Catching coach makes his mark

Former Aussie Rules star Mick Byrne is imparting some of his vast knowledge on kicking and catching to the All Blacks

As a centre-half forward or ruckman in a 180-game career in the AFL, Mick Byrne depended on his kicking and catching skills.

Once his playing life finished, he moved into a variety of coaching roles which led this season to his appointment as a specialist tutor with the high-performance unit of the New Zealand Rugby Union.

Byrne will work with all the age-grade teams, NPC and Super 12 sides but his first action in recent weeks has been with the All Blacks and the elite levels of the sport.

It is hard to miss the 2m (6ft 8in) Byrne, a New South Welshman who played rugby and league as a junior, dabbled in AFL for Manly and the age-grade state side before being offered a contract in Melbourne.

That began a 15-year career with the Melbourne, Hawthorn and Swans clubs which included a Grand Final winners' medal with Hawthorn in 1983.

One of Byrne's favourite moments came after he was sacked from Melbourne and in the following match played for Hawthorn against his old club.

"I kicked eight goals in that game and Melbourne managed five goals. There was a headline in a Melbourne newspaper which had Byrne 48-Melbourne 35," he recalled, "I loved that."

When his playing life ended with the Swans and Byrne was coaching the second team, he asked Manly league hardman Mark Graham to help the side with some tackling drills.

In return Byrne helped the league team with some of their kicking drills and the specialist portfolio developed.

"I will do a lot of catching work with forwards in New Zealand," Byrne explained.

"There is plenty of room for work which will help them at the lineouts and restarts.

"Then we can work mainly with the backs on meeting certain principles which will help them and also to assist the goalkickers.

"The All Black skill base is strong and has been very well coached, so in the specialist area all I will try and do is sharpen up the top end of the skill set.

"They are 90 per cent complete players, we are not trying to bring them up from a low base, the challenge is to wring a little bit more out of them at the top.

"But right now we don't want to be altering them, we are just looking and helping."

Byrne, scrum coach Mike Cron, biomechanist Mark Sayers and nutritionist Glenn Kearney all deal with every level of New Zealand rugby, though they invariably link up with the All Blacks when they are in camp.

All Black captain Tana Umaga said having a kick-catch coach was another tool in the changing rugby landscape - "anything to make us better".

After the league connection through Graham at Manly, Byrne met Manly union coach Tim Lane and became more involved in that sport.

Stints followed as a consultant with the Brumbies (1998-2001), the Wallabies (1998-2000), the Springboks (01), Scotland (2002-04) and lastly at the Saracens club.

When former All Black coach Tony Gilbert moved to Scotland, he worked with Byrne and last year organised for the specialist coach to help the Otago and Canterbury sides. The path to New Zealand was opening.

"Rugby has sped up so much just like AFL, tennis and league and there is so much more kicking on the run," said Byrne. "So you can't hit spiral punts on the run - you have to learn to drop punt more, for example. My job is to help players adapt to kicking principles."