It was midway through the 2001 season, Michael Hagan’s first as a head coach in the NRL, when the calls for his sacking began.
“I do remember the feedback in the media: why on earth have they given this bloke the job when they’ve lost four games in a row? What were the Knights thinking for that decision to be made?” Hagan recalls. “You start feeling that, don’t you?”
That first year with the clipboard was a rollercoaster: an eight-game winning streak, followed by a four-game losing streak, then four wins on the trot, followed by three consecutive losses. And that was before the regular season had even concluded.
And there was Hagan, a rookie coach unprepared for the scrutiny that comes with the role, riding every high and low.
“It can turn around quickly in both directions,” Hagan says. “It’s never as good as it seems, and it’s never as bad as it seems in footy.”
Indeed, that first season did not turn out too bad at all. There was another streak right at the end, of five successive wins, including the 30-24 shock grand final triumph over Parramatta. It made Hagan just one of three coaches in the NRL era – alongside Ricky Stuart and Trent Robinson – to win a premiership in their first season.
Michael Hagan and Andrew Johns celebrate grand final glory in 2001, Hagan’s first year as an NRL coach.Credit: Getty Images
Their early successes slightly skew the following statistic: since 1998, rookie coaches have a 47 per cent success rate in their first season. That’s seven percentage points higher than the average record achieved by the coach they replaced in the previous season, suggesting there’s usually a bump in performance once the club has embarked on the change.
But for every Hagan, Stuart and Robinson, there are countless tales of a torrid coaching initiations. You need only look at the opening fortnight for Jason Ryles at Parramatta and Kristian Woolf at the Dolphins. The Eels sit on the bottom of the ladder with a -64 points differential, while consecutive losses for Woolf have already prompted suggestions he is the latest clipboard holder to succumb to the so-called “Bennett curse”.
It’s something Jason Demetriou, who took over from the great Wayne Bennett at South Sydney in 2020, can relate to.
“I was happy with how I transitioned,” Demetriou says of his entry into first-grade coaching. “At the end of the first year, everyone spoke about how we’d broken the Bennett curse. It’s only after we hit some hard times that that resurfaced.
Parramatta coach Jason Ryles has taken over one of the most storied teams in the game’s history, and he’s had a really tough start.Credit: Edwina Pickles
“It’s not easy because you’re taking over from a guy who has been there and done that multiple times at multiple clubs. His reputation in the game, rightly so, is enormous.
“It’s a challenge every coach [following Bennett] has, and Woolfie will feel it at times this year. It’s about maintaining his beliefs and staying true to that.
“There’s always different challenges, no matter how you step into the role.
“There will always be eyes on you and how you handle certain situations. Both Jase [Ryles] and Woolfie have done a long apprenticeship, they have developed their identity and how they want to shape their team. We’ll see that over the course of this year and the next couple of years.”
A tough initiation doesn’t mean you can’t coach. If their fortunes don’t improve in 2025, Ryles and Woolf can take solace from the fact others have forged successful careers after a difficult initiation.
When Shane Flanagan took over from Ricky Stuart at Cronulla in 2010, he won two of his first seven games. The next couple of years weren’t much better: his success rate in 2011 was 28.6 per cent, which improved to only 40 per cent the following season.
It became obvious that a rebuild would take time.
“You’ve obviously been put in there because they haven’t been winning – that’s why there’s a coach change,” Flanagan says. “Things just can’t turn around really quickly. It is tough, those first couple of years, for those reasons. You’ve got to deal with that.
Shane Flanagan led the Sharks to their first NRL title after some tough years at the club.Credit: Getty Images
“What I remember is having good people around me; having some good mentors got me through that first year, which was a tough year.”
Things eventually turned around for Flanagan, who is now at the Dragons. In 2016, he became the first coach to take Cronulla to a title.
“The biggest thing is not to doubt your confidence; you got in there for a reason,” Flanagan says. “You’ve got to keep backing yourself.”
Another premiership-winning coach also got off to an inauspicious start. After winning his first game in charge of Manly in 2004, Des Hasler lost the next seven.
“A rebuild takes time,” says now-Titans mentor Hasler, who went on to win two premierships and sits sixth on the NRL’s all-time list for most games coached.
It’s why he has urged Ryles and Parramatta to hold their nerve.
“If a rebuild is the path they have taken, it takes time,” he says. “Associated with that, you get setbacks like injury. You have to back them.”
If Ryles requires inspiration, he need look no further than the man in the opposition coaches box on Sunday. Cameron Ciraldo walked into a rebuild of his own when he joined Canterbury, winning just seven games in his first year on his way to a 15th-place finish.
But after being given time to change the roster and culture, he guided the Bulldogs to last year’s play-offs, earning a nomination for Dally M coach of the year in the process (Craig Bellamy ultimately earned the gong).
Before a ball was kicked this year, Ryles intimated that Parramatta’s journey could have a similar trajectory as that of Ciraldo’s.
Cameron Ciraldo won just seven games in his first season before things started to turn around with the Bulldogs.Credit: Kate Geraghty
“I do know the best living case study at the moment is the Bulldogs,” Ryles told an Eels members forum. “They got the latest and greatest coach in there, and they nearly ran last in the first year.
“That’s just the reality of the competition. I don’t want us to do that, and I hope that doesn’t happen to us, that’s definitely not the plan. I don’t have any limitations or expectations, I just want to build a strong culture [where] the players come to work every day and they know they are in an environment where they can get better.”
Every situation is different. When Tim Sheens took over at Penrith way back in 1994, then-Panthers chief executive Roger Cowan said he would be happy if the team won just one game all season. Ultimately, they fell just one win short of the finals and Sheens was crowned Dally M coach of the year.
There is little expectation on Ryles’ Eels after a difficult start. Like Hagan, also a former Parramatta coach, his initial season is also likely to be a rollercoaster, perhaps with more downs than ups.
“It takes a while for players to embrace change,” says a current NRL coach who asked not to be named. “You are there for a reason. Changing systems, habits and beliefs takes time. It tests your willingness to stick to what you believe in.”
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