Hannay is one of the Queensland SOO attacking coaches isn't he? Might not specifically be that but he is the main assistant.
Only a 100% fekkwit would speculate on turfing Hannay if he wanted to stay. Oh hang on, the thread was started by a 100% fekkwit wasn't it
Hannah might have his own side next year anyway. Be good to see him get a go in his own right rather than just getting parachuted into basket case rescue jobs.
Maroons’ secret weapon is ready to dominate NRL
-David Riccio
Josh Hannay,
the Queensland assistant coach who spent every waking hour devising the game plan to blunt the NSW attack could be an NRL coach tomorrow, according to rugby league legend Johnathan Thurston.
Which is why, it came as no surprise to Thurston, when told by this column that
both the coach-less Bulldogs and Warriors have inquired about the services of the Maroons assistant coach and right-hand man to Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon.
“He’s a great coach, just so knowledgeable and everyone I’ve spoken to just loves him,’’ Thurston said.
“The three of us (Queensland coaching staff members Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and Thurston) aren’t in an NRL system and he’s the only one that is, so you could tell when we were running training sessions, his communication and the way he sets up the drills, was exactly what we needed.
Maroons assistant Josh Hannay was a key cog in the Origin I victory.
“If there were an NRL job for him available, in my eyes he wouldn’t be a gamble at all.
“He’s ready.’’
To footy fans, Hannay is the forgotten man on the coaching merry-go-round.
But within the clubland, Hannay’s name sits written in the notebook of the good judges, like a Spring time blackbooker.
Such is his lustre, Maroons coach Billy Slater could’ve chosen anyone, from the King Wally Lewis to Supercoach Wayne Bennett, to sit alongside him on Wednesday night in the coaches box.
He chose Hannay.
Queensland coach Billy Slater (C) relied heavily on Josh Hannay (R) leading in to Origin I. Picture: Zak Simmonds
“When the QRL first spoke to me, my first priority was to put the right people around the players,” Slater said after the Maroons’ Origin I victory.
“That’s the first thing I needed to do and a guy like Josh Hannay, he knows what this team means to Queensland, but he has a great football mind as well.
“He’s been super for us.”
It can be revealed that it was Hannay who Slater chose to drive home the plan of how to shut down NSW, including star half Nathan Cleary.
Particularly, Hannay’s task zeroed in on communicating and preparing Queensland’s edge players how to pressure by rushing or resisting and holding their line when the Blues had the ball.
Johnathan Thurston and Josh Hannay were Cowboys and Origin teammates.
Equally, the plan included what those same edge players needed to do to expose the Blues defensive line.
For a number of reasons, there’s a quiet maturity about Hannay.
His learnings as a centre, whose career was stymied by knee injuries, under Tim Sheens, Graham Murray, Neil Henry and Ricky Stuart as well as working as a coach alongside Paul Green, Kevin Walters, Slater and Fitzgibbon, have added to his layers.
But nothing beats experience in the hot seat, which came over two separate stints as interim coach for the Cowboys (10-games) following the sacking of Paul Green in 2020 and then again as the ‘nightwatchman’ for the Sharks following the sacking of John Morris for 19-games in 2021.
The Sharks players still talk about Hannay’s clarity in his planning and coaching and ability to bind the club in the wake of the emotional departure of Morris.
Fitzgibbon heard this also and resisted bringing in one of his “own” when he took the Sharks job.
There‘s no ego either, perhaps instilled by Hannay’s admiration for not one particular NRL coach he’s worked with, but Liverpool manager and “football’s genuine good guy’’, Jurgen Klopp.
Josh Hannay calling the shots at Shark Park when he was caretaker coach. Supplied
Speak to those close to Hannay and they will tell you he couldn’t put Klopp’s biography “Bring The Noise” down and that from Klopp, he has faith that he can still remain caring and genuine as a coach, while still being successful.
X’s and O’s carry weight for clubs searching for a new coach.
But finding a coach without ego, or who doesn’t think he’s bigger than the franchise itself, is much more difficult.
Hannay still speaks with the soft tone of a Queensland country twang, but it shouldn’t be mistaken for someone who isn’t afraid of a tough call.
When the Sharks moved to Queensland with the rest of the NRL competition and squad sizes were restricted to 30 last season, it was Hannay as the interim head coach who told the easily distracted Josh Dugan, the second-highest paid player at the club, he wasn’t going.
It’s almost odd that Hannay doesn’t have the profile of his rivals riding the coaching spin-cycle.
The 42-year-old from the small coal mining town of Moranbah in Queensland was so good at 16, he almost created history by becoming the youngest player to make his first-grade debut before it was blocked by the ARL.
He ran out 12-months later for North Queensland as a 17-year-old.
A two-game Maroons player and 150-game Cowboy, Hannay has graduated through the coaching ranks without a player agent flogging him to every club.
I suppose he doesn’t need to either.
Not when living immortals like Slater and Thurston are doing all the talking.
