It’s time for a full-time Australian coach, and that means competing with clubs for the best men for the job

THERE is no doubt that this year’s State of Origin series will be a massive challenge for Queensland.

Aside from the enormous task of extending an Origin-record run of series victories, and dealing with the incredible amount of pressure that comes with that, this year we face a new-look NSW set-up under their new coach, Ricky Stuart.

As I am sure you are all aware, the Blues have had a long, hard look for answers after a long drought of Origin success, and eventually decided to follow what we did in Queensland with a full-time coach, emerging squad of future players and the support of their former players.

I think it has taken them a while, but I think it takes the game itself a while to make these sorts of adjustments.

In the past, it has always been the way that a representative coaching job would go to a club coach that is already in the system.

I believe, and I think the Queensland Rugby League have been proven correct in believing, that the best path to success is by appointing an independent coach who can focus all of his energies into that job.

We know it works for us, NSW are hoping it works for them, and I think this should be the future coaching model for the Australian Test team as well.

Currently, the Australian job is a reward for how well you perform at NRL level.
Your success at club level leads to you being courted by the Australian Rugby League to bring that success to the national team.

And I think that is fair enough.

But to my mind, I think the importance of the role is being under-played, and at the same time, the game itself should be making more of the skills and abilities of the people given the honour of coaching Australia.

The Australian coaching job should be a full-time, paid position – but it would be a job very different to the current set-up.

I believe that being Australian coach should mean a job well beyond the actual coaching, man-management and performance-management of the team.

I think a fulltime Australia coach could be used as the face of the game, and be used as the figurehead for the development of the game.

That would mean being heavily involved in the junior development side of things, and also using their profile and the profile of their position to assist in the marketing and sponsorship of all levels of the code.

This would be a truly full-time job, and it should act as a reward for what the coach has achieved at NRL level.

I also think that the coach should be appointed by the game. It should be about appointing the person who can fulfill all of the duties that come with the job.

It should be a reward for achievement, and it should be a very attractive and coveted position to aspire to.

That coach should be able to make his living from being Australia’s rugby league coach, and it would be a good living because it would be a very hard job.

And I’m not advocating the job be some kind of golden handshake for coaches to hang on to for four or five years until retirement.

I think the Australian Rugby League should be out there actively pursuing the best coaches in the game to fill this position.

We should see someone like Tim Sheens, Wayne Bennett or John Cartwright as the full-time Kangaroos coach.

And the Australian Rugby League should be in a position where they are competing against the clubs for the services of these talented coaches, in the same way that the NRL clubs compete amongst themselves.

We should be putting these types of coaches on a pedestal. They are the doyens of the game.

By appointing them to an expanded full-time position as the coach of the Australian team, they would also become a marketing tool for the game itself.
The national coach should be involved in the coaching and development f the game, junior development, and he should be the mouthpiece for the code.

He should be utilised in the corporate world.

As Queensland coach, there is about three months of full-time work involved in just getting the Origin team prepared to play three games.

Now in the future, I would like to see the state coach role expanded to play a role as an ambassador for the game in each state, mirroring that of the Australian coach at the national level.

Ricky Stuart is now the full-time coach of NSW, and all of a sudden he is now responsible for the elite program, head of the country program for NSW, and heavily involved in their academy of excellence.

The situation we have with Queensland at the moment has been very successful, it suits the QRL and it suits me.

These positions should be coveted, challenging roles, acting independently of the clubs.

The main figurehead should be the national coach, and then it would operate like a tier-system where he is in frequent communication with the state coaches, and working on a plan to strengthen and grow rugby league.

They would be responsible for the development of the game, out there being the faces of the code.

The game is continuing to change and evolve every year, and that evolution will continue this year with the introduction of the NRL’s independent commission.
And I think placing more gravitas on the Australian coaching position should be a part of this evolution, making the most of our most talented people at the top of the tree to make sure that the roots of the game remain strong.