KEY POINTS:
Not yet five rounds into the season and already five clubs have announced coaching changes.
Wayne Bennett had been on the outer for some time at Brisbane so no one was surprised when he was first to announce he was moving on after leading the Broncos since their
entry into the competition in 1988.
But Canberra coach Neil Henry's announcement last week of a five-year deal with North Queensland from 2009 and Steve Folkes' decision to leave the Bulldogs, delivered on Monday, came from leftfield.
There are only 28 jobs as head coach at the top level of Australasian rugby league. Strangely, the playing out of this season's coaching changes may be intertwined with what's going on in England.
Former Warriors coach Daniel Anderson is leaving St Helens at the end of this season and has said he wants a job in the NRL, preferably in Sydney.
But it appears the only position vacant right now - at the Bulldogs - will go to Folkes' assistant Kevin Moore, who has already put his hand up and said he's ready. Folkes is already being linked with Hull, where he played in 1989 and 1990. For their part Hull are said to be about to chop former Manly coach Peter Sharp.
The Raiders badly need a coach who can draw and hold big-name players.
Anderson? He's rebuilt one NRL club from wooden spoon to grandfinal. The other possibility for him may be Penrith, where Matt Elliot remains under fierce pressure after finishing last in 2007 and starting 2008 with three losses.
Cowboys coach Graham Murray is also on the market for 2009.
Nathan Brown has decided he'll stay at the Dragons if incoming coach Wayne Bennett wants him as assistant, otherwise he'll pursue another coaching role elsewhere.
The Broncos are said to be offering big money to lure Bennett's former assistant Craig Bellamy from the Storm on a long-term deal. Bellamy is contracted to Melbourne in 2009. The rumour mill has the Broncos job going temporarily to another former Bennett assistant, Kevin Walters, for 2009, with Walters to partner Bellamy in 2010, a role Walters has said he's happy with.
That would leave Stephen Kearney as prime candidate to take over at the Storm. And that would also mean that only three clubs start the 2009 season with the same coaches they had three seasons ago, the Warriors with Ivan Cleary (appointed 2006), Manly with Des Hasler (appointed 2004) and Wests Tigers with Tim Sheens (appointed 2003). It seemed that 2008 might be a slow year for the coaching merry-go-round after eight clubs changed in 2007. Appointed to start last year were Brian Smith at Newcastle and Michael Hagan at the Eels who swapped jobs, Matt Elliot at Penrith, Ricky Stuart who replaced Chris Anderson at Cronulla and Brad Fittler who then took over from Anderson mid-season at the Roosters, John Cartwright at the new Gold Coast club, Neil Henry at Canberra and Jason Taylor at Souths.
The immense pressure on these guys to succeed was underlined this week when Taylor appeared on a video on the club's website admitting his failings in a bid to soothe the anger of fans after a winless start to the season. Taylor said he'd been coaching a negative style of football. "It's been building to a point where I've been trying to do things for the players. In a lot of the games, players haven't come up with answers under pressure. I'm over-coaching the team and trying to coach everything into them that they have to do on game day. Rugby league doesn't work that way. I don't want to be that sort of coach who has to choreograph what we do as a team."
For the first time this season Souths this weekend field the same person at halfback for the second week running and Taylor admitted he had affected Kiwi Jeremy Smith's game by not showing confidence in him. "We need one person to make the right decisions at the right time and we need Jeremy Smith to go out there and do that." Taylor said he was learning and would be a better coach for having been through a hard patch.
Taylor faces the same problem as many formerly great players who become coaches: the "I could do it, why can't you?" syndrome. They have to learn all about team performance and extracting the best from guys who are not as good as they were.
In the NRL or Super League, it's a matter of how long they give you to learn.