Wayne Goldsmith: coaching expert on the alleged physical altercation between Warriors assistant coach and journalist

This weekend's Vegas venture couldn't have gone worse for the Warriors, as the NRL looks to launch an assault investigation into assistant coach Richard Agar.

According to new reports, Agar allegedly grabbed a British journalist by the throat - and also reportedly verbally abused him in the press box in Allegiant Stadium.

Coaching expert Wayne Goldsmith says it's expected this investigation will be followed on properly, rather than just falling back to the court of public opinion. 

"I'm sure they're a very professional organisation and I'm sure that they're doing all of those things really well. And the important thing is to make sure this is played out correctly, properly and in time - it's easy to hang people in the court of public opinion." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Spray and Bridge.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
The Las Vegas trip couldn't have gone worse for the Warriors.
They got thumped we know this thirty eight by the Raiders.
But an assistant coach is now facing serious allegations. Richard
Aego alleged to have grabbed a journalist by the throat
during the game. The NERLS investigating the Warrior's boss, has
spoken with the leagu's integrity units. A little bit of
a mess Wayne Goldsmith, the international sports coaching expert who's

(00:24):
with us Wayne good evening.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Good evening, Ryan, And without wanting to make it a
flippancy about that current situation, I'm very lucky. I live
in the bush in Australia, not that far from Lismore
where the rains about the hit, and we've got some
pets that might be of interest. The other day, down
at my home office, I was about the end of
the door and we had a koala on the ground
and he walked past. I won't tell you that he

(00:48):
said a low, but he walked past and he just
dashed up the tree right behind my office. So I'm
one of those sixty percent of people that believe pets
are wonderful at the time.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
You don't have to feed and pay for the food.
So that's great. Hey, this is quite a serious situation.
What's happened in Las Vegas if it's alleged at this point,
obviously we don't know exactly what happened, but it's not
a great look. What do you do about something like that?

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Well, it's funny, having worked with a lot of pro
football teams, generally, what you've got a structure within the
team is what we call a crisis management group or
a management team. You've always got a group of people
when something happens to make sure that first of all,
the matter is researched, investigated properly, correctly, legally, and that

(01:38):
of course there's as much support for the mental health
and as much support as possible to the staff member.
So I'm sure they're a very professional organization and I'm
sure that they're doing all those things really well. And
the important thing Ryan is to make sure the thing
is played out correctly, properly in time. It's so easy

(02:00):
to hang people in the court of public opinion, but
it's got to be done fairly ethically and of course legally,
and give every possible support to the coaching question.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
And the players as well. That's the other side of this.
I guess the players are normally you look to your
coaches for a bit of guidance on how to behave
that's obviously going to be something that you have to address.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
You do, and the players will be aware. Some of
them may be aware of what actually happened, some will
be hearing second, third, fourth, and some of them will
be getting social media posts or text from home and
they'll be completely unaware of what happened because they were
focused on playing or recovering or warming up a warming down,
depending on where and where it's alleged to have happened. So,

(02:45):
of course, in any of these crisis situations, we make
sure that the players are given every possible support system
around mental health and wellbeing and supporting them as a term.
I've got no doubt those things are happening.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Wayne. Thanks for your time. Wayne Goldsmith, international sports coaching
expert on the Warriors disastrous adventure over in Las Vegas.
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