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Sharks coach John Morris has opened up about the rookies he’s most excited about at Cronulla, in a wide-ranging Q&A with Michael Carayannis.
It was a season like no other for the 16 NRL head coaches, facing unprecedented challenges as they tried to get the best out of their teams.
For John Morris and his Cronulla Sharks, it was a year in which they reached the finals but ultimately couldn’t keep pace with the best teams in the league.
He opens up about the season from hell, about the young guns on the way up, and about Shaun Johnson’s recovery from injury in our Coaching Clipboard series.
Michael Carayannis: You’ve had a chance to reflect on 2020. What did you get out of the season?
John Morris: It was a year like no other. The challenges of COVID and the impact it had on everyone was not appreciated enough. The playing group and the staff – the mental side of it was very difficult.
We had 18 back-to-back games into finals and that was hard. You saw a lot of coaches rest their players – I did the same. Players were battered. For us to be playing finals footy in the year it was, while bowing out earlier than I had hoped, it was still a good outcome. It’s well documented the adversity we’ve been under. We lost Matt Prior, Josh Morris and unfortunately what happened with Bronson Xerri was really hard to handle.
We blooded some young talent and played finals footy for the second consecutive year.
What positive do you take out of the season?
The emergence of our youth. When I went through our top 17 players at the end of the season in terms of most game players – there were 12 or 13 who had player under 50 games.
Royce Hunt’s emergence was a highlight for the Sharks. Picture: Brett Costello
That’s been a vast difference to recent Cronulla sides. For most weeks we had about 1300 games of experience which is about 1500 down on what it’s been over the years. Giving the debutants their first game was a massive highlight. As was the emergence of Sifa Talakai, Toby Rudolf and Royce Hunt, who all came to us on train and trial contracts. To have the year they had was a real shining light. It gives me optimism heading into this year that they will push the starting players.
What is your big message in pre-season?
Defence is number one but we also have to get fitter. The game went to another level with the ball in play and the six-again rule. I look at Penrith and Canberra and the class of the Roosters and the Storm. They are all fit, athletic and can repeat high-speed efforts. That’s what your training has to look like.
We will be making sure our training is specific to what the game demands.
Everything we do will be based on defence this year. We conceded 24 points a game which wasn’t good enough. To be a top-four defensive side in 2020 you had to concede less than 16 point per game, so it’s not a huge amount we have to improve by. But over the pre-season it will be our focus. I’m confident we will make big improvements in this area.
There are a few changes in the coaching and support staff, what can they bring?
Craig Sandercock has moved on to the Bulldogs however I have been able to replace him with Josh Hannay. I really admired what he did during his time as interim coach at the Cowboys. I saw a difference in the way they played which to me is a sign of a good coach. The playing group changed their style and were competing much harder. He is a good coach on the up.
We’ve had a couple of changes in our high performance – Nathan Pickworth joins us from the Dragons, as does Tony Grimaldi. I wanted to go for someone like Tony with the experience he had as a player and coming out of the Bulldogs he knows what hard work looks like. It suits the theme of where we are going.
Paul Gallen is still on board as a specialist forwards coach and, in exciting news, Luke Lewis will be joining us this year as a specialist coach and work specifically with our back-rowers and edge players. There is no doubting what these two achieved at the club and I’m hoping they will pass on that experience and winning culture into our youthful squad.
Shaun Johnson, what is the best case scenario we can see him back on the field after his torn Achilles?
Round eight is best case. It’s not something you can rush and you’re looking at a minimum six months. Just the way Shaun plays and his explosiveness and his ability to change direction we have to make sure he will be nice and strong before he can make any return. We’re hoping for certain he will play before round 10. It will hurt given he had one of his best years. He will be back bigger and better.
Will anyone miss the start of the season?
We won’t see Royce Hunt until round six while Talakai is also expected to miss a few of the opening games.
It was a season like no other for the 16 NRL head coaches, facing unprecedented challenges as they tried to get the best out of their teams.
For John Morris and his Cronulla Sharks, it was a year in which they reached the finals but ultimately couldn’t keep pace with the best teams in the league.
He opens up about the season from hell, about the young guns on the way up, and about Shaun Johnson’s recovery from injury in our Coaching Clipboard series.
Michael Carayannis: You’ve had a chance to reflect on 2020. What did you get out of the season?
John Morris: It was a year like no other. The challenges of COVID and the impact it had on everyone was not appreciated enough. The playing group and the staff – the mental side of it was very difficult.
We had 18 back-to-back games into finals and that was hard. You saw a lot of coaches rest their players – I did the same. Players were battered. For us to be playing finals footy in the year it was, while bowing out earlier than I had hoped, it was still a good outcome. It’s well documented the adversity we’ve been under. We lost Matt Prior, Josh Morris and unfortunately what happened with Bronson Xerri was really hard to handle.
We blooded some young talent and played finals footy for the second consecutive year.
What positive do you take out of the season?
The emergence of our youth. When I went through our top 17 players at the end of the season in terms of most game players – there were 12 or 13 who had player under 50 games.
Royce Hunt’s emergence was a highlight for the Sharks. Picture: Brett Costello
That’s been a vast difference to recent Cronulla sides. For most weeks we had about 1300 games of experience which is about 1500 down on what it’s been over the years. Giving the debutants their first game was a massive highlight. As was the emergence of Sifa Talakai, Toby Rudolf and Royce Hunt, who all came to us on train and trial contracts. To have the year they had was a real shining light. It gives me optimism heading into this year that they will push the starting players.
What is your big message in pre-season?
Defence is number one but we also have to get fitter. The game went to another level with the ball in play and the six-again rule. I look at Penrith and Canberra and the class of the Roosters and the Storm. They are all fit, athletic and can repeat high-speed efforts. That’s what your training has to look like.
We will be making sure our training is specific to what the game demands.
Everything we do will be based on defence this year. We conceded 24 points a game which wasn’t good enough. To be a top-four defensive side in 2020 you had to concede less than 16 point per game, so it’s not a huge amount we have to improve by. But over the pre-season it will be our focus. I’m confident we will make big improvements in this area.
There are a few changes in the coaching and support staff, what can they bring?
Craig Sandercock has moved on to the Bulldogs however I have been able to replace him with Josh Hannay. I really admired what he did during his time as interim coach at the Cowboys. I saw a difference in the way they played which to me is a sign of a good coach. The playing group changed their style and were competing much harder. He is a good coach on the up.
We’ve had a couple of changes in our high performance – Nathan Pickworth joins us from the Dragons, as does Tony Grimaldi. I wanted to go for someone like Tony with the experience he had as a player and coming out of the Bulldogs he knows what hard work looks like. It suits the theme of where we are going.
Paul Gallen is still on board as a specialist forwards coach and, in exciting news, Luke Lewis will be joining us this year as a specialist coach and work specifically with our back-rowers and edge players. There is no doubting what these two achieved at the club and I’m hoping they will pass on that experience and winning culture into our youthful squad.
Shaun Johnson, what is the best case scenario we can see him back on the field after his torn Achilles?
Round eight is best case. It’s not something you can rush and you’re looking at a minimum six months. Just the way Shaun plays and his explosiveness and his ability to change direction we have to make sure he will be nice and strong before he can make any return. We’re hoping for certain he will play before round 10. It will hurt given he had one of his best years. He will be back bigger and better.
Will anyone miss the start of the season?
We won’t see Royce Hunt until round six while Talakai is also expected to miss a few of the opening games.
