Nau mai, haere mai - Welcome

Kia ora koutou,

I'm a budding rugby league coach in the greatest country of all - New Zealand!

NZ is internationally recognized as the home of the All Blacks, the best rugby union team in the world - I couldnt care less about the All Blacks - I hope they lose the 2011 World Cup and hope Sonny Bill returns to the NRL and is joined by another former league player in Quade Cooper!

New Zealand is on the up in rugby league - we're the current World and Tri-Nations Champs.  Also, in 2011, we've had three teams feature in the toughest rugby league competitions in the world - we had the Auckland Vulcans lose narrowly to the Bulldogs in the NSW Cup; we had the NZ Warriors be the first team to win the U20's Toyota Cup twice (and they've done it back to back); and we've had the NZ Warriors go down to the Manly Sea Eagles in the NRL Grand Final.

So whilst NZ is starting to show it can foot it with the Aussies in rugby league, I still feel we are a little behind in terms of our coaching stocks.  Sure there is no doubting the talents of the likes of Kiwi & Paramatta Coach Stephen Kearney and ex-Kiwi and Leeds Coach and 2012's NZ Warriors coach - Brian 'Bluey' McLennan. 

Kearney was educated by the likes of Craig Bellamy during his time at the Melbourne Storm.  Bluey comes from a rugby league family and no doubt picked up a whole heap of knowledge from his father Mike McLennan who coached the Mt Albert Lions to a number of Fox Memorial titles.

We have John Ackland, Tony Iro and Richie Blackmore coaching with the NZ Warriors and Auckland Vulcans, but still these guys have either played rugby league at a top level and/or they have served under a number of top level coaches such as Brian McLennan or Daniel Anderson. 

So what about our fathers, uncles or cousins that are starting by taking their son's, nephew's or little cousin's U6 team? 

Where can they go to get rugby league coaching tips?

Well, the plan is for this to be the place - I'm determined to improve my coaching, and I'm also determined to share as much rugby league coaching tips as I can with others out there so that we get better rugby league coaches in New Zealand - and also around the world.

What the 2011 Rugby World Cup has shown me is that rugby union is just set up alot better internationally than rugby league is - union is still the inferior game.  I can flick over to any rugby union game and be bored within minutes. 

So what if they are playing union in Namibia, Romania and Georgia - they still aren't any good - many of the local NZ teams would smash them.

So what if Rugby League World Cups can only be won by NZ, Australia and England?  The Rugby Union World Cup can only be won by NZ, Australia, South Africa and England, and maybe France? (It's still only dominated by a few nations.)

So that's my mission - to make rugby league coaching information more accessible to others around the world - and if it's FREE - then the more people there are who have access to the info. 

So keep checking back for FREE rugby league coaching tips!