Worried2Death
Contributor
I've just never seen it till now
Staff Andrew Webster
- Thread starter tajhay
- Start date
- Coach Grade
- NRL Head Coach
- Date of Birth
- Jan 17, 1982
- Birth Location
- Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Nationality
- 🇦🇺 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
- 2015
- 2016
- 2023
- 2024
- Signed From
- Penrith Panthers (Assistant Coach)
- Status
- Active
- Rugby League Project
- https://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/coaches/andrew-webster/summary.html
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Beastmode
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Worried2Death
Contributor
Wonder if Mohawk is woke, he dresses like a millennial with his pink jackets and green hairI guess you're now WOKE aye?
Beastmode
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I have this nightmare that Webby puts his young family first and moves back to Sydney in a couple of years… hopefully he’s won us a premiership or two by then. I really want this bloke to have a Bellyache type head coaching career here.
Yeah, you’re absolutely right. I am certain he will stick out his extension. He is too much of a top bloke, plus the way he talks about New Zealand is a dead give away. I more so just hope he extends again, rather than moving back to take up another gig to be closer to his and his wife’s roots in Sydney.
Think it’s more a manifestation of my current situation with a young family and a home sick Aussie wife here in NZ and making the decision to move across the ditch this year to be closer to her side. Guess I can now sympathise when players/coaches have that predicament in their careers to change clubs to be closer to home/family.
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25mins in, and it's a pretty good interview.
Interesting revelation that we don't have a player leadership group.
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Spence
Contributor
On the Warriors podcast last night Monty noted that one thing about Webby is that he wants everyone speaking up and participating - and that he’ll throw eye daggers at anyone that doesn’t contribute their thoughts.
If all players have to speak up, it will do wonders for the young shy guys! Communication on the field has been a warriors problem for years. If they feel more comfortable speaking up, they should have more of a voice on the field as well.
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Interesting he wanted to keep Sirro but salary cap constraints....
Just a strange podcast to appear on imo.
Great insight though.
From the herald today:
After the 2023 Warriors revolution captured the nation, what comes next? Coach Andrew Webster explains to Michael Burgess how the club aim to improve and deal with new expectations after that stunning season.
If you ask Andrew Webster about his favourite time of the year, the answer comes quite quickly.
Pre-season.
It’s often a period that players dread, as they are pushed to their physical and mental limits to prepare for the upcoming campaign. It can also drag on for fans, impatient to see their favourite teams again. But it’s Nirvana for coaches, their largest block of time to find individual and collective improvement.
Once the season gets underway, there are usually only two training sessions a week and far too much to do. Now is the time.
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“You can’t have a good year with a bad pre-season, it’s just impossible,” Webster tells the Herald. “It’s where your biggest gains are made – by far.
“It’s the way you want to shape them physically, how you mentally get them ready and then tactically. And it gives the team confidence. That was the biggest thing last year. They did so many reps and worked so hard that they believed in themselves so much.”
That 2023 pre-season will go down in club legend, as a rookie coach and a significantly overhauled squad sowed the seeds for a remarkable campaign, one of the biggest turnarounds in Warriors history. Seventeen wins, unforgettable comebacks, brilliant tries, head-turning defence, a top-four finish and a return to the playoffs, not to mention the fanatical nationwide support.
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So what’s next? How do you build on one of the most memorable seasons in club history, where words like ‘Townsville’, ‘Cronulla’ and ‘Canberra’ conjure such indelible memories? The Warriors plan a brick-by-brick approach.
“Our biggest goal is to be way better at what we are already really good at – to become great at it,” says Webster. “And then when we are, we will add things to our game.”
SPORT
SPORT
SPORT
It’s evolution, rather than revolution. Even though the team are starting from a higher level, Webster assures nothing will be taken for granted. Their success last year was built on four key principles, identified as things that “statistically will always win you games”.
Warriors coach Andrew Webster. Photo / Photosport
Webster declines to be more specific – “tactically I’m not going to spill the beans” – but reveals they are established facts, rather than Moneyball-style innovations.
“It’s not like a guess – it’s guaranteed,” says Webster.
Every training drill is geared towards improving those foundations before they consider adding “the glossy stuff”. The basic template reached a high level last year but needs to go further.
“Our game has to be able to stand up under pressure,” says Webster. “It does stand up against most things but it didn’t get us to where we want to get to.”
The Herald met Webster in his office at the club’s Penrose headquarters, during a day off for the players. It’s already been a long summer. The first squad members reported for pre-season on November 15, with the vast majority back by mid-December. After a Christmas break, sessions started again on January 8.
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Compared to last year, circumstances couldn’t be more different, as uncertainty is replaced by expectation and the Warriors are the hunted, rather than the pack.
“I can’t worry about what other people are thinking and what the rest of the competition might do,” says Webster. “It’s guaranteed every year that teams are going to improve and the NRL is going to get better. So we have to keep ahead of that.
“But that’s why I love pre-season. It’s not a guess. We know what we need to do. Last year the goal was to win every game we could and then try to win the grand final. People laughed at us for even thinking that. The goal hasn’t changed, it’s just people’s expectations have changed, not ours.”
Andrew Webster and playmaker Shaun Johnson. Photo / Getty Images
But there are undoubted challenges. After a season of success, Webster’s playbook has been studied extensively by opposition clubs and counter-measures will be ready, both offensively and defensively. The Warriors won’t be able to play the underdog card, nor catch teams on the hop while a clutch of key players – Shaun Johnson, Addin Fonua-Blake, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Tohu Harris and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak – must reprise career-best campaigns, with Johnson also affected by an untimely pre-season injury.
“Our biggest challenge for 2024 is ourselves,” says Webster. “Are we going to buy in over the course of the season like we did last year? Are we willing to get better all the time? Are we complacent – or are we proactive about our own performances? The whole competition is going to improve and are we willing to do it? And is the expectation going to bother us?”
The latter point is most striking, as there haven’t been too many seasons in club history where the Warriors have faced so much expectation, but Webster isn’t bothered.
“It’s great,” says Webster. “It means people will be here watching us and it means we have done something right.”
In assessing possible pressures, the coach takes heart from last season’s response. The Warriors enjoyed record attendances – numbers not seen since the inaugural year in 1995 – while the team’s following reached almost unprecedented levels, on a wave of emotion and joy.
“That was the best part about last year,” says Webster. “There was a movement across the country, ‘Up the Wahs’, and we were the most googled sporting team in New Zealand. [But] we reviewed each week the same, win, lose or draw.
“If everyone was telling us how good we were, I didn’t see any moment where we got ahead of ourselves. The games we lost we tried hard, physically we were there. I never saw once them not try and we had that whole movement – it was overnight change.
“Right now it’s exciting because we are not where we want to be but it is a pretty good place to start. I haven’t seen complacency; I’ve seen excitement. I’ve seen people working really hard, motivated to get better and better, and we are in a way better position than last year.”
Michael Burgess has been a sports journalist since 2005, winning several national awards and covering Olympics, Fifa World Cups and America’s Cup campaigns. He has also reported on the Warriors and NRL for more than a decade.
After the 2023 Warriors revolution captured the nation, what comes next? Coach Andrew Webster explains to Michael Burgess how the club aim to improve and deal with new expectations after that stunning season.
If you ask Andrew Webster about his favourite time of the year, the answer comes quite quickly.
Pre-season.
It’s often a period that players dread, as they are pushed to their physical and mental limits to prepare for the upcoming campaign. It can also drag on for fans, impatient to see their favourite teams again. But it’s Nirvana for coaches, their largest block of time to find individual and collective improvement.
Once the season gets underway, there are usually only two training sessions a week and far too much to do. Now is the time.
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“You can’t have a good year with a bad pre-season, it’s just impossible,” Webster tells the Herald. “It’s where your biggest gains are made – by far.
“It’s the way you want to shape them physically, how you mentally get them ready and then tactically. And it gives the team confidence. That was the biggest thing last year. They did so many reps and worked so hard that they believed in themselves so much.”
That 2023 pre-season will go down in club legend, as a rookie coach and a significantly overhauled squad sowed the seeds for a remarkable campaign, one of the biggest turnarounds in Warriors history. Seventeen wins, unforgettable comebacks, brilliant tries, head-turning defence, a top-four finish and a return to the playoffs, not to mention the fanatical nationwide support.
ADVERTISEMENT
Advertise with NZME.
So what’s next? How do you build on one of the most memorable seasons in club history, where words like ‘Townsville’, ‘Cronulla’ and ‘Canberra’ conjure such indelible memories? The Warriors plan a brick-by-brick approach.
“Our biggest goal is to be way better at what we are already really good at – to become great at it,” says Webster. “And then when we are, we will add things to our game.”
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19 Dec 11:45 AMIt’s evolution, rather than revolution. Even though the team are starting from a higher level, Webster assures nothing will be taken for granted. Their success last year was built on four key principles, identified as things that “statistically will always win you games”.
Webster declines to be more specific – “tactically I’m not going to spill the beans” – but reveals they are established facts, rather than Moneyball-style innovations.
“It’s not like a guess – it’s guaranteed,” says Webster.
Every training drill is geared towards improving those foundations before they consider adding “the glossy stuff”. The basic template reached a high level last year but needs to go further.
“Our game has to be able to stand up under pressure,” says Webster. “It does stand up against most things but it didn’t get us to where we want to get to.”
The Herald met Webster in his office at the club’s Penrose headquarters, during a day off for the players. It’s already been a long summer. The first squad members reported for pre-season on November 15, with the vast majority back by mid-December. After a Christmas break, sessions started again on January 8.
ADVERTISEMENT
Advertise with NZME.
Compared to last year, circumstances couldn’t be more different, as uncertainty is replaced by expectation and the Warriors are the hunted, rather than the pack.
“I can’t worry about what other people are thinking and what the rest of the competition might do,” says Webster. “It’s guaranteed every year that teams are going to improve and the NRL is going to get better. So we have to keep ahead of that.
“But that’s why I love pre-season. It’s not a guess. We know what we need to do. Last year the goal was to win every game we could and then try to win the grand final. People laughed at us for even thinking that. The goal hasn’t changed, it’s just people’s expectations have changed, not ours.”
But there are undoubted challenges. After a season of success, Webster’s playbook has been studied extensively by opposition clubs and counter-measures will be ready, both offensively and defensively. The Warriors won’t be able to play the underdog card, nor catch teams on the hop while a clutch of key players – Shaun Johnson, Addin Fonua-Blake, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Tohu Harris and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak – must reprise career-best campaigns, with Johnson also affected by an untimely pre-season injury.
“Our biggest challenge for 2024 is ourselves,” says Webster. “Are we going to buy in over the course of the season like we did last year? Are we willing to get better all the time? Are we complacent – or are we proactive about our own performances? The whole competition is going to improve and are we willing to do it? And is the expectation going to bother us?”
The latter point is most striking, as there haven’t been too many seasons in club history where the Warriors have faced so much expectation, but Webster isn’t bothered.
“It’s great,” says Webster. “It means people will be here watching us and it means we have done something right.”
In assessing possible pressures, the coach takes heart from last season’s response. The Warriors enjoyed record attendances – numbers not seen since the inaugural year in 1995 – while the team’s following reached almost unprecedented levels, on a wave of emotion and joy.
“That was the best part about last year,” says Webster. “There was a movement across the country, ‘Up the Wahs’, and we were the most googled sporting team in New Zealand. [But] we reviewed each week the same, win, lose or draw.
“If everyone was telling us how good we were, I didn’t see any moment where we got ahead of ourselves. The games we lost we tried hard, physically we were there. I never saw once them not try and we had that whole movement – it was overnight change.
“Right now it’s exciting because we are not where we want to be but it is a pretty good place to start. I haven’t seen complacency; I’ve seen excitement. I’ve seen people working really hard, motivated to get better and better, and we are in a way better position than last year.”
Michael Burgess has been a sports journalist since 2005, winning several national awards and covering Olympics, Fifa World Cups and America’s Cup campaigns. He has also reported on the Warriors and NRL for more than a decade.
Can someone with access post this article up please?
www.nzherald.co.nz
Unlikely to be anything we haven't heard before but still gotta consume everything there is to be had until Friday lol
Big read: Inside the mind - and office - of Warriors coach Andrew Webster - NZ Herald
Webster was a virtual unknown when he was appointed Warriors coach in July 2022.
Unlikely to be anything we haven't heard before but still gotta consume everything there is to be had until Friday lol
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Your wish is my command.....Can someone with access post this article up please?
Big read: Inside the mind - and office - of Warriors coach Andrew Webster - NZ Herald
Webster was a virtual unknown when he was appointed Warriors coach in July 2022.
Unlikely to be anything we haven't heard before but still gotta consume everything there is to be had until Friday lol
Big read: Inside the mind - and office - of Warriors coach Andrew Webster
Ahead of the Warriors 2024 NRL season, Michael Burgess sits down with coach Andrew Webster to discuss his coaching philosophy, counselling sessions in his office, fatherhood and Denzel Washington.When a Warriors player walks into coach Andrew Webster’s office for a meeting, they have two options about where to sit.
There’s a black leather sofa by the wall, or a chair beside a round, white table. Webster who has a desk in the corner, with a view out to the carpark and the hill at the northern end of Mt Smart stadium, jokes that their choice is important.
“I have them all in here – that’s the counselling chair and that’s the football chair,” he laughs, pointing to the sofa first. “So if you sit on one you’re about football and if you sit there [the sofa] it’s counselling. I tell them when they walk in: ‘Which chair do you want to sit on?’ And they laugh and they go: ‘I think I need that one today’. We laugh about it and then it is easier to talk about things.”
That small vignette tells you a lot about Webster, who across one season has become one of the most popular – and successful – coaches in Warriors’ history. It’s not just that he gets results but how. While he is technically very astute – after a long apprenticeship at all levels of the game – it’s his communication and human skills that have stood out.
“He understands people, takes time to get to know people,” says a senior Warriors staff member. “He is genuinely interested in who you are and what you are about.”
“It’s the same with the team. He gets to know them beyond the footballer. You have 30 blokes and it is all about connection. He is a real people person. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you are from, what your walk of life is, he will connect with you… and that is a rare trait.”
The Herald sat down with Webster on a day off for the players, in between staff meetings and planning sessions. His office – around the corner and down a corridor from main reception – is small and remarkably sparse. There’s no memorabilia, no trophies or trinkets. No posters or motivational phrases and nothing on the wall, apart from a single A4 piece of paper.
“I’m not into quotes, not into displaying the books I have read,” says Webster. “It’s not my thing. I like quotes but it is not me. I don’t want anything. I’m not a picture guy. I just want to see Max, that will do me.”
He’s referring to his 10-month-old son, the subject of the only two photos in the room.
“They were the first ones when he laughed,” says Webster. “My wife got them for me; they are beautiful photos.”
But there’s no evidence of the various teams he has been involved with, not even a picture with the premiership-winning 2022 Penrith Panthers squad (“No chance,” he laughs).
“If you came to my house you wouldn’t even know that I coached rugby league,” says Webster. “If I achieve anything I give it to my parents anyway. When I was a kid I had a competition with my brother on who would win the most trophies. He was two years older and better than me at most things.”
The piece of paper, pinned above his computer, is a set of guidelines, around how they want to play and other core principles and beliefs.
“It’s my compass, to keep me on track,” explains Webster.
A whiteboard on the far wall lists details of plays, training drills and structures, with the stuff “you can read” by the assistant coaches, while “the scribble” is his.
“We have our own language in league,” says Webster, mentioning “pendulum”, “neg”, “siren”, “shield”, “transporting”, “sausages” and “drill and drop”, among many others.
“It’s a bit like the baseball or NFL,” he adds. “We are running the same plays, but you still don’t want them to know what you are calling.”
His days are long, starting with a 5am alarm and a gym workout before the 7am coaches meeting. He loves being on the grass with the team – “that’s where the best work is done” – but also spends a lot of time at his desk.
“Ninety per cent of the time, the door is open,” says Webster. “So I can interact with all of the [assistant] coaches; players are doing one-on-one videos; I can hear conversations.”
Players also enter and exit the club via the corridor outside his office, which means a constant flow of traffic, greetings and little – or longer – chats. But that’s the way he likes it.
“It’s time-consuming because you are just getting some momentum with work but that should be your focus anyway,” says Webster. “They are your focus. Once they leave you get stuff done.”
Webster first arrived at the Warriors in 2015, appointed as an assistant coach under Andrew McFadden, who is back now, in charge of recruitment and pathways, after a four-year spell under Ricky Stuart in Canberra. They first met at Parramatta in 2002, where McFadden spent a season as NRL halfback and Webster was an aspiring youngster.
“He had a personality that was very engaging,” says McFadden. “We didn’t play together week to week, but there are people that you remember and Webby was certainly one of those guys.”
By 2015, Webster had accumulated a decade of coaching experience in the United States, England and Australia. He guided the Balmain Tigers SG Ball team (with Mitchell Moses and Luke Brooks) to that title in 2012, then had success with the Tiger’s Under-20 side in 2014.
“He was developing a good reputation,” says McFadden. “So when I took the Warriors’ job he was first on the list.”
That 2015 team featured a lot of big names, including Simon Mannering, Shaun Johnson, Thomas Leuluai, Manu Vatuvei, Ryan Hoffman and Sam Tomkins. But the coaching rookie – in his first NRL job – quickly won their respect, with his creative ideas and technical understanding.
“He was confident but players could see pretty quickly that he could back it up,” says McFadden.
He was also popular.
“He was a bit younger then, he was social, good fun to be around,” says McFadden. “He enjoyed going out and the players enjoyed spending time with him. That’s part of your culture – celebrating the moment when you have a good win – and he certainly did that very well.”
Webster is not an overnight success – given his steady rise up the ladder – but seems perfectly suited to the myriad demands of being an NRL head coach. It’s partly a product of experience, in multiple teams, under multiple head coaches and partly down to the person.
“He’s a well-rounded coach – with a lot of skills that will help him adapt,” says McFadden. “And he has got a real personable side to him. He doesn’t overcomplicate things to players and makes sure that the human side of things always comes first.”
That extends across the organisation.
“He is a very empathetic person, understands people, connects with people,” says a club insider. “He walks through the office and if you are waiting in reception – it doesn’t matter who you are – he will stop and say hello.”
Long-time club ambassador Sir Peter Leitch has worked with every Warriors coach since 1995 – from foundation coach John Monie to Nathan Brown – but has been blown away by Webster.
“I’ve watched him working with the players and a whole lot of other things,” says Leitch. “I just believe he could walk on water if he wanted to. There’s is something about him, though I can’t put my finger on it. He’s special. He’s got a gift.”
Webster was a virtual unknown when he was appointed Warriors’ coach in July 2022. Now he is a messiah-like figure, after the club’s stunning transformation. How does it feel being probably the most popular Australian in the country?
“Oh geez, no one has said that to me,” laughs Webster. He says Kiwis are “not intrusive” and pretty respectful.
“People will come up and say, ‘Up the Wahs, Webby’,” says Webster. “I don’t walk down the street feeling that everyone is staring at me or anything like that. No one has come up and really ruined my night.”
He certainly doesn’t enjoy the singular emphasis on him, nor the avalanche of attention that last season brought.
“He is almost uncomfortable with the focus that is being put on him,” says a senior Warriors staffer. “He is the first to point out there is a team of people behind everything.”
Webster also avoids social media. He was on Facebook – to be connected to family – but exited ahead of the 2023 season.
“It’s not my thing,” says Webster. “Too time-consuming. It is addictive and I am human like everyone else, it can be an easy distraction and takes up a lot of your time. But I don’t preach to people, they can do what they want.”
Any spare time is spent with Max and wife Emma. He also switches off by reading books or catching up with friends – and he loves Denzel Washington films.
“I don’t think he has done a bad movie,” says Webster. “He makes a bad movie good.”
In terms of life balance, it probably helps that wife Emma doesn’t follow the NRL.
“She does not know one thing about football and she is so supportive,” says Webster. “She will come to the games, when we win say ‘well done’, when we lose ‘bad luck’ and that’s it. So I get to escape.”
And the arrival of Max – who was born in May last year – has been a blessing on several levels.
“You need good distractions in your life,” says Webster. “Everyone said it must have been so hard having Max in your first season as coach. I think it was probably the best thing for me. He was awesome.”
Webster will be under the microscope more than ever this season, which kicks off on Friday against the Sharks, with the hype around the club but he seems ready for that.
“Last year, the goal was to win every game we could and then try to win the GF [grand final],” says Webster. “People laughed at us for even thinking that. The goal hasn’t changed, it’s just people’s expectations have changed, not ours.”
Michael Burgess has been a sports journalist since 2005, winning several national awards and covering the Olympics, Fifa World Cups and America’s Cup campaigns. He has also reported on the Warriors and NRL for more than a decade.
Big read: Inside the mind - and office - of Warriors coach Andrew Webster - NZ Herald
Webster was a virtual unknown when he was appointed Warriors coach in July 2022.
That part about the two chairs in his office was pretty cool.
I know the squad to inherit has a factor. But listening to discussions on how various teams will go this year and hearing for some teams the coach needs a few years. The typical thing we have always heard. You look at the turnaround with the Warriors and think it is a bit of a cop-out to buy time. If you work hard and get everyone buying in there is no reason why results can't turn around.
I know the squad to inherit has a factor. But listening to discussions on how various teams will go this year and hearing for some teams the coach needs a few years. The typical thing we have always heard. You look at the turnaround with the Warriors and think it is a bit of a cop-out to buy time. If you work hard and get everyone buying in there is no reason why results can't turn around.
