NRL: Wild ride takes shine off milestone

Ivan Cleary. Photo / Getty Images

Scattered around the Warriors' gym are a catalogue of inspirational quotes.

Some are from Vince Lombardi, the former American football coach who became as famous for his maxims as his success as a coach, and others from former baseball coach Yogi Berra.

It's not clear how many players find these useful but there are others Ivan Cleary might find pertinent. Like this one from former basketball coach Nik Posa: "A tough day at the office is even tougher when your office contains spectator seating."

For Cleary, there have been too many tough days at the office in 2009. It's probably why he might struggle to celebrate approaching 100 games as an NRL coach.

Today is his 99th and he takes a 47 per cent winning record into that match against Canberra.

It's a decent enough achievement, certainly nowhere near the likes of Craig Bellamy (68 per cent), Wayne Bennett (64), Des Hasler (58) and Ricky Stuart (58), but comparable to four-time premiership winner and Australian coach Tim Sheens (50) and Brian Smith (51) and far superior to Tony Kemp (35), Mark Graham (36) and even Frank Endacott (39).

Sadly, that record has taken a hit this season on the back of a dreadful year for the Warriors. The season promised so much and has led some, like former Kiwis coach Graham Lowe, to ask if Cleary is the right man to continue.

"Only Ivan knows if he's the right man to go for another 100 games," Lowe says. "There's a lot to like about him but only Ivan can say whether he has made a difference and if players will follow him.

"I think he's a bit too conservative. He was less conservative when he first started. It's shackled him. At times, as a coach, you have to re-invent yourself. If he's prepared to be open-minded, then he's the right man for the job. If he's going to carry on the same, then he's going to get the same results as this season and the club can't go on like that."

The Warriors are committed to Cleary. This year, they extended his contract to the end of 2012. It took only a whisper that his old club, the Roosters, were interested for them to roll out a new deal.

Warriors football director John Hart says: "You can't judge a coach on a bad year or a bad game. There have been a lot of factors why the team haven't performed this year but we are confident he can bring long-term value to the club.

"He's taken us to the finals twice and might have done it in the first year if we weren't stripped four points [for a salary cap breach] so he has already been successful. That's our measure.

"He's very good tactically and technically, has a good rapport with the players and engenders a lot of respect as a person. He's not a coach who sits still so he's very much focused on how we can improve and get better."

IVAN CLEARY was the right man for the job when they made him head coach in 2006, and he probably still is.

It's all about viable alternatives and perhaps only Kiwis coach and Melbourne assistant Stephen Kearney would loom as a realistic option.

After the turbulent final years of Daniel Anderson and the disastrous season under Kemp - all done with the erratic Mick Watson hovering over them - Cleary's calm persona was what the club needed.

As a former player he understood the Warriors and the club's culture, particularly how to handle the Polynesian players.

Each season has had its peaks and troughs and each year ended with a thrilling dalliance with the playoffs.

Until 2009.

"It's been a pretty wild ride," Cleary says with a rueful shake of the head. "There have been a lot of ups and downs. At the moment, things are pretty bad but I have learned that's coaching. That's the NRL. It's pretty tough. It's hard to keep the ups going.

"Last year was a really fun time. I took a lot of enjoyment out of that. This year has been hard, really hard. There are areas I need to improve and it goes right through this club, from players to the staff and me. We all have to get better. The comp is getting harder and harder and everyone seems to be improving and we haven't this year. If you're not moving forward, you're going backwards."

If the Warriors needed reminding, look no further than the NRL table. Six wins in 21 games is a pitiful return. The spark is missing and you sense they can't wait for the season to end.

"The buck definitely stops with me, that's part of the job," Cleary says.

That doesn't sit comfortably, though, with skipper Steve Price.

"We have let him down as a playing group because he can give us a gameplan but if we don't execute it ..." Price says tailing off. "It's been really unfortunate. Ivan and Stacey have probably copped the brunt this year.

"I think he understands that as coach you are never really going to get the plaudits when things are going great and will always cop it when things aren't going so good. But he would rather cop it than let the younger players get it."

Cleary can also dish it out and has done more of it this season than ever before. He normally presents a stonewall demeanour and that's usually what he's like with the players.

"I have seen Angry Ivan a few times this year," Price says. "It's more disappointment than anger because he knows what we are capable of. We aren't playing to our potential and that's what he gets upset about, particularly when we play at home.

"He could probably do it a bit more, actually, because there are times when he is really pissed with things and he doesn't show it because he doesn't want to upset things. Sometimes it would be good if he ripped into us."

IVAN CLEARY has four young children. He's very private about his family, like most things, but compared taking over the Warriors to what it's like becoming a parent for the first time.

"You're ready but you don't really know what it's going to be like," he says. "I felt ready when I first started. As ready as you can be. It came quicker than I thought it would."

He was only 35 at the time, just three seasons after he played his last NRL game in the Warriors 30-8 grand final loss to the Roosters.

He's still only 38, the second-youngest coach in the NRL. But only Sheens, Bellamy and Hasler have been in their current positions longer than Cleary.

Coaches come and go more often than the 756 bus from Britomart and it's significant to point out that Wests Tigers (2005), Melbourne (2007) and Manly (2008) won premierships in three of the last four seasons under Sheens, Bellamy and Hasler. The 2006 title was secured by a Brisbane side under the gaze of one W. Bennett.

Club boards and fans aren't always that patient, which is why 100 NRL games with one club is significant.

Cleary explains: "I feel inexperienced because I am. This year is another new experience. There are probably other coaches out there who have been through this before but I have only been through it for parts of a season. This is something for me to put in the bank. That's the way I look at it.

"I don't really have much experience of [failure] as a player or a coach. I was lucky enough to be in teams who won things. I haven't doubted myself but there have been times this season when I have doubted the way I have done things. I think that's natural. But I still think there's a really good future here. We have hit a few potholes but I think we can change that pretty quickly."

The good thing is every club starts at the same place each season. This year has shown how quickly clubs can turn things around. The second-placed Bulldogs picked up the wooden spoon in 2008 and the Titans, now third, finished 13th. The Sharks and Roosters finished third and fourth respectively last season but are now battling to avoid last.

Cleary will be mindful of that but he will need to get his squad in order, otherwise he might suffer the fate described by former England football manager Kevin Keegan during his first stint at Newcastle.

"As a manager, you always have a gun to your head. It's a question of whether there is a bullet in the barrel."