2014 Season Preview: West Harbour

by Paul Cook –

West Harbour have some pretty big shoes to fill in 2014 in terms of outdoing their exploits from last season. Their season ended in a premature finals defeat but a 5th place finish on the ladder was still their highest since 2007. Their trademark élan with ball in hand remained but was underpinned by a solid set-piece, one of the best scrums in the competition and an improving – if still a work in progress – defence.

Their feats were duly noted by those at the next level, a recognition that brought opportunities for some of the club’s leading talents and one that – in the case of Waratahs tyro Alofa Alofa – has been grabbed with both hands.

Head coach Matt Briggs was in his first year at the club and while understandably pleased with the fruits of his initial 12 months labour at Concord Oval, he wants and expects more in 2014. Rugby News caught up with Briggs recently to discuss the Pirates’ progress and their potential to do even better this time out…

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2013 was your first season in charge at the club and the side obviously made some great strides. How did you see it?

“It was obviously disappointing to lose that first semi-final against Randwick but excluding that result, the year itself was pleasing. I think we put six or seven wins together in a row at one point which was really nice but we were exposed depth wise, our 2nd grade didn’t travel so well and that’s one thing we’re really trying to do here, encourage the colts to come through. An improved year yes, certainly a big jump up on the ladder and to finish the season in 5th position was great. We’d now like to mirror that and have that type of improvement again so if we were to jump another two or three spots again, I’d be really happy.”

Matt Briggs guided West Harbour to 5th place on the ladder and a semi-final in his first season at the club
Photo: J.B Photography

With that improvement comes extra expectation for this year I guess, is that a nice pressure to have?

“It is and having experienced a really positive year in my first year when I was coaching Penrith, people are certainly more aware of you in the second year. They study you a little bit better but that’s fine because we’ve completely restructured our training and our style of game. Hopefully, it is an exciting style of rugby to watch but also to play because the guys have been really enjoying their training so we’ll see how we go.”

There were significant improvements in the set-piece and in defence – although I’m sure you will want more – so what has been the focus in pre-season?

“Defence is an area we’ve spoken about. We’ve tried to simplify it and have a really positive attitude around it because it’s about making that repeat effort, making a sequence of tackles and turnovers and applying pressure and that’s been a real focus. We’ve sort of laid off our set-piece until very recently so considering we haven’t done a huge amount to this point in time, I’m not unhappy with how we’re going and I think that will continue to improve. With the new scrum laws, in order to de-power the scrum and make it a quicker contest, I think we can work around that and I think that all the coaches are doing the same. We’ve got a good scrum, hopefully by the end of the year we’ll have a dominant scrum.”

We’ve seen the breakthrough Alofa Alofa has made with the Waratahs this year and you’ve also got young Jack Debreczeni waiting in the wings down at the Rebels – it must be good to see West Harbour producing Super Rugby players again?

“When I first walked in to Concord Oval and took good notice of the honours board underneath the main stand, I couldn’t believe how many players had played representative footy for the Aussie under-21s for example and yet they didn’t finish their senior football at Wests. One of the things I’m most pleased about is the fact that we’ve had about five guys invited into the Waratahs or Rebels camps and who are doing well and on the verge of making a career for themselves in professional rugby which is great. One of the goals here is to continue that and hopefully get another five or ten players this year into Super Rugby or professional rugby of some type.

“To that end, I’m delighted that Michael Cheika has genuinely engaged with the Shute Shield teams and is genuinely interested in the talent coming through in club rugby with a view to the Waratahs. That’s the way it used to be and that’s what he’s trying to implement again, which is why he had so many club rugby guys in the New South Wales A program.”

There’s an earlier start to the competition this year, a couple of extra rounds and a six team finals series – are you happy with the changes?

“We’ve prepared around the earlier start, we did a six week lead in before Christmas, had a three week stand down and we’ve been going again since mid-January so we’re fine and looking forward to starting earlier. Training harder and getting them game ready, that won’t affect us at all during the latter parts of the year. I like the idea of having a tighter finals grouping, somebody mentioned to me the other day that one of the teams that made the semi-final last year only won a third of their games or thereabouts. You’ve got to reward effort and success and I’ve got no objection to that at all.”

West Harbour: Ins & Outs

The NRC looms on the horizon, what are the pros and cons of this competition for club rugby?

“I hope it works, all the doomsdayers from yesteryear think it won’t but I hope it does. I would have just loved them to have taken Shute Shield to Fox Sports and branded that as the pin-up of club rugby in Australia but I can see that they are willing to come up with a concept that will engage the broader community. I just hope that people follow it and I hope that the ‘mergers’ – some of which are quite interesting – will work. Having said that, if we’re just going to end up with the same teams at the end of the year, why not just have the Shute Shield which is already a well established, cultural product that has community support. You’ve already got a product with a great history and with a quality of rugby that I think improves every year.”

With the Super Rugby final only two weeks before the Shute Shield grand final this year, those clubs with Super Rugby players will have less access to them depending on the relative success of each state. Can we expect a more level playing field across the regular season as a result?

“I used to think that but based on history, I’m a bit cynical I guess. One thing I do notice is that the sides that do get the Super Rugby players back, tend to win the majority of the competitions and it was disappointing, from a rugby point of view, that the Grand Final was so one-sided last year. If you bring 25 professional players in that train and play rugby for most of their waking time, they’re just going to be better than guys that aren’t so if this move creates more of a level playing field and the professional guys are not involved at all across the board, well, from our point of view, it’s a good thing but if you’re someone like Sydney Uni, you’re probably saying ‘We brought all these players through, why can’t we play them?’. It’s a difficult one.”

What trends, if any, do you think we might see appearing in the way the game is played or approached by teams this year in regards to law interpretations – particularly at the breakdown?

“I think the breakdown in regards to the attacking side will be viewed a little bit closer, cleaning out off the ball and that sort of thing, I think they’ll be a little bit harder on that. We went through a phase a couple of years ago where the attacking side was getting penalised, I think that might come back in. It’s not that broken so I don’t think it needs to be fixed that much, as long as the referees are understanding and consistent, that’s all we ask.”

Leon Latu has made the step up from colts to grade this year and is looking the goods according to Briggs
Photo: J.B Photography

Players to watch out for in 2014?

“Leon Latu, a young colt who’s making his way into grade has been one of the biggest improvers in the off-season, he’s put on about 12kgs of muscle and he’s been very good in the trials, and I also think Usaia O’Sullivan could be in for a big year after his time in the Waratahs program. Rob Cattanach is our new scrumhalf, he played colts at West Harbour before moving to Eastwood where he played lower grades and couldn’t get a start due to their strength in depth and ended up in the forwards. We’ve offered him an opportunity at nine and he’s grabbed it with both hands and been one of our most impressive performers in the trials. He’s tough as teak and he’s a good bloke too.

“Another one that I am excited about – and I said the same last year and I can’t believe nobody’s picked him up yet – is Cohen Masson. He played the Sevens tournament down in Kiama and he was up against some pretty damn good sevens teams and he made them look stupid. He’s a tough, hard seven and he’s just too good not to be in a professional outfit in my opinion.”

What is a successful season for West Harbour this year – finals footy at a minimum and anything else is a bonus or is it about going at least one week further or beyond into the finals?

“Winning a semi-final. We’ve got to take the next step. We’ve been in one, we didn’t win it, now we need to win one. We need to finish top three to get a second bite at the cherry, that’s our goal. If the team’s effort and work rate continues to improve and their attitude is good, we can certainly finish top three, no doubt in my mind.”