The Good Life
Outlook is rosier now for assistant coach
Aaron Good chased a coaching job at the Manawatu¯ Turbos hard after his concussion-enforced retirement and as he nears the end of his first year as assistant coach, it has lived up to every thing he expected it to be.
Good doesn’t need to be asked if he enjoys the job -it is evident from the smile on his face at every training session.
Being back out on the field in Turbos gear seven years after his playing career was cut short has him in his element.
‘‘I have loved it,’’ he said. ‘‘I have a good coaching group around me so I have learned plenty. There are some good players to work with too, so I have learned from them as well.’’
Good and head coach Jeremy Cotter appear to have struck up a good partnership.
The likes of scrum guru Greg Fleming and experienced loose forward Nick Crosswell, who has helped out coaching since his neck injury ended his season, has offered a wide range of skills to the group.
Good took over from Rhys Archibald, who returned to teaching in Christchurch at the end of last season. His playing experience was an added advantage to his appointment.
Good arrived in Manawatu¯ in 2006 on the back of 19 games for Poverty Bay. He went on to play 28 games in three seasons for the Turbos, sharing game time with the likes of former Springbok Joggie Viljoen and a young Aaron Smith.
But in 2009 he was hit by the full effects of concussion. Retirement was his only option and coaching the only way back into rugby.
His ascension to the Turbos’ assistant coach gig was no job-forthe-former-player situation. Good cut his teeth in club rugby.
He led College Old Boys to the Hankins Shield title and then took on a the coaching job at Feilding Old Boys-o¯ roua, who were in a rebuilding phase.
As he did that, he built his representative coaching resume.
He took on the Manawatu¯ Development XV and then led the Manawatu¯ Under 19s to their best finish at the national tournament in 2016.
That experience taught him plenty. And while he knew what most of the role would entail, it was how the role changed the way he watched games that caught him by surprise.
‘‘It is tough,’’ he said. ’’You have absolutely no control. You just have to trust that you have done the work during the week and prepared. You think that you have an influence by sending down messages, you really don’t.
‘‘I tend to get quite happy when we do something really well, Cots [Cotter] might get a bit grumpy when we do something bad so there is always something going on.
‘‘If things go bad I go a bit quiet. I have never been like that before. It is only this year that I have been a bit more animated when we score points.’’
He said it came with having more invested in every result.
Now that Good has taken the next step in his coaching career, he is determined to keep climbing.