Country road still paying dividends for McGregor
IT’S been seven years since Paul McGregor lifted the third of his Illawarra League premierships with Wests – but he’s still leaning on lessons from that time in his fifth year as Dragons head coach.
McGregor moved into high performance after calling time on his playing career with the joint-venture in 2001, staying until Wayne Bennett brought in a new-look staff on his arrival in 2008.
It meant going back to work, but McGregor also took the opportunity to take charge of the Devils, winning three straight titles between 2009 and 2011.
It broke an 18-year title drought at Parrish Park, making him a lock as coach of the Wests Team of the Decade at the club’s 70th year anniversary dinner on Saturday night.
He said they were three years that put him on the path to becoming an NRL coach.
“It was the first time that I wasn’t involved in professional sport since I started [playing] back in the early 90s,” McGregor said.
“I went and got a job but I wanted to stay in rugby league. I got the opportunity to coach Wests and I really started enjoying the game again from doing that.
“They hadn’t won a comp for 18 years but they were thereabouts. I had a really good playing group, really tough, honest, committed that wanted to achieve something.
“I had nine juniors in my first year and they were that close they could taste it. They just wanted to bite into it.”
It was a fair apprenticeship and, in an era where most come through the junior coaching ranks, McGregor believes it’s still the best.
“A lot of coaches go through [SG] Ball or [Harold] Matts but you’re coaching boys there,” he said.
“In local footy you learn how to treat men with respect in what you’re all trying to achieve. You learn everything as well, you don’t just learn one thing.
“When you’re in the professional ranks you get pigeon-holed into one role. Coaching local footy you need a holistic approach to everything.
“You also learn that you’ve got to coach the group you’ve got not the one you’d like. You can’t just copy things, you’ve really got to coach the group you’ve got to be the best they can be.”
Memories of still traipsing a cold wet Parrish Park at 9 o’clock on a Tuesday or Thursday also help him appreciate times when the NRL pressure-cooker heats up.
“It gives you a really good understanding of the community and what people do for nothing in rugby league,” he said.
“I had guys working 40-plus hours a week, not much of it easy, that were still excited to train and play.
“After working all week they got the opportunity to play footy which they loved doing. It gives you that appreciation for what I get to do every day [now].
“The first one’s hard to back up but they backed it up comfortably the second one.
“By the third year they were probably a bit sick of me to be honest but they were three really good years. I’d do it all over again.”
2018 premiership-winning coach Peter McLeod was named assistant coach in the team of the decade and has already set his sights on going back-to-back for the first time since McGregor.
He’s retained a core group of players from last year’s grand final triumph, though some departures are notable. Five-eighth Zac Greene [Mounties] and hooker Josh Daley [Wests Magpies] are some key ones, as is the retirement of Glenn Stewart.
However, some familiar faces will return, including local junior and 174-game Super League veteran Rhys Hanbury, who’ll bring class to the spine.
Marty Cramp, Daniel Zohar, Will Te Maari, Michael Appleby and Declan Morrisey are some other old faces back on deck in what’s a still a largely youthful squad.
“We had a really young group last year and it was no fluke, we wanted to go that way,” McLeod said.
“We’ve had some guys move on to some higher levels. That’s what happens when you win a comp as young guy and as a coach I’ll encourage any young player to take those opportunities.
“We’ve got a young group again but a lot of them have won a comp now and been around for a little while so they have that experience and know what it takes.
“You have ins and outs every year and, even before any of those guys left, I knew we’d need to be better. It’s going to be tough this year, we know that.
“When you’re defending premiers everyone else is chasing you but I think we’ll have a group as good as anyone’s. It’s just about putting it together on the field.”
WEST DEVILS TEAM OF THE DECADE:
FULLBACK: Reece Simmonds
WING: Josh Goulton
CENTRE: Kevin McGuinness
CENTRE: Mitch Porter
WING: Michael Crockett
FIVE-EIGHTH: Nathan Dureau
HALFBACK: Blake Dureau
PROP: Greg Reh
HOOKER: Matt Clarke
PROP: Jason Ryles
SECOND-ROW: Danny Williams
SECOND-ROW: Glenn Stewart
LOCK: Eric Brown
INTERCHANGE: Wade Stanford
INTERCHANGE: James Grehan
INTERCHANGE: Justin King
INTERCHANGE: Aaron Hertsch
INTERCHANGE: Luke Muttden
COACH: Paul McGregor
ASSISTANT COACH: Peter McLeod
MANAGER: Jamie Ellem
STATS: Alpay Celebi
https://www.illawarramercury.com.au...untry-road-still-paying-off-for-mary/?cs=3713
