Manly five-eighth set for ninth coach in NRL
Luke Brooks must have thought it was Groundhog Day last month when he had to start all over again with a new coach for the ninth time in his NRL career.
New Zealand Warriors cult hero Dallin Watene-Zelezniak is the only other NRL player to have played under such a number of boards.
Manly five-eighth Brooks watched Anthony Seibold exit 4 Pines Park a fortnight ago and was temporarily replaced by Kieran Foran, one of today’s great Sea Eagles No.6s. Foran is the latest in a long line of coaches Brooks has played with, including Jason Taylor, Andrew Webster, Ivan Cleary, Michael Maguire, Brett Kimmorley and Tim Sheens.
Foran has played for five different NRL clubs during his career and said a change of manager could be destabilizing, especially for a playmaker, but it also had its benefits.
“When you have so many different coaches like Brooksy has now, you can look at it as a chance to learn different styles and philosophies and use one or two things you enjoy to improve your own game,” Foran said.
“The other nice thing about Brooksy is that he has a calm head and despite all the chopping and changing, it hasn’t affected him.
“I always admired him when I played against him. The one thing that stood out was his resilience. It didn’t always go smoothly and he had to overcome a lot of adversity, but he always came out and continued to play high quality football.”
Brooks is entering his third year with the Sea Eagles but spent more than a decade as a permanent punching bag while being a halfback at Wests Tigers.
Aaron Woods, a former Tigers team-mate and good friend of Brooks who has played no less than 11 coaches for the clubs, said the coaching merry-go-round at the Tigers had placed the 31-year-old in a good place to help any Sea Eagles players trying to adjust early in the season.
“Brooksy has been through worse at the Wests Tigers and the good thing about this latest situation is that Manly still have a really good side, which will help,” Woods said.
“None of this is going to surprise Brooksy. He’s been able to pick up little things from every coach. And I think ‘Foz’ is going to be great for him. Foz was also in the eighth and watching him play the other night against the Dolphins, Brooksy was happy to run the ball more and that’s when he’s always at his best.
“[Halfback] Jamal Fogarty isn’t a game-breaker, but he gets the team into certain spots on the field, which allows Brooksy to become more of a running threat.”
Foran said he had not made too many changes to Brooks’ game ahead of Friday night’s away game against the winless but desperate Dragons.
“You don’t need to tutor a guy like Brooksy, who’s all Xs and Os, because he knows how to move on the football field, what works for him and what doesn’t,” Foran said.
“All I have to do is make sure Brooksy understands how good he can be. We’ll continue to encourage him to get on the pitch throughout the 80 minutes.”
“But the biggest thing I’ll do for Brooksy is tell him to continue to believe in how effective and good he can be for our football team. He’s got a lot to offer. He’s such an important piece and I hope he really knows and feels that.”
“If we’re going to do something this year, he’ll play a key role in helping us do it.”
Manly recorded a shocking 52-18 victory over the Dolphins in Foran’s first game in charge. The coach said the only thing he worked on beforehand was to get the players to believe in themselves.
Barnstorming backrower Haumole Olakau’atu said Foran told him to “do what I do best, which is run the ball and tackle early” before going out and playing the best game of his career.
According to Australia’s leading statistician David Middleton, Parramatta legend Bob O’Reilly has played with a record 12 coaches, followed by Woods (11), Dale Copley and Michael Gordon also with 11, and Shaun Johnson with 10.
