Wests Tigers Head Coach Jason Taylor and Assistant Coach Craig Sandercock hosted a Club Pathways coaching night at Concord yesterday.
Coaches from Western Suburbs, Balmain, South West Sydney Academy of Sport (SWSAS) and Group 6 were invited along for the session, which covered a range of topics around general coaching strategies and drills.
The coaches attending the night crossed a number of levels including development coaches through to junior representatives and Ron Massey Cup staff.
Taylor and Sandercock showed the group of coaches a video outlining the core skills that the NRL squad covered over the pre-season.
The main focus of the session was to outline that the drills aren’t necessarily different from junior representatives through to first grade, but they are just modified to suit professional needs.
Tyrone Collins, who is the Elite Player Development and Pathways Manager at Wests Tigers, said that the video session was very successful and the Club will look to do more in the future.
“It was great that we had all of our areas that we cover in terms of Balmain, Wests and Group 6 all there last night represented,” Collins said. “The coaches ranged from development right through to junior reps, we even had the Wests Magpies Ron Massey Cup coach (Nathan Waters) there.
“The NRL coaching staff videoed all their pre-season training drills and we went through a lot of that footage with each coach; they then received a copy of that video to take back to their own training sessions.
“They can use that and it’s important that it filters down to their players and other coaches as well; it makes it a lot better than just coming to a normal coaching night where they just talk and not receive anything to take back with them.”
Collins said the feedback from the coaches who attended the night was positive and similar sessions will be held in the future to ensure they have the right assets to develop further.
“The coaches were all really happy with it and are wanting to do more which is really good; that was what we wanted and we will look to see what we can do off the back of that to further progress them as coaches.”
The video session ties in with the work that the Club has been doing to encourage the pathway coaches to be more involved with the current NRL staff.
“We pretty much have an open door policy where any of those staff can come along to be at an NRL, Holden Cup or Intrust Super Premiership training session,” Collins said. “It’s a really great thing that we are doing as a Club to have everything open for those coaches.
“We have had a lot of coaching staff turn up to the Campbelltown sessions this year and JT takes some time out after training to speak with them about what the team is aiming for.
“It’s a really open policy that can only help these coaches develop further, because not only are we looking at developing players but we need to develop our staff as well.”
List of Attendees:
Gavan Bell (Group 6), Abdul Nabhan (SWSAS), Billy Callaway (Balmain), Joe McNicolas (Balmain), Levi Tuhetoka (Balmain), Ross Mignacca (Balmain), Con Spanos (Wests), Nathan Waters (Wests), Wayne Azzopardi (Wests), Mark Dooner (Group 6)
Be there on Easter Monday as we take on the Eels at ANZ Stadium! Get your tickets here!
