MICHAEL HAGAN: Job application for an NRL coach - must be a thick-skinned masochist but it can be enjoyable

Why would you ever want to be an NRL head coach? It’s a question I was asked frequently and I’m not sure I knew the answer myself a lot of the time.

If you saw Michael Maguire during the first five rounds, you probably wondered why he put himself through the turmoil.

Then if you watched him during the Wests Tigers’ win over Parramatta on Easter Monday, especially at the end when Jackson Hastings booted that long-range field goal, you’ll know why he still loves the job.

The adrenaline was coursing through him and it was great to see him get rewarded for all the hard work and effort he’s put into that footy side.

When you finish as a player, you miss the camaraderie of your teammates, so coaching becomes the fallback position to keep being around your mates, whether that’s staff or players. You still have that competitive spirit and the closest you can get to having that again is the adrenaline on match day.

Madge would have had maximum stress and adrenaline sitting there in the coaches box at CommBank Stadium on Monday and it was great they got the win after what they’ve been through. They celebrated like they won the comp with the nature of how they won and the fact they very nearly stuffed it up with some poor options in the sets before the Hastings one-pointer.

It looked like they might get beaten again. Sometimes you just have to find a way to win.

Those games that come down to the last play can be the best or worst if you’re a coach.

The bad ones that comes to mind immediately for me as a coach are the Hazem El Masri sideline conversion in 2002 when the Bulldogs beat my Knights in Newcastle and the Shaun Timmins field goal in extra time in Origin which was my first game in charge for Queensland.

So you savour the ones where you come out on top – the best one in my career was against St George Illawarra at Marathon Stadium when Adam MacDougall scored in the corner in a Friday night game and Joey Johns nailed the conversion from the western touchline.

You put just as much effort into the week of preparation as the coach in the other box.

It was the Tigers’ first win since August 21 last year. Since they kicked off their pre-season preparations around the start of November, I reckon they’ve done around 22 weeks since then so that’d be at least 100 field sessions, probably 65 weights sessions, 50 or more video sessions, countless yoga, rehab, pool, wellness sessions for them to get one victory by one point in that period.

The amount of time and energy Maguire has put on, he’s probably clocking up around 60 hours a week.

Being a coach can be great but you’ve got to weigh up the stress, the enjoyment and salary with the amount of criticism you get, the constant speculation about your tenure and the physical and mental exhaustion it can bring.

These are the traits you need to have if you want to take it on.

If you were writing a fair dinkum job advertisement for an NRL coach, at the top of the list of traits required would be masochistic, resilient, thick-skinned, determined and forward thinking.

The Tigers celebrated that win, sung the team song, been overcome with emotion – they’re all the things you get involved in footy for – but you have to back it up again the next week. Celebrating is very short lived and they’ve got to go through that whole process again to be ready for South Sydney on Saturday with a five-day turnaround.

Maguire had to try something different last week after starting the season with five straight losses and Hastings at halfback looked quite good in that role and it allowed Luke Brooks at five-eighth to be the most relieved looking footballer in the NRL.

(Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)

Before he got the three-match ban, Hastings impressed with his awareness early in the season. Some of the passes he threw on Monday at the line playing square and playing flat showed his class – he’s done a fair apprenticeship with the Roosters, Sea Eagles and over in the Super League.

Yes it’s only one game and that move alone won’t necessarily save their season but it worked. And Brooks was more comfortable, looked less stressed and enjoyed some really good moments against Parramatta.

This is just my opinion but he has never looked like a genuine on-field general, to me. It’s not a criticism of him, it’s just that he’s been cast in the wrong role.

Getting the right people into the right spots is a large part of being head coach but sometimes you don’t have the personnel.

Head coaches don’t only just have to look after the players but these days there are so many other off-field staff that are part of the set-up that you’ve got to either look after or work with.

When I started I was told coaching is a rollercoaster and you’ve got to enjoy the ride. You’ve got to love doing it every day, every training session, every game and have some fun in there too if that’s possible.

Nothing really prepares you for all that. If you’ve got the football education that’s straightforward but it’s all the other aspects of the job that go with it that leave you drained.

You need diplomacy, empathy, leadership and be able to deal with all the external pressures. Social media, hidden agendas in the media, you’ve got to cope with those negative factors for a long time. Every fan and media member thinks they can do a better job than you.

It can suck the life out of you, to be brutally honest. I’m not selling it too well for anyone who’s thinking about becoming an NRL head coach.

I was a head coach for around a decade and now that I’ve been an assistant with the Kangaroos for a few years, I think that suits my make-up better.

Andrew Johns used to say it’s much easier being the deputy than being the sheriff. And that’s on the field as well as we saw with Brooks being happier in that secondary role while Hastings steered the ship.

Whether the Tigers are good enough to beat Souths or not isn’t the be-all and end-all but they need to put in another good performance. Madge has got an opportunity here to build a little bit of momentum through the middle of the season and the last thing he needs is for them to put in a shoddy performance against the Bunnies because they’re still running last and they’re still 1-5.

(Photo by Matt Blyth/Getty Images)

They are a touch unlucky to have that record – they probably should have beaten the Warriors except for a bad refereeing decision and they threw the game away against the Titans with a fluky try in the last minute so quite easily they could be 3-3.

But no one cares about would have and should have beens, or how many injuries or players unavailable you have, it’s all about the wins column.

Maguire said after the Warriors loss a few weeks ago that he was enjoying coaching this team and I thought you’re a glutton for punishment, which you’ve got to be to make it as an NRL head coach.

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