalised for a line break that didn't result in a try... Add to that there are various aspects and styles to coaching at the professional level and no coach in any sport has all these aspects. So are set play tacticians, some game planners, some motivators, some talent evaluators, etc We focus so much on where coaches fall short, rather than are they being put in a position to maximize where they excel, yet we laud coaches (and CEOs) for the exact opposite. What every fan base should wish for is a competent front office that ignores media and the fans.
Big Daddy
Guest
Some guys that have been good players have never made it as coaches. Apart from Bennett and Bellamy no one has really stood out for consistency as long term coaches. Look at Brian Smith, 4 clubs and never looked like winning a premiership. High profile club's tend to keep their coaches a lot longer, the rest just get recycled.
Jacks
Roar Guru
How do you think Cleary is coming along? I haven't seen much improvement and could argue that he has actually gone backwards.
Jacks
Roar Guru
It will be interesting to see how the Storm do once Bellamy does decide to move on. Bennett is close to moving on you would think and I am gonna assume Jason Demitrou is up next? Souths fans might know more?
Jacks
Roar Guru
Brown had a lot of work to do and his rebuilt it well but I disagree. Bellamy is known for turning players around, Bennett has a history of producing great players through a youth system and Robinson has had a pretty good run as well. Brown to me has failed to produce any promising juniors in over 4 yrs or so.
Paul
Roar Guru
That's an interesting take, Jacks. Bennett is fast approaching his "use by" date, Bellamy is no certainty to go on past the next season or two, so that evens the field for the 4 guys you've named. Surely that has to work in their favour in terms of winning a premiership, especially if they end up coaching Souths or the Storm
Paul
Roar Guru
Spot on 40/20. I mentioned the other day, in an article about the Roosters, that their success follows exactly the same path stretching back to the eras or dynasties that certain teams have enjoyed. Good administration, good coaches and great players, The Dragon's had it in the 60's, Souths & Easts & the Dragons in the 70s, the Doggies and Parra, Many, the Broncos, ALL had legendary players.
Paul
Roar Guru
Jacks, I think you need to be a bit careful with you comment about Cleary. That headline is not repeated at all in the story and as person who's written more than one article for The Roar, I know that headlines are often changed by the editors. I'm also not a great fan of Brown, but in fairness he inherited a complete shambles when he went to the Knights. His playing roster was poor as was the administration he was supposed to work with. As I posted earlier, I don't think Bellamy, Robinson or Bennett could have done any better. This year there can't be any excuses. He has the team he wants and has had a full off season with them. I'd give him till round 12 or 13, THEN judge him, along with the rest of these guys you mentioned. By then, we should have a pretty fair idea how sides are tracking which will also give us a better picture about how the coaches are going.