webster.png

Staff Andrew Webster

Coach Grade
  1. NRL Head Coach
Date of Birth
Jan 17, 1982
Birth Location
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Nationality
  1. 🇦🇺 Australia
Nickname
Webby
Warriors Debut Date
Mar 3, 2023
Warriors Debut Details
March 3 2023, Round 1 vs Newcastle Knights at SKY Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand
Warriors Years Active
  1. 2015
  2. 2016
  3. 2023
  4. 2024
Signed From
Penrith Panthers (Assistant Coach)
Status
Active
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Webster_(rugby_league)
Rugby League Project
https://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/coaches/andrew-webster/summary.html
NZWarriors.com
Thats the skill though isnt it? I can look at a car or a house and know whats broken but I need a mechanic or a builder to fix it. What use is Webby if he knows whats wrong but cant fix it?
Good point. But at present I'm not sure there's a better coach available. Therefore we are going to need to reinstate Stacey but I'm still hopeful that whatever it is that is wrong (long list I know). Webby is where the buck stops. But if everyone involved performed as if it stopped with each of them, then Webbys coaching would look infinitely better. Reflecting on it. Webbys made shit selections but I still like his plan. So no, I'm no closer to a solution but after work when I've had a cuppa and breathe out I'll be back to make sense of what I've just said. And what else I might need to say....even if it's "I was wrong"
 
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I am not concerned at all about our coach or his decisions. I might not agree with all of them, but I saw enough last year to set my ideas aside and buy into what this coach has done, and what I believe he is still yet to do.

When Webster makes a call I do not like (like Roger in a roving roll, I see Rogers Roving and stepping as a major problem, I want him setting up and passing) I defer however to the guy that is the expert and has his hand on the tiller.

Last year when we were flying high, and everyone was happy, from the club to the man in the street, my main concern for the future of the Warriors, is what the club will do when Webster is in a bit of trouble. Had the Turks not destroyed my posts about the Warriors turning on Webster I could have quoted one for this rant, but trust me it was written.

A bit of trouble, if you have been following this comp for a long time, looks like this...lots of injuries, key players in a form slump, losing games badly on the trot, a steep and shocking dive from high emotions to deep lows. And a bit of trouble is reinforced by NRL experts picking a club as a contender early then said club gets beaten by the lowest ranked sides in the comp.

All NRL clubs go through this, and most hit their worst crisis after a highly successful season.

What Webster did last year was nothing short of a miracle. Taking the most under performing group in the competition to the top four in one season won him the Dally M coach of the year.

Cynics will say (with some justification) that the Dally M's are a joke. Yes they are, however what Andrew Webster achieved would win any awards format judged by fair, objective, and honest peers.

You don't go from being the best coach in a season to being the problem when the club is on a losing streak.

I won't question Webster until we have at least sixteen of his preferred players fit running out there, I think it is obvious that our bench is critical in his planning and that anything less than sixteen first picks options is an unfair judgement of Websters methodology.

What I am saying is, that his preferred bench line up is the missing piece, and why we enjoyed so much success last year.

Last year it was the impact of our bench players that rolled us over the top of the competition.

Take that apart and we are not quite strong enough to fight our way back into games when our starters are resting.

Greenhorns for impact are not the way to fight your way back into hard games, experienced NRL players are the stabilizing influence this team needs to come back from hard starts, or to continue stability after good openings.

Getting back to my original point, my main fear when Webster was doing well, was that management would fire him at the first sign of serious trouble, that is why it kinda pisses me off that some fans turn on him so readily. And I am tired of people saying Webster is at fault for not picking their preferred players, hey...why don't you apply for head coach at the Warriors then if you're such an expert. Or check your egos at the door and realise you have no idea how these guys are behaving at training all week, you just watch a few highlights and somehow become the Dally M couch world expert on Rugby league.

I would never claim my selection process is better than someone working inside a company (oh sure I have an alternate list to Webster but I think he knows a bit more than me eh). Otherwise you look like all the twits on the Storm Forum who have been criticizing Craig Bellamy's selections for Craig's whole tenure (there is a lesson there do ya wanna be those guys?) it makes me laugh there are Storm coach critics.

Webster will right the ship. It may take a bad year, but if the Club sticks by him he will think his way through our deficiencies including his own.

He is the smartest guy we have had in charge since Cleary.

And just on Cleary, he was a conservative coach that played it safe. Kearney was a conservative coach that played it safe.

Webster, Cleary, Kearney, all good men, all came to the Warriors and identified their biggest weakness as inconsistency ergo they became risk adverse coaches.

The Warriors, the NZ league deficiencies demand a safe and conservative man to commit a long term strategy that molds our particular player type into safe and calm, strategic, chess type players.

People calling for Xfactor or unpredictability are asking for Icing and ignoring the cake. Fuck that, Xfactor should never be your platform for building success, winning the hard metrics is the platform, winning the grind, building bricks and mortar, the Xfactor comes after you have built a solid foundation, a boring ass grinding NRL styled hard nosed base is the only path to a premiership, not zip zap fancy pants footy...since when did a shit defensive or non territorial side win the NRL????

To win the NRL you need fundamentals first. NZ league players are severely anemic in the fundamentals, NZ league players only make through Warriors trials by displaying Xfactor.

Which is why the only coach that is gonna fix this lot is someone who takes the time to get them winning the fundamentals, field position, possession, defence, Xfactor is icing, and worthless without a fundamentals that teams like Penrith and Melbourne mastered before pouring on the Xfactor. We do not have the competitions in New Zealand nor the talent spotters to identify the types of players that the Panthers and Storm are flush with, young men from hardened furnaces at a very early age, kids who are students of the game.

Therefore Warriors coaches are forced to compensate by re educating them to these very systems (safe and conservative) that NZ fans misunderstand.
 
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I am not concerned at all about our coach or his decisions. I might not agree with all of them, but I saw enough last year to set my ideas aside and buy into what this coach has done, and what I believe he is still yet to do.

When Webster makes a call I do not like (like Roger in a roving roll, I see Rogers Roving and stepping as a major problem, I want him setting up and passing) I defer however to the guy that is the expert and has his hand on the tiller.

Last year when we were flying high, and everyone was happy, from the club to the man in the street, my main concern for the future of the Warriors, is what the club will do when Webster is in a bit of trouble. Had the Turks not destroyed my posts about the Warriors turning on Webster I could have quoted one for this rant, but trust me it was written.

A bit of trouble, if you have been following this comp for a long time, looks like this...lots of injuries, key players in a form slump, losing games badly on the trot, a steep and shocking dive from high emotions to deep lows. And a bit of trouble is reinforced by NRL experts picking a club as a contender early then said club gets beaten by the lowest ranked sides in the comp.

All NRL clubs go through this, and most hit their worst crisis after a highly successful season.

What Webster did last year was nothing short of a miracle. Taking the most under performing group in the competition to the top four in one season won him the Dally M coach of the year.

Cynics will say (with some justification) that the Dally M's are a joke. Yes they are, however what Andrew Webster achieved would win any awards format judged by fair, objective, and honest peers.

You don't go from being the best coach in a season to being the problem when the club is on a losing streak.

I won't question Webster until we have at least sixteen of his preferred players fit running out there, I think it is obvious that our bench is critical in his planning and that anything less than sixteen first picks options is an unfair judgement of Websters methodology.

What I am saying is, that his preferred bench line up is the missing piece, and why we enjoyed so much success last year.

Last year it was the impact of our bench players that rolled us over the top of the competition.

Take that apart and we are not quite strong enough to fight our way back into games when our starters are resting.

Greenhorns for impact are not the way to fight your way back into hard games, experienced NRL players are the stabilizing influence this team needs to come back from hard starts, or to continue stability after good openings.

Getting back to my original point, my main fear when Webster was doing well, was that management would fire him at the first sign of serious trouble, that is why it kinda pisses me off that some fans turn on him so readily. And I am tired of people saying Webster is at fault for not picking their preferred players, hey...why don't you apply for head coach at the Warriors then if you're such an expert. Or check your egos at the door and realise you have no idea how these guys are behaving at training all week, you just watch a few highlights and somehow become the Dally M couch world expert on Rugby league.

I would never claim my selection process is better than someone working inside a company (oh sure I have an alternate list to Webster but I think he knows a bit more than me eh). Otherwise you look like all the twits on the Storm Forum who have been criticizing Craig Bellamy's selections for Craig's whole tenure (there is a lesson there do ya wanna be those guys?) it makes me laugh there are Storm coach critics.

Webster will right the ship. It may take a bad year, but if the Club sticks by him he will think his way through our deficiencies including his own.

He is the smartest guy we have had in charge since Cleary.

And just on Cleary, he was a conservative coach that played it safe. Kearney was a conservative coach that played it safe.

Webster, Cleary, Kearney, all good men, all came to the Warriors and identified their biggest weakness as inconsistency ergo they became risk adverse coaches.

The Warriors, the NZ league deficiencies demand a safe and conservative man to commit a long term strategy that molds our particular player type into safe and calm, strategic, chess type players.

People calling for Xfactor or unpredictability are asking for Icing and ignoring the cake. Fuck that, Xfactor should never be your platform for building success, winning the hard metrics is the platform, winning the grind, building bricks and mortar, the Xfactor comes after you have built a solid foundation, a boring ass grinding NRL styled hard nosed base is the only path to a premiership, not zip zap fancy pants footy...since when did a shit defensive or non territorial side win the NRL????

To win the NRL you need fundamentals first. NZ league players are severely anemic in the fundamentals, NZ league players only make through Warriors trials by displaying Xfactor.

Which is why the only coach that is gonna fix this lot is someone who takes the time to get them winning the fundamentals, field position, possession, defence, Xfactor is icing, and worthless without a fundamentals that teams like Penrith and Melbourne mastered before pouring on the Xfactor. We do not have the competitions in New Zealand nor the talent spotters to identify the types of players that the Panthers and Storm are flush with, young men from hardened furnaces at a very early age, kids who are students of the game.

Therefore Warriors coaches are forced to compensate by re educating them to these very systems (safe and conservative) that NZ fans misunderstand.

100% agree with everything you say but you’re killing all the fun … 😂
 
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you’re killing all the fun … 😂
zero chance of that.
Warriors fans will tear the flesh off this coach no matter what he does, even if he wins it, the year after or the year after that they will pick him apart.

Look at Kearney the Kiwis greatest ever coach.

Multiple world titles over the Kangaroos but still not rated by many here as an international coach because of his Warriors short comings as if one is somehow magically the same as the other.

NZ fans only look at losses, and discount wins as soon as there is a loss, what kind of logic is that do not expect me to give a logical response.
 
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zero chance of that.
Warriors fans will tear the flesh off this coach no matter what he does, even if he wins it, the year after or the year after that they will pick him apart.

I would like to think this is a safe place for people to vent, go crazy with ideas, use and abuse to get shit off their chest…. better than bottling all up inside no matter how crazy your view
 
I would like to think this is a safe place for people to vent, go crazy with ideas, use and abuse to get shit off their chest…. better than bottling all up inside no matter how crazy your view
Agreed. I make my arguments for my own sake in the same fashion I expect others to ignore what I say and go on their own rants.
The forum would die if we were all of the same mind.

That said, there is a real NZ turncoat thing that is entrenched in our culture, happy to support winners, no sense when we are in trouble. As if somehow winning can be erased by losing. Reality does not work like that. Wins stand on their own forever.

If you applied the NZ Male sports fan logic to Mike Tyson he would be a pretender exposed by Buster Douglas and Evander Hollyfeild.

Hey Just because Iron Mike lost badly in the end does not erase his wins...but around here he would be dethroned by all the PTSD cats on here.
 
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Thats the skill though isnt it? I can look at a car or a house and know whats broken but I need a mechanic or a builder to fix it. What use is Webby if he knows whats wrong but cant fix it?
Round 2. But still haven't had a cuppa. But I'm home and halfway unwound from work. So.....

Webby knows what's wrong but so far hasn't fixed it. So that shows that he either can't so won't.... Or can and eventually will. Will that be in time for us or Cameron George and Mohawk? No idea.

But to use your point. Perhaps he needs to outsource this one. So yeah he knows what's broken but has to call the "specialists". Which as a head coach I would encourage him to do because the success we all want for this team is not going to be achieved just by Webby. But by the whole organisation. Therefore my backing is still behind him with an expectation that everyone including him needs to pull finger. Hang on, Those who have been doing the heavy lifting get a pass mark. It's our shithouse performers I'm targeting. Walaa "can't spell the French word"
 
Agreed. I make my arguments for my own sake in the same fashion I expect others to ignore what I say and go on their own rants.
The forum would die if we were all of the same mind.

That said, there is a real NZ turncoat thing that is entrenched in our culture, happy to support winners, no sense when we are in trouble. As if somehow winning can be erased by losing. Reality does not work like that. Wins stand on their own forever.

If you applied the NZ Male sports fan logic to Mike Tyson he would be a pretender exposed by Buster Douglas and Evander Hollyfeild.

Hey Just because Iron Mike lost badly in the end does not erase his wins...but around here he would be dethroned by all the PTSD cats on here.

Lots of Mike Tyson analogies in here about having plans till you get punched in the face, oh the Irony the same quoters would turn on him on a dime if he were a NZ boxer.
I don't consider my points turning on Webby. Yep I have Warriors PTSD "I know its not in the dsm whatever version is out" but it's a thing in here.

But about Webby. My expectations are that he set high standards and because the performance so far is below that. I expect it to rise again. In the simplest way I can explain it 👊👍
 
In short I think we are fundamentally sound and the main work on is our attack in good ball. That involves improving our right edge execution to the level it was last year and unlocking our left edge.

I think the right edge problem is because our forwards aren’t shortening up the D line well enough.

I think the coach needs to have a bit of a chat with SJ to solve the left edge issue.
Do you think this would take longer than 10 weeks to get right when you have had a whole 2 pre seasons and a full season to play this way?

I believe the system is right but the players are not up to it this season for what ever reason.
 
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zero chance of that.
Warriors fans will tear the flesh off this coach no matter what he does, even if he wins it, the year after or the year after that they will pick him apart.

Look at Kearney the Kiwis greatest ever coach.

Multiple world titles over the Kangaroos but still not rated by many here as an international coach because of his Warriors short comings as if one is somehow magically the same as the other.

NZ fans only look at losses, and discount wins as soon as there is a loss, what kind of logic is that do not expect me to give a logical response.
Kiwis hate coaches.
That's why there always changing ABs coach...
 
zero chance of that.
Warriors fans will tear the flesh off this coach no matter what he does, even if he wins it, the year after or the year after that they will pick him apart.

Look at Kearney the Kiwis greatest ever coach.

Multiple world titles over the Kangaroos but still not rated by many here as an international coach because of his Warriors short comings as if one is somehow magically the same as the other.

NZ fans only look at losses, and discount wins as soon as there is a loss, what kind of logic is that do not expect me to give a logical response.

Some of your really thoughtful, insightful posts can become a bit tarnished with the us (enlightened fans) vs them (stupidhead fans) rhetoric. I think your posts have weight without pointing them down that path.

Have you actually seen "many here" not rating Kearney as an international coach based on his Warriors coaching career, or is it just easy to say for your argument?

Personally, I would love to see Kearney have a job for life in the Kiwis set up. I think his time at the Warriors is underappreciated in some regards. He brought with him the standards needed for our club to climb out of the cesspit it was in. In his arrival we saw a player clean out of all of the shit attitudes. We saw on-field discipline, and defensive commitment (until the NRL had a cry about our offensive defence). I thought he brought some mana back to the Warriors jersey, and feel he would always do that for the Kiwis.

However, as important as this foundation is, there always needs to be that next step up in the NRL. Kearney didn't have it over the day in day out grind of multiple NRL seasons. This is evident across his coaching career, and I think we can assume that it is acknowledged by the man himself in the employment decisions he has made over the last decade. A fantastic assistant, a fantastic international coach, a valuable re-build coach.

Us poor PTSD affected forum sad sacks are now waiting with baited breath to see whether Webster is a Kearney (a rebuild coach. Relational with strict standards and a simple game plan, but ultimately limited in ideas and positive innovation for a sustainably successful NRL team), or a Cleary (again relational, setting the standards, simple game plan, but with effective long-term strategies for a slow build into what is needed for sustained success.

I can't help feel that Cleary, though impressive, has had some luck along the way. He has had the right men around him, and Gould's building of what is their current nursery has left him an embarrassment of riches, which he is a brilliant enough people manager to take full advantage of.

I feel that the next 18 months are going to be decade defining for the Warriors. We are desperate to see Webster's sound game plan come good. But we also need to see that his ideas and vision are self-reflective and add value to this team rather than see him plateau. Yes, we should be patient and accept what he put in place last year does work, but it also needs to come with added innovation and future-planning because the NRL is always changing and you have to be able to adapt to that. We also need to see that the whole management team at the Warriors can nurture our nursery and bring a consistent line of FG players through for our sustained success.

It would be a fascinating time to watch the Warrior's development objectively. Unfortunately, losing hurts so much for a passionate, and long-suffering fan whose wounds are not as healed as they probably thought they were in 2023.
 
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Which begs the question, build a plan around the players you have? Or recruit players to play your plan?
Build the plan. Get the players to nail it. He did it last year. The issue to sound a bit politically relevant is "sustainability". We seem to have a slick "best" but wow our "worst" is so able to surface it hurts.

Because we have a plan and players. Do we need to adjust both variables? If so how much?
 
Do you think this would take longer than 10 weeks to get right when you have had a whole 2 pre seasons and a full season to play this way?

I believe the system is right but the players are not up to it this season for what ever reason.
A bit of mindset issues like "we should win this one" but not earning it and losing.

"It's _______'s fault, not mine so if he's not giving 100% why should I?"

Basically we can do everything we need to but haven't.
 
Build the plan. Get the players to nail it. He did it last year. The issue to sound a bit politically relevant is "sustainability". We seem to have a slick "best" but wow our "worst" is so able to surface it hurts.

Because we have a plan and players. Do we need to adjust both variables? If so how much?
No he didnt do that last year. We dint win anything... Getting close is just taking longer to lose...
 
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For the record I think having a concrete plan and recruiting guys to work it is the dumbest thing ever.. I would be interested to know if its ever worked in professional sports...
 
For the record I think having a concrete plan and recruiting guys to work it is the dumbest thing ever.. I would be interested to know if its ever worked in professional sports...
You think having a system is dumb and has never worked? You cannot be serious.
 

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