There were plenty of stand-out players in the Wests Tigers’ 34-6 win over the Canterbury Bulldogs on Sunday evening, including Tommy Talau, David Nofoaluma and Joseph Leilua.
But one player is being talked about a little more than the rest and that’s 22-year-old Harry Grant, who the Tigers currently have on loan from the Melbourne Storm.
In Sunday’s performance, Grant led the number of tackles for the Tigers with 45, made 168 metres and scored a try.
He’s fast becoming a fan favourite, with many already wondering if there is a way to keep the youngster at the Tigers.
How many of you had heard of Grant before this season? I know I hadn’t.
It surprises me given his form in the lower grades, which saw him lead the Sunshine Coast Falcons to the minor premiership last year and also named in the Intrust Super Cup team of the year. In just 22 Intrust Super Cup games, Grant scored 14 tries, had 21 try assists and averaged 100 metres a year.
Now believe it or not, this isn’t an article about Grant. Or the Tigers.
Harry Grant. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
When there are debates about expanding the NRL, one of the arguments always is that there is not enough talent for an additional two teams.
In fact, even now, given the disparity of performance between the top ten teams and the bottom six teams, some are suggesting that this is because of a lack of talent.
That’s completely incorrect.
How many more Harry Grants are playing in our elite state competitions?
There is plenty of talent to go around, but perhaps those in decision-making positions aren’t looking hard enough.
The Storm, along with the Sydney Roosters, have been the competition benchmark over the last decade.
It astounds me that no other clubs would look at the players next in line behind Cameron Smith and Billy Slater. The likes of Brandon Smith, Ryan Papenhuyzen and even Harry Grant have been there right under our noses and suddenly people are surprised at the depth of talent the team has?
There is more than enough talent for another NRL team and anyone who looks at the competition this year and some of the blowouts and thinks otherwise is confusing lack of talent among playing rosters with lack of talent in our coaching rosters.
It’s true what some people say – the coaches are not the ones on the field dropping balls and making errors. But the impact that good coaching can have on a squad is there for all to see.
Take two examples we’ve seen over the last couple of years.
Compare Manly’s performances when coached by Trent Barrett to Des Hasler. Hasler and Barrett effectively had the same team and we have seen the Sea Eagles transform from cellar dwellars to premiership contenders.
The Sea Eagles are also a good example of a team that doesn’t have the ‘star power’ of say the Roosters or Melbourne, but what we have seen is Hasler improve the performance of the players under his care including the likes of Curtis Sironen.
The Knights are another example. You could make a case that Nathan Brown spent many years ‘rebuilding’ the club. But the team’s performances under Brown compared to their new coach Adam O’Brien are there for all to see.
O’Brien has been a revelation and I won’t soon forget the vision of him throwing his water bottle in disgust even when Newcastle held a 12-0 lead a few weeks ago, because he was unhappy with his team’s effort.
I guarantee that if you took Trent Robinson and Craig Bellamy from the Sydney Roosters and Melbourne Storm and had these two men coach the Canterbury Bulldogs, Brisbane Broncos, St George Illawarra Dragons or even the North Queensland Cowboys, results would be vastly different.
Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy. (AAP Image/Julian Smith)
Many will point to the superior rosters that these two men have, but it is no coincidence that players like Lindsay Collins and Nat Butcher are playing so well; they have a good coach.
Those two players would not be the same at another club. Just like the Morris twins, who are now somehow in career-best form at the Roosters at the age of 33.
It also comes as no coincidence that you are hard pressed to find a player who has left the Storm and improved, whereas the number of players that have left Melbourne and gone on to average careers is notable.
There are several underperforming teams in the competition at the moment and while some may lack the star power of the competition heavyweights, poor coaching has a far bigger role to play.
Crow
Roar Pro
I wish he was. Board member Darren Lockyer said a couple of days ago that there is no performance bases clause. Maybe there should have been.
Crow
Roar Pro
I’d like to nominate you for Brisbane Broncos Chief Executive Officer.
Crow
Roar Pro
Every year players are unearthed. This emerging crop of under 25 year olds are brilliant. They have been coached all the way through school boys and into the league. If I could not write. My hand writing was so bad I would need coaching. Then I could learn the delicate art of writing. For the talented athlete it is no different. They need coaching.
Crow
Guest
what about Brad Arthur, many would say he is a good coach with the Eels coming first at present, but he is far from being a good coach. The Eels are way to predictable in attack and they are far from an 80 minute team. They have a great team but nobody to coach them the right way.
AnonLurker
Roar Rookie
Agree Mary . The blowouts have actually highlighted poor coaching in my opinion as you can see many teams not adjusting to the new rules . The other thing is they all tried to be Bellamy clowns with same block plays and not creating ther own style or tactics .
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
The label you are applying to some coaches that ''they really know what they are doing'' doesn't mean much as they are shown the door soon after winning a title. I've never subscribed to the idea that some coaches can coach and some can't and that it's so easy to tell by turning the TV on a couple of times a week. It's not exactly a level playing field. They can't all be equal but coaches like Paul Green are given the label as one of the best coaches for a while and then somehow despite being more experienced they apparently can't coach. It's a lot more complex than many of the black and white comments I hear all the time.
Gray-Hand
Roar Rookie
Also, Cronk’s use-by date was hardly flashing. He was in career best form, coming off a premiership win, the top half in the competition - and still would be today if he hadn’t retired. Any club that had a spare million dollars would have loved to have him.
Aiden
Guest
Remember that semi final when Locky fell to his knees and went ‘noooooooo’ as the Broncs were bundled out almost on the buzzer. The agony. It was like Vader in the third prequel, totally OTT, but genuine. The guy was distraught. The current crop would be overjoyed to make it that far and see it as a job well done.
Aiden
Guest
I think you are both right. In my view there is plenty of talent for 16 teams. You see good rosters who are badly coached go no-where and you see supposedly average players go to clubs and become much better very quickly. I think coaching, selection, a balanced roster and tactics are bigger issues than the supposed lack of talent. But I agree with you that the super coaches are not always so super. Coaches do change their approaches, sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. I agree that bringing in a coach with a strong record does not always lead to success. But it’s also true to say that there probably aren’t enough Coaches that really know what they are doing. Too many of them seem to flail about without a clue.
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
Here is one example of the hype when a ''super coach'' goes to a weaker club (which made the 8 the season before under Stone) Roar Expert Season Preview 2012. The Knights 3rd '' The Knights already had a pretty good roster of talent yet have upgraded significantly for the upcoming season. By far the most important signing comes in the form of super coach Wayne Bennett. Bennett knows how to win. They may not win the comp this year but they'll go close.'' They finished 12th after signing 6 Australian reps. ( doesn't seem to matter when they played for the country or even which country according to Wayne when he now looks at the Broncos roster) All I'm saying is signing super coaches who then upgrade a roster isn't the gauruntee of vast improvement that Mary talks about.
Nick
Roar Guru
Bingo.
jamesb
Roar Guru
Why not just KISS? For example, why don't clubs recruit successful premiership winning coaches in the Canterbury Cup or ISP? Instead NRL clubs hire assistants or recycled coaches.
Dwanye
Roar Rookie
More clubs! So you think Sydney can support the numbers of teams money wise? The poorer teams have no money to compete for some other reason, it’s not to do with ‘can’t get sponsors $’?
souvalis
Roar Rookie
Cohen Hess..sheesh, you’d have to be thick to think he’d get anywhere near that Parramatta side.
Succhi
Roar Rookie
I think it runs deeper Mary, I think there is a real lack of administrative & management talent as well in most clubs.
LeftRight
Guest
My observation regarding RL (and most "professional" sports) is that they are just not run along very basic business lines. For example, it seems once a player or coach signs a contract, the club is committed to that sum of money (and the sums of money are vast), even if a player or coach needs to be moved on the remainder of the contract has to be paid out, nor does it seem they can be demoted mid contract to lesser money. It's simply nonsense, non performing employees are rewarded 100%, and worse, as a consequence clubs can't afford to buy in talent. So we have a gravy train, with everyone's snout in the trough, where average or below performance is richly rewarded & it's not in the interests of the "industry" to fix this problem, hence quality suffers and new talent doesn't get a look in when it should.
Randy
Roar Rookie
You are discounting form though. Parra have some talent but they are not on top of the ladder because they have all the best players. I bet if you put someone like Coen Hess in the current Eels or Roosters side for 12 months he would suddenly look much better at the end of it, but maybe not. Players form goes up and down throughout their careers depending on what environment they are in, you would seriously have to be thick not to understand this.
Nat
Roar Rookie
I can only assume the same for C Cup in NSW but you could make a very competitive team from the Q Cup players. Like Grant to Smith, there's plenty of quality blokes waiting behind contracted players.
Randy
Roar Rookie
you really think it was a hard or brave decision for Robinson to send Pearce packing for Cooper Cronk? I think 15 out of 16 coaches would pick Cronk in that situation if they could
Soda
Roar Rookie
That's a great observation.