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NRL coaches should have to have a degree in communication

T-Boon

Coach
Messages
15,168
I don’t give my much of a shit what the coaches sound like. Nor the players. I’d rather not hear from them anyway as we only get the same answers to the same questions time and time again. Player interviews are f**king boring.

I think they need to get batter at talking to the media and selling the game and it could translate to better standards off the field and ultimately more fans attending games.
 

T-Boon

Coach
Messages
15,168
You know what increases crowds? Winning not that the coach speaks the queens english

In economics terms that is just the win/loss curve. Individual clubs get a bigger crowd by winning than they do by losing, but clubs sliding up and down the win/loss curve doesnt increase the NRLs overall average crowd.
Shifting the win/loss curve up so that every spot on the curve gets a bigger crowd (eg club winning comp averages 40k rather than 25k, team coming last gets 20k instead of 10k) is achieved by things like promotion, game day entertainment, better salesmanship.
 

Murishido

Juniors
Messages
24
In economics terms that is just the win/loss curve. Individual clubs get a bigger crowd by winning than they do by losing, but clubs sliding up and down the win/loss curve doesnt increase the NRLs overall average crowd.
Shifting the win/loss curve up so that every spot on the curve gets a bigger crowd (eg club winning comp averages 40k rather than 25k, team coming last gets 20k instead of 10k) is achieved by things like promotion, game day entertainment, better salesmanship.
So let me get this straight a better interview, available on television, would encourage more people to attend in person and not see the engaging soliloquy of the defeated coach?

If the interview is a premier advertisement of the game (rather than you know... stuff that happened in the game by athletes who used to be coached but now are sitting around aimlessly whilst Robbo does a method acting course down the road at nida) then the game is already dead.

Your win loss curve is trite because a coaches job is literally about their position on the win loss curve.

Asking them to join in some collusive utilitarian effort to their relative detriment gets them fired.

There are plenty of other roles across the league that serve your curve shifting desires (though focusing a mass media product on live attendance belies a lack of commercialism)
 

T-Boon

Coach
Messages
15,168
If the interview is a premier advertisement of the game (rather than you know... stuff that happened in the game by athletes who used to be coached but now are sitting around aimlessly whilst Robbo does a method acting course down the road at nida) then the game is already dead.

NRL is over coached anyway. You can tell it is because the coaches spend so much time coming up with ways to cheat and make the game difficult to referee. The coaches need more things to do that will occupy them, because with spare time they come up with the wrestle etc. They need to spend less time doing video sessions.
So yeah get them to do some courses that will help get bums on seats.
American football coaches have so much stuff to do that they cannot come up with time to cheat the rules.
 
Messages
13,797
I'll give you two basic profiles from coaches from back in the 1960s. Eastern Suburbs in 1965 and 1966 were coached by Bert Holcroft. Holcroft was English, knew rugby league very well, was a silver tongued speaker and worked as a salesman at Mick Simmons Sports Store during the day. He was a great orator. In 1965 Easts won 3 games, drew 1 and lost 14. In 1966 Easts lost all 18 games.

In 1967 a new coach took over at Eastern Suburbs. He was not a noted orator. Hadn't coached before either. He took the same squad with only 3 new players who were hardly big names (Allan McKean, Bruce Stewart and Louis Newmann) and they had 13 wins, 2 draws and 7 losses finishing 4th in the regular season. The new coach? Oh, some guy named Jack Gibson...…..
 
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madunit

Super Moderator
Staff member
Messages
62,358
This is one of the things NRL coaches should have to have.
Some of them are terrible communicators to the fans (eg through press conferences where the fan gets to see them the most).
The game needs to drop the working class larrikin image. It is pre-historic.
There are too many Maloney's, Cordner's, Norman's, Flanagan's, Arthurs's.
Too many syllables are getting dropped. Yes is not pronounced "air".
Not enough DCE's, Cooper Cronks.

Did anyone notice when Israel Folau started playing union he started talking a lot smarter? It happened over night.
BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH
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*gasps for air*

AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA
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T-Boon

Coach
Messages
15,168
I'll give you two basic profiles from coaches from back in the 1960s. Eastern Suburbs in 1965 and 1966 were coached by Bert Holcroft. Holcroft was English, knew rugby league very well, was a silver tongued speaker and worked as a salesman at Mick Simmons Sports Store during the day. He was a great orator. In 1965 Easts won 3 games, drew 1 and lost 14. In 1966 Easts lost all 18 games.

In 1967 a new coach took over at Eastern Suburbs. He was not a noted orator. Hadn't coached before either. He took the same squad with only 3 new players who were hardly big names (Allan McKean, Bruce Stewart and Luis Newmann) and they had 13 wins, 2 draws and 7 losses finishing 4th in the regular season. The new coach? Oh, some guy named Jack Gibson...…..

Its not the 60's any more. The game was semi pro then.
 

firechild

First Grade
Messages
7,704
Face it T-Boon. Nobody agrees with you and your idea was stupid. Just walk away.

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T-Boon

Coach
Messages
15,168
I think if we had well spoken coaches who take communication seriously and were capable of saying interesting things about the game in a post match interview (instead of bagging out the refs and just being a Wayne Bennett type) there would be a lot of positive offshoots.

One coach who I think does this well and seems to get the fact that he is a promotor of the game is Brad Fittler. He has turned a leaf since becoming NSW coach and has obviously work on his use of words which added to the fact he has some personality makes him an asset to NSWRL. Go look at the NSWRL website. He is the face of it.

He should be who NRL coaches aspire to be. Imagine if each NRL coach was required to sell his club brand the way Freddy sells NSWRL. Our viewership and crowds would go through the roof.

Robinson at the Roosters tries to be articulate and also talk about the game a bit you have to give him credit, but he has no personality at all. He is like a robot.
 

mave

Coach
Messages
12,937
Forget coaches being articulate, that can come later.

I would prefer the press conferences to have a microphone on the reporters asking the questions, so there is some context when the coach waffles his answer.

Baby steps.
 

T-Boon

Coach
Messages
15,168
Forget coaches being articulate, that can come later.

I would prefer the press conferences to have a microphone on the reporters asking the questions, so there is some context when the coach waffles his answer.

Baby steps.

Agreed. Very good point. That would give us a good idea if, as suspected, there are particular journalists who are always asking the same questions to get the ref blaming answers. They should have to wait until given the microphone introduce themselves, where they are from then ask the question...(do they already do this?)

I have said this before a couple times but if clubs arent already doing this they should have club aligned journalists in the press conference who get to ask the first few questions (with notice to the coach) so the press conference can get off on a positive and the coach can make some informative insightful comment that makes it sound like they know what they are talking about.
I remember when Parra was coached by Steve Kearney I use to cringe through his press conferences to the point where I would turn the TV off out of sympathy.
If a team is having a bad season fans turn on the coach in part because the coach cannot articulate his plan for turning things around. They need to be able to explain what they are doing/planning. Instead they blame the refs.
 

T-Boon

Coach
Messages
15,168
Id prefer our journalists and commentators to know what they are talking about first.

True, that has to happen as well. But I think it is the clubs/coaches role to educate the journalists/commentators.
Like how do the journalists know what the point of wrestling is? Who is explaining to the fan why tackling has changed so much over the last 15 years? It certainly isnt coaches. I've never heard a coach talk about wrestling or even admit it happens and that they coach it. Bellamy has never said one word about it.
It is the media speculating and it takes them years to catch up.
Or why all the decoy running in the game now as opposed to 20 years ago. Coaches don't talk about it they just complain about how refs are getting all the calls wrong in relation to obstruction.
They have to try to bring the fans and the media along with what is going on with the game and why it is so different now.
 

unforgiven

Bench
Messages
3,138
But I think it is the clubs/coaches role to educate the journalists/commentators.
That is not their role, it the broadcasters role to employ people who are capable of analysing the game at the appropriate level!
I've never heard a coach talk about wrestling or even admit it happens and that they coach it. Bellamy has never said one word about it.
Why would a coach give away tactics that they employ to win games, that would be stupid.
They have to try to bring the fans and the media along with what is going on with the game and why it is so different now.
All the changes to the game are fairly easy to comprehend and the reasons for such changes are not that hard to determine.
 

T-Boon

Coach
Messages
15,168
That is not their role, it the broadcasters role to employ people who are capable of analysing the game at the appropriate level!

that is a bad attitude but I do think it is the attitude of the clubs and the NRL and it is the reason we are bad at selling the game compared to AFL. The clubs don't think it is there job to sell the game. So it is the broadcasters or somebody else's job to sell the game. One of the things the AFL would do is get the right people in the right jobs with broadcasters. They would see that as their job.
 

unforgiven

Bench
Messages
3,138
that is a bad attitude but I do think it is the attitude of the clubs and the NRL and it is the reason we are bad at selling the game compared to AFL. The clubs don't think it is there job to sell the game. So it is the broadcasters or somebody else's job to sell the game. One of the things the AFL would do is get the right people in the right jobs with broadcasters. They would see that as their job.
That is just wrong, the NRL has no role in who the broadcasters employ. There will be no improvement in the quality of commentators until the likes of Warren and Gould are no longer involved in the game.
 

AJB1102

First Grade
Messages
6,339
Who is explaining to the fan why tackling has changed so much over the last 15 years? It certainly isnt coaches. I've never heard a coach talk about wrestling or even admit it happens and that they coach it. Bellamy has never said one word about it.
It is the media speculating and it takes them years to catch up.
Or why all the decoy running in the game now as opposed to 20 years ago.

If you've been watching long enough to notice changes over 15 years then it's a little surprising you'd need it explained. Basically any change is to increase the chances of winning.

Slower rucks = more time to set your defensive line.

Decoy runners, when done right, aren't decoys they are options. Running a play with 3 legitimate possible receivers poses a lot more questions than just 1. This seems obvious.
 

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