DEPARTING Waratahs coach Ewen McKenzie is willing to provide his successor with advice, background knowledge and guidance before cleaning out his office at NSW Rugby Union headquarters.
The NSWRU board is tonight expected to confirm Eastwood coach Chris Hickey as McKenzie's replacement, with an official announcement on the 2009 Waratahs coaching contingent expected later in the week. While McKenzie's future is unclear, he will make himself available if Hickey wants a chat.
"I think we all know who it is going to be, and I get on well with the guy," McKenzie said yesterday at a function at the Sydney Football Stadium, where the Waratahs were greeted by a small group of fans. "I don't have a problem. If he [Hickey] wants to know my thoughts, and if he can benefit from my experience, that's fine. But he may want to do it his own way. Still, I can certainly steer him in the right direction on a couple of things."
McKenzie would not divulge whether that would include the telling advice of "watch your back", instead using yesterday to highlight the positives of the Waratahs' season. After the NSWRU decided midway during the Super 14 that they would not renew his contract, McKenzie could have been excused for adopting a "grumpy old coach" approach and unloading on the Waratahs administrators of whom he was sceptical, but McKenzie could not see much point in lampooning the NSWRU.
"I have lots of thoughts, but I'm pretty good at keeping them in," McKenzie said. "I don't see a lot of mileage in pork-chopping yourself. That doesn't really help you. You get more out of being dignified, stoic and all that sort of stuff. I know this business revolves around making hard decisions. And in a perverse sort of way, I did enjoy this season's challenges.
"I also never treated coaching as a popularity contest. You have to make the hard decisions to get the group going better. You don't always win friends in that process. But you can win respect. It is easy to be liked, hard to be respected."
And McKenzie fervently believes that, at the end of five seasons with the Waratahs, which included two Super finals, he won that respect. He did concede that what made his job easier was the camaraderie within the playing group, despite the side-issues.
"You can't go so far unless you have a lot of things going right for you. The relationship between the playing group and the team management was excellent, he said. "It is sort of ironic that there has been more going on around the edges, but the quality of the playing group was really good. There was great camaraderie there, and they did play for each other, week in, week out.
"That doesn't come through fluke. It involves relentless recruiting over time, where you end up with a really solid core of blokes, who do the right things at the right time. It will be interesting to see where the competition goes, particularly if Canterbury can hold their position. They're losing a few people, so there may be a shift there. The youth coming through will stand the Waratahs in good stead for the next few seasons."
