By Dale Budge
It is fantastic to see clubs promote younger coaches from within their ranks to top jobs this off-season.
In the past couple of weeks Pukekohe, Waiuku and Patumahoe have locked in their coaching line-ups for the McNamara Cup season in 2022 and promoted from within.
Long-serving Pukekohe player Michael Porter heads up an exciting group at Pukekohe, who have built nicely under Sean Polwart over the past couple of seasons. They appear poised to be contenders when the competition gets underway in March.
Waiuku opted to promote their U21s coach Dion Cassidy to the top job when Peter Nock was forced to stand down. He’s joined by another club stalwart in Andy Dawkins to give Waiuku a real local flavour to their coaching group.
Patumahoe meanwhile handed long-serving U85kg coach Brad Healy the keys to their premier side with Reon Graham taking over as coach of the Counties Manukau Steelers. Healy has fashioned a phenomenal record as coach of the all-conquering Patumahoe U85s side while he has impressed as the Counties Manukau U85 rep coach over the past few seasons.
It could have been easy for those clubs to search for the best proven career coaches out there rather than looking at promoting from within and taking a so-called risk on coaches that are yet to be at the helm of a McNamara Cup team. Perhaps five years ago those clubs may have made different decisions.
I applaud those clubs for making the more sustainable choice.
Rugby continues to face challenges brought on by a lack of public interest from the All Blacks down and, coupled with the hurdles COVID has presented, clubs face some tough times with player numbers falling, sponsor opportunities being limited and people being time poor more than ever before.
It is more important than ever that clubs represent their communities and have support behind them. Appointing club people in the top jobs will go a long way to bringing the community with them.
The days of paying top coaches and recruiting players from outside are largely behind us. That model will not be sustainable moving forward and clubs that operate like that will find themselves in a world of trouble if they are not careful.
Recent Comments