Caring coaches in the competitive arena: What makes successful NRL teams tick

With the AFL Grand Final completed over the weekend, attention now shifts to the NRL Grand Final. For two of the great coaches of the game, one shall be chasing a record breaking NRL Premiership with three different clubs and one shall be wondering what went wrong, missing out this year after being part of 9 of the last 14 Grand Finals. Wayne Bennett and Craig Bellamy, having coached nearly 1400 top flight games between them and with 34 years and 18 years experience coaching high performance teams respectively, what’s their points of commonality and what sets them apart from other coaches in the NRL? With ten premierships and counting between them, how do the one-time master and his former apprentice still continue to be trailblazers in their sport after many years? On the build up to NRL Preliminary and Grand Finals, there is plenty of technical and tactical analysis yet it’s been some reports off the field which have grabbed my attention around the how and why they maintain player motivation and focus.

After their lost at the weekend, Craig Bellamy looked more deflated than ever after seeing the chance of sealing back to back grand final wins went begging with a 10-6 loss to the Panthers. One of the reasons was losing some long term players to other clubs, including club captain, Dale Finucane. Showing his caring side, he said:

We’ve had some wonderful players at our club over the years and wonderful competitors but I don’t think we have had anyone who prepares for a game quite like Dale. He’s been, with all due respect, he’s been better for our club than the club has been for him.

Another report in the build up to NRL finals discussed the flip side of Bellamy’s hard persona. Many rugby league fans know Craig Bellamy as the hard taskmaster behind one of the greatest dynasties in the sport, but according to Melbourne Storm veteran forward Felise Kaufusi, there’s a whole different side to Bellamy we don’t know about (https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-premiership/teams/storm/melbourne-storm-star-felise-kaufusi-reveals-bellamys-hidden-side/news-story/e6dd303ae31c185b76630449ee1cd09d):

What you see on the TV is definitely what he’s like when it comes to footy, but off the field, he’s actually pretty chilled, believe it or not. He’s got a lot of grandkids, and I think that’s definitely lightened his mood up.

It’s actually good to see that side of him, that he’s got a loving side to himself; we only get to see the intense side of him on the footy field.

Master coach Bennett, who is charging to another NRL title with record breaking 4th club, again has been in multiple media outlets for both his ability to drive performance while tapping into player’s personal side. Bennett, before South Sydney’s semi final vs Manly, was regarded by FOX Sports commentators as the jockey in the back straight of the Melbourne Cup:

That’s the magic of him. He has got this internal strength there to ignore his own emotions and to just feed what the players need. That’s what he has been really coaching towards.”

From another report earlier this week, former players Alex McKinnon and Darius Boyd talks about Bennett’s man management qualities and the care he showed in McKinnon’s hour of need, highlighting why his players go above and beyond for the veteran coach (https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/i-wish-i-could-play-again-just-to-be-around-him-mckinnon-s-tribute-to-bennett-20210926-p58uw9.html). Alex McKinnon said:

The art of Wayne is his ability to give you a reason to believe…A lot of people were there to give me a cuddle, a lot of people were there to support me — but he recognised that I needed a challenge at a time when I was on my knees. That’s what I needed. That’s what Wayne does.

What gave me so much confidence wasn’t the amount of times he called or the amount of things he did. It was the effect that a simple thing could have. A simple question. A simple piece of motivation. Wayne gave me a kick up the arse when I needed it. He gave me direction and challenged me at a time when I had nothing and I was at my darkest days. That is something that I will hold with me forever

In the same report, Darius Boyd said:

He is someone who sticks his neck out for his own players and staff, to his own detriment sometimes. But that’s why people love him. He has everyone else’s best interest at heart. That’s why he is so successful wherever he goes. People trust him.

Both master coaches and the comments around them tap into areas I’ve commented on before; understanding your athletes needs and driving connection before direction. These experienced coaches have displayed points of difference by showing a caring side to their coaching relationships while meeting the needs of their athletes and the ability to emotionally connect. Many coaches struggle to ascertain what their role is within an athlete centred coaching style; adopting the ideas of needs centred coaching, similar to how McKinnon describes Bennett’s interactions, would allow us as coaches to continually reflect and constantly adjust to the players and learning environment. This is something these two senior coaches would have had to have done after their many years in top flight rugby league by developing dynamic coaching techniques which are reflective and cyclical in nature, having to constantly review and adjust accordingly, plus puts the athlete’s current needs front and centre for training design.

It’s safe to assume that Bennett and Bellamy would fall under the category of serial winning coaches, allowing me to draw upon similarities from research conducted by Sergio Lara-Bercial and Cliff Mallett. Looking at the research, it discusses how serial winning coaches “tend to be committed to getting better, often driven by fear of not being good enough. They simplify complexity and have unwavering high standards. They put people first, they are emotionally intelligent, they practice shared leadership and are optimistic”. Digging into the research, an area of discussion includes the idea of Driven Benevolence found in linked article (https://leadersinsport.com/performance/leadership-lessons-serial-winning-coaches/):

Driven benevolence is the relentless pursuit of excellence balanced with a genuine desire to compassionately support athletes and oneself . Serial winning coaches have a passion for excellence and works tirelessly and relentlessly to achieve it. But, this ambition is compensated by an overwhelming desire to do good by others and a genuinely compassionate attitude towards their athletes and, perhaps more importantly, towards themselves.

We found coaches that were as comfortable pushing athletes beyond the boundaries of what is humanly possible day in day out and holding them accountable for their performance and behaviours, as they were sitting down with a cup of coffee to discuss their athlete’s love relationships, job prospects, family feuds and finances. We found coaches sitting halfway between the authentic desire to make their athletes happy and the stern belief that the happier the athlete, the better the performance, and the higher the chance of a successful outcome; literally a WIN-WIN.

They (these coaches) tended to believe that their actions were a mission aimed at fulfilling the needs of others powered by a higher purpose and the greater good. Therefore, they exhibit a certain ruthlessness and steely determination to achieve their goals which is, for the most part, non-violent and altruistic. And they use their high levels of emotional intelligence and self-awareness to convince and persuade other to follow them.

What’s the commonalities amongst all these reports and research? Serial winning coaches and highly competitive coaches like Bennett and Bellamy are considerate coaches; not solely focusing on technical and tactical aspects of their sports, they build both emotional intelligence and cognitive flexibility to allow them to better understand themselves and their athletes as a result. I feel the research supports the reports’ themes that Bennett and Bellamy have points of difference by showing a caring side to their coaching relationships, by focusing on the importance of coach-athlete relationships and combining tactical and technical development within socially dynamic situations. Galinsky and Maddux’s research to sporting context recognises that “taking perspective of (player) produced both greater joint gains and profitable individual outcomes”. In a sports context, this would be seen as close and meaningful coach-athlete relationships, regular player involvement in decision making processes with honest and accurate goal attainment for all involved, something you regularly hear of from past and current players coaches by these legends of the game.

The main aspects of influential and successful coach-athlete relationships revolve around ideals such as mutual trust, respect, support, cooperation, communication and understanding of each other and impact of each other within the relationship. Both performance enhancement and psychological well-being is deeply engrained within the coach-athlete relationship; for example, studies have shown that athlete satisfaction is related to the degree to which athletes understand their role and responsibilities within interactive sports teams. (Eys, 2007). Coaches need to acknowledge and recognise the effects of positive, interdependent relationships, which are dynamic and interlinked with cognition, feelings and behaviours to achieve common recognised goals (Jowett, 2007). Therefore, a coach’s ability to acknowledge and develop positive interpersonal connections, driven by interpersonal skills and united sense of purpose and achievement, can offer solid base for positive relationships and learning atmospheres, areas highlighted by the mentioned media reports.

The challenge of successful coaching is acknowledging social interactive dilemmas within individual and team goal setting and development, offering suitable scenarios and choices with all members’ involvement and collaboratively dealing with matters as opposed to eradicating them. Past research by Mageau and Vallerand regards the “actions of coaches as (possibly) the most critical motivational influences within sport setting”. Coaching should be recognised as an educational dynamic relationship, where the coach can satisfy player’s goals and development but both sides have an investment of will capital, where human initiative and intentionality are both dedicated to show commitment towards goals and relationships. The role of performance coaches such as Bennett for professional, HP athletes is highly important; coaches are “preparing athletes for consistent high-level competitive performance” (Côté, 2009a) through effective tactics such as integration of professional, interpersonal, and intrapersonal knowledge and developing player’s specific competence, confidence, connection, and character needs on regular basis.

All coaching environments need to adopt and offer players ingredients for genuine motivation; mastery, autonomy and purpose. These ingredients are echoed within research conducted in sports coaching involving study of self-determination theory, which addresses innate psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness. Amorose supported that “the more athletes felt autonomous, competent and have sense of relatedness, the more reasons for participating were self-determined in future” (Amorose, 2007). Mallet researched and explained that “self-determination theory underscores the role of environment in fuelling people’s perceptions of (autonomy, competence and relatedness) in contexts of sport” (Mallett, 2005). We understand drive in most sporting participants is found from intrinsic motives; their internal desire to master their sports and challenge themselves through committed engagement in highly repetitive activities. So how does caring coaches fit into developing these motives and creating dynamic, player driven learning environments at the highest of stages?

Sports coaches of athletes should act as pedagogues and adopt comprehensive and holistic roles in the moral development of their athletes through their adopted and shared practices, languages and beliefs. If coaches are to develop knowledgeable and engaged athletes, capable of performing learned tasks when under pressure and not under direct instructions, I believe this shall require a transfer of knowledge or total ownership by athletes of their development, with support from the coaches as a caring mentor. Kidman’s research (2001) addressed ideas such as coaches developing player’s complex skills and tactical knowledge through encouraging abstract thought processes by asking high order questions, which require athletes to apply, analyse and synthesize information. This style of leadership displayed by both Bennett and Bellamy has the coach steering as opposed to controlling decisions and actions, encouraging player discovery through evolutionary planning and organising of tasks whilst keeping sight of overall objectives and showing empathy to get the best from the athletes, something McKinnon and Boyd mention in the SMH report. Coaches acting as orchestrators whilst attempting to create a successful pedagogic setting requires coordination of activities to investigate, monitor and respond with honesty to players. This may require some transparency from coaches to offer rationale for processes. It may also require negotiation of processes with players to meet individual and collective performance measures of those being coached whilst matching evolving circumstances for learning and development against attempting keeping sight of overall objectives.

Coaches like Bellamy need to engage on a significant and sincere level and teach our athletes or leaders to do likewise. In sport specific research, Chan and Mallett recognised that high performing coaches require additional skills including ability to facilitate functioning leader-follower relationships, revolving around emotional intelligence and empathy, beyond the standard technical and tactical skills (Chan, 2011). Jowett’s research into coach-athlete relationships looked at the interrelated emotions and behaviours captured through constructs of commitment, closeness and complimentary, tied in later studies with coordination (Jowett, 2004). In this sports research, commitment within coach-athlete relationships, as mentioned by Boyd, is recognised as intention to maintain a loyal, long term relationship while showing closeness as mutual trust, respect and appreciation for roles played in partnership. The coach’s and athlete’s ability to have mutual relatedness, common ground in beliefs and actions while having stress-free interpersonal behaviours displays coordination and complimentary aspects for successful coach-athlete relationships.

As suggested, this focus on care, empathy and close, meaningful relationships between coaches, players and all stakeholders involved offers meaningful impact and actions by the players. Players drive their own development and reflect on personal and collective performance to allow the coach to offer closeness and desired commitment to their relationships through autonomy supportive practices. As mentioned, Bennett in particular focuses on relationships, empathy and player-centred approaches while taking the spotlight which has led them to a strong finish this year but has set behaviours which shall strengthen and develop South Sydney for years to come, even after Bennett leaves this year. Likewise as grassroots coaches, we should reflect and build our interpersonal skills to allow us to take time in future to better know and understand our athletes to gain a holistic view of involved players. The art of coaching is knowing how and when to communicate, and how this varies from individual. Work on empathetic relationships and having a better understanding of your athletes or players as this will allow you to modify your environment or approaches for greater impact and understanding. Know your players, know their story, know their context and then put it into practice….