Matty Johns on why Cameron Ciraldo knocking back the Tigers showed why he’s the right man for the job

His intelligence beat down his ambition and desperation. Five-year deal, great money, a quality mentor in Tim Sheens, but he passed the IQ test and said: “No.”

Assistant coaching vs being the head coach, it’s a different occupation.

The assistant coach is always the good guy, he’s the one the disgruntled players want to have a beer with.

When the side’s losing, he’s looked upon as part of the solution.

The assistant coach doesn’t wake up and find clumps of hair on his pillow.

He’s not the one who has to tell the halfback that he’s been dropped. He’s not the one who’s sitting in the post-match press conference trying to explain how he’ll steer the team out of this six-game losing streak.

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An assistant coach, no matter how good he is, has no idea what type of coach he’s going to be until he’s in the frying pan.

Rugby league is a tough, brutal sport, but the coaching aspect is the bloodiest of the lot.

Each year it get more intense, more cut throat, more ruthless.

Coaching was once primarily about the X and Os, who had the better tactics, who was best at improving and developing players.

That’s still a vital part of it but what really separates the best from the less than best is the ability to handle the intense pressure.

When many assistants get their wish and are elevated to the role of head coach, they are naive to their naivety….if that makes sense.

Their desperation for a job doesn’t allow them to truly look at themselves and ask, “Am I ready?” or “Am I good enough for what this club needs?”

For some this is the first high profile, high pressure situation they’ve been placed in.

They hear about the pressure of the job, they’ve seen what it’s done to others, but until they experience it, they have no idea what it’s like.

They also haven’t had to deal with the media.

When you’re the assistant you might get a paragraph written about you, and it’s nearly always complimentary.

Very different to 12 months later, you’re now head coach, you’ve lost four on the trot and sources from within the club are telling journalists you might have lost the dressing room.

A number of years back a newly appointed coach asked if we could have a beer, so he could get my thoughts on a few things.

We chatted a little bit about tactics and players, but primarily he wanted to know the media landscape.

My advice to him was simple and obvious.

“You’ve got a job, that’s to coach a football team. A journalist has a job, to report on the football team. If you’re in the press conference after a loss, you might get asked a couple of tough questions, don’t take it personally. The journalist is simply doing their job. And at the end of the day, it’s only sport.”

He thanked me. “Great advice.”

About three months later he’s in the press conference after a loss and a journalist asks a couple of fairly innocent questions around selections, and the coach blows up, and then later gives the journo a spray on the phone. PRESSURE!

The mistake clubs often make is allowing a young coach to assemble their own coaching team, very few do it right.

One of the cornerstones of Craig Bellamy and Wayne Bennett’s success is their coaching team.

Iconic American Football coach, Bill Parcells once told Bellamy: “Every coach has strengths and weaknesses, so you need to supplement your weaknesses with your coaching staff. Don’t appoint assistant coaches you want, appoint the ones you need.”

Bellamy’s coaching strength is defence, so he appoints assistants with an attack bias.

Too often young coaches appoint like-minded, young assistants. The first person I would appoint as my assistant would be an older mentor, who’s been through it all before. Someone I could lean on for advice, someone who can help give me the tools to deal with the pressure which will come.

Even the great Wayne Bennett in the not too distant past had coaching mentors.

The camera would flash to Wayne’s coaching box and sitting behind him would be the great

Ron Massey.

Wayne wasn’t too proud to seek advice of ‘Mass.’

AND ANOTHER THING…

If you’re a struggling club and you want to be able to threaten the elite few teams, you can’t continue with a game plan which is just a meek impersonation of the best. That’s one of the primary reasons they find themselves in the position they are in.

The Walker Brothers, Ben and Shane and their coaching model provides a genuine point of difference to what is being played in the competition at the moment.

OK, they haven’t been in the furnace of NRL head coaching, but they come with an established blue print, a method which is unorthodox, but proven highly successful.

The brothers went to Wayne Bennett a number of years back asking for advice on their coaching ambitions. Wayne told them to find a struggling team and turn them into a powerhouse and that’s exactly what they did at the Ipswich Jets. At Ipswich they won the competition on one of the lowest budgets in that comp.

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The 2003 Panthers and 2005 Tigers came out of nowhere and won a competition playing a style which bucked the trend.

The Walkers have stated they’d be willing to sign a short term deal to prove they will be successful and the clubs looking for a new coach have missed an opportunity not giving them a chance for the remainder of the season.

If you place an older mentor to assist them, with player relationships and media, it would be a far better option than simply appointing someone who’s a veteran on the coaching round-a-bout.

Originally published as Matty Johns on why Cameron Ciraldo knocking back the Tigers showed why he’s the right man for the job