Sunday's clash with the Roosters will be Andrew Webster's 40th game as an NRL head coach. Photo / Photosport
Sunday's clash with the Roosters will be Andrew Webster's 40th game as an NRL head coach. Photo / Photosport
Andrew Webster will oversee his 40th NRL match as head coach on Sunday in Sydney.
Last season, Webster led the Warriors to a 17-7 record and a preliminary final appearance.
Currently, the Warriors face a challenging period, struggling with a four-game winless streak.
ANALYSIS
On Sunday afternoon in Sydney, Andrew Webster will oversee his 40th match as an NRL head coach. Although sometimes it seems like he has been around forever – given his profile and standing in the New Zealand sporting landscape – it is certainly not the case.
Compared to many of his NRL contemporaries, Webster is way down the ladder. His opposition mentor this weekend, Roosters coach Trent Robinson, has been in charge for 294 NRL matches and before that, 63 games in the English Super League.
Parramatta’s Brad Arthur has 263 NRL games, Shane Flanagan (195) will bring up a double century soon at the Dragons while Newcastle’s Adam O’Brien has 106. Anthony Siebold (Manly) and Todd Payten (Cowboys) are relatively new but close to their own milestones, with 99 and 98 respectively.
And then there are the big five, with Wayne Bennett (921), Craig Bellamy (560), Ricky Stuart (501), Des Hasler (466) and Ivan Cleary (433) accumulating colossal CVs.
That’s something to keep in mind, as Webster starts to go under the microscope. Unless you are at a powerhouse club, it’s difficult to crack the code early in your career – and even harder to maintain it.
The NRL is a brutal arena; an intensely physical competition with some of the most subjective refereeing interpretations anywhere in world sport, along with an effective salary cap that ensures impressive parity.
For a coach, there’s a unique set of pressures. In that context, what Webster did last year was miraculous, as he turned the Warriors’ ship around, and then moulded them into contenders. He got career-best years out of several players – including Shaun Johnson – and the 17-7 regular season record has only been bettered once in club history.
Tohu Harris of the Warriors (centre) and teammates react after conceding a try against Newcastle. Photo / Photosport / AAP
It culminated in a preliminary final appearance, with Webster following Daniel Anderson (2002, 2003) and Cleary (2008, 2011) as the only coaches to take the club that far.
But that’s all gone now, with the Warriors in a muddle, on a four-game winless streak and no sign of easy salvation, with games against the Roosters (7th), Panthers (3rd) and Dolphins (4th) over the next three weeks. There was a testing period last year but nothing quite like this, thanks to the buffer afforded by their brilliant 5-2 start to 2023.
For Webster, that’s led to rare criticism of his tactics, selections and use of the interchange, after he became almost a messiah-type figure last year. The Warriors’ strategy – so reliant on steadily building pressure – has been creaking, let down by ill-discipline and errors. Off the back of that, the attack lacks thrust and cohesion and the defensive application has been mixed. And injuries have blunted the pack.
Just like his players, Webster is on steep learning curve. Privately, he would probably admit he got things wrong against the Dragons, in the 30-12 defeat that started this current malaise, opting for a lightweight bench against a team built around a dominant forward presence. There were other questionable calls against the Titans and the Knights, though the Warriors were only a favourable bunker call away from a different result in each match.
So far, Webster has also backed his regular starters, hopeful they can bounce back into form, rather than gambling on a rookie or a youngster. His selection instincts were rarely wrong last season and they need to be spot on now. Somehow, somewhere, something needs to change for this team.
Hopefully, it happens soon – but if not, supporters need to keep the faith. There could be some bumps in the road but that has happened to every coach, from Bennett down. Webster appears to be a special talent, working from a long apprenticeship in lower grades and as an assistant coach. Maybe he overachieved in his rookie season but that doesn’t mean there aren’t even greater things to come in the future.
Michael Burgess has been a sports journalist since 2005, winning several national awards and covering Olympics, Fifa World Cups and America’s Cup campaigns. He has also reported on the Warriors and NRL for more than a decade.
