KEY POINTS:
It sounds like something out of one of the childcare centres Tony Kemp runs - 'turning kids into Kiwis'.
Instead, it's the mantra the former Warriors coach will adopt as NZRL high performance director.
Kemp was appointed to the position last Saturday, finally filling the void left by Daniel Anderson who vacated the job when he moved to St Helens in 2005.
For Kemp, it's a return to a high-profile position 18 months after his very public sacking as Warriors coach, and it's not without its risks. In many respects, however, he might be better suited to his new role, considering he has experience as a professional player and coach in Britain and NRL, as well as management experience.
"My long-term goal was to get into the management side of either rugby league or rugby union, rather than coaching," Kemp says. "The coaching pathway was to serve a purpose."
It may have helped him to get where he is now, but it came at a cost. His reputation took a dent towards the end of his tenure at Mt Smart Stadium and he immediately went underground to escape the spotlight.
"I took a little time off when I left the Warriors," he explains. "It was a hard time mentally. It hurt.
"A lot of comments were said; some good, some bad. But I'm not the sort of person to sit around and dwell on it. I got myself in the right frame of mind and then threw myself into [running the childcare centres]."
He was also co-opted onto the NZRL board in the wake of the Grannygate debacle. He also teamed up with former All Black Walter Little in coaching a Glenfield rugby side that were beaten finalists in the North Harbour competition.
"It was good to get back to grass roots, spending Saturdays on the field in my gumboots and watching games of footy," says Kemp, who played 25 tests for the Kiwis.
The gumboots might not be needed quite so often in his new role. Like a lot of people in sports management, he talks about pathways and it's this aspect of the game on which Kemp will focus.
The key is getting more New Zealanders into the NRL to increase depth, which should then translate into greater success at international level. Although this happens to a degree already, Kemp is determined more of it is done through a New Zealand system rather than youngsters being lured to Australia by NRL clubs looking for raw Kiwi talent.
The first stage was seen in last month's launch of the academy programme at the Wellington Institute of Technology. Other academies are planned throughout the country, where they will be offered a league-specific diploma in sports science and taught what it takes to become a professional player.
"I think the Aussies have found a niche in the market by taking kids from here and putting them in the Australian schooling systems," Kemp says. "We can't stop them going but what we can do is offer them an alternative. Unfortunately, we don't have that at the moment.
"We've got the NJC (National Junior Competition) for under-16s and 18s but we don't really have a pathway from there into NRL clubs. I want to help create a structure that will keep those kids in our pathways right through until they become a Kiwi."
