Twitter is helping Woolford during lockdown
GIANTS COACH IS NOT PLANNING TO BECOME A PROLIFIC TWEETER
HUDDERSFIELD Giants’ Simon Woolford has become the first Super League head coach to join the realms of Twitter – officially, at least – after growing “sick” of being left behind by his wife.
Although it is understood some top-flight chiefs may use the social media tool under a pseudonym, the Australian openly entered the fray recently.
He quickly gained 250 followers but has barely used it save for a couple of replies to Workington Town head coach Chris Thorman – his former Huddersfield assistant – and the Giants club account.
Woolford explained: “I joined Twitter as I was sick of not getting all the stuff my wife gets all the time so I joined it myself!
“She keeps telling me what’s going on in the rugby league world and she gets it all off Twitter so that’s why I’m jumping on.
“I think it’s good. I won’t be on there tweeting very much.
“But it’s certainly the platform to be up on everything rugby league-wise around the world, that’s for sure.”
Woolford, meanwhile, has been in touch with some of his friends on the other side of the world for more standard coaching updates, speaking to them about how things have changed in the NRL after coronavirus.
The Australian game has now been up and running for more than four weeks, giving a valuable insight for people in Super League who are due to return to action on August 2 but are still yet to resume squad training.
Woolford played more than 200 games for Canberra Raiders and also spent two years as a player with St George-Illawarra before retiring in 2008.
He then returned to Canberra to start his coaching career and moved on to Newcastle Knights as an assistant before joining Giants two years ago.
“I do know a lot of people back home still involved,” said the 45-year-old.
“They have just started to relax a few of the rules about what they can do outside of footy and outside of training so that’s a welcome relief.
“I’ve had some chats about the onfield stuff – the rule changes and what effect it’s had, what teams have done to prepare for that and bits of information about everything really which has been nice.”
Of course, one of the principal rule changes in the NRL since it started up again has been the ‘six again’ which sees teams gain another six tackles for a ruck infringement rather than a penalty.
It has speeded up the game considerably and has been recommended by the RFL Law’s Committee to be introduced into Super League, too.
Woolford fully expects that to happen and – as a former hooker himself – is a fan of how it might alter ruck play in Super League.
“Why wouldn’t I be (in favour) if it’s going to favour the little guys?” said the coach, whose side’s last game before the pandemic was a Challenge Cup defeat to Toronto Wolfpack on March 11.
“You’ve already seen in Australia that some teams have adapted to it really quickly, some have adapted over the last four weeks but some are still struggling with it.
“It’s making me think about how we’re going to play and, more importantly, the personnel we’re going with as it will have a bearing on how we pick our team and how we use people.
“In a way, the break’s been good in that we’ve been able to analyse how things have gone in the NRL and I’m sure coaches here will be concocting their own plans to not only make sure they handle the new rules but also make the most of them.”
Huddersfield, who won four of their opening five Super League games before the shutdown, will be part of the opening day return when they face Leeds Rhinos as part of a triple-header on August 2.
They saw their England Knights hooker Kruise Leeming join Leeds in the off-season and he could debut against them in a little over four weeks’ time.
The West Yorkshire club never replaced Leeming and had been running with just one specialist hooker – Adam O’Brien.
Woolford says there are no plans to alter that but it might be something they look at in 2021.
It’s certainly the platform to be up on everything rugby league-wise. Huddersfield Giants coach Simon Woolford has found some uses for Twitter.
“At the moment we’ve got Adam and then Tom Holmes is there as a hooker/half who we’ll use for the rest of this year,” he said.
“We’ve got a young kid Reiss Butterworth who’s improving all the time and he might get a shot at this year, too, so we’ll go with what we’ve got.
“I’m quite content with what we’ve got as far as hookers at the moment.
“We’ll see how we handle the new rules as they come in and then make some adjustments on it for next year if we need to.”
*** IF short, can nab a bit off following press release...