CHALLENGING TIMES
Q It’s been your first year as a head coach, has it been harder than you thought?
A It’s been more demanding. I’m probably not coaching as much as I would have liked – that’s for a number of reasons, resources and things like that. But they’re things that we’re putting in place. The owners understand that and they’re very supportive of that; Dennis Watt, our executive chairman understands that there need to be more resources around the football department so I can focus more on my coaching.
Q How is it different to what you were doing before in the Penrith system?
A When you’re a lower grade coach, all you do is coach your footy team – and that’s the easy part. It’s the juggling of rosters and all that sort of thing, that has been challenging but it’s all part of the job that I’ve learnt along the way.
Q You don’t play favourites — is your philosophy that no one is an automatic selection in your team?
A I pick people on performance and not on reputation. There’s been some behind-closed-doors conversations with some of our senior players about where their performances are. I think they understand if you get the chat, I’m willing to pull the trigger on it. Bryce (Cartwright) and Lani (Latu) are probably two high-profile ones that have come from Penrith that have been playing with Tweed because they haven’t been performing. At the start of the year no one had heard of Moe Fotuaika but he stepped up and has been doing the job. If someone is doing the job, they’ll get picked – regardless of what salary they’re on or what reputation they’ve come with. No one’s bigger than the club.