Graham Lowe: Coach must kill careers to save team

Executioner. The word alone conjures up nightmares that can make even the bravest of us toss and turn in our beds.

But I'll tell you what, if you want to take up coaching professional league, you'll soon find out that, at times, you need to become an executioner of players' careers - or watch your team die on its own sword.

As coach you hold your players' livelihoods in your hands, and the decisions you make remain with you for life.

One of the toughest I ever had to make involved the legendary former Richmond, Auckland and Kiwi halfback Shane Varley. An irrepressible council dustman with a heart as big as a rubbish truck, Varley was the Stacey Jones of the early 80s and one of the gutsiest players I ever coached. Like Jones, this slip of a man was a crowd favourite.

In 1984, we had won the series against Great Britain after taking out the first two tests. Although Varley had played well, he was showing the signs of a player near the end of his international career - in fact, he had announced he was going to retire from international footy after this series.

Sitting on the reserves bench was Clayton Friend, a nuggety, tough little rooster who was to go on to be another great halfback.

In the third and final test at Carlaw Park, we were struggling against an Ellery Hanley-inspired Pommie team. I knew I had to make a big call, and I did.

In those days there was no interchange, you had just two fresh reserves. Early in the second half, I called Varley off and put Friend on.

To this day I can still see the little bloke walking down the grandstand touch line to a standing ovation from the crowd. No player in his last test after a great career would like to be replaced before full time. I thought Varley was no exception.

I was expecting the cold shoulder from him when he took his seat on the bench beside me. But the little champion brought a lump to my throat when he said, "Great change, coach. The team needed that."

That certainly made my decision seem easier, but I often wonder whether I should have left him on and let him finish his career on the field.

As it turned out Friend turned the game in our favour, and we went on to win. I can say now that it was a call that worked. Although it seemed like a tough decision at the time it was not as difficult as some that coaches have to make.

Warriors coach Ivan Cleary must already think he has the toughest job in the NRL, bringing his team back from eight points behind the competition leaders after only two rounds.

But I reckon most of his nightmares will be about getting his axe out and, after naming this week's team, whether Lance Hohaia deserved to be his first victim.

Eleven-year veteran Awen Guttenbeil is playing his 150th game for the club, which is an outstanding achievement.

He has been the perfect clubman for the Warriors, and I would imagine he is also very coachable.

But old man time waits for no one, as West Indies cricket legend Brian Lara and his team are finding out.

Unfortunately for the Warriors and Guttenbeil, he is struggling and is not the player he once was.

That's a hard thing for me to say, particularly at this time of his career, because I have always been one of the big second-rower's greatest fans.

I still remember Malcolm Boyle and I during our tenure as Warriors co-owners deliberately hiding a major Guttenbeil foot injury from our Tainui partners, who we knew would almost certainly cut him from the club if they had known the seriousness of the situation.

SOMETIMES you can afford to carry a player that has been one of your best, but I don't think Cleary can afford to at this critical time.

The question needs to be asked: Can Guttenbeil keep out the likes of Wairangi Koopu, Micheal Luck or for that matter even Sione Faumuina when he returns from suspension.

When I look at it from an opposing coach's point of view, I'm sure they would prefer Guttenbeil in the team because he doesn't pose the same threat the other three could.

A new look second row with Luck and Koopu is a start.

But it is the little blokes who I think hold the key to kick-start this Warriors season.

The Cowboys are a white-hot side carrying on from their terrific form of last year, and it is their little guys that ignite them.

Matt Bowen, Johnathan Thurston and Ty Williams are among the smaller players in the NRL, but they have a natural talent that creates and complements the rest of their team.

I think the Warriors can do the same on the backs of Hohaia, Brent Webb, Grant Rovelli and Nathan Fien. However these guys must all be on the field and not interchanged. Obviously Webb is going to be fullback, but I would like to see Fien at hooker, Hohaia at halfback and Rovelli at five-eighth.

What I've seen of Rovelli suggests he is worth giving a go in the vital number 6 jersey.

But I find it absolutely staggering that Hohaia cannot even make the line-up for this week's game against the Tigers.

I hear criticism of his defence and accept that it is not his specialty. I've also heard he is indecisive.

It seems to me he is carrying the can for the first two losses, and I wonder what exactly he has done wrong.

He certainly didn't cost the Warriors their first two games.

You can be sure Wests Tigers coach Tim Sheens will be pleased his forwards don't have to contend with Hohaia's acceleration and support play on the edge of the ruck this weekend.

If nothing is changed, nothing will change, but I still believe they have made the wrong change.

One thing's for certain: Cleary has shown he is prepared to be an executioner and has backed himself with a big call and I respect that.

I just hope he doesn't receive a tap on the shoulder from Hohaia's ghost at fulltime against the Tigers.