The Cumberland Throw

Navigating The Unexpected – The Folly Of Being An NRL Coach

The theatre that is rugby league. The NRL is blessed with wall to wall drama and as we all know, the best drama results from the unexpected.

In our great game, it’s rare for a week to ever pass without some sort of headline that keeps journalists in a job and conversations flowing in workplaces, pubs and Internet forums.

Sometimes, it’s the great contests that feature prominently. At other times it’s the misfortune of injuries that garner attention. Occasionally it’s the private lives of the stars. Currently it’s the frenzy of player contracts for 2018. This comes with the reminder that the 2017 season is only eight rounds old.

No matter the drama, the focus usually returns to the coach.

Let’s consider the hurdles, the unforeseen circumstances, that could easily derail even the best planned season.

There’s always been the challenge of injuries. We can’t deny that it’s a brutal, physical sport. That will never be avoided.

However, no club can predict significant injury losses from their roster. You know that injuries are an inevitability, but It’s impossible to warehouse a host of quality first grade players in the ISP. Naturally there will be talented players in that grade, but you’re not going to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to a player who’s running around in park football for most of the year.

In assembling their roster, and dealing with those injuries, coaches now also traverse a minefield of disruptions. Contract negotiations, disciplinary consequences, mid-season transfer requests, administrative interference or mismanagement – all of these threaten to turn their plans pear-shaped and they’re virtually impossible to foresee.

It was a tough gig at the Tigers for Taylor.

Jason Taylor entered 2017 with a roster that just failed to qualify for the 2016 finals. Bang! Tim Simona’s well publicised issues, players off contract, a couple of big losses and suddenly Taylor’s not just under pressure, he’s out of a job. Interestingly, his departure has not stemmed the drama at the club. Current coach, Ivan Cleary has inherited the distractions surrounding player contracts and the ridiculousness of a club lecturing their fans about how to express their feelings. That does not make his job any easier.

Anthony Griffin entered 2017 with a premiership favourite team. An outstanding Auckland Nines only seemed to confirm the opinion of rugby league pundits that the Panthers would be a force to be reckoned with. Bang! Bryce Cartwiright’s personal issues hit the front pages. Players, including team captain Matt Moylan, broke a curfew and received a club imposed suspension. Rumours started circulating about internal bickering. Throw in a couple of key injuries and Penrith now sit near the bottom of the table with two wins from eight starts. Those scenarios would not have received a thought when the season was being planned.

Griffin and Moylan in a happier moment.

How can the strategy for any season ever cater for such pitfalls? Few teams are immune to it. Normally, you’ll find that the teams which face fewer disruptions during a season, be they injury or off-field incidents, are generally those that will feature in the finals series.

To put this into a context that Eels fans can readily identify with, I’ve reflected on the recent roster journey of the Parramatta Eels, with a focus on the Brad Arthur era. Let’s see how the unexpected dictated each season.

2014 – The First Steps

A late coaching appointment after the club back flipped on appointing Jason Taylor, Brad Arthur inherited the 2013 wooden spooners. Previous coach, Ricky Stuart, had jumped ship at the conclusion of that season and Arthur had little to do with assembling the roster for his first year at the helm.The only players recruited by BA that season were David Gower and Isaac De Gois. In all, 8 would go on to make their debuts.

A total of 31 players pulled on the Eels NRL jersey in 2014. With a cap operating for a top 25, no club wants to use that many players in a season. Only 12 of that roster still remain at the club, including Kelepi Tanginoa who actually left for a year, and DeGois, who remains on the sidelines in 2017.

By the end of 2014, the Eels finished 10th, a remarkable improvement on 2013. After peaking at 4th spot in Round 10, and sitting in 8th place after round 24, disappointing losses in their last two matches saw the team drop out of a finals berth on percentages.

Aside from a few untimely injuries, off-field distractions were limited to the usual board dramas.

Despite that sense of lost opportunity, the overall feeling was one of optimism moving forward into 2015. The prized signature of Anthony Watmough along with the addition of Brad Takairangi and Danny Wicks heralded brighter times.

It was, in retrospect, a good first year for Arthur.

Brad Arthur at training

2015 – The Surprise You Can’t Plan For

How does a team deal with the unexpected post season departure of its marquee player?

With the rosters of most clubs all but settled, the Eels were left without their most important player, Jarryd Hayne and few options to replace him. With a short term solution of Will Hopoate moving to fullback, Beau Champion was added as a centre. The experienced and speedy Reece Robinson was recruited for a wing spot and the backline was finalised. If only it were so simple.

Hopoate proved to be a failure at fullback. An unsuccessful attempt to secure Michael Gordon mid-season meant that Robinson was shifted from wing to fullback. A mid season implosion from Chris Sandow saw him publicly question the tactics of his coach, then finally leave for England following an inglorious performance against the Bulldogs. Throw in season ending injuries to Watmough and Wicks and that promise of a return to finals football was sadly lost.

Off-field, the club was given a penalty of 4 points (suspended) for salary cap breaches. The Foran contract negotiations were an embarrassing mess and CEO Scott Seward was moved on. Brad Arthur began appearing in the media in a show of solidarity to his players and the club he loves. It was appreciated, but it was something that a coach should not need to do.

Parramatta finished the season in 12th position. A total of 29 players were used during the season. Of these 14 remain at the club. Put another way, over half of the roster have been released in less than two seasons.

2016 – AnnusĀ HorribilisĀ (an arse of a year)

There is no need to again document the off-field dramas of the Eels during 2016. Suffice to say, the docking of 12 premiership points did prevent a finals appearance for the club.

This was the season that Brad Arthur had been building for. Yet it was a season where he was forced to publicly hold the club together instead of just coaching the team.

Of the 28 players to take to the NRL field that season, 22 were either Arthur purchases or made their debut under his coaching.

The recruitment of premiership winning Kiwi international Kieren Foran was heralded as the greatest signing in recent Eels history. Peter Sterling trumpeted how important Foran would be for the club.

Renowned hard-man, Beau Scott would be joining his former Origin team mate Anthony Watmough in the back row, adding a genuine “mongrel” factor to Parra’s pack.

Experienced fullback, Michael Gordon, would belatedly join from the Sharks and complete a strong spine.

The pieces were falling into place.

But how can any coach predict that by mid season he will not only have lost 12 points, but his halfback (and captain), hooker, prop and back rower will no longer be with the club?

By the time Corey Norman was hit with his lengthy suspension, the long shot of making up the lost points and qualifying for finals footy had long since past. Further bad headlines awaited as Jarryd Hayne rejected the opportunity to return home by signing with the Titans.

Still, the season was characterised by the resolve of the football department. The players did the jersey proud every week. Clint Gutherson evolved from an unheralded signing to a versatile mainstay of the team. Bevan French unleashed an unprecedented try scoring blitz that made the league world sit up and take notice. The team finished the season in style with convincing victories over the Dragons and the Warriors.

2017 – What Awaits?

If we’ve learned one thing from previous seasons, it’s that you can never truly prepare for what any season has in store.

Certainly 2017 began with renewed hope. There would be no dark cloud of Salary Cap penalties hovering over the club and highly respected executive Burnie Gurr had taken on the role of football club CEO.

The loss of the four players during 2016, plus the departure of Michael Gordon and the retirement of Danny Wicks had been offset by vigorous recruitment.

Forwards Nathan Brown, Frank Pritchard, Siosaia Vave, Marata Niukore and Suaia Matagi had been added to a pack that had already earned great respect during 2016. Backs Josh Hoffman, Will Smith, Jamal Fogarty, Kirisome Auva’a and George Jennings would add depth to the backline. More recently the return of Nathan Davis has extended the stocks.

Although it’s only 8 rounds old, this season has already produced its challenges. Both Peni Terepo and Frank Pritchard have succumbed to long term injuries, and Kenny Edwards has only just returned from a seven week suspension. Isaac De Gois has yet to recover from concussion suffered during a trial match in what has arguably been the greatest blow to a pack which has not been at full strength for any match in 2017.

Recent significant injuries to Brad Takairangi and Bevan French are now testing both the depth and versatlity of the Eels backline stocks.

At the same time, distractions around the purchase of Mitchell Moses from the Tigers and Semi Radradra’s impending court case undoubtedly take some focus away from the footy.

There is again an impact from the unexpected.

Thankfully the majority of the challenges remain football related.

The team sits around mid table at round 8, and given the number of away fixtures in this early part of the season, it’s a fair start. How well the club deals with current hurdles, and whether they can overcome whatever lies ahead, will determine the fate of the season.

 

Author’s Note

I began to write this post around two weeks ago. It was prompted by the dramas facing coaches, often under the media spotlight, for issues that are beyond their control.

As this is an Eels website, I was always going to be providing a context which was relevant to Eels fans.

I made the decision to step away from the post during a period of losses for the Eels as I did not want to have my writing misconstrued as an excuse for a sequence of losses.

The modern coach is forced to deal with a host of issues that coaches in days gone by would never have needed to address. Or if they did have to deal with them, it was done without the glare of our modern mainstream and social media.

I hope it’s food for thought.

Eels forever!

Sixties

 

 

 

 

 

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13 thoughts on “Navigating The Unexpected – The Folly Of Being An NRL Coach

  1. Al

    Another good read Sixties. It seems some of our “brain dead” supporters elsewhere believe BA has’nt achieved much at all. Bringing a team, he did’nt put together, from successive spoons to be 1 win out of the 8 in his first season is worthy of some praise surely for the Bush Coach. Keeping the team together and focussed during 2016 was a feat I doubt any other coach in the NRL could have achieved. You’ve got to laugh at some of these self appointed geniuses.

  2. GemKM

    Great read sixties. It’s an impossible thing to predict, how a season will turn out and i for one don’t envy Brad Arthur or any NRL coach for that matter!
    I would think that we are pretty much where we thought we would be at this stage of the year (obviously barring the Titans, and perhaps the Warriors games).

    Definitely more positives than negatives at this stage and plenty to look forward to!

  3. Phil Mann

    Good read Sixties. Poor old BA has had two marquee players depart in circumstances not of his doing in Hayne and Foran, and leaving his original plan in tatters. The “back to the drawing board” has a well worn path. JT on the other hand appeared to have enacted his plan in removing what he thought was one of his biggest obstacles (Farrah) only to have it all come crashing down. There is no joy in watching that happen. The only consolation is its worse for somebody else this year (so far). Coaching – not a job I would want.

  4. Anonymous

    A top summation sixties and well thought out, dare I suggest that dropsie games of this year, while being very unpleasant and brought back memories of the bad old days, when form was not considered part of the eels teams and restricted to the race courses where punters there did their money and lost heart. The worst of it was the terrible question of why? while there has been many suggestions as to the answer, and most likely will be never really known anyway, it really is time to look forward.

    Its sort of interesting two basically rookie eels coaches have suffered much this year JT is gone while BA has had to endure much, as players in different ways have become like pins in a bowling alley as injuries take their toll, yet out of the darkness, a flickery light emerged with the win over the Tigers with their new coach along with the player drama’s they were going through, the next win against the Panthers had the lamp flickering a bit stronger, trouble is in each game, a strong wind from the opposition threatened to blow the flicker out which thankfully failed.

    I ponder the team that BA has assembled, a mix of age/experience and some younger/inexperienced players have generally gelled well, but the need is to keep the fuel in tank to feed the flame so it doesn’t go out, The eels have a hard draw facing them before the first bye, the hope of returning key players from injury will help, but I sort of wonder in some respects regarding some of the players in the senior/age and experienced category how they can keep going and for how long, its my only of thought that is not totally positive.

    BA, has done an excellent job, in fact more than excellent considering the pressures he has been under.

    1. John Eel

      I take your point regarding experience. In my opinion experience is what is hurting the Panthers right now. The Eels on the other hand are fielding a more experienced team this year and hopefully that can be added to in the off season.

      I never like to see our team run out with less than 1500 games of NRL experience, the Panthers had 1200 games on Saturday afternoon. When the Roosters went on that run from 2013 to 2015 (three minor premierships) they were running out with 1,700 games of experience each week.

      1. John Eel

        As a footnote to my post above, reading the paper this morning I note that Newcastle will have only 500+ games of experience on the weekend, that is the lowest I can ever remember. Also noted that despite the predicament that Nathan Brown is in, Pauli Pauli is not in the 17.

        For the top 4 teams on the ladder only Sharks are listed to play and they have 1800 games. Broncos also have a similar number.

        1. Anonymous

          Excellent points John. You only have to look at the Panthers game management, or lack thereof, to see their inexperience in action.

  5. Gazzamatta

    A pretty fair commentary of recent seasons 60s. How quickly we forget the lost pieces of each years jigsaw. As I read, one thought continued to spring to mind. Why have we not proceeded with the recruitment of a Head of Football? I do understand the disastrous recent appointment in this position but in my mind much of what BA has to focus on could seriously detract from his coaching effort. No criticism here but how much can one person undertake?
    I can forsee the day when BA himself holds this position at our club such as P Gould at The Panthers. Understandably BA has much unfinished business at a hands on level as yet.
    Is anyone aware of an intention to fill this position to add greater support for BA?

    1. sixties Post author

      Gazza, I think you’ll find that both Peter Sharp and Bernie Gurr have assumed some of the senior coal face roles that may concern you. Don’t get me wrong, BA is one of those rare coaches who’s all over everything in football operations – from junior development programs through to the senior grades. That means that there is a common purpose, a shared vision, for all levels of the football operation. It’s interesting that you see him in that PHIL Gould type role in the future. It may be a long way down the track, but I also think that if he steps away from the coaching gig, such a role would be ideal.

      1. Rowdy

        Great recollections Sixties, very stimulating to reflect upon our resilience under the master coach!

        I believe BA is on his way to emulate both Bellyache and and Headspin Harry Bennett as longterm one club coaches even though Bennett has gone and returned to the Bronco’s.

        And when he finally gets the rosters he wants without too many interruptions, will deliver us a few premierships also.

  6. Gazzamatta

    He proved throughout the year from hell that there would be nobody better when the time is right 60s. Hopefully BA is not spread too thin.
    Last weeks first half team performance was a credit to team and coach. The second half was another story. Coincidentally the form drop coincided with Takas exit. Fingers crossed our great 50 minutes is extended somewhat V the Cows. It will need to be.
    Go you good things.

    1. John Eel

      During the game I was sitting next to Col. At one stage he pointed out that there was only one reserve sitting on the bench. Most of the time it was down to 2 on the bench. At no time due to Take being injured was there 4 on the bench in the second half.

      This would not be helpful to the second half performance

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