League: Kiwis' manager on a global mission

Tony Kemp. Photo / Getty Images

It's doubtful any other New Zealand high performance manager has criss-crossed the globe as much as the NZRL's Tony Kemp as he looks to help the Kiwis gain a competitive edge ahead of the 2013 Rugby League World Cup.

He has visited Australia, England, Ireland and the United States on fact-finding missions to some of the biggest sporting operations in the world. Since 2009, he has spent time at English football clubs Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers and Portsmouth as well as England's Rugby Football Union. He has been to Ireland to engage with the Gaelic Football Association; to the US with the San Diego Chargers of the NFL and been through the sports programmes at the University of Las Vegas and the iconic University of California in Los Angeles. Closer to home, Kemp has visited AFL powerhouses Geelong, Carlton and Hawthorn. There are more missions planned for this year, including a visit to the NHL's Boston Bruins.

As is often the case in the sports world these days, the answer to the question: 'What will the Kiwis get out of this?' is answered in language close to corporate-speak, though Kemp points to knowledge gained in areas like sports science, medicine, recovery programmes, athletes' flying programmes "as well as innovations in the tactical and technical areas".

"We are trying to benchmark against the world's best practice," says Kemp. "It is all about how we as an organisation can compete on the world stage. We have to be innovative and go and get what we can - they all have something to add. Some things may not be relevant but we have been quite successful in picking the eyes out of it."

However, NZRL CEO Jim Doyle has a pithier, more league-style read on Kemp's travels: "It still all comes down to performance," says Doyle. "We can go all around the world and visit teams every week and implement new things but if you never win ... Australia are the benchmark and we need to close that gap."

Kemp and the Kiwis have mainly been targeting collision sports but says there are lessons to be learned from many codes: "Sports like soccer and Gaelic football may be less physical in terms of contact but they are all about aerobic fitness and endurance, which is also relevant to our game.

"When I started here the entire high performance plan was on the back of a whiteboard," says Doyle, "so I think we have come a long way. We have to benchmark against teams that have been consistent performers internationally. You can't compare us with Manchester United but there must be something that they do that we can say, actually that is a really good idea. Why wouldn't we want to learn from others?"

Some might see the globetrotting as a little excessive, given the Kiwis only play a handful of matches each year, but both Kemp and Doyle dismiss that.

"We are not the only sport that does it," says Kemp. "If you talk to most high performance sports, you will find that the management team go into other sports to benchmark. It is part and parcel of high performance sport these days. If you want to perform at your optimum, you have to get out and see what the best clubs and organisations are doing. I wouldn't call it extravagant, I would call it smart."

Kemp says that most clubs have an open door policy and it is often an exchange of information: "It is not just about us gaining knowledge - they also gain a lot of knowledge off us," says Kemp, "it's not one way."

"All of the visits have cost us very little in terms of money compared to the knowledge that it has provided us," says Doyle. "We are bringing more and more money into the organisation and we have to continually invest to go forward as an organisation."

Doyle acknowledges that the trips would be costly in isolation but says that almost all of the trips were conducted in conjunction with other business. The trips to the US were stopovers on the way to or back from England and the visits to AFL clubs were tied in with other meetings with Kiwi players in Australia. Kemp's recent visit to England to check logistical arrangements for next year's World Cup, including confirming training fields and hotels that will be used by the Kiwis, was dovetailed with a trip to Ireland, for example.

"As Tony was already there, to spend an extra four nights and a flight to Ireland to visit the Gaelic Football Association is a very minimal cost, and actually makes sense." Of all the visits, Kemp and Doyle were most impressed by Geelong, who have won three of the last five AFL grand finals.

"As a high performance unit, they have been able to take all of the stress out of an athlete," says Kemp, "and the coaches take a player-centred approach. They have a senior leadership group that in many ways run the team."

The Kiwis have put together their own senior leadership group, with Simon Mannering and Tony Iro flying to Sydney to meet up with coach Stephen Kearney and Benji Marshall, Adam Blair, Kieran Foran, Jason Nightingale and Jeremy Smith.

"The All Blacks can bring their team together whenever they want as they basically own the players," says Doyle. "In the past we would get our team into camp on a Monday, then play on a Friday. Now we trying to get some time together beforehand to go through ideas and strategies."

They have also purchased a high tech recovery suit for players to get over niggling injuries after games.