Ty’s biggest challenge
Mentor varies approach for young players
THE breed of tough love Ty Williams experienced coming through the grades at the Cowboys may suit some Northern Pride players but getting the heads of his young charges right is his biggest challenge.
The team that takes to Pizzey Park in a bid to topple Burleigh will mostly be made up of players with bright futures, some with NRL in their sights, a dream that only gets closer as the Pride claim each scalp.
Williams trained under fierce strength and conditioning coach Billy Johnstone, the man who arguably made the Cowboys what they are today.
Any man who stepped out of line was blasted and while there’s still no room for slacking off, finding the right moments for firing up, encouraging and patting blokes on the back is some- thing the coach has noted as his toughest challenge.
“I’m not a coach that’s straight down the line and got to be tough. I show my players a fair bit of love, but I don’t go out there publicly and do it,” Williams said.
“Certain guys you have to approach differently.
“Obviously your older guys – Ryan Ghietti, Brett Anderson, Tom Hancock – you can come hard at them, but the younger boys, you can’t do that these days.
“It’s a generational thing, so as a coach it’s a pleasing thing to see us get results but the mentoring side of things is probably the hardest thing, treating guys differently, but they’re reacting to it and they’re in good shape heading into the rest of the season.
“I treat the players how I ex- pected to be treated as a player.
“Obviously I come from a pretty tough generation where it was Billy Johnstone old school – you’ll do it or you won’t be in the team – whereas now you’ve got to find that balance.
“The way I wanted to be spoken to, I speak to my play- ers and I think I get their respect out of it for that.”
Gone is the talk of the Pride being a young developing side, even though in a lot of ways it still is.
Now there’s actually belief in the ranks, regardless of what those outside the club think, giving them every chance this afternoon against the Bears.
“We’ve just got to keep working,” Williams said. “It’s only Round 13 or 14. “It would be good to claim a big scalp at this time of year to give us some momentum going into the bye.”
The Pride spent this week fixing the right-edge defence Souths Logan exposed last weekend, which will be a crucial part of keeping the likes of Jamal Fogarty and Blake Leary at bay.
Pride fullback Jack Murphy has been released to play CDRL for Tully this weekend, paving the way for Ben Hampton to play his first Intrust Super Cup game of the season.