NRL: Elliott one coach out of the box

Matt Elliott.

Matt Elliott was absent from the coaches' box at the Warriors match last night - but don't read too much into it.

So far this season, Elliott has abandoned the box, up high in the stands, preferring a chair near the sideline. Not that he sits on it - during last week's narrow win in Townsville over the Cowboys, he was constantly prowling the touchline or standing behind the team benches.

"On the sideline, you tend to get a much better indication of what the contact is like and the talk is like," says Elliott. "You don't have that in the box, though you obviously get a better view of how your structures and systems are going."

For a team seemingly affected by momentum changes more than most other NRL sides, it might not be a bad idea.

Being in close proximity gives the coach a chance to offer direct encouragement and also enables him to communicate with the interchange bench, before and after they come on.

However, it puts a lot of responsibility on assistant coaches Ricky Henry and Andrew McFadden, who have to read the game from a height and offer their interpretation to the head coach.

"Certainly for expediting the message process and running the interchange, it helps to be down on the field," says Elliott.

"I also have two extremely capable assistants in the coaches' box who can give me a read of the overall pattern of the game.

"It might not be a permanent thing - let's wait and see. At Canberra [2002-06], I used to do the first half up top and the second half down the bottom, just to get a full feeling of the game, depending on what I was seeing."

Coaching preferences vary widely across sports.

A football manager would never be seen anywhere but the sideline (especially in England, where being confined to the grandstand is usually a punishment), while rugby and league tend to favour the coaches' box (former Tigers coach Tim Sheens was one notable exception in recent years). NFL coaches also prefer to be prowling the sideline like most American sports, such as baseball and basketball.

"It gives a sense that he is riding the wave with the players," says former Warriors and Kiwis coach Frank Endacott.

"He's in there with them. It also might help to have more control of the players and the substitutes."

"Down on the sideline, he gets an extra chance to motivate players," says former Kiwis fullback Richie Barnett. "It's not that common but I remember John Lang used to do that with us at Cronulla. It's a chance to give and receive information first hand."

Despite being close to the action, Elliott says the players retain responsibility for most of the calls during a match.

"On field management is down to them," says Elliott. "If they ever have time to look over, I will give them my opinion but I like to think that they have that covered."