As we wave goodbye to this year from hell, and enter the Ryles era of the Parramatta Eels. I wonder what our team will look like next year. A lot of our fans want just about all our players to remain at the club. Its a sad day and honestly we get what we get because we dont know what we dont know.
Ive seen people that want some of our worst players to remain at the club because "they played good tonight", or have a misplaced loyalty and he deserves it", "he scores a lot of tries" yada yada yada.
If we want to be fighting for the spoon bowl again next year, then our attitudes must change. We've asked for the club to change, hell we demanded as fans that they sack coaches, change structures, change training habits, sack board members etc but does that mean we as fans of our club , we as members of our club - do we need to change as well.
Do our expectations need to be higher. I believe they do. Dare to Dream folks - Dare to Dream.
Some members here call out our best players - I suspect because they get it. No matter how good a player is sometimes, it does not , it should not give them a complete pass when they do wrong. They should be held accountable and get crictisied. This is the way to instila culture, to be held accountable, to be honest.
The lack of honesty from our players has seen us playing in the dreadful spoon bowl. The giving up on a play, the selfish nature of putting themselves first in a team environment, the lack of commitment, the lack of consistency, the lack of fitness. Its all adds up to not being honest with themselves and having the wrong character. Yes they have skills but a lot dont have the character to push through the pain, the character to put a team first, the character to embrace the fans, the character to do what it takes to win consistant NRL football games.
So do we want to be like the Storm.
Our Board beleive so, they have ushered in the most talked about , next up young "not so young" Rookie. Fresh from winning cultures, fresh from being taught by international set ups, fresh from being taught by Bellamy. Lets hope Ryles has embraced the essence of what Bellamy is able to do. We have had his protege's before, Kearney/ Arthur. One never had what it took, the other wasnt able to adjust and grow his thinking and was never in a position to hold the players accountable. Make of them what you will. Ryles just has to be better, in every way.
Ive done a lot of reading lately and Ive come accross a great article that, Im going to share parts of here. It was written in 2017, so the stats are out of whack. It is a fanatstic read if you really want our Eels to be like the storm.
7 Powerful Lessons: inside Melbourne Storm's formula for success
Edward Crossin
Award winner | Marketing communications leader | Mentor | Uber rating 4.8 | Behavioural scientist | Digital data connoisseur | Problem solver | Solutions finder |
The numbers tell (some) of the story
In the dance and dazzle of numbers, rugby league has been unfashionably late. The American sports codes are steeped in statistics. Some of rugby league’s leading practitioners have looked at the American model to pioneer innovation for their own NRL clubs.
While Australians look at the statistical models of the Americans, the Americans could learn from the Melbourne Storm, a success story that rates as one of the most consistently excellent sporting organisations in the world.
On statistics alone, three numbers highlight this achievement:
- Melbourne Storm have played in six grand finals from the last eleven seasons;
- The only time the team missed the final series was in 2010, when the club was stripped of its points. Yet it is remarkable and important to highlight that, even with no incentive but pride remaining that season (the NRL’s penalty included the team playing for no points), the Storm still would have made the play-offs based on their win percentage; and
- Storm’s Head Coach Craig Bellamy CV boasts the highest win percentage of any rugby league coach, past or present. On the eve of last year’s Grand Final, Bellamy’s record of 367 games produced a win rate of 67 per cent, which is 5 percentage points ahead of the great Jack Gibson and Wayne Bennett.
So there’s the macro numbers.
But zoom in, get closer. Because the statistics don’t tell the entire story. A closer examination of the Storm showcases seven principles that underpin the club’s accomplishments.
1. It starts with culture
Culture is often spoken about. But it’s also misunderstood.
In the sport and business world, CEOs speak about culture ad nauseam. They reach for it like an invisible magic potion. Culture says, ours is different, ours is better, ours breeds success.
But at the Storm, it’s not fairy dust. It’s real. It breeds championship players and a champion team.
The Storm’s culture is built on leadership, honesty and humility.
2. Culture cannot be copied
Culture is not a cheat sheet that a coach or business leader can photocopy and transfer.
Just ask Stephen Kearney.
For three years, Kearney operated as Assistant Coach at the Storm. Kearney then grabbed a new opportunity as Head Coach for the Parramatta Eels in 2011.
Kearney brought with him the wisdom of the Storm. He spoke about developing a strong culture and ‘getting the systems and structures right’ – the same kind of language that bounces around the walls at the Storm.
But it was a failure. Like building sandcastles in choppy waters, Parramatta’s tempestuous culture and instability undid any chance of those structures being a success.
This failed duplication of Storm’s system highlights the need for strength on and off the field. From administration to the football department, this means every employee buying into culture.
In Moneyball, author Michael Lewis wrote about the culture that General Manager Sandy Alderson brought to Oakland Athletics:
"The system was the star. The reason that the system works is that everyone buys into it. If they don't, there is a weakness in the system."
The parallels between Oakland Athletics and the Melbourne Storm are clear.
The strength of the Storm's culture has benefits in retaining and attracting new talent. The desire to be part of the Storm sees players refuse bigger money. In March, for example, Storm forward Dale Finucane turned down marquee money to stay with the club. Similarly with Sam Kasiano, who has signed with the Storm in 2018, took a pay cut to join the club.
3. Culture should be embraced at all levels
It’s the same in the business world.
When I worked in the automotive industry, I learnt about Toyota’s legendary culture. No matter your rank, if you’re the guy cleaning cars in the morning or the guy running a dealership, you must undergo intensive and frequent Toyota training. It instills pride and ownership of the brand - where every level of the organisation has bought into the brand, its culture and its values.
The culture established by Bellamy elevates players to new levels.
When the Storm's Cooper Cronk recently addressed his team mates at a lunch to celebrate his 300th game, he made the point:
"This club allows you to be better than you are."
The environment described by Cronk is similar to the dynasty created in the NFL by the New England Patriots. Breathing the same air as the Storm, the NFL team talks proudly about the Patriot Way.
Kyle Van Noy, an outside linebacker for the Patriots, describes the team.
"It's totally different here. The head coach is established and the expectations of everyone here—from coaches and players—are incredibly high. You don't want to be the one who messes up."
The similarities are clear. Both the Patriots and the Storm could be singing from each other's championship song sheet.
New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick. Image credit - thenewyorker.com
4. Keep it simple - execute the basics brilliantly
It’s become an adjective and compliment in league language. Melbourne Storm like.
A team operating at the level of Melbourne Storm brings intensity, relentlessness, exceptional standards and a high percentage execution across all the micro elements of a game.
Other words born out of the Craig Bellamy era include systems and structure.
Listen to the words used by Stephen Kearney, Kevin Walters, Brad Arthur and Michael Maguire. All have worked as Assistant Coach with Bellamy. All echo Bellamy’s philosophy.
Storm’s intensity of high expectation is amplified by coaching simplicity.
On the eve of another Grand Final berth in 2016, Nick Tedeschi described the Storm’s simple effectiveness:
"The genius of Craig Bellamy’s coaching is not showing how smart he is but by proving how simple the game can be, which is why he’s the NRL’s best boss.
The story of Melbourne Storm’s Cheyse Blair really is the story of Craig Bellamy. It is the story of what great coaching is and the influence that great mentors have on their team and each player.
Prior to arriving in Melbourne this season to add some depth at outside back, Blair was a below-average player who couldn’t hold down a first grade position. After playing 22 games for the Eels in his 2012 debut season, he managed just 22 over the following three years, dumped from the wooden spoon Eels team and then in and out of a declining Sea Eagles team. His handling was poor (16 errors in 13 games for Manly) and he was a defensive liability.
Blair is no superstar, he would be the first to admit that. But he is a player who is now playing to his maximum capability, one who is contributing consistently to a very good team.
The key to turning Blair’s form – and career – turnaround has been simplicity. Craig Bellamy gave Blair a role and it could not have been simpler: run hard and make your tackles on the paddock, train with intent off it.
That is the subtle magic of Craig Bellamy. He gets the best out of all his players. The genius of his coaching is not showing how smart he is but by showing his players how simple the game can be."
A club that allows you to be better than you are - Melbourne Storm’s Cheyse Blair (centre). Image credit - abc.net.au
Players in the twilight of their careers have delivered their best football while at the Storm. Think of Brett Finch, Bryan Norrie, Jaiman Lowe, Ryan Tandy, Clint Newton, Todd Lowrie and Michael Crocker.
Brian Smith’s coaching school was famously complicated. Not so with Bellamy.
On Storm’s training pitch, perfect practice makes perfect. Between the training paddock and the real game, there is no difference. A mistake is a mistake, no matter the arena. And Bellamy will pounce.
Drop the ball at training and Storm players drop to the floor and perform push-ups. It’s a practice so drilled that once a player dropped a ball in a real game and immediately dropped to his knees to perform push-ups.
Cameron Smith has spoken previously about the sometimes boring nature of the team’s repetitive training drills.
From the same player who made only ten errors in the 2016 season, the method might be maddening, but it works.
Zig Ziglar was right:
“Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.”
This pursuit of perfect execution of the basics is one of the foundations of the Storm’s consistency. Ball control and possession is a key part of that.
Giving away the ball is giving away opportunity to the opposition. The team with the highest completion rates stacks the winning odds in their favour.
In the 2016 season, the team with the greatest completion rates was the Storm with 82%. Which team had the least handling errors in the same year? Melbourne Storm. While the team may have not have won the 2016 Grand Final, they were the minor premiers, which is the ultimate KPI of consistency.
5. Leadership
Cooper Cronk, Billy Slater and Cameron Smith were not superstars when they arrived at the club. In fact, once upon a time, these Brisbane players were overlooked by Brisbane Broncos recruitment staff.
Cronk, Slater and Smith were nurtured and developed under Bellamy’s masterful eye.
Watch these players closely. They operate like on-field generals, extensions of Bellamy’s command centre. They are one and the same, united behind the coach’s vision. Pointing, instructing, demanding more of their team mates. The team’s leaders believe in the system and the game plan.
Other organisations deteriorate because they lack leadership and unity. It’s a result of frayed leadership and different agendas, of individuals not buying into a culture. The 2017 West Tigers and 2016 Parramatta Eels are poles apart from the Storm.
The layers of management and leadership at the Melbourne Storm operate in sync. They are culturally aligned.
Each player knows their part. Former Storm player Michael Crocker describes the team’s leadership -
“Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk read the game as well as any coach. Craig Bellamy embraced that and made sure the rest of the team is ready to play off the back of that.”
Old school, truth time. Image credit - heraldsun.com.au
6. Be honest
To be honest is one of Bellamy’s frequent turns of phrase. But it's more than words. It happens to be one of the elements of the Storm’s culture – truth and honesty.
During Bellamy’s NSW State of Origin coaching tenure, I remember Andrew Johns speaking about the club’s truth sessions.
Leaving ego out the door and only accepting full responsibility, the team’s leadership group would conduct a detailed post game review.
It isn’t just the coach leading these sessions. It is the leadership group of players. In front of the players, these truth sessions are an embodiment of an ethos that expects excellence.
That’s not good enough. You should have been there. That’s not how we do it here.
It’s akin to the philosophy of John Wooden, one of America’s greatest basketball coaches. Wooden brought a fanatical precision to training.
In this interview with Tony Robbins, Wooden reveals that he took detailed notes of every minute in every training session. The notes were three years old, and were used to spot trends and identify micro opportunities for improvement.
UCLA Lew Alcindor later known as Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Coach John Wooden
Bellamy’s level of precision feels the same. The truth sessions are a forum and examination of the maximisation of potential.
If great minds think alike, Wooden’s words echo the Storm’s ethos:
"Failure is knowing that you didn’t do the things that you should have done."
7. Keep it real
Great coaches bring great life philosophy. In the Bellamy classroom, it’s old school. It’s a school of humility and staying grounded.
Bellamy’s autobiography emphasises the need for good manners, in all kinds of interactions. With fans, with hotel and flight staff.
Speaking about the new arrival of winger Josh Addo-Carr in the 2017 season, rugby league journalist Paul Kent told Triple M that new signing Josh Addo-Carr was shown a video of his try celebration antics from his previous club. He was told:
“We don’t do that kind of thing here.”
Never does Bellamy allow his players to take for granted their privilege.
A Melbourne Storm pre-season typically includes hard labour. As a sledgehammer reminder of the employment alternative for these young men, sometimes this means digging holes.
Putting it all together
Anthony Robbins talks about modelling as a shortcut to success. That is, learn a successful person’s patterns of behaviour and adopt their mindset, and then implement these same elements in your life.
Phil Gould summarises the Storm’s feat:
“Melbourne Storm is everything you want your football team to be. They take kids, develop and nurture them, and turn them into champions. They turn the team into a champion team, and the club into a champion club. Every club would like to do that. Every supporter would love to have a team like the Melbourne Storm.”
Modelling the Storm, in business or in life, is a sure step towards greatness. Because in the business of results, in the pursuit of excellence, there is no greater club.
At the heart of the club’s culture are the never go out of fashion virtues of hard work, honesty and humility. It's heart is the greatest rugby league coach that has ever lived. Someone from whom we can all learn.
The club is a role model.
-END ARTICLE-
Replies
The quick version is to be like the Storm we need to embrace their principles.
1. It starts with culture
2. Culture cannot be copied
3. Culture should be embraced at all levels
4. Keep it simple - execute the basics brilliantly
5. Leadership
6. Be honest
7. Keep it real
Character over Skill - Every time.
But we need to embrace it accross the entire club, From Fans/ Members, from the Board through the coaches, From the NRL players to the juniors. It must be all heading in the same direction , with the same message, with the same attention to detail to actually work.
This is a massive undertaking, that hell who would put their hand up to undertake and lead it.
For It to be successfull, Ryles has to get it right, the board has to get it right, the Fans and members need to get it right as well, they play a huge roll, they are the reason we have a club, our own club, our social media, our websites, our facebooks our 1EE site, our voting at elections our game attendance, our merchandise buying, our tv watching habits, all has an influence on our journey.
Great stuff Bluey.
You have identified the ideal model.....we/you/ everybody has to understand how you implement it.
1 to 7 on your list are all "motherhoods" and we would all agree, so go out there and do it, remember "its simple"..
GUESS what it is not "simple" ....changing a culture is like getting the Jews together with the Hamas and having a deep and meaningful. Why do we sit back in this world and not just change the culture, no Middle East problems, no China , no Putin.....God help us no Trump and Biden.....it just not that easy!
So lets establish that we accept all these ideas and yes we will do it, regardless of all those examples we just demonstrated do not work.
If bellamey has done it, why has not everyone done it. Bellamey is a "simple" RL Player turned coach, no beacons or shining lights say pick me. Bellamey did his apprenticeship with Bennett and is very different. You can learn from the best without trying to copy them, especially if it doesn't suit your persona. # greatest coaches in RL, Gibson, Bennett, Bellamey. All different but Gibson who taught Bennett are both very different to Bellamey.
The other key ingredient is their assistants Ron Masey, Frank Ponissi and in Bennett's case his physcologist mate he takes everywhere.
So I am going stop here because I don't have the answers, as a ficilitator I have outlined the problem, lets see what the unwashed can come in to implement this.
A key ingredient is that the commentary of idea's need to be with what we have, not what we could or should have. ie, Fongy saying the board is a peice of shit doesn't get you anywhere, unless he tells you who he gets rid of and how.
The challenge is a plan and how you would implement it.
Key tip's......KIS.....and Values
Spot on Pops, Others , lots of others have tried to copy his system, his culture, most have failed. The task is momentous, however its simply what must happen to be a top 4 footy team over sustained periods.
Its the sustained periods that prove the problem, that means, Board Stability, Coaching stability, Player improvement and planning your future roster with as much certainty as possible. "player option dig right there". At the same time as stability and long term contracts for Board/ Coaching/ leaders etc you must have the right persons in those positions as well.
We've started the process, Its huge to change the culture top to bottom. Board to Juniors and everyone in between on the same page, same system, same belief. How far can we go, history suggests failure, how many spoons do we own. But put simply it has to start, it has to be mainatianed and we must have the right people/ leaders in for the long haul.
Exactly!
In short, we need to do whatever it takes.
Whilst we are not Melb, and tried their "off the books" method without success, we need to bring those 7 points into our own club and embrace them as ours.
Cronk stated recently that the Storm when assessing a potential recruit, character is at the forefront of what is important. Talent is somewhere down the order. This is why storm recruits go off and work on construction projects for several weeks prior to seeing any football, to see what they are made of and set the tone for what lies ahead. Many of our "stars" wouldn't get a look in at a club like that.
yep, they are well above the curve. The Storm do it with building character and leadership from Vanilla players, Rorters do it by buying internationals below value, Penrith have been doing it via Juniors.
3 different systems so to speak to get to the same position. A consistent top 4 team.
The Storm are full of staff who are considered either the best or close to the best in their positions. From the way the club is run in the boardroom through to finding and developing young talent. Plus they have the massive advantage of being a 1 club city. The sponsorship and 3rd party advantages are huge for them.
I believe, with the right investors, ( if they are given enough power) would result in plenty of improvement. If board members could only survive in their positions when successful along with people in charge of on field success, surely we would see improvements. The Parramatta Eels have every ingredient 1 or more investors would want. Everything from junior league participation to the massive supporter base, not to mention having access to one of the best Rugby League stadiums in Australia. Of the Sydney based clubs, the Eels would be the best or close to the best option for an investor looking for an NRL club.
Great blog Blue Eel. Sometimes you can't teach those leadership skills irrespective of how many degrees in coaching related schools. Education does help to nurture and develop basic inherent qualities some people have have been born with. We all have life experiences with teachers in academia,sport and industry. . I think we can all refer to some great teachers we have connected with and some we haven't. I think coaching is very much like that. If you are recruiting anyone to take on a role of hiring a teacher of any kind you also are gifted if that person has the sensitivity in reading that person with the ability to do a good job. Your selection of a key figure on longish contracts is very much a high risk and can be a very costly exercise if it doesn't work out. Maybe luck is a factor.
It is a very difficult job to create a genuine cultural honest environment. People will often tell you what you want to hear giving you an illusion you have a progressive culture when you don't.
Good response Tad, so true in a lot of what you say
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