HOW TO TRAIN MY DRAGONS

[R L Winger]

SEASON 2022 IS MAKE OR BREAK FOR THE RED V

You’ve had a full season at the club to have a look around and see what you think needs to change. How do you see the future?

It is really positive. Now after one season, we have got a good mixture of experience and we have recruited well. But the vital part is being able to produce our own players and that is starting to evolve as well. So as far as building a list and a team that we can start to sustain some success with, I think things are looking good.

Some people have been critical of your recruitment in that you have signed a lot of older players, some who may be considered over the hill. But you seem to have gone about it with a specific purpose of getting value for money?

Well, that is the case with someone like Aaron Woods. But I mean he is only 30, and he adds great depth. But guys like Jaydn Su’A, who is 24, and Frank Molo, I think is 26 turning 27, and current Origin players, I don’t know if they are over the hill.

I know Aaron Woods impressed you when you had your initial chat before he signed. What did he say to convince you he’d be good for the club?

I was just impressed with what he wanted to do. He was still very motivated. He felt he probably hadn’t played his best football over the last few years. He got caught up, obviously, in the Tigers/Bulldogs/ Cronulla move, and he is desperate to play well. I think if you have a look at his history, he has played 18- odd Test matches and the same amount of Origins, and like I said, he is only 30 years old.

He didn’t strike me as a guy who had lost his enthusiasm for the game. In fact, he was more convincing the other way. I think he still has got a lot more to offer and I know he thinks he has got a lot more to offer. He brings a lot of experience and depth to our forward pack.

What about a guy like Moses Mbye? He went to the Tigers and got paid big money because he was considered a player with great hope. But he has always been shifted around without really getting the chance to find a permanent position. How do you want to play him?

Well, that was the attraction with him. Again, Moses is only 27. He has been around for a long time. I think he was playing halfback for the Bulldogs when he was only 18 or 19.

But he has played in grand finals, he has played Origin. And he was really brutally honest about his own performances at the Wests Tigers, which you have got to admire. When I spoke to him, again, he was really driven and he wants to unlock another level of performance out of himself. And the thing I liked the most was he was really selfless in how he sees that happening. He wasn’t after a guarantee about a position. In fact, he probably sees himself more as that person who can fill a number of roles.

That’s the attraction with him – he can play nine, seven, six or one, and he has played centre at State of Origin level. And the main thing is we don’t or won’t bring anyone to the club that is not motivated or doesn’t have a burning desire to win, and that is what I found in him as well.

George Burgess is another one who has done everything in the game but now we find out he has also suffered in silence for years with agonising pain from his hip injury. What have you seen so far and can he get back to his best?

I think so, now after working with him for a couple of months. He is training really well. Obviously it was major surgery, so the performance staff have been really cautious with him. But I think the way he is going at the moment, he is a really good chance of playing in the trials, which is his focus. And again, he hasn’t turned 30 yet, and the last five or six years he has sort of played in pain, which no one really realised the extent of it. I can only comment on the last few months since I have known him and he is similar to the previous two guys I spoke about: he is desperate to play at the highest level again and he wants to prove himself because he feels like he hasn’t been at his best for three or four years. He has been fantastic for our younger players. He has embraced the club and on and off the field he is looking really good.

You throw in guys like Jack de Belin, Josh McGuire, Jack Bird, Blake Lawrie, Tariq Sims, Andrew McCullough. It’s a tough, experienced pack.

Well, potentially. We are not getting ahead of ourselves. Everyone just wants to get through the pre-season. But that was always the focus. It was strategic and we have been patient.

You know, Georgie Burgess and Aaron Woods are the last couple we have signed after we got Su’A and Molo and those guys. They came to us at the right time and probably at the right time in their careers, where they are still hungry and passionate about their footy.

There is a bunch of good youngsters coming through: (Tyrell) Sloan, (Talatau) Amone, (Jayden) Sullivan, the Feagai brothers (Mat and Max).

And (Cody) Ramsey. I mean, Zac Lomax is still only 22. The important thing with that is it is hard for them to develop if they are playing in a team that hasn’t got a strong forward pack. So it was always important we build our pack, and the size and experience, because if you are going to produce young players through your system, they need to be playing on a solid foundation. They are going to be inconsistent at times as they are learning over the next two to three years, so you need to balance that inconsistency with a strong side that gives them the opportunity to make a few bad decisions or have an off-day.

That has been one of my main focuses. I never wanted or suggested we needed a rebuild, but we needed to add some arsenal to what we already had.

You haven’t been afraid to make tough calls along the way. You made a decision on Cam McInnes, not that you didn’t want to keep him but you had a choice to make in respect to how much the Dragons were willing to pay to keep him. Paul Vaughan was sent packing. Matt Dufty is another who didn’t get a new deal.

Just in the year I have been here as a group and a management group with Ben Haran and Ryan Webb, we have got a good relationship and we have developed well together. We are aligned with where we are going – clearly we had to change. The club hadn’t been successful and so that is just business. You have a look at the Bulldogs at the moment. They are changing every month with their list. But you’ve got to be in that mode.

Obviously there is a performance change and a system change with the way you go about your business, but there has also got to be some roster change internally and bringing in people from outside you think can represent your club well.

How disappointed were you with the barbecue at Paul Vaughan’s? How much did that rock your season? Because you were in the eight at that point and I don’t think you won another game.

 

No, we didn’t. We were in the top eight for 18 of the 24 weeks. So it was obviously disappointing. Everyone at the club was disappointed – the players involved and right through.

But we have to use that experience as a lesson going forward and I suppose an opportunity to build a stronger standard within the club. The hardest thing was not being able to win a couple of football games, but in hindsight I am a believer everything happens for a reason, and that might be a strength now we can draw on. The fact we went through that has made us hungrier.

I mentioned Dufty. He had a crack at you publicly, talking about the fact you wouldn’t let him play his style of attacking football. Is that the reality of it?

There are a lot of reasons throughout a year, when you are working with players, why you can get a performance out of them or you can’t. Some of that you have got to take responsibility for yourself as a coach and as a club when a player doesn’t work out. But I have no problem with Matt. He did a great job for our club. He had been a junior and played a lot of football.

But the reasons for us not wanting him had nothing to do with when he had the ball in his hands. It was the other way. And he understands that, and I think anyone that watches football would understand that. But he is entitled to his own opinion.

What about the options you have for fullback. Tyrell Sloan has obviously got exceptional talent.

Is he ready to be a starting No.1 for a full NRL season? Guys like him and Ramsey, who has had a few more games. But they are obviously guys we are looking long term to be in those positions, and we are working constantly with them on and off the field with their education in that area.

They are both doing well, physically. They are growing. They are both nearly 90kg. So you just don’t know. They are young and they are inexperienced. So that is what I was getting at before. We need to build a strong side around guys like that.

But it is a real key position, particularly over the last five or six years with the way the fullback position has evolved. There is a lot of strategy and being able to read play, both with and without the ball. So we are working as a coaching staff really hard on that education for them.

Whether Sloany or Cody nail that position down, all I can say is that we will give them every opportunity. I think long term they will, we will just need to wait and see for this year.

What about the young halves, you’ve got two rising stars in Jayden Sullivan and Junior Amone. How do you plan out their future? Sullivan has also played some dummy half.

Sully did a great job last year at nine, and Junior jumped in and took his chance the first time we gave him a go at five-eighth.

He came off the bench I think about two weeks after the SG Ball grand final and sort of stayed in the side, filling in at lock and centre and places like that. But as soon as we stuck him in at five-eighth, he showed a bit of class so he stayed there for the rest of the year.

Jayden is a really gifted player as well. He struggled with injury for the most of last year, which probably didn’t help him. He didn’t actually start playing footy until midway through the year. They are both exciting.

And with Ben Hunt, with the captaincy on his shoulders, he had one of the best seasons he’s probably had, even though we would have liked him to be on the field a bit longer. I think he was only there for 14 or 15 games but between the three of those guys and Moses Mbye and Jack Bird, who can also play in the halves, we are well stocked.

Ben Hunt has shown tremendous character. Not many players have copped it more in recent years, and the way he has fought back and won a lot of respect is a credit to him.

I mean, you just have to see what he did in the third State of Origin. They threw him in at hooker and he played 80 minutes and got man of the match. He has had some obstacles over his career, which we all have. But it just gives you an insight into the mental toughness of the guy. And, also, he is just a really good person. You give him the captaincy and even though it might have been not what he was thinking of when he started the year – we all thought Cam (McInnes) was going to be our captain but then he got hurt – so you give it to Ben Hun and he grabbed it and did a great job, to the point where now he is really entrenched in that role.

And I think having that extra responsibility has brought out the best in him. It is probably one of the reasons he has played so well because he takes it really seriously, the fact he is a leader of our club.

You briefly mentioned Zac Lomax. He is a young guy with enormous talent and you have brought Moses Suli to the club. They are two strike centres and two players of the future.

Well, as I said Zac is 22 and started playing first grade when he was 18 or 19 and still has a long way to go in his education and his maturity. But he will be at the club long term and he is going to be a great centre, I think, if he continues to develop.

And Moses didn’t get much of a go at Manly last year. He was injured for a while but he has got enormous potential. Again, he is another one of those old blokes we signed at 23 (laughing). But when I spoke to him, he is very driven about what he wants to do as well. I think he only had one go at the end of last year against Canberra and everyone saw that night the potential that he has got.

I don’t think potential has ever been the issue with Moses Suli, has it? It has been his attitude, in some respects, but in fairness he was very young.

Yeah. As I say, when I spoke to him he didn’t shy away from that either. He admitted he’s contributed to a few of his tougher times over his career. So at 23 he has a long time to mature, but he is 107/108kg strike centre so we are looking forward to working hard with him to get him to his potential.

What about yourself? You had a couple of years out and now you’ve had one back. Regretting it?

I love it. Obviously last year was a tough year the way we finished. But up until round 16 or 17, whenever that was, I thought we were building really well to be sitting seventh, I think, at the time. As a club, everything is progressing really well and the future looks good.

From my point of view, I just love going to work every day. Well, I don’t call it work, but going to practice every day, and working on something that when we get it right, it is going to be really special.