Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to the Rugby League Coach Podcast, episode
Speaker 1: two hundred and forty nine. We are in the fourth
Speaker 1: season of it. My name is Lee Addison. I am
Speaker 1: the owner of Rugby League Coach dot com dot au.
Speaker 1: I am a coach mentor, a coach educator, a coach consultant.
Speaker 1: I'm the author of Rugby League Coach of thirteen game
Speaker 1: Changing Conversations to transform your coaching, and you can find
Speaker 1: me at Rugby League Coach dot com dot au Online.
Speaker 1: You can find me at Rugby League Coach on most
Speaker 1: social platforms apart from x which is at RL Coach
Speaker 1: on the net. I don't do Snapchat. I think that's shit.
Speaker 1: My water consumption, which is huge, is sponsored by Global
Speaker 1: League Network and you can find them at Global League
Speaker 1: dot Network. Don't be scared to win. Criticism of successful
Speaker 1: teams is common, and successful coaches is common. The modern
Speaker 1: tendency to apologize to want to win as well seems
Speaker 1: to be getting ever more common. Winning isn't a dirty word.
Speaker 1: People who canplain most about winners are often frustrated by
Speaker 1: their own inability. I should say to win consistently. Winning
Speaker 1: isn't everything, but trying to win should be Some coaches
Speaker 1: become afraid of success. Tall poppy is a big thing
Speaker 1: in Australian sport in particular. There's a little bit of
Speaker 1: it in other countries as well, but it seems to
Speaker 1: be quite significant in Australia. High standards often get labeled negatively.
Speaker 1: The difference between wanting to win and win at all
Speaker 1: costs gets confused. But players want to be part of
Speaker 1: successful environments, don't they. Would you rather play for a
Speaker 1: coach who wants to win or a coach who was
Speaker 1: happy being average? I was happy giving everybody not very much.
Speaker 1: What standards are you currently lowering as a coach because
Speaker 1: you're worried about what others think. Players deserve your best
Speaker 1: effort and that includes trying to build a winning team now.
Speaker 1: Probably just like you, I accidentally became a coach. Became
Speaker 1: a coach in nineteen ninety nine a cop some illness,
Speaker 1: I don't know what it was to this day, but
Speaker 1: lost a load of weight. I could probably do with
Speaker 1: it now. And I went to university in England and
Speaker 1: I was approaching my third year. But at that same
Speaker 1: time I was also working as a media manager part
Speaker 1: time at Saltord Reds and then Wigan Warriors, and quite frankly,
Speaker 1: I didn't want to go into either of those places
Speaker 1: with a black eye from playing rugby league or with
Speaker 1: an injury. So when we walked past the guys who
Speaker 1: were organizing the team for that year, they said, I
Speaker 1: I don't come and play for us? I went nah,
Speaker 1: They said why don't you coach us? Then somebody piped
Speaker 1: up from the back said why the hell would do that?
Speaker 1: And then that one session that did the following week
Speaker 1: changed everything. None of us know which opportunities will change
Speaker 1: our lives, do we? Coaching often chooses us, and I
Speaker 1: think one of the big reasons is the buzz of
Speaker 1: seeing players improve and teams improve, and the satisfaction of
Speaker 1: planning and seeing ideas unfold. The best opportunities offer arrive
Speaker 1: disguised as inconvenience, don't we, And that's probably where you
Speaker 1: find yourself now. And my advice to you is schedule
Speaker 1: your own study periods. Schedule them if you can, weekly
Speaker 1: or at least once a month during the season and
Speaker 1: in the off season. It doesn't necessarily have to be
Speaker 1: six months. Start with a day, Start with the weekend,
Speaker 1: start with a week, watch games, take notes, challenge assumptions,
Speaker 1: think deeply. The best coaches don't just collect information, they
Speaker 1: develop understanding. And that's one thing I try and say
Speaker 1: to coaches when I meet them at seminars and whatnot.
Speaker 1: Eighty of the requests I get when I meet coaches
Speaker 1: is more drills. I'll say, well, you get plenty of
Speaker 1: them online on Rugby League coach dot Com to tay you.
Speaker 1: I'm here to tell you how to carry out those drills,
Speaker 1: how to get the best outcomes out of those drills.
Speaker 1: Are we really short of talent in the NRL? Andrew
Speaker 1: Johns as spart some discussion this week when he suggested
Speaker 1: Rugby League needs to find another one hundred elite players
Speaker 1: for the new and rol franchises that we have, and
Speaker 1: we should be looking at places like South Africa and
Speaker 1: New Zealand South Island. That is to help fill the pipeline.
Speaker 1: On the surface, that's a fair point, and yes, please
Speaker 1: let's go there. But I think it raises a bigger question,
Speaker 1: don't you do you think we've exhausted all the talent
Speaker 1: already sitting in our own backyard here in Australia. And
Speaker 1: I tell you what, they've definitely not done that in England,
Speaker 1: I think it's a myth the empty talent pool. Every
Speaker 1: year we hear concerns about depth and player shortages, yet
Speaker 1: across New Zealand, Queensland and New South Wales there are
Speaker 1: literally thousands of players who never get a genuine opportunity
Speaker 1: to to be seen. The issue isn't necessarily a lack
Speaker 1: of talent. I think the issue is a lack of
Speaker 1: talent identification covering all this potential talent, and scouting has
Speaker 1: changed too. Modern scouting is more conscious of budgets. Why
Speaker 1: go looking all the way into the bush for the
Speaker 1: potential to see one player against players who might not
Speaker 1: be anywhere near his or her standard when you can
Speaker 1: wait for them to get to the big city carnivals
Speaker 1: and just go to the city or the town that's
Speaker 1: hosting that carnival, and while you're there you can have
Speaker 1: lots of drinks with your other scouts and try and
Speaker 1: pick them for information too. In my experience, has about
Speaker 1: seventy five percent of scouting i've just described there. Obviously,
Speaker 1: if you're playing city areas, there's a big focus around
Speaker 1: those areas. And I know of one talent who lives
Speaker 1: five hours away from Brisbane who for some reason has
Speaker 1: missed out and getting picked up by two NRO clubs
Speaker 1: that were sniffing around. There's no reason that anybody can see.
Speaker 1: I'm sure there is, but the wisdom of crowds tends
Speaker 1: to get us through, and this kid's thinking of moving
Speaker 1: to Brisbane to get more opportunities. And of course, in
Speaker 1: the last decade we've had the increase in live stream footage,
Speaker 1: so a lot of scouts just turn on the Wi Fi,
Speaker 1: so if you don't play in a live stream game,
Speaker 1: you've got less chance of getting scouted. Now. As a result,
Speaker 1: fewer scouts are traveling to regional areas and fewer players
Speaker 1: are being discovered the old fashioned way. Technology has improved
Speaker 1: access in some ways, but it's also created blind spots.
Speaker 1: If you're not playing in the right comp or at
Speaker 1: the right school, or in front of the right camera,
Speaker 1: it's becoming harder than ever to get noticed. For decades,
Speaker 1: Country rugby League has been one of the game's greatest
Speaker 1: talent factories, yet many regional areas now receive fewer scouting
Speaker 1: visits than ever before. Also, the coaching pathways are very
Speaker 1: much metro and city based, so the coaches out in
Speaker 1: the bush areas are getting less and less help as
Speaker 1: the years go on. So this all creates a genuine
Speaker 1: question before we start searching overseas, if we truly left
Speaker 1: no stone earned in Australia, because there are still talented
Speaker 1: kids in country Queensland, country, New South Wales, remote communities
Speaker 1: who may never ever enter an NRL pathway system. Plus
Speaker 1: as well, talent identification follows trends. For close to two decades,
Speaker 1: the NRL scouts prioritized size, bigger athletes, bigger forwards, bigger
Speaker 1: outside backs. But now the game has changed because of
Speaker 1: the rock speeds. Somehow they're trying to get smaller players
Speaker 1: because fatigue and defensive movement have increased the value of
Speaker 1: being agile and having footwork and being lean and good
Speaker 1: decision making with the ball. Suddenly, clubs are now looking
Speaker 1: at smaller, faster athletes again, and the ones they've got,
Speaker 1: they're stripping kilos off them. How many players have been
Speaker 1: overlooked five, ten, fifteen, twenty years ago because they didn't
Speaker 1: fit that prototype. Have a look at our first lot
Speaker 1: of immortals and tell me how many of them were
Speaker 1: six foot four. But it isn't just a recruitment issue
Speaker 1: as a coaching lesson too, and we've all got to
Speaker 1: be careful about becoming obsessed with current trends. The best
Speaker 1: coaches identify qualities that survive every rule change the game
Speaker 1: has ever tried to give. Us competitors gain sense, work, ethic, fighting, spirit,
Speaker 1: decision making, resilience, one percenters, body types and fashions change.
Speaker 1: Footballers don't. One of the greatest footballers many of us
Speaker 1: will have ever seen, Cameron Smith was everything that scouts
Speaker 1: tend not to look for for so many years. So
Speaker 1: I'm not against us looking at suth Africa and New
Speaker 1: Zealand or anywhere else with talent, Joey, But before Rugby
Speaker 1: League starts searching to these overseas places, I'd like to
Speaker 1: know that we've genuinely exhausted the thousands already available in
Speaker 1: Australia and PNG, because the mr l's in P and
Speaker 1: G now, because if I'm right, and they're still talented
Speaker 1: players and the bush going unseen or unpolished players going
Speaker 1: unseen because we have this culture, don't we that you're
Speaker 1: a better player if you've been coached well. A lot
Speaker 1: of these guys in regional areas won't get the same
Speaker 1: access to quality coaching, so that will skew people's opinions
Speaker 1: of them. And that's why I'm really passionate about the
Speaker 1: work that i do. That's why I was in Maitland
Speaker 1: last week. That's why I've been to Young Mirandra, That's
Speaker 1: why I've been to Orange, an Angle, Bunderbergs, so many places,
Speaker 1: so many places that I forget where I've been, and
Speaker 1: I say the same thing all the time. And I've
Speaker 1: always believed that geography and cost should never determine a
Speaker 1: person's future. So, as I hinted at last week, Rugby
Speaker 1: League Coach is changing things gradually and i want clubs
Speaker 1: out there to reach out and I'm already taking bookings
Speaker 1: for twenty twenty seven and put it this way, it
Speaker 1: will not break the bank. Please get in touch admin
Speaker 1: at Rugby League Coach dot com to tell you is
Speaker 1: my email address at Rugby League Coach. On socials, Please
Speaker 1: message me on Instagram and Facebook. What should we talk
Speaker 1: about next? As you can probably tell by this accent,
Speaker 1: I wasn't born and raised in Australia. And there's a
Speaker 1: tournament with a funny shaped ball being kicked around in
Speaker 1: it right now and my country of birth is playing it,
Speaker 1: and so is Australia. And actually, as I talk to
Speaker 1: you right now, the soccer rules are not that far
Speaker 1: off kicking off and one of the worst things that
Speaker 1: can happen to an Englishman has happened. England have not
Speaker 1: played yet and Scotland have scored a goal and are
Speaker 1: still ahead. As I taught right now in the World Cup,
Speaker 1: we will never hear the end of it as English people. Now,
Speaker 1: as you know one here, I like to talk about
Speaker 1: what we can learn from another sport and I will
Speaker 1: do everything I can to keep linking this back to
Speaker 1: issues in rugby league up today, I'm going to cover
Speaker 1: a few things. Thomas Tuckle is the England football coach
Speaker 1: and this is going to be a big test of
Speaker 1: why the best team isn't always made up of the
Speaker 1: best players, as always happens when England names are scored
Speaker 1: when New South Wales's names are squad doesn't tend to
Speaker 1: happen with Queensland, does it, But criticism is immediate. What
Speaker 1: Thomas Tuckle has done is left big names out, established
Speaker 1: stars of miss selections. Some fans and commentators are asking
Speaker 1: quite viciously why some players have been left out. But
Speaker 1: I think there's a really important lesson here for US coaches,
Speaker 1: a lesson about selection, about culture and the difference between
Speaker 1: picking the best players and picking the best team. England
Speaker 1: as a football nation as one of the deepest talent
Speaker 1: rules in world football, and every position has several elite
Speaker 1: players and several of them have been left at home.
Speaker 1: The ones that are clussed to stars and former internationals
Speaker 1: and media personalities are question in selections and that very
Speaker 1: much reminds me of what New South Wales have for origin.
Speaker 1: One of the reasons Thomas Tuckle's selections have generated so
Speaker 1: much debate is because of that deep talent pool, and
Speaker 1: in rugby league terms, it's just like the players that
Speaker 1: were missing for New South Wales in Game one and
Speaker 1: now in Game two. And I've been even diving in
Speaker 1: on that as well, particularly about the front row. Over
Speaker 1: the years, New South Wales have left players like Cameron mckinnis,
Speaker 1: Ryan Papenhouse and Clint Gutherson out of games. Brett Camwley
Speaker 1: was always behind, Joey Jones, could go on and on
Speaker 1: and on. Queensland offered a fewer stars on paper, but
Speaker 1: have far greater role clarity. The best players don't always
Speaker 1: make the best team, do they. Queensland have an origin dynasty.
Speaker 1: For years people arguing New South Wales had more individual talent,
Speaker 1: and they're still saying that now. But Queensland kept winning
Speaker 1: because they understand roles, combinations and culture better than their opponents.
Speaker 1: Penry's Panthers are a perfect example of a system first organization.
Speaker 1: They didn't build four straight Grand Final teams by chasing
Speaker 1: the biggest names all the time. They built them by
Speaker 1: finding players who fit the system and understand their role.
Speaker 1: Melbourne Storm or another. Craig Bellamy has spent two decades
Speaker 1: proving that a great team an environment can elevate good
Speaker 1: players into REP level players. Selection isn't always a reward
Speaker 1: for being talanted. It's a decision about what gives a
Speaker 1: team the best chance of success, or it should be.
Speaker 1: And I think the question you have to ask, if
Speaker 1: you're coaching rep football, or even if you're coaching a
Speaker 1: club team, what is my best team? And that's a
Speaker 1: different question to who are my best players? And recent
Speaker 1: reporting around England's manager suggests is deliberately narrowed squad sizes
Speaker 1: and focused on competition for positions and placed a bigger
Speaker 1: emphasis on team and social cohesion, role clarity and behaviors
Speaker 1: rather than simply collecting the biggest names and some people
Speaker 1: that will tell you that the last coach to do
Speaker 1: that was Sir Ralph Ramsey in nineteen sixty six and
Speaker 1: they won the World Cup. But just like Alph Ramsey
Speaker 1: back in the sixties, Tuckle is getting criticized. Yes, I'm
Speaker 1: criticizing Laurie Daily too. Possibly the strongest rugby league comparison
Speaker 1: isn't Origin, it's probably Penry's. Every coach listening now understands
Speaker 1: that a team full of stars can fail, while a
Speaker 1: team full of players who understand their role can win competitions.
Speaker 1: And that's a lesson England's manager seems to be trying
Speaker 1: to apply to England. And when a coach leaves out
Speaker 1: a famous player or a club legend, people often assume
Speaker 1: it's a mistake. The public tend to look at talent,
Speaker 1: coaches have to look at something much bigger. How many
Speaker 1: times have we all sat in a selection meeting or
Speaker 1: something similar and started naming the best players individually rather
Speaker 1: than asking how the team is apt to go into function.
Speaker 1: It's a big question is but why do We sometimes
Speaker 1: leave out big names, or sometimes we have role duplication
Speaker 1: of two people who play the same role Brett Comawali
Speaker 1: Andrew Johns. Both of them might be outstanding, they might
Speaker 1: provide the same strength. One of them might have one
Speaker 1: less strength or one more weakness. But there's a team
Speaker 1: balance issue. The team might need more defense, might more
Speaker 1: work rate, more levels of communication, more leadership rather than
Speaker 1: just another good attacking player. And sometimes the best player
Speaker 1: isn't the best team mate either, are they? And elite
Speaker 1: coaches understand that junior coaches out there often pick the
Speaker 1: biggest kids, the fastest kids, the representative kids, without even
Speaker 1: straining the brain. Instead, more of them need to ask
Speaker 1: what does the team need? Who compliments each other, Who
Speaker 1: improves the team environment, who helps others perform? Great teams
Speaker 1: are built like puzzles, not collections, and every piece has
Speaker 1: a purpose. Coaching isn't about popularity. It's not about keeping
Speaker 1: everybody happy, and it's not about selecting the players that
Speaker 1: will get you the least criticism. It's about building a
Speaker 1: team capable of winning, isn't it. Have you ever been
Speaker 1: part of a team where the best player wasn't necessarily
Speaker 1: the most important player let me know, because I think
Speaker 1: every successful team has at least one of those stories.
Speaker 1: Admin at Rugby League Coach dot com dot au at
Speaker 1: Rugby League Coach on socials on another sport, I want
Speaker 1: to talk about on another England cricket team issue. So
Speaker 1: for those who were minded to look at this stuff,
Speaker 1: Ben Stokes has basically been stepped down. He's the captain
Speaker 1: of the team for staying out beyond a curfew that
Speaker 1: he was part of setting and he was pissed as
Speaker 1: a fart apparently. So the question now is how professional
Speaker 1: professional athletes really One of my friends who's got a
Speaker 1: massive background in the NRL said to me that he
Speaker 1: believes rugby league players don't understand sacrifice, and I don't
Speaker 1: think that's necessarily true, but I get his point. He
Speaker 1: was comparing that to boxers for example. So English cricket
Speaker 1: has found itself in the headlines again overplay behavior, drinking
Speaker 1: culture and preparation standards. You may remember Queensland went through
Speaker 1: something similar years ago. The vice captain Harry Brook was
Speaker 1: overlooked for the captaincy of the next Test because he
Speaker 1: himself had been involved in an alcohol related incident a
Speaker 1: few months ago. So this saga's sparked debate in the
Speaker 1: UK about whether cricket is lagging far behind other sports
Speaker 1: when it comes to professionalism. Cricket, just like rugby league,
Speaker 1: at times, has celebrated stories of players drinking all night
Speaker 1: and still performing brilliantly the next day. The legends in
Speaker 1: cricket are famous. I could rattle off loads of story
Speaker 1: right now. But just because some athletes succeeded, or players
Speaker 1: succeeded despite poor habits, doesn't mean others can do that too.
Speaker 1: I can tell you of one player who was very
Speaker 1: big in the NRL, very big in England, Englishman who
Speaker 1: was regularly pissed before big games. The world's best athletes
Speaker 1: the world's best players now I hate the term athletes
Speaker 1: are now obsessed with finding tiny advantages. No Dyokovic transformed
Speaker 1: his diet and lifestyle. Virak Coley became obsessed with body
Speaker 1: composition and recovery. Declan Rice, the Arsenal midfielder, wasn't there
Speaker 1: purportally never drunk a pint of beer in his life.
Speaker 1: You could argue that the question many of them ask
Speaker 1: is what gives me an edge? Not what can I
Speaker 1: get away with? And sleep is a huge issue too.
Speaker 1: I saw a piece the other day that Manchester City
Speaker 1: demand all their players sleep eight to ten hours a night.
Speaker 1: Anybody who gets less than eight hours who's performing at
Speaker 1: a certain level, have an increased injury risk, slowly reaction
Speaker 1: times to poorer recovery, and reduce decision making ability. And
Speaker 1: that's something I'm suffering from right now. I've had an
Speaker 1: awful weeks sleep. As coaches, we offer focus on skills, tactics, conditioning,
Speaker 1: but how often do we discuss sleep hided habits, nutrition, hydration, recovery,
Speaker 1: screen time before bed with our players. The players who
Speaker 1: can stack everything together with hundreds of small professional habits
Speaker 1: every day will be the players that go the furthest
Speaker 1: And one of the biggest mistakes we can make is
Speaker 1: celebrating exceptions. Every sport, including ours, has athletes players who drank, parted,
Speaker 1: skip recovery and still dominated. The danger is those stories
Speaker 1: becoming the standard. Discipline is what gives you the best
Speaker 1: chance to succeed tomorrow, not what makes you feel good today.
Speaker 1: That's this week's quote, with Origin around the corner or
Speaker 1: Origin two around the corner, and then Origin three, and
Speaker 1: then our old teams going through what they could probably
Speaker 1: class as the toughest period of the season. Recovery is
Speaker 1: a very genuine competitive advantage and the teams that succeed
Speaker 1: better are the ones who back up better, recover faster,
Speaker 1: stay healthy longer, and avoid injuries. As a coach, what
Speaker 1: you let go is what you allow. I say this
Speaker 1: every week, and what you walk past is what you allow.
Speaker 1: What should we talk about now, guys? Oh yeah, I
Speaker 1: do want to make sure you know about an offer.
Speaker 1: I've got one now, okay, So if you were to
Speaker 1: buy everything that Rugby League Coach has online, it costs
Speaker 1: you about one twenty two dollars, which is about five
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Speaker 1: Let me find a link Rugby League Coach dot Com
Speaker 1: to tay you forward slash Register Forward Slash Coach Update
Speaker 1: package Rugby League Coach dot Com dot AARU Forward slash Register,
Speaker 1: Forward Slash Coach Update Package. Let's talk some football as
Speaker 1: in rugby league football, one of the biggest misconceptions is
Speaker 1: that overlaps just happen in our game. Good teams manufacture them.
Speaker 1: Coaching philosophy has always been simple. On every play, there
Speaker 1: is a four on one overlap somewhere on the field.
Speaker 1: That's because virtually all teams supply two markers in their
Speaker 1: defensive line and one fallback, which means it's ten in
Speaker 1: the defensive line. And you've got thirteen defenders trying to
Speaker 1: cover sixty eight meters width with three of them missing.
Speaker 1: So every defender has six point eight meters to cover,
Speaker 1: so seven meters and if we can manipulate the defensive line,
Speaker 1: force decisions and move bodies, eventually somebody somewhere runs out
Speaker 1: of numbers or doesn't turn up where they should. The
Speaker 1: best attacking teams don't look for miracles. They're patiently stretching
Speaker 1: the defense until it breaks. So my question for you
Speaker 1: coaches and players, does every player in your attack have
Speaker 1: a purpose? Or your players just running shapes because that's
Speaker 1: what they do I always have. I'm going to give
Speaker 1: you a challenge here, what if the half back didn't
Speaker 1: have to solve everything? Okay, so get back on your
Speaker 1: chair after you've just fallen off it, if you've crashed
Speaker 1: your car. I'm sorry. What if the half back didn't
Speaker 1: have to solve everything? Can the halfback see everything? The
Speaker 1: people in a football team who can often see the
Speaker 1: space the clearest and count the numbers the easiest, to
Speaker 1: your centers, your wings and your second rowers who were
Speaker 1: on the edges. Yet we put all the pressure on
Speaker 1: the halves, don't we, The halves who have to organize
Speaker 1: people around them, The halves who have to check where
Speaker 1: the ball is coming from. Everyone else is looking directly
Speaker 1: at the defensive line, Isn't that? Aren't they? So? Imagine
Speaker 1: you're nine, you're six, and you're seven as the front people,
Speaker 1: and everyone else is behind. They're the ones who look
Speaker 1: at the defensive line and count numbers, aren't they, And
Speaker 1: they can communicate what they see what they see. Sorry,
Speaker 1: if the defense is compressed, if there's lazy defenders, disconnected edges. Yet,
Speaker 1: most rugbilly coaching I see is those players are waiting
Speaker 1: for instructions, not giving tips on where to go next.
Speaker 1: When I coach, I teach my players to communicate information
Speaker 1: back to the playmakers all the time. Instead of the
Speaker 1: half back telling everybody what to do. And I always
Speaker 1: wonder why he puts so much pressure on the hooker
Speaker 1: when the hooker literally spends most of his game or
Speaker 1: her game where there are stuck up forwards, asses and
Speaker 1: low down. One of the most undercoach skills in rugby
Speaker 1: league is scanning the defensive line. Most players watch the ball.
Speaker 1: I always say to my players, if you want to
Speaker 1: watch the game, go stand behind the fence. I want
Speaker 1: you to take part in it. Eighty plus percent of
Speaker 1: the game is played off the ball. The best teams
Speaker 1: are the ones that are the best off the ball.
Speaker 1: Good players use that five second window of tackle completed,
Speaker 1: ball about to be played far differently. They look at
Speaker 1: the ball, and then from the ball, they scan out
Speaker 1: across the defensive line, back to the ball, scan again,
Speaker 1: and then back to the balls. It comes to them
Speaker 1: in that five seconds, six seconds, seven seconds. Teacher players
Speaker 1: to do that, and the players will start seeing short numbers,
Speaker 1: tight defenders, tired defenders, disconnected defenders, and they'll see opportunities.
Speaker 1: And then, of course I've talked about a nine or
Speaker 1: six and seven, and they're traditionally the organizers that we have.
Speaker 1: But you've seen an emergence all of a sudden of
Speaker 1: thirteams who had to pass the ball all the time.
Speaker 1: There's something I had in my team twenty five years ago.
Speaker 1: But if you think about it, you look or loose forward,
Speaker 1: your half back, your five eight and your full back
Speaker 1: can all be pivots, can't they? Now? Well they've all
Speaker 1: you know, they've always been able to. There's no rules
Speaker 1: against that, and the attack becomes harder to read. Then
Speaker 1: you can attack short side, open side. They can take
Speaker 1: over the half back role temporarily just to keep the
Speaker 1: opposition guessing. You can have sweet plays. You can pass
Speaker 1: behind the shape and move the ball further more, and
Speaker 1: then the defense can't simply load up on one threat
Speaker 1: all the time. I love coaching against teams where the
Speaker 1: half goes three in four her and it all runs
Speaker 1: through the half. And if you can take one thing
Speaker 1: away from this segment and this podcast, let it be
Speaker 1: this great attack isn't about fancy shapes. It's about creating
Speaker 1: number of advantages, teaching you players what to look at,
Speaker 1: what to scan for, and improving communication channels and given
Speaker 1: more players ownership of the attack. Because the best teams
Speaker 1: don't wait for space, They create it? So how did
Speaker 1: I get to this point? Once, very early in my
Speaker 1: coaching career, I took a year away from everything to
Speaker 1: do with rugby league apart from Wigan Warriors, where I worked.
Speaker 1: I didn't coach, and I also challenged every single thought
Speaker 1: I ever had about the game and it was not
Speaker 1: allowed back into my head unless I've justified it. Wigan
Speaker 1: Warriors at the time had players like Andy Farrell, Matthew Johns,
Speaker 1: Adrian Lamb, Dave Ferna, Steve Ranolf, Terry O'Connor in their
Speaker 1: side and Frank Endercott. Then Stuart Raper was the coach.
Speaker 1: Sean Wayne I spent a lot of time with in
Speaker 1: his early coaching days. Dean bells ahead of football. I
Speaker 1: had a great year to study the game and I
Speaker 1: often encourage coaches to step off that treadmill. At times.
Speaker 1: Most coaches train, go to work, recover, repeat, Very few
Speaker 1: stop and think. Ask yourself, why do all our halves
Speaker 1: call three in or most of our halves called three
Speaker 1: in for a spaghetti bowl with names? What come? What
Speaker 1: outcome is that half trying to create? What what outcome
Speaker 1: are you encouraging your have to create? Think about cause
Speaker 1: and effect, Think about studying patterns of defenses. In fact,
Speaker 1: we do this, where do the defense go? I'm challenging
Speaker 1: you all to watch the game differently, develop your own philosophy.
Speaker 1: And I've got to be honest. I stopped being a
Speaker 1: copy of my coaches. I started to become myself. But
Speaker 1: I had plenty of that coaching that I had in me,
Speaker 1: But in terms of play, I looked completely different. We
Speaker 1: played a very different style. So that goes back to
Speaker 1: what I mentioned earlier about study periods. You could have blocks,
Speaker 1: you could have months, no coaching, no noise, just learning.
Speaker 1: And my questions to you are hour was the last
Speaker 1: time you truly reflected on what you do and challenge yourself.
Speaker 1: Are you developing or you're just surviving? Are you coaching
Speaker 1: on purpose or by habit? Improvement often comes from reflection,
Speaker 1: not just doing all the time. And I believe that
Speaker 1: every time I've taken time out of the game to study,
Speaker 1: I've come back a five or ten percent better football coach.
Speaker 1: I said earlier, You'd never know where rugby league and
Speaker 1: life can take you. Tragedy struck my family, so decided
Speaker 1: to come to Australia for a little bit. It accelerated
Speaker 1: that decision expedited it and the plan was simple, come
Speaker 1: to Australia coach for a year or two. I remember
Speaker 1: thinking explicitly four years maximum. But nearly two decades later,
Speaker 1: I'm still here. I'll still get the dickads on social media.
Speaker 1: So rugby league changed my life and it is probably
Speaker 1: in the process of changing yours. How many of you
Speaker 1: can trace major life opportunities on the back of what
Speaker 1: you've done in rugby league, and the game often gives
Speaker 1: us far more than just results, wins and losses premierships.
Speaker 1: Soon after arriving in Oz, I was at the Seagulls
Speaker 1: and within twelve months I was a head coach there
Speaker 1: of one of the grades, and I found myself inside
Speaker 1: one of the strongest clubs in the game just by opportunity,
Speaker 1: and sometimes your opportunity arrives before you feel ready. The
Speaker 1: key has been willing to learn on the run, say yes,
Speaker 1: learn on the run. So I was under Des Hasler
Speaker 1: in a premiership winning culture. There's a just rebuilt Manly.
Speaker 1: During my first two seasons at the club were in
Speaker 1: both Grand finals against Melbourne, lost the first and won
Speaker 1: the second. Every day was an education. Successful organizations create
Speaker 1: environments where standards become normal, and that links back to
Speaker 1: what I was saying about player selections earlier. Young coaches
Speaker 1: or ambitious coaches should always actively seek places where excellence
Speaker 1: is expected. My first season as head coach so nearly
Speaker 1: ended before it got started. Opened the season No. Three
Speaker 1: recruitment boss and manly legend Noel Crusher Kleil sat next
Speaker 1: to me in the coaching box at round four and
Speaker 1: I knew I was toast if we got beaten again.
Speaker 1: But we won comfortably and over the next two years
Speaker 1: we only lost a handful of games, and Crush became
Speaker 1: one of my biggest supporters and eventually a great mate.
Speaker 1: Adversity often becomes a story you laugh about later. Don't
Speaker 1: overreact to short term setbacks and give all your processes
Speaker 1: time to work. Rugby league has a funny way of
Speaker 1: taking your place as you never plan to go. Can
Speaker 1: you win or lose a game before kickoff? There's been
Speaker 1: a lot of chats about New South Wales poor starts
Speaker 1: under Laurie Daily. On Friday, I was on the beers
Speaker 1: when we make Mick and his son plays AFL, so
Speaker 1: we watched a bit of that and the opposition had
Speaker 1: a pre match warm up right in front of us,
Speaker 1: and it was intent and mix said to me, I
Speaker 1: must have got the kickoff wrong because they're going helpful weather.
Speaker 1: Are they a good sidemick Yeah, top of the table,
Speaker 1: beating everyone. Really good warm up it was. There was
Speaker 1: a big problem though. It was sixty minutes before kick off,
Speaker 1: an intense warm up, high speed movement, high physical output,
Speaker 1: loads of energy and enthusiasm, and they got absolutely hammered
Speaker 1: in the games. So Mix Sum's team won quite convincingly.
Speaker 1: So can I warm up be too intense? Are you
Speaker 1: trying to prepare players for performance or spending so much
Speaker 1: energy before it even starts. The purpose of a warm
Speaker 1: up is to prepare your players physically and mentally for
Speaker 1: the competition. It's a means to an end. You got
Speaker 1: to increase the body's temperature, activate keyp movement patterns, improve
Speaker 1: reaction times, get players psychologically ready. There's a fine line
Speaker 1: between activation and fatigue. Do you want your players to
Speaker 1: start with less fuel in the tank before they start?
Speaker 1: And this team I watched looked incredibly sharp in the
Speaker 1: warm up, but once the game started they were flogged.
Speaker 1: So my question for you coaches, do you monitor the
Speaker 1: heart rates of your players during warm ups. How long
Speaker 1: before kickoff do you want them returning to resting levels
Speaker 1: in the sheds? And there your players arriving at the
Speaker 1: first whistle energized or already fatigued. Some coaches want players
Speaker 1: flying around before kickoff or for a karma, more controlled approach.
Speaker 1: Some of the best dressing rooms you'll see they tend
Speaker 1: to be composed, relaxed, in control before a game starts
Speaker 1: because intensity is important, but the timing of it and
Speaker 1: the output of it is far more important. And you
Speaker 1: don't want to win the warm up, you want to
Speaker 1: win the game when the referee blows a whistle. I
Speaker 1: think I'm going to end this week's podcast there, because
Speaker 1: there's an awful lot in that isn't there, and I
Speaker 1: could drag this out for an hour, But as I've
Speaker 1: said to you a few times lately, I'm getting good
Speaker 1: feedback about the length of the podcast because there's no
Speaker 1: dead moments in it, or slower moments or whatever they
Speaker 1: may be. If you want more Lee Addison, if you
Speaker 1: want more rugby league coach, I'll host a Super League
Speaker 1: three sixty podcast with John Davidson, who's getting married or
Speaker 1: got married this weekend, so it will be out a
Speaker 1: bit later this week. He wanted to record someday night.
Speaker 1: I don't know he's going to be too drunk, so
Speaker 1: I've made an executive decision. You can also listen to
Speaker 1: a Loose Carry podcast or watch it they want to
Speaker 1: do with Zero Tackle. There's always a coach's corner analysis
Speaker 1: on there. This week I'm going to look at the
Speaker 1: tries in Origin one and I write a weekly column
Speaker 1: for them at zero tackle dot com two. So one
Speaker 1: thing you'll notice has not been any of your questions
Speaker 1: this week. That's because I've probably not asked for them.
Speaker 1: So please send me your questions for this podcast. A
Speaker 1: league coach on Instagram and Facebook to get hold of
Speaker 1: me Adamin at Rugby league Coach dot com. Beta You
Speaker 1: is the email before a go. I'm going to check
Speaker 1: now Scotland got on and Scotland won one nil. I'm
Speaker 1: going to turn my phone off. Coaches, I love your work.
Speaker 1: Take care, have a great week. SA