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‘I was naive’: Why AFL and rugby greats are backing Barrett as Eels coach
Coaching giants Paul Roos and Steve Hansen have endorsed Parramatta interim coach Trent Barrett to take on the job full-time.
While Storm assistant coach Jason Ryles and Cronulla’s Josh Hannay are considered the front-runners for the position, Barrett remains hopeful of getting the job - despite the baggage he carries from his early exits at Manly and Canterbury.
“I hope that doesn’t count against me,” a candid Barrett told this masthead on Wednesday. “I hope the club has seen enough of me in the last 18 months and, in particular, the last month that they’ll form their own opinion on whether I am the right man for the job.”
Roos’ leadership consultancy firm, Performance by Design, has been working with the Eels’ executive and coaching departments for several months.
The former Sydney Swans premiership coach worked with Brad Arthur until he was sacked after 11 years last month and has been advising Barrett closely in recent weeks.
On Monday, he sat in the coaches’ box and was impressed with how Barrett handled himself throughout the dramatic 22-18 loss to the Bulldogs at Accor Stadium.
“Without giving away too much about what was said, the way Trent spoke pre-game was very impressive,” Roos said. “The way he described how the Bulldogs were going to play was exactly how it played out. I was super impressed. Very analytical, broke the game down well, and very calm. That’s what stood out to me the most.
“I had a great relationship with BA [Arthur], but Trent has a real presence about him. And you can just see the respect he has from the players.”
Hansen, who coached the All Blacks to the 2015 Rugby World Cup, has been in Barrett’s corner for some years.
He mentored him in his early years at the Bulldogs and was scathing of the club’s decision to push Barrett out in May 2022.
“He wasn’t the problem — he was the scapegoat,” Hansen said from Japan where he is coaching director at Toyota Verblitz. “The problem at the Bulldogs wasn’t the coach because they’d sacked four of them and hadn’t fixed the problem. The roster is completely changed now.
When you’ve got an organisation that’s being run by a structure that allows the board to be held to knife-point all the time, they’re going to make decisions that saves their job, not someone else’s.
“Trent was judged pretty strongly because they failed, but they were in a position where they had to change a lot of things. When you make change, it takes time. I don’t think that was a reflection on his coaching ability at all.”
By his own admission, Barrett is a different coach to the wide-eyed rookie who took over Manly at the age of 36 in 2016, then the Bulldogs in 2021.
In both instances, he worked in the shadow of two of the game’s most ruthless operators: the late Bob Fulton at Manly and Phil Gould at the Bulldogs.
“I should have listened to them more,” Barrett said. “And be a little more patient; to know what they were saying was coming from a good place. Sometimes when you get advice, you can be defensive. Ultimately, they were trying to help me.
“There’s a completely different feel for me with Parramatta than my previous appointments. From the experiences I’ve been through, I’m a hell of a lot calmer, more patient and have greater clarity on who I am as a person and the coach I want to be.
“I know I can coach. That’s never been the issue. It’s handling the emotion of it. I was too emotional in those last two jobs. I feel I’m a lot more in control of myself to make clear decisions.”
One of the key criticisms of Barrett’s coaching, particularly when he was at Manly, was that he socialised too much with his players.
“That was blown out of proportion - but I understand the perception,” he said. “I was 36 when I took over at Manly and I played with three or four of the players in that side. I know through lessons learned, and the hard way, that perception carries a fair bit of weight.
“Not putting yourself in those situations, is really important. I understand that. It was naive of me to think back then that you can live a normal life as a coach. Even if you have two or three beers at a local pub, you have to be careful who sees you.
“I’m extremely aware about not getting too close to the players. That’s something I’d done in the past. It certainly helps with me being 46 years old not 36.”
After missing out on 74-year-old Wayne Bennett, the Eels are looking for a “modern coach” to lead them out their premiership wilderness.
With a 20-year-old daughter and 19-year-old son, along with being around footballers his entire life, Barrett reckons he understands the modern-day player as well as any coach.
“You put your arm around them but knee them in the nuts at the same time,” Barrett laughed. “That’s how you talk to the modern-day player. They need to be told the truth, but there’s a way of speaking to them as individuals. You can be blunt with some, not so with others because they won’t respond to it. That’s something I’m a lot better with now.”
Barrett said he has also established a close working relationship with halves Mitchell Moses and Dylan Brown, as well as fullback and captain Clint Gutherson.
“We’re all on the same page in terms of how we think about our footy,” he said. “We can have honest conversations. I can have honest conversations with all the players. They know what’s coming, and I’m comfortable saying it to them.
“That was something I wasn’t great at before. Only experience can make you better at that. You need to be in the job to work it out. I’ve gone about it the hard way and made errors and put myself in difficult situations. But I wouldn’t be in this position now without going through all that.”
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