Stop Coaching Like It's the 1980's!

Host Lee Addison gets evidence from a league LEGEND about training sessions in the 1980’s and compares them to what he sees now at so many so called ‘elite’ clubs and those in the community.   

He also discusses a coaching process that produces smart players who can think under pressure rather than act like robots.  

You will need your notebook for this one, as there are LOTS of coaching tips in here...  

Level up your coaching game with Episode 139 of the Rugby League Coach Podcast!     Hosted by Lee Addison, owner of rugbyleaguecoach.com.au and author of Rugby League Coach - new book OUT NOW!

➡️Lee has coached at NRL clubs, World Cups, Elite High Schools and so much more in a 26-year career

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-rugby-league-coach-podcast--5572032/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:53):
How you're doing. Welcome to the Rugby League Coach Podcast,
episode one hundred and thirty nine. We are in season
three of it. My name is Lee Addison. I am
the owner of Rugby League Coach dot com dot au
and the author of a recent book, Rugby League Coach,
Thirteen Game Changing Conversations to transform your coaching. I consult,

(01:18):
I coach, I mentor and help coaches and clubs and
their coaches all around Australia, England, New Zealand anywhere in
the world. Quite frankly, this is a free weekly service
to all coaches and all people who love rugby league
and want to pass coach the comments on coaches I
suppose as well, so please make it be known that

(01:43):
you are welcome. You can contact me at Rugby League Coach,
on socials at Facebook, Instagram are the best ones for messages.
Dms are open there. I'm on TikTok, I'm on LinkedIn,
I'm on YouTube, where you are likely to see a
video version of this podcast if you haven't already seen
one before. That's not a regular thing, it's just sometimes

(02:07):
we put the full episode on if for some reason
we'd like to. So this is what's happening this week.
Get your notebook ready for this podcast. There's lots for
you in this and if ever you want to send questions,
use at Rugby League Coach because the dms are open
on Facebook and Instagram, but also please message me on

(02:28):
Twitter or x at RL coach on the net or
email admin at Rugby League Coach dot com dot au.
Get your notebook ready, there's plenty for you. Today I
interviewed former Manly Seagles, New South Wales and Australian kangaroo's
legend No Kleil recently No Crusher Kleil and there's more

(02:50):
on where you can hear the full interview that I
did a little bit later because there are more and
more podcasts coming out each week. But this clip I
am about to play you was about coaching styles and
these are from nineteen eighty three. Take a listen. Can

(03:11):
you remember the sort of training methods at the time?
Were you working hard on fitness skills column A, COLUMNB
in the gym at all?

Speaker 2 (03:23):
For mine, it was, you know, we we only trained
twice a week and sometimes three times a week, but
normally it was a you know, a bash up on
Tuesday night and then and fine tuning on Thursday night
and every about every month you'd have a two mile
time trop and you had to break your break your
tone from the from the previous run. But I was

(03:45):
I was fortunate always, I was good a job as
a gabo and the mainly council and that the job
itself just entil running out down kilometers.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Every morning and a bit of lifting, yeah, and.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Probably lifting or a thousand fifty kilo bins. So I
kind of, you know, within within three months of starting
work as a garbo, you know, that's when my fuddying,
you know, went to another level as well.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
What would the RLPA say, now if we trained twice
a week and just made everybody a garbo.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
That probably wouldn't hurt them.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Unfortunately, based so much on what I see in my
work through Rugby League coach, many coaches out there in
the community and even in some elite levels are still
stuck in that nineteen eighties mindset. They are still doing

(04:49):
training just like no Crusher Kleill explained happened in nineteen
eighty three, and that's basically a bash up on a
choose day where coaches just give their players a big
fitness session and I use the term fitness loosely because
many of the coaches out there aren't clued up on

(05:12):
the strength and conditioning elements required to coach their sport.
So many coaches out there just do what they were
told to do as players. Quite often a team will
get flogged on a Tuesday because they had a bad
performance at the weekend. Too many of our coaches don't

(05:33):
have a clue about what they are doing, so in
terms of work, rest ratios, sports science, they've got no
clue if they're making their players fitter or not. They
don't know how to do it, and they probably don't
really know the reason why, apart from the fact that
they are angry or that it's Tuesday. I've seen junior

(05:57):
coaches who will preak like this with kids still in
primary school. Even let me make this very clear, guys,
you if you operate like this, you are stuck in
the nineteen eighties as a coach. It is twenty twenty five. Now,

(06:18):
what should you be coaching like in twenty twenty five.
I'm recording this at the start of August of that year.
Modern coaching or coaching today should be strategic. It should
be planned, It should be based on evidence, based on
things that you've read or learned along the way. You

(06:39):
should be a continuous learner. This is the idea of
this podcast that you are here each week with me
to hopefully get better with some tips. Your work needs
to be based on real, studied, real real outcomes come

(07:01):
from real practices, not just made up ones on the spot.
And the other thing that your coaches, coaches and coaching
needs to be because obviously I'm talking to clubs now
who are educating their players. It needs to sorry their coaches.
It needs to be focused on their players. Needs to
be player centered because players, whether they're six years old

(07:28):
and being taken by a parent, or an A grade
player or a junior rap or a lower grade elite player,
they are a consumer and then a commodity. And I'll
talk more about that concept soon. But they've got choices, okay,

(07:49):
So they don't have to stay under your coaching. And
if they think that you are too far behind, if
they think you're stuck in the eighties or maybe the nineties,
if you're a bit more advanced, then they can move on. Now,
don't get me wrong. I think if you train Tuesdays

(08:09):
and Thursdays, you probably need your Tuesday to be a
bit tougher. If you're going on a Tuesday Thursday training model,
then playing on a Saturday make your Tuesday a little
bit tougher, but it needs to be backed up by
proof of why you're trying to do what you're trying
to do. So I still work with coaches, and I

(08:30):
have mentored coaches who still want to do pure fitness work,
but I give them scientifically backed processes to follow, and
the fitness session, rather than being an hour and twenty minutes,
might be twenty minutes or eighteen minutes and get the

(08:51):
same outcomes, because if you do too much of the
wrong thing, you get diminishing returns too. I mentioned coaching
the players, or play a centered coaching if you like
that focuses on individual development and your players, regardless of
their age, whether their parents are watching over your coaching,

(09:13):
or whether they're old enough to make their own judgments
on your coaching. They want to be developed physically, so
they want to get fitter. They want to get stronger.
They want to be strong and fit enough to play
the game. They also want better speed and agility. They
want to be technically improved. They want their skills developed

(09:34):
so that if they go to a rep situation or
if they come up against an opponent that's good, their
skills can match theirs. And then of course you need
to look after them mentally or spiritually. So many coaches
have to deal with players that get scared about a
certain opposition for example. That's how you coach a player
mentally to deal with that problem, and you give them out.

(09:57):
You give them things that they need to focus on
to deal with a team that is twice the size
of them. You give them some techniques to practice, and
you also give them some strategies to deal with that
on the field. Go back a few podcasts if you
want to listen to some questions that I answered about
that a coach should guide and ask questions and empower

(10:22):
players to make decisions. So gone are the days where
a coach should just tell a player, this is what
you need to hear, this is what you need to do.
Ask your players questions, get them to think. Because our
players in general are more educated than they ever were
because of the amount of devices they consume and media
they can they consume on those devices. But also I

(10:45):
think the general football IQ of a player has gone
up for whatever reason you want to attribute to that,
social media being one, And if you coach like that,
you build smarter players who can think for themselves rather
than just play robotically regardless of what goes on in

(11:06):
front of them, also regardless of what operating level you
are at. Now, I think the coach that doesn't use
video to measure performance is probably under selling their squad. Now,
I do know there are problems with certain children when

(11:26):
it comes to filming games, but from what I can gather,
you should be able to video training and as long
as it's all above board, as long as there's nobody
seeing these videos outside of your circle, you should be
able to do that measure performance accordingly. And then the

(11:48):
other things you can do when you are measuring performances,
give statistics. Statistics are a form of objective feedback that
teams and players can get. And then when you go
down this avenue, you can give more individualized coaching and
developmental goals to each player. If imagine you coach like this,

(12:13):
if you got each player to improve one thing on
the offensive side of the ball for themselves and one
thing on the defensive side of the ball for themselves,
and then each week, on top of that, you also
did you worked on two team aspects in defense that
needed to improve and two team aspects in offense that

(12:36):
needed to improve. Do you not think your team would
improve every week? So I'll repeat that each player gets
one offensive thing to improve on and one defensive thing
to improve on the individual to them. Of course, there
may be some with the same problem, and then if
there's a few of those, that's probably something you can

(12:58):
work on as a team. But ultimately each player gets
an individual goal in offense and defense, and then the
team get two defensive goals and two offensive goals or
things to improve. If you do that every week, do
you not think your team would get better? And then
how do you get the evidence to show the players
how they are improving in that One of the coaches

(13:19):
I'm working with now, we've now got twelve areas each
week that their team need to hit certain marks on,
and if they do that each week and get better
at those each week, I think they will win their competition.
One of the coaches I'm mentoring directly go to Rugby
league coach dot com dot tear. You have a look

(13:39):
around the two websites. The other website is the courses
website courses dot Rugby league coach dot com dotear you
and have a look at some of those things. You
need to have a coaching model that integrates physical conditioning
into tactical sessions. So I did some sessions last week
with some coaches, and I can promise you that when

(14:03):
the players were playing games and doing certain small sided games,
they were covering more kilometers that was more game specific
than the eight minute fitness drill that they did. Yet
all the players thought that the eight minute fitness drill
was harder. Yet when I told them they probably ran

(14:24):
more in the in the games, they were shocked because
they didn't realize they were running okay. At the same time,
I kept a close eye on the way they were
grip pass catching, gripping passing, catching and carrying the football
how they were playing it, and the whole session was
based on grip pass catch carrie using the coaches that

(14:46):
I was working with, and the players got fitter at
the same time and didn't even realize they were getting fitter.
That's probably how you need to be coaching in twenty
twenty five, regardless of age. So instead of separating fitness
and skills. Design your drills and design your games to

(15:08):
develop both at once. That's called game based conditioning or
game based skills development or drill based conditioning or drill
based can skill development. Although unfortunately too many coaches has
drill focused too often. The way you coach players should

(15:30):
prepare them for match specific scenarios too, at the same
time as managing fatigue and for recovery. So one of
the biggest questions I get is how to stop a
team from playing too flat in attack? What drills is
often the question, and I always pray you don't. I

(15:52):
always reply, you don't need a drill. You need to
go opposed against another team at the club, and every
time you're a tack is too flat, you blow the
whistle and you turn the ball over and make your
team defend. They will soon learn that they are too flat.
So not everything needs to be fixed with a drill.
In fact, drills are the last place I often go.

(16:18):
I want my players, and you should want your players
to get better at making decisions, and the training environment
should reflect that. So you might, for example, go thirteen
versus eleven or six verses four and see if your
players can identify a two person overlap. You may put

(16:41):
in time limits and say you've got ten minutes to
not concede, or the game is sixteen, or with five
minutes to go, how are you going to play? Players
will learn tactics of the game through adapted games rather
than strict drills. What we often tend to do when
we do drills is associate the skill that we are

(17:02):
trying to learn with that drill, and quite often when
we move from drill to drill, we forget the skills
we've just learned in the previous one. I'll give you
an example. How many times have you done grip, pass, catch,
carry and focused on hands up, target to the side, etc. Etc.
You send them for a drink after that drill, and
then you go to another drill of some kind, let's
say decision making, and they all catch the ball in

(17:25):
the old fashioned way, and you say, hang on a minute,
what happened to what we've just practiced in that last drill?
How many times has that happened to you? As a coach.
That's why adapted games are far better. And when you
do it like this, it creates more adaptable creative players
and reflects what can happen in a game where anything
can happen at any time, and this is an uncomfortable

(17:48):
place for a coach to be sometimes because they can't
completely control what goes on. But doing it like this
combines fitness skills and game sense in exactly the same session.
You might include small sided games with rules that mimic
matches that make players think tactically under fatigue and all.

(18:10):
This is better than using drills and all. This also
allows you to tailor coaching for each each player, particularly juniors,
so you can give feedback in the game to each individual.
And doing it like this can also encourage you to

(18:31):
think in terms of the game setting all the time,
so you will know some of the problems your team
have on a Tuesday and Thursday. If you train like this,
rather than find out when it's too late on a
Saturday or a Sunday, your training should constantly be looking
at improving your players technically and tactically, and focus on

(18:54):
long term development rather than a one size fits all
all the time. I mean, if your team does badly
on st Saturday, do they honestly all need a flogging
on a Tuesday? Or some of your players great and
let down by hilters. And when you have this one
size fits all approach, how do those players who put
in everything feel when once again they're getting flogged. In

(19:17):
this day and age, you also have to focus on
the mental health of each player. You would be silly
not to. I can't speak highly enough of one of
the coaches I work with, Ashley at Oakie Bears, and
his first instinct after every game is to check on

(19:40):
the mental health of his players, and he's showing that
kind of leadership. And you need to show leadership. And
you also need to look at the new recovery of
your players and also think about how they're eating and
the lifestyle they have in general, because on one hand,
we can't say to our players you need to be
fit to play a rugby league, and then on the
other the hand, ignore their mental health, their physical health,

(20:04):
their recovery methods, their nutrition, and their lifestyle. When you
coach like this, and if you work like this, you
will build more resilient and well rounded people who perform
better as players. And the other thing that you need
to all read up on or get help from me
at Rugby League coach dot com dot au is periodization

(20:28):
went to lift your players and when to go easier
on your players. For those who follow the NRL, which
will be most of you, you may have noticed this
Weekend Just Gone. This is the fourth of August twenty
twenty five podcast, The Weekend Just Gone Camera lost to
Saint George, Melbourne scraped home against the Eels and Penrith

(20:51):
scraped home against the Titans. Now they're three teams that
will all be looking at winning the premiership at season's end.
I would hazard a massive guess that each of those
squads were building up their fitness work this week or
the week before to get themselves ready to the finals.

(21:13):
For the finals, to taper off training before the finals.
This is very common at Melbourne at least, and this
process allows players to stay fresher, recover quicker, and maintain
higher performance across the season full stop when you periodize
the training. Also, like I said, I hope you've got

(21:38):
your pen ready. If you're coaching on your own, you
need to find an as system because that allows you
to share responsibilities and insights and thoughts and frustrations. So
get an assistant, even if they're not a great coach.
Somebody you can talk to. Somebody who can bounce ideas off.

(21:59):
Some of the most untrained rugby league mines are the
best observers you're listening to. Leaddison on episode one hundred
and thirty nine did say of the Rugby League Coach podcast.
As a coach, sometimes you have squads where talent isn't

(22:21):
the best. Other times you'll have talent that will keep
them in the championship mix, regardless of how you coach them.
Sometimes you have squads that are right in the middle.
And I regularly tell the story of one side I

(22:42):
had a few years ago. It's in the book Rugby
League Coach thirteen Game Changing Conversations, where I got to
a breaking point with a team that I was coaching.
One of those teams that was right in the middle.
They needed to work hard to achieve something, maybe top four.
If they didn't work hard, they would have been bottom
four one of those sides. And I had problems with

(23:06):
their attendance and their commitment, and some sessions it would
be great, others it would be poor. And there was
one week where we got better and the session was great,
but then that lasted twenty four hours and in our
next session some players were missing or late or didn't

(23:30):
arrive because the nature of the environment. That's just what happened. Okay,
I got them in the circle at the start of training.
I liked my circles, and I saw that some blokes
were missing, so I canceled training straight away and I
made all players attend an impromptu meeting. In that meeting,

(23:56):
I asked them to articulate what needed to change for
us to be the best version of ourselves. And I
also told them that if they didn't get their commitments sorted,
they would be sitting in meetings all the time when
they should be in the gym or in the field,

(24:17):
and therefore they could go into Round one in a
few weeks underprepared. I was willing to stop training. Every player,
almost to a man, said that some players weren't pulling
their weight. They told a few individuals that their efforts
were impacting others, not just themselves, so they were honest

(24:40):
with each other. They talked about the perceived hierarchy in
the group, and those that were seen as role models
weren't pulling their weight. Found that very interesting, and they
said they needed to show discipline. They needed to show
attendance or be in attendance work as a team and

(25:04):
have work ethic in order to succeed. What I didn't
plan for that night after our canceled session was that
the players all got in touch with each other on
an Instagram group chat. I all got up each other basically,

(25:27):
so I scared them. I was going to take training
away from them. The session the best after was the
best for an awful long time, and that was because
the players drove the culture from that moment. They knew
what needed to change, and they changed what mattered and

(25:50):
what matters in this sport. So I've opened this podcast
with talking about coaching, drills and games and whatnot. But
all that is futile unless you have the players who
do the following number one constant commitment to a task,

(26:10):
to the task. Number two makeship, doing it for your
mates number three, togetherness and shared endeavor. Number four put
the team first, no egos. Number five, working as hard

(26:36):
as possible. Number six doing number five every time you train.
Different coaches have different terms for the things I've just
listed there, but essentially the message is very similar. Ricky
Stewart off and talks about want and care. How much
does a player want it? And how much does a

(26:58):
player care. If you read Wayne Bennett's books over the years,
there's plenty of similar messages that on face value sound
quite generic but actually mean pretty much what I've just said,
but also mean a lot more. I remember when Wayne
Bennet's first book came out, then he started talking to people.
Most coaches were upset that there weren't lots of x's
and o's in there. Yeah, they just didn't get it

(27:24):
that coaching isn't all about the ex'es and o's. And
that's why it's one of the first chapters in my book.
Dess Hasler, who I worked on, is huge on one percentage,
the little things that make up the bigger picture, the
kick chase, the hustle, the scramble, the effort to get

(27:45):
back on side when there's been a break, all those
kinds of things, and they're a lot easier to carry
out if you have the desire, the want, and the
care to do them. I could go on and list
several coaches and several things from several areas and several sports.
Only this week just gone I saw something from world
boxing champion Alexander Usik who said, I don't have motivation,

(28:08):
I have discipline, so In other words, he takes the
motivation for granted. It's their all the time. And going
back to that team I spoke about, I found it
very interesting that when given a chance to be honest
with each other and share what they felt they were lacking,
the team gave the answers that I wanted, and they

(28:31):
gave answers that you'd expect to hear from season campaigners.
There were all sixteen, seventeen and eighteen. They got to
the Grand Final, aren't you. When I think of winning
teams from grand finals, it always seems to be the
team that goes that extra mile for each other that wins,

(28:53):
doesn't it. And when you have two teams that do that,
you end up with epic finals or memorable moments that
are needed to turn a game because the game is
so tight. For one hundred and thirty years this year.
Because people in Australia sometimes forget this, but the game
was actually born in England in eighteen ninety five September

(29:16):
September twenty eight night, I think maybe a bit earlier AnyWho.
So for one hundred and thirty years our sport has
been one of the most brutal, and it's up there
with the martial arts and the fighting sports, boxing and
the like, isn't it. And that means when the players play,

(29:36):
it doesn't pay to fill their heads with loads and
loads of technical or tactical things. So those key elements
of performance that are together ship, togetherness, the mate ship,
putting in effort, being there for each other, the one
percenters that they want and care. They're the things that

(29:58):
you can focus on when you're in the pressure of
a brutal game. And I think these are the kind
of things that coaches like Wayne Bennett and Jack Gibson
have used so much and been so good at, and
that's why they've just accumulated premierships over the years. I
think Bellamy is good at that too, and clear he's
obviously good at that. I remember reading about Jack Gibson

(30:21):
when he said kick it to the Seagulls, to Peter
the seagulls to Peter sterleyd in the dressing room in
the Grand Final in nineteen eighty something, and when Sterlow
went out and saw all the seagulls camped out at
one end of the ground, he knew what it meant.
Wayne Bennett apparently Saint George to Saint George and with

(30:45):
Saint George has done one thousand mental tricks. When he
was coach of the Broncos in ninety two and ninety three,
the fake tip sheet thing. When he was coaching twenty
ten of Saint George and they won the title, just
went in the sheds at halftime and said, can St
George play the second half please? So you probably don't

(31:06):
always need to focus on those exes and out. You
probably don't always need to technically coach your players. You
just need to get them in the right head space,
particularly as we get towards finals time. And one other
story I want to mention, I'm a massive fan of
the old football manager Brian club He was probably one

(31:28):
of the best managers ever at football and he said
once that there's no room for confusion in my dressing
room quote unquote. And then when one of his players
was going through all the permutations that can happen at
free kick, you know, should I run over the ball
and let somebody else part or sho apparently Brian and

(31:50):
Clubs Brian Cloff responded, I pay you to shoot some
so we can get over complicated with our coaching. Sometimes
we need want and care for our players. From our players,
we need teamship, we need makeship, and they need to
go the extra mile for each other. If you enjoy
listening to this pod, have a think about buying me

(32:13):
a bee. Even though with the bee go to coughco
doublef dot Double forward slash Rugby League Coaching. You can
back that's the that's the website buy me a coffee,
But that's the Rugby League Coach website where I've said
buy me a bee. And that helps with these podcasts
to get out all this free content, so much of

(32:34):
which is going to be coming out in the next
few weeks. Hey Wednesday, from this podcast, the ASHES Rugby
League Podcast with myself and British based journalist John Davidson
and a long interview with no Crusher Kleil. You can
get that on the Rugby League Coach podcast platforms wherever
you're listening to this one, or you can listen to

(32:57):
it on its own Ashes Rugby League podcast. And then
the following week his coach stories and I'm going to
have Ethan sendry An, a grade coach who's at the
top of his comp at the moment, won the minor
premiership last year. They've got the wooden spoon. He talks
about how that's changed and what he learned over time.
He's an A grade coach up in the Sunshine Coach

(33:18):
That will be Wednesday, the thirteenth of August. I think
that is the way you got to look at the
podcast now. This Rugby League Coach podcast will be out
every Monday. You can rely on this as much as
you can expect your coffee in the morning and every
Monday five am Australian Eastern time up. It drops every Wednesday.

(33:43):
You'll get either the Ashes Rugby League Coach podcast every
Fortnight or the Coach Stories podcast on the other Fortnight's
last week was Chris Rose, an elite development coach in England.
And if you think you or somebody you know is
a good story for the Coach Stories podcast, please reach

(34:03):
out at Rugby League Coach on Facebook and Instagram. Please
send me a message or email me admin at Rugby
League Coach dot com dot au. Each week or most weeks,
I'm on the Loose Carry podcast from zero Tackle two
Zero Tackle not zero Tackle Too, Zero Tackle. You can
also see my articles on zero Tackle dot Com once
a week. Last week I did one on South Sydney

(34:26):
and how they're tracking under Bennett on Zero Tackle. Loose
Carry podcasts tend to go into more of the NRL
knitty gritty and international and origin etc. This podcast, I
tend to talk more about the technical, tactical and the
coaching lessons that can come from anything that we do.

(34:47):
If you're interested in getting mentored by me directly, there's
an end of year deal on now. Please get in touch.
I want to give you a specific price for you,
so don't look at the price online and go okad,
get in touch and will work something out and we
can also put in a package for next year too.
You may remember I ran a competition for anybody who

(35:09):
purchased anything from Rugby League Coach dot com dot au
or the book itself and before July thirty first, and
I'm pleased to announce that George Baxendale of Melbourne and
cat Menses from Townsville you're coming to the UK. I
have emailed you both and you've yet to reply, so

(35:31):
hopefully you're listening to this podcast. So George Baxendale of
Melbourne and cat Menses in Townsville, go to your email
if you can't see the email from me, go to
your junk email see if you can see an email
from Lee Addison. You're coming to the UK on our
ASHES tour. So, for those who don't know, Rugby League
Coach is taking an ash's tour to the United Kingdom

(35:55):
for the ASHES tests between England and Australia. I know
I interviewed no Kleil, but he is not the Kangaroo
legend coming with us on that trip. If you are interested,
please get in touch okay at Rugby League Coach admin
at Rugby League Coach dot com. But you six and

(36:16):
a half thousand dollars all included flights, hotels, transfers, tickets everything.
You will not get a better deal. I told you
a little earlier that Ethan Sendry is going to be
one of our coach stories a week on Wednesday on

(36:38):
the thirteenth. Here's a clip of that. But I want
you to listen to the conversation we had because there's
some important lessons for everybody.

Speaker 3 (36:46):
As you know yourself might have went through some pretty
dark ms last year and I think just really been
able to sit back as a character and reflect on
why you do it. It's not alway it's going to
be easy and remember the bigger picture on why don't I.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
Think it was important our dynamic last year actually because
you had somebody to put it into some context for you.
And I did say numerous times to you, you've got
to work hard. But then eventually it would just flip round.
And it flipped round even quicker than I thought it would.
But yeah, and the other thing is I tend to

(37:25):
get employee to clubs that need help. I don't get
employed to premiership winning sides. If you think about that,
no coach does right or less the coach retires or
you know. And so yeah, it was, it was needed,

(37:47):
and I think it was an essential part of your
growth because because let's say you didn't have last year,
you wouldn't be one tenth of the coach you are now.
You'd have gone from reserve grade Grand Final to first
grade top of the comp But last year you had

(38:09):
to really deeply analyze number one, why you coached, which
was the first point you've brought up. Number two, how
the hell to get yourself out of the predicament. Because
the other thing, and another thing we spoke about last
year quite significantly, and funnily enough, I see this at
one of the clubs I work out right now too.
In another cop if you had to drill down into

(38:33):
the losses last year, maybe one or two was a
significant loss. The rest were all close games of football.
And that builds character, that builds resilience, that builds care,
that builds want, that builds desire, that builds eagerness to
try and repair it. And it also preaches to people's pride.

(38:57):
So in your group this year, even though you've just
listed who's who, are very grade Rugby league footballers a
team the envy of everybody in Australia, the people around them.
So the people you haven't mentioned are the club and
they went through that last year, and they went through

(39:20):
the growing pains. Have been a reserve grade outfit essentially,
And everybody who knows football in the bush or near
the bush, near the city but sort of the bush,
knows that a reserve grade club is very social, very

(39:40):
relaxed about football. I see reserve grade games regularly where
one player doesn't warm up. His name's Ben. Shout out
to Ben. He just says, I'm not doing that. And
then all of a sudden, some of those players are
asked to play first grade, which is video refereed intensely.

(40:05):
The referees are coached, there's a big judiciary attached to it.
There's care, there's sponsorship moneies that people pay to watch
that and the pressure is real. And particularly in some
of these towns in and around Australia that are off
the beaten track, the fortunes of that football team are

(40:28):
the thread that runs through that community. So it's a
different kettle of fish. So going back to last year,
all the players and the committee and the coaches that
worked through with you last year, they would have been
the welcoming committee to all the players that you got
in this year, and your current culture will be a

(40:52):
fusion of those two.

Speaker 3 (40:53):
Things, which it really is mine.

Speaker 1 (40:56):
And you're back with me now on the Rugbly Coach podcasts.
Nothing to add, there's a self explanatory I've given you
the contact details. The other thing, Rugby League Coach is
now seven years old. They've been doing this for years.
Four years ago I had this to say from my

(41:18):
car when I was on COVID lockdown. One of the
questions that our friend in Melbourne said, how to coach
fifteen year old? How do you make them keen to train?
When really the one the fun and the easy option
will and he sort of says that they need to
step up, and he step up the training well straight away.
The best bit of advice I can give you there,

(41:39):
my friend, is to make your training look fun and easy,
but actually step it up. So the way I do
that is I do that through conditioning games an awful lot,
but I'd make things happen in the game that make
it a hell of a lot harder. So, for example,
imagine you were playing a small sided game and then

(42:02):
the defensive team on every player the ball had to
get up and down off the ground, or one of
them had to run round the phone, or had to
run round a post or whatever it may be. Anything
to make that game harder. That is my advice there.

(42:24):
So my ultimate advice there is make it look fun
and easy, but make it hard. If they're wrapped up
in a game, they'll forget about the hard element of it.
They'll be so obsessed with winning and competing in that game.
I hope that helps you. If you need any ideas,
go on the YouTube page which is free, or Rugby

(42:44):
League coach dot com dot au. The other question the
same gentleman asked is how can coaching staff get more
from parents? And what he means in that is is communmunication,
And my advice is communication. It's about how you do
your communication. Now golden rule I've always worked too. When

(43:08):
it comes to communicating with players. What too many people
tend to do, sorry, communicating with players or coaches or parents,
whatever it be, communicating with anyone. What too many people
tend to do is use one method and hope that
one size fits all. My advice is to communicate regularly

(43:30):
with all parents, be honest with them about what you
want and why you're communicating with them, and how they
can be part of the partnership if you like, between
coach and parents to move your team forward. But the
golden rule is some people will be good with text,

(43:52):
some will be good with Facebook Messenger, some will be
good with WhatsApp, some will be good with email, some
will be good with fax machines, some will be good
with carry a pigeon. And I suppose you've got to
work out the best method, and I think that's only
trial and error. And some parents, no matter what you
communicate with them, no matter how often you communicate, they

(44:15):
won't give a rats. But all you can do is
try and make them aware and make them feel that
they are part of their child's progression. Going back to
the fifteen year old as well, it's just something that's
come to your mind answering that question, I don't remember.

(44:37):
Fifteen year old ish is when the distraction start to
kick in right where they find other things in life.
The emphasis has to be on fund in your training
more than ever. But you've definitely you've got to disguise
the work in there and sort of fool them if
you like. If you need any tips from that, you

(44:58):
know what to do. I hope you've still got your
pen and paper. There's plenty of coaching lessons in this podcast,
doesn't it. Next is my four golden rules of training
that were on the website Rugby League coach dot com
but tay you the day was launched on July the sixteenth,
twenty eighteen, and for those watching, you will notice I
had no beard. It will look younger. There's some golden

(45:24):
rules of training that I'd like to have a good
think about with. Rugby league is a team sport, so
why not do everything as a team in training wherever
you can? That includes setting out the corn for training
That includes collecting the corn from training. That means filling
up the water bottles. That means putting the water bottles
back in the crate. That means in the changing rooms

(45:45):
after a game, putting the shirts neatly back where you
hope somebody can come pick them up and put them
in a bag to wash. Try and promote teamship and
makeship in everything that you do, communication, encouragement, and pray.
A good team is a communicative team. They talk. Imagine
a defensive line where everybody is talking and screaming and

(46:07):
ready ready to launch that defensive line into the opposition.
That sends a message to the opposition. I've seen teams
almost win a game just from a warm up because
on one side of the field there's a timmid, quiet
team who aren't a team in what they do. On
the other side, there's a team that allowed communicating with
each other. They're praising each other. There's a lot of encouragement,

(46:31):
and it sends out a message straight away about your team.
Encourage you make it a habit in your training. If
you do a good drill or a good thing in
a game, or a good thing in a training game,
let the whole world know. Likewise, if something goes negative
negatively in the session or in a game, encourage your
players to pick each other up, ensuring the highest quality

(46:55):
and everything that you do is a standard that you,
as the coach, must set. My advice in this regard
and my experience in this area suggests that the higher
you set your standards, the players will do everything they
can to reach them. And if you shoot for the stars,
maybe at least you'll end up at the top of

(47:16):
the world. I want to tell you a story. I've
no doubt want to get the details, and it's wrong,
but I remember talking to Dennis Moore, the assistant coach
of the NRL side Manley Seagles when they won the
premiership in two thousand and eight. I was a young
coach on staff there and I tried to get some
secrets as to why they won the premiership and he
said to me Ben Kennedy. Once again, I apologize and

(47:38):
forget any of these details mixed up, but the principal
remains the same. Ben Kennedy was at Manly in two
thousand and six, I think, so how did he win
the premiership for Many in two thousand and eight? Prior
to Ben Kennedy arriving at Manly. It was thought by
Dennis that or my recollection of the conversation with Dennis

(48:02):
was that if somebody dropped the ball in training, it
wasn't a problem. Don't worry, mate, and they just carried
on with the set in training, or they carried on
with the drill. Then one day Ben Kennedy turned up Sunday,
dropped the ball, and I think Ben Kennedy ripped them
a new one, told them what he thought of it
and said it wasn't good. In orten that there was
consequences for dropping that ball in a game, so they

(48:24):
had to be consequences in training. I took that lesson,
so my players always do ten push ups when they
dropped the ball if there's too much drop ball in training,
and make my players defend and duplicate defensive lines. Set
high standards, and then it's really important that you hold
your team accountable to those standards. So don't say you're

(48:45):
going to do X, Y Z and then don't follow through.
Depending on the age group and experience level of the
team that you're coaching, I'm a big believer in empowering
your players with some decisions don't empower them to every
decision because other they'll be controlling the team and you won't.
And quite topical today from what we've been talking about

(49:07):
on the pod five years ago, I said this about games,
skill games and conditioning games. Relating to that question is
regarding games or drills, Well, I think I've just talked
to you about talk with you, sorry about one drill
there that.

Speaker 4 (49:23):
Can be used.

Speaker 1 (49:24):
You can apply it to anything. Really, that principle. But
one thing I do, and it's very big in my coaching,
is I play games and I actually don't give my
players too many instructions. My instructions will be maximum thirty
seconds long, and I use the power of my whistle
to let them know if they're doing it wrong. So,

(49:46):
for example, picture a scene. Imagine you're playing a game,
let's say eight verses eight, and the defensive team has
to get up and down off the ground on every
play the ball. So straight away the advantages if you've
got the ball right, So every player in your team
will want the ball. Every player on the opposition team

(50:10):
who's defending will be getting up each other because they
want the ball too, right, So straight away you have
something to communicate about and what you do within your
game is rather than bombard done with instructions, blow your whistle,
say turn over or six again or whatever it may be.

(50:32):
But allow your players to work it out and they
will talk to each other eventually, or if they just
look at each other and wait for an answer, teach
them what they should be talking about. So you understand
the theme here. The big thing is players don't know
what to talk about. Sometimes they actually have to teach them.
And I think ultimately you've got to remember as a

(50:55):
coach that the more you talk, the less the players
will be talking. So your job as a coach is
to unlock the talent, the skill, the personality, and dare
I say, the genius of your players. It's not about
you the coach, it's about them, the players, and you've

(51:16):
got to try and unlock that. So the more you're talking,
the more they'll be listening and not talking. So give
them things to talk about, and just make sure you
have your boundaries and say, well you're not talking now,
it's me, and so on and so forth. One person talks,
the rest listen. So guys, all those things are free

(51:36):
offerings on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok x. You know these
are things that put out for free, so imagine what
we can do if you come on board. But anyway,
if you've not been on the rugby League Coach socials,
go and have a look because many coaches and I
get messages from coaches who just listen to this podcast

(51:58):
and just follow the socials and thank me for everything
they have done for their team this year. So must
be quite a lot of content. Here's some random thoughts.
If we ban dancing and wrestling in rugby league, so
dancing I mean holding a player up when they get
tackled before you drop them to the ground. And if
we ban wrestling, the hip drop wouldn't exist, and anything

(52:23):
similar like grapple, tackle low, chicken wing, all those kinds
of things would go. So rugby league has caused its
own problem. So if you look at rugby union, most
of their players still tackle towards the hip, They tackle

(52:43):
low or do a leg chop rightly or wrongly, so
their rules make the players want to do that. We're
obsessed with having quick rocks in rugby league. So the
NRAL recently said they take pride in a rugby two
point five seconds long on average, so no wonder. Coaches

(53:05):
try and stop players playing the ball quickly, so they
dance and control and wrestle with players, and then somebody
comes in third and it then looks like or becomes
a hip drop. Whereas if you were rewarded for just
pulling a player straight to ground with the legs, remember

(53:25):
the old fashioned put their knees together and cheek to
cheek and put them to ground. If somehow you were
rewarded for that, then they wouldn't need to dance and wrestle.
You know, when did the pectoral tear ever exist? When
did the hip drop exist that blow somebody's knees out?
None of this existed, So there's a thought. Here's another

(53:50):
quick thought for coaches. Some tips. Number one, work out
what a player is good at. Number two, encourage them
to do number one a lot or the answer to
number one a lot. Whatever they're good at, do that

(54:11):
a lot. Number three, give them a position and role
where they can do it a lot. Obviously, because I'm
taking the Ashes Tour in October November, I've been watching
as many old Great Britain and Australia test matches as

(54:32):
i can, getting the old youtubes out and that was
the stuff that used to get me excited as a kid.
There's a whole couple of generations who don't know what
the ashes is, unfortunately. But if you have a look
at the nineteen ninety two series, there was a full
house at the Sydney Football Stadium for the first Test.
That is a different world for some to imagine. Now

(54:55):
if England came to Australia to play, they would struggle
to fill where the stadium that is the Sydney Football
Stadium now the one at More Park. But to put
that into context, only four years earlier, in nineteen eighty eight,
only fifteen thousand turned up at the same ground for

(55:19):
the third Test of that series because everybody thought that
international football was on the wayne because gee, Great Britain
hadn't won a Test match for a decade. Right now,
they haven't won a Test for nearly two decades. Two
thousand and six was the last one back to nineteen

(55:39):
eighty eight. They won that Test match against all the
odds the last Test, and then in nineteen ninety it
was one of the best Test series you'll ever ever see.
The second Test was absolutely unbelievable. Or posted that on
the Instagram and Facebook of Rugby League coach. This week
probably the best game ever or the best Test match ever,

(56:00):
arguably one of the best games ever. So the crowds
came back in nineteen ninety two, so they can come
back again. I mean, they definitely kicked big in England
for this year's ashes and they'll return again if England
get their house in order when it comes to performance.
So it's currently nineteen years without a Test match win
against Australia, but many people think this is England's best

(56:22):
chance of ever beating Australia this coming October and November.
I have my doubts still because good contests bring crowds
and eyeballs on screens, which in turn bring dollars to
the sport, and the opposite is true of non contests
and four gun conclusions. And then of course if it's
tight or England manager win, then governing bodies tend to

(56:46):
support things that spend money. Look, even as recently as
two thousand and one and two thousand and six, which
I always twenty five years ago, Britain were close to Australia. Again,
there were great matches that were played in front of
full houses, but Unfortunately, the English treatment of the national

(57:06):
team over the years is as much to blame for
the state of international rugby league as anybody out there
can be blamed for it, and many people like to
blame Australia for this. The English coach Shawn Wayne, for
years has had his own preparations disrupted by clubs not
wanting to release their players for things. That's right, English

(57:31):
club's not wanting to support the English team. It's too
simple and easy to just blame Australia for the previous
state of international rugby league. People in England also need
to consider the damage that the friendly fire has done
at home. So, like I say, I think this actually
series this year is want to be really close and

(57:54):
I'm doing a fully organized tour with put Born Travel.
There's a kangaroo legend that I'm going to announce very
soon who's coming with us. When it's announced, I think
all the remaining places will get booked. Message us on
socials at Rugby League Coach or email admin at Rugby
League Coach dot com totaeu. I'm going to end today
with an analysis on what's going on in British rugby

(58:16):
league in general. The game this week has voted to
bring back an administrator or the last few weeks. It
kicked out several years ago, a man by the name
of Nigel Wood. And this move that was driven by
the clubs was planned in one way originally, so they
wanted him to have a certain title, but then they

(58:38):
realized that if they did that they jeopardized Sport England funded,
so they gave him another title of some kind. So
even that wasn't strategically thought out. So there's a difference
between tactics and strategy. Tactics are the things you do
there and then strategy is a long term process, your

(59:00):
long term tactical plan. So nobody thought this through until
they realized Sport England funding would be emitting under Niger
Woods current chairmanship of the Rugby Football League in England.
The changes have started. So one of the first changes
is that each Super League club is allowed to employ

(59:22):
ten overseas players. Now he already had gone up to
seven and it's now ten. So there's already State league
level players playing in the Super League, Queensland Cup level
players playing in the Super League, New South Wales Cup
level players playing in the Super League. Now there's going
to be three extra players allowed per team, so twelve

(59:47):
times three thirty six of the current twelve teams. But
that brings me on to my next point. The league
will also go from twelve to fourteen teams next year,
so there's another two teams who need to get another
twenty five players, so another twenty from overseas, or can

(01:00:08):
get twenty from overseas. They've got less than six months now,
bear in mind the Dolphins had two years, the Perth
Bears have still a year and a half, the Papua
New Guinea team maybe two and a half years. The
English and their wisdom have decided to give teams six
months and they don't know who they are yet, Madge,

(01:00:30):
or do they because the rumor mill is that Salford
will be kicked out of the league because of their
financial woes and York, London and Bradford will be brought
into the Super League. That's the Jungle Drums Bradford, who

(01:00:52):
I think were bought by in the past. Nigel would
the other places in Super League this year have been
granted to teams determined by a grading criteria from a
company called IMG who were hired for twelve years.

Speaker 4 (01:01:18):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
This IMG are a worldwide, world renowned company, but for
some reason people in British rugby leagues think they're useless.
Yet they are involved in some of the biggest things
the world I've seen sports wise and outside of sport too.
I believe the extra two or three teams in Super

(01:01:39):
League will be selected by an independent panel, not the
grading criteria the others have to add to adre to.
So is that the league is that this panel saying
that the criteria is terrible. So this twelve year contract
designed third year anything is and they're already scrapping that
criteria the next next next thing. The clubs when they

(01:02:03):
passed this didn't consult their biggest sponsor or, backer Sky TV.
The broadcasters didn't tell them that they wanted to add
some more teams to lose in France who would have
fancied their chances based on the IMG criteria are thought

(01:02:23):
to be missing out, and there's also anti French stuff
going around from the clubs. Super League has been fourteen
teams in the past and it was scrapped. I think
it's been fourteen teams twice actually, and by opening up
even more overseas quota sports and giving little time for

(01:02:46):
these clubs to recruit, as well as two new NRL
teams coming soon and this rugby three sixty thing get
ready for some Australian park footballers to end up playing
in Super League or New Zealand park footballers to add
to the numerous State Cup level players that are already there.

(01:03:06):
So when we talk about strategy, the game spent significant
money on an over decade long partnership with IMG, So
these clubs, who aren't even known well in England have
decided to undermine I think they are smarter than IMG,
the worldwide, highly regarded, respected company that was paid to

(01:03:30):
deliver lasting strategic change to the game about a quarter
and away into the deal. And the kicker is that
the RL NRL are unlikely to partner with Super League
now because they were keen on a ten team com
Apparently they were also going to consider twelve. And the

(01:03:53):
other strange thing is that the current TV deal for
Super League has another year run and they're changing the
system next year, so the extra two teams currently don't
have a broadcast slot. This is peak rugby league, isn't it.

(01:04:14):
On that note, it's been lovely to chat to here
on episode one and thirty nine of the Rugby League
Coach podcast. Please get in touch admin at Rugby League
Coach dot com dot au or at Rugby League Coach
on Facebook and Instagram. You can also find me YouTube, TikTok,
LinkedIn and at RL Coach on the Net. I love
your work. My name is still Lee Addison.

Speaker 4 (01:04:36):
Take care bye, tape baft

Speaker 1 (01:05:06):
Not opfer food person and Susan Suspe