New Wests Tigers coach Jason Taylor delivers 'professional' message to team
Michael Carayannis
Published: October 9, 2014 - 10:00PM
New Wests Tigers coach Jason Taylor left his players with a simple message; "become professional" when he met the squad for the first time.
While Taylor doesn't officially take the reins of the club until next month, he has wasted little time in planning for 2015. Taylor fronted his first club function at the Tigers' end of season awards last Friday and met the playing group at the club's Concord headquarters prior to the event.
The former Wests Magpies halfback also sat down with skipper Robbie Farah the day before.
"My relationship with all of the players is enormously important, but no one more important than the captain of the team, so I definitely wanted to talk to Robbie one-on-one before I met with the team so he and I were clear about how our relationship's going to build," Taylor said.
"Not a great deal came out of that conversation other than the fact that he knows where I'm coming from.
"I think for all of them, when there's been a change like this and when you've had a bit of a season that you'd rather forget, when you meet the new coach, it sort of then puts last season behind you. Everybody can now look forward having met the new coach and look forward to that with some optimism."
Farah faced a challenging 2014 after being thrown into the spotlight because of his relationship with former coach Mick Potter. He became the face of the club's off-field woes as he battled an elbow injury, won an Origin series before the Tigers faltered in their run to the finals.
Taylor said he could relate with Farah having gone through his own setbacks in his rugby league career.
"I talked to him about the fact that rugby league can be a real tough game on and off the field and just how I understand how he felt because as a player and a coach I've gone through those ups and downs," Taylor said.
"I just wanted him to understand that I know what that feels like. And I think that that would help him to realise that I can be a good sounding board and give him good support, because we're going to have some tough times again.
"Everybody here's had a tough year, but we're not going to be immune from that, from going through some tough times again. It's just how you come out the other side of it."
Taylor, who has spent the past two seasons as Trent Robinson's assistant at the Roosters, had a clear message for the rest of the playing squad.
"[It was] about them getting themselves into a professional state of mind," he said. "Pretty simple stuff, but the real basics of being a professional rugby league player.
"I just wanted to take the opportunity that they were all going to be together today to just talk to them about some things I want them to start thinking about in relation to focus areas for us once we start training."
Taylor is yet to finalise his coaching staff, but Penrith's high performance manager Matt Cameron is set to join former Panther Phil Moss at the club after Moss became the Tigers' general manager of football operations.
Taylor will spend the next few weeks poring over footage as he tries to familiarise himself with his new charges.
"I've got to do a bit of work watching some of the games from this season and getting to know what players bring what to the team," he said. "You don't know individuals at a club when you're coaching an opposition team anywhere near as you do once you get there.
"I need to really just get into a few hours of watching the team play and really get an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the guys."
This story was found at:
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...essional-message-to-team-20141008-1134wq.html
