How important is leadership and is it more important than collective will?

The most obvious answer is that leadership is very important and while I tend to agree with the principle of leadership being important I firmly believe that other skills and traits are equally important in a great sporting organisation. Remember that word “equally”.

As a fan who proudly sits in the stands and has done so through the great years as well as the tough ones, I dont think great teams need a lot of leaders. In fact, I think great teams are constructed to ensure that the players who wear the badge are willing to challenge themselves, are willing to take ownership of their role and will do that role so that the team can be in the best position to succeed. 

Last Friday against the Cowboys we had the best of both worlds. Our leaders stood up and our players challenged themselves to take ownership of their role and despite looking like they would walk away with a loss for most of that game the collective team got themselves into a position to win and when that opportunity arose they took the seemingly unlikely victory.

If you replay the first set of six in extra time the collective will of the team prevailed. First and foremost our leaders stood up. Junior took the first hit up. Jack Williams took the next. Moses spread it wide for Volkman who made a break and Addo Carr was there in support. Finally Moses stepped up and made the winning play.  However, consider why we were in that spot.

Earlier, Jordan Samrani knew that he needed to be ready to support in case his captain Mitch Moses made one of his famous short side raids in the dying minutes of the game. Samrani, in his first top grade game back from injury was in position for that moment. In that same play, Joash needed to use his biggest assest, his speed, and he got there to catch the pass and get that try.

So although our leader in Mitch Moses engineered that play for the try, and later finished off the game with the field goal to achieve victory, he could not do that on his own. No leader could. He needed the collective strength and will of the team to commit to each other to achieve success.

The field goal by Moses

When you consider some of the clubs in our competition who have been historically successful in the NRL era, most notably a team like the Storm, they have often found a way to win the unwinnable game, by simply sticking to the game plan and everyone doing their job.

In every season, even challenging ones with few wins, most teams will have a few games when things click and they play beautiful, breathtaking football. But teams without grit, or without that ability to win the unwinnable or ugly games through collective will, commitment and desire will often fail at the end of the year when finals come and every decision and action counts on the field.

A unified team who work together and for each other is just as important if not more important than the individual leadership or skills of any player. We probably only need to look at the recent issues at the Bulldogs to see the importance of collective will, belief and desire on a sporting team or in their case the lack of such collective traits.

Try time for Samrani

I was so proud of our team last Friday. They did not turn on each other when mistakes came. They knew in the grand scheme of things we really needed a win for the season ahead so it would have been easy to blame others when mistakes happened.

But they did not point fingers despite the fact that it was difficult conditions under which to play. The heat up North is challenging for visiting teams, the field conditions made it difficult at times for the players to keep their feet and the Cowboys had a special occasion to play for and we know from our recent experience how special occasions can lift and unify a team.

But despite all that, and not to mention our continuing injury toll, our team came away victorious. 

There has been much recent talk in NRL circles and the Parra fan base about retention and recruitment. While I do not dismiss the obvious things we need to fix with our playing squad I hope we maintain the belief that we need players who will commit and buy in, who are there for more than the dollars.

You can see that our team is connected and I feel that is something we should protect at all costs.  Sometimes the glossy new toy is useless if team harmony is compromised by a players recruitment.

That winning feeling

In my opinion, from many years sitting in the stands, great teams have a collective will and commitment to more than themselves, or to borrow a well used cliche, they have a noticeable desire to not let the person beside them down.

We saw that in spades last Friday and it is what got us the seemingly unwinnable victory. 

And so to this week’s Magic Round clash with the Storm.

On paper we have every opportunity to win. For some in our team they will need to draw on that collective strength and will, to erase some of the recent demons that are undoubtedly there with regard to taking on Melbourne.

When a mistake happens we need to step up and stay unified.

Playing as one, being committed will go a long way towards getting a much needed victory against an opponent that boasts a history of embarrassing us far too often.

It’s time for payback.

Parra Proud

Shelley

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