Warriors coach Andrew Webster talking with Herald reporter Michael Burgess about the upcoming NRL season. Photo / Dean Purcell
Ahead of the Warriors 2024 NRL season, Michael Burgess sits down with coach Andrew Webster to discuss his coaching philosophy, counselling sessions in his office, fatherhood and Denzel Washington.
When a Warriors player walks into coach Andrew Webster’s office for a meeting, they have two options about where to sit.
There’s a black leather sofa by the wall, or a chair beside a round, white table. Webster, who has a desk in the corner, with a view out to the carpark and the hill at the northern end of Mt Smart stadium, jokes that their choice is important.
“I have them all in here – that’s the counselling chair and that’s the football chair,” he laughs, pointing to the sofa first. “So if you sit on one you’re about football and if you sit there [the sofa] it’s counselling. I tell them when they walk in: ‘Which chair do you want to sit on?’ And they laugh and they go: ‘I think I need that one today’. We laugh about it and then it is easier to talk about things.”
That small vignette tells you a lot about Webster, who across one season has become one of the most popular – and successful – coaches in Warriors history. It’s not just that he gets results but how. While he is technically very astute – after a long apprenticeship at all levels of the game – it’s his communication and human skills that have stood out.
“He understands people, takes time to get to know people,” says a senior Warriors staff member. “He is genuinely interested in who you are and what you are about.”
“It’s the same with the team. He gets to know them beyond the footballer. You have 30 blokes and it is all about connection. He is a real people person. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you are from, what your walk of life is, he will connect with you... and that is a rare trait.”
The Herald sat down with Webster on a day off for the players, in between staff meetings and planning sessions. His office – around the corner and down a corridor from main reception – is small and remarkably sparse. There’s no memorabilia, no trophies or trinkets. No posters or motivational phrases and nothing on the wall, apart from a single A4 piece of paper.
“I’m not into quotes, not into displaying the books I have read,” says Webster. “It’s not my thing. I like quotes but it is not me. I don’t want anything. I’m not a picture guy. I just want to see Max, that will do me.”
He’s referring to his 10-month-old son, the subject of the only two photos in the room.
“They were the first ones when he laughed,” says Webster. “My wife got them for me; they are beautiful photos.”
But there’s no evidence of the various teams he has been involved with, not even a picture with the premiership-winning 2022 Penrith Panthers squad (“No chance,” he laughs).
“If you came to my house, you wouldn’t even know that I coached rugby league,” says Webster. “If I achieve anything, I give it to my parents anyway. When I was a kid, I had a competition with my brother on who would win the most trophies. He was two years older and better than me at most things.”
The piece of paper, pinned above his computer, is a set of guidelines, around how they want to play and other core principles and beliefs.
“It’s my compass, to keep me on track,” explains Webster.
A whiteboard on the far wall lists details of plays, training drills and structures, with the stuff “you can read” by the assistant coaches, while “the scribble” is his.
“We have our own language in league,” says Webster, mentioning “pendulum”, “neg”, “siren”, “shield”, “transporting”, “sausages” and “drill and drop”, among many others.
“It’s a bit like the baseball or NFL,” he adds. “We are running the same plays, but you still don’t want them to know what you are calling.”
His days are long, starting with a 5am alarm and a gym workout before the 7am coaches meeting. He loves being on the grass with the team – “that’s where the best work is done” – but also spends a lot of time at his desk.
“Ninety per cent of the time, the door is open,” says Webster. “So I can interact with all of the [assistant] coaches; players are doing one-on-one videos; I can hear conversations.”
Players also enter and exit the club via the corridor outside his office, which means a constant flow of traffic, greetings and little – or longer – chats. But that’s the way he likes it.
“It’s time-consuming because you are just getting some momentum with work but that should be your focus anyway,” says Webster. “They are your focus. Once they leave you get stuff done.”
Webster first arrived at the Warriors in 2015, appointed as an assistant coach under Andrew McFadden, who is back now, in charge of recruitment and pathways, after a four-year spell under Ricky Stuart in Canberra. They first met at Parramatta in 2002, where McFadden spent a season as an NRL halfback and Webster was an aspiring youngster.
“He had a personality that was very engaging,” says McFadden. “We didn’t play together week to week, but there are people that you remember and Webby was certainly one of those guys.”
By 2015, Webster had accumulated a decade of coaching experience in the United States, England and Australia. He guided the Balmain Tigers SG Ball team (with Mitchell Moses and Luke Brooks) to that title in 2012, then had success with the Tiger’s Under-20 side in 2014.
“He was developing a good reputation,” says McFadden. “So when I took the Warriors’ job he was first on the list.”
That 2015 team featured a lot of big names, including Simon Mannering, Shaun Johnson, Thomas Leuluai, Manu Vatuvei, Ryan Hoffman and Sam Tomkins. But the coaching rookie – in his first NRL job – quickly won their respect, with his creative ideas and technical understanding.
“He was confident but players could see pretty quickly that he could back it up,” says McFadden.
He was also popular.
“He was a bit younger then, he was social, good fun to be around,” says McFadden. “He enjoyed going out and the players enjoyed spending time with him. That’s part of your culture – celebrating the moment when you have a good win – and he certainly did that very well.”
Webster is not an overnight success – given his steady rise up the ladder – but seems perfectly suited to the myriad demands of being an NRL head coach. It’s partly a product of experience, in multiple teams, under multiple head coaches and partly down to the person.
“He’s a well-rounded coach – with a lot of skills that will help him adapt,” says McFadden. “And he has got a real personable side to him. He doesn’t overcomplicate things to players and makes sure that the human side of things always comes first.”
That extends across the organisation.
“He is a very empathetic person, understands people, connects with people,” says a club insider. “He walks through the office and if you are waiting in reception – it doesn’t matter who you are – he will stop and say hello.”
Long-time club ambassador Sir Peter Leitch has worked with every Warriors coach since 1995 – from foundation coach John Monie to Nathan Brown – but has been blown away by Webster.
“I’ve watched him working with the players and a whole lot of other things,” says Leitch. “I just believe he could walk on water if he wanted to. There’s is something about him, though I can’t put my finger on it. He’s special. He’s got a gift.”
Webster was a virtual unknown when he was appointed Warriors’ coach in July 2022. Now he is a messiah-like figure, after the club’s stunning transformation. How does it feel being probably the most popular Australian in the country?
“Oh geez, no one has said that to me,” laughs Webster. He says Kiwis are “not intrusive” and pretty respectful.
“People will come up and say, ‘Up the Wahs, Webby’,” says Webster. “I don’t walk down the street feeling that everyone is staring at me or anything like that. No one has come up and really ruined my night.”
He certainly doesn’t enjoy the singular emphasis on him, nor the avalanche of attention that last season brought.
“He is almost uncomfortable with the focus that is being put on him,” says a senior Warriors staffer. “He is the first to point out there is a team of people behind everything.”
Webster also avoids social media. He was on Facebook – to be connected to family – but exited ahead of the 2023 season.
“It’s not my thing,” says Webster. “Too time-consuming. It is addictive and I am human like everyone else, it can be an easy distraction and takes up a lot of your time. But I don’t preach to people, they can do what they want.”
Any spare time is spent with Max and wife Emma. He also switches off by reading books or catching up with friends – and he loves Denzel Washington films.
“I don’t think he has done a bad movie,” says Webster. “He makes a bad movie good.”
In terms of life balance, it probably helps that wife Emma doesn’t follow the NRL.
“She does not know one thing about football and she is so supportive,” says Webster. “She will come to the games, when we win say ‘well done’, when we lose ‘bad luck’ and that’s it. So I get to escape.”
And the arrival of Max – who was born in May last year – has been a blessing on several levels.
“You need good distractions in your life,” says Webster. “Everyone said it must have been so hard having Max in your first season as coach. I think it was probably the best thing for me. He was awesome.”
Webster will be under the microscope more than ever this season, which kicks off on Friday against the Sharks, with the hype around the club but he seems ready for that.
“Last year, the goal was to win every game we could and then try to win the GF [grand final],” says Webster. “People laughed at us for even thinking that. The goal hasn’t changed, it’s just people’s expectations have changed, not ours.”
Michael Burgess has been a sports journalist since 2005, winning several national awards and covering the Olympics, Fifa World Cups and America’s Cup campaigns. He has also reported on the Warriors and NRL for more than a decade.
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