Quote: BrisbaneRhino "In terms of coaches I'd say there are two problems.
Firstly in order to develop, our L-Plate coaches need to go to Australia to learn. They need to be learning from the best, not coaches who wouldn't get a first team job in Australia in a million years. They would also see how junior development works right through to NRL coaching. British coaches seem incredibly reluctant to learn their trade - how many high profile players do we see jump onto the coaching merry go round with at best a bit of Academy or assistant work in SL?
I know McNamara isn't popular, but I have enormous respect for the fact that he's come over to Australia to better himself as a coach. Right now if I were running a club and it was a choice between BM and McNamara I'd go the latter.
Secondly, clubs still seem to want to go for their own ex-players for some reason. Banging on about 'culture' or 'knowing the club' as though that makes up for a complete lack of technical skills. The same logic seems to make clubs want to go for name ex players rather than good coaches - bizarre given that they seem to be willing to overlook lack of a stellar career when choosing Aussie coaches (Robinson and Maguire had no great playing careers).
Thirdly, its a bit of a stereotype, but I do think we have far too many props coaching in SL. Somebody who's whole career has been about making yards and tackling people running straight at them is less likely to have as good an appreciation as a halfback or hooker. I'm not saying there won't be exceptions but when I look around the NRL I see ex halfbacks and hookers (Hasler, Barrett, Stuart, McFadden, Green, Taylor, Bellamy sort of, Flanagan, Brown) for the main.
SL is miles behind the NRL, and is handicapped by having less money and a far smaller player pool (plus the self-imposed lack of reserve competition). But the game as a whole doesn't maximise its on-field performances by going cheap on coaching.'"
I would never take Mcbanana he showed against NZ that he has no attacking thoughts in his body and would play safety first and boring RL
I would be okay with our coaches going down under to learn, but we need to keep our identity somewhat, there are no successful teams in history that have just been copycats
As for the ex-player thing, that happens in every sport, its usually nothing to do with culture, it is usually just that a player stays within an organisation when learning his coaching craft, Ajax and Barcelona do this very effectively
I do however agree with the point about forwards becoming coaches, it is no surprise really that England have the best pack in the world but lack quality in the halves, Mcguire has said that he wants to go into coaching to give young halfbacks help that he felt he didn't receive, it is probably no surprise that the halfbacks who have improved the most in the last few years have all played under Powell
