Brian Smith's role at the Warriors. We could do a lot worse then bring this guys back home.
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/li...o-in-warriors-resurgence-20180907-p502dt.html
Life of Brian: Smith the unsung hero in Warriors' resurgence
Brian Smith, having discarded the clipboard once and for all, is literally whistling while he works.
“It is very different,” Smith said of his latest role, as the football manager for the resurgent Warriors. “I go to games now whistling. The radio on my car sound system is blowing up.
“When I’m driving home after the game is over, I’m doing the same thing after a win or a loss.
“It’s just a completely different feel. I care ... my contract is just like everybody else’s. I’m not going to have one if we’re not winning. But the pressures and the build-up to the game are completely different.
“I’m really enjoying being out of the limelight and the media, living a humbler sort of life. I’m totally at ease with that.”
Smith has coached the best part of 700 games in the NRL and the Super League over the course of more than three decades. There was very little whistling going on during that period as he searched for an elusive premiership. By his own admission, the 64-year-old has mellowed since giving up the coaching caper.
“I’m a grandfather now,” he said. That’s what I say to my mum about the [latest] job - the difference is I am like I am with my grandkids at the football club.
“I’m there, I’m ready to help and do my bit. But at the end of the day, they’re not my kids and I’m happy to give them back, to not have that responsibility.
“I love them in a different kind of way to how I love my own kids.”
There are many reasons why the Warriors are playing finals football for the first time in seven years. If Melbourne is the place players go to get better, the opposite is said of the Warriors. Only now are new recruits Blake Green, Adam Blair and Tohu Harris beginning to change that perception.
Strength and conditioning coach Alex Corvo is another astute acquisition, whipping the players into shape during the off season. Recruiter Peter O’Sullivan - “he’s as good as anyone in our game ever,” offered Smith - has stemmed the loss of Kiwi talent across the Tasman after joining the club in May. Chief executive Cameron George, meanwhile, has provided more stability to the front office. All have been given due credit for their contributions.
Smith has also played his part. The enormity of the task to turn around the club was laid bare during a warts-and-all football department review before his arrival.
“It wasn’t pretty reading,” Smith said. “It was pretty harsh, some of the stuff that was uncovered and spoken about.”
It became evident that Stephen Kearney had too much on his plate. Smith’s job was to lighten the load, allowing the coach to focus solely on coaching. The pair spoke about the task for six months before Smith finally accepted the position. During that period, they nutted out how the relationship would work.
“It’s stuff that I’ve done before, which is why I know it can be distracting,” Smith said of the periphery issues that modern coaches often get lumped with.
“In many parts of my career it got left to me, I did all that stuff and coached the team. The demands on head coaches now are off the Richter scale.
“That happened to me. I can recall at the back end of my career at Parra in 2006, I realised at the end of that period of my time that it had gone way past the days where a head coach could be all over junior representative footy and that sort of stuff.
“Even the recruitment stuff was really [taxing]. For me, I’m really happy because I just didn’t have the energy any more or feel I had the connection to it within myself to do what’s got to be done [as a head coach] at the level it’s got to be done, every week.”
Some coaches may have felt threatened by the prospect of having one of the most experienced mentors of all time at the same club. However, Smith had no interest playing in Kearney’ sand pit.
“We work really well together by not working together very much, if you know what I mean,” Smith said.
The Warriors finished the season in eighth spot, just one win behind the minor premiers. They will take on Penrith in what will be their first finals appearance since 2011. The Warriors have done this before, teasing the rugby league world with their potential. Smith’s job is to ensure finals appearances become the norm rather than the exception.
“A bad year needs to be a bit like Melbourne, where they finish fourth or fifth but still somehow finish up in the grand final,” Smith said.
There is no reason why they can’t. Smith points to the fact that 42 per cent of all NRL players are eligible to play for New Zealand. That a population of 1.6 million Aucklanders has enough athletic talent to sustain not only the All Blacks but the Warriors as well. And that the Warriors now have an ownership structure that can make the club sustainable long term. The latest playoff appearance may just be the first step, but it’s an important one for a club starved of success.
“We had some guys who are full-grown men with tears in their eyes after that game that got us into the playoffs,” Smith said.
“They didn’t know whether to go yippee-yahoo or cry. It was just awesome, that feeling for those who had worked hard. For them it’s taken six or seven years to get the joy, the rewards, for all of that hard work.
“There’s nothing better in professional life.”
It can, of course, be topped with a maiden premiership. Perhaps that is an achievement that would be as satisfying as if he had coached a team to a title himself?
“I never did that, so I’ll never know the comparison."
