LISTENING to Steve Williams inspires one to want to hear his motivating team talks.
He’s a rugby league coach of the old-school variety, with classic one-liners full of expletives, humour and expressions that ably illustrate his lifetime in the 13-a-side code.
He’s “very passionate” about rugby league and the Pakuranga Jaguars club, who he’s just been confirmed for to coach the premier grade first team this season.
The likeable Williams, 43, freely admits that some of the “best and worst days” of his life have been at Ti Rakau Park, home of the Jaguars, where he started playing as a five-year-old in 1972.
But if anyone is going to turn around the fortunes of the premier side that only a few seasons back was knocking at the door of the Fox Memorial competition — the top flight in Auckland club rugby league – then it’s Williams.
He’s coached for 16 years at the club and has in recent seasons been the co-coach for the Auckland under-16 side, alongside his mentor and league guru Raymond Hall, who amongst a long list of achievements in the game played for the Canberra Raiders in the NRL.
Williams is so Pakuranga league that he once got fired-up enough to design a new club logo because he wanted an emblem that would inspire players in all grades.
“I designed it to bring a bit of pride back. It means a lot to me,” says Williams, of the logo that decorates the shirt he’s wearing when the Times caught up with him.
With him at the club’s Ti Rakau Park headquarters is chairman Hillary Skelton.
They’re old mates, and they’re ribbing and joking around with each other.
But there’s a steely determination for the club to succeed in the premier ranks, as well as in the lower grades.
And both are motivated also by the achievements of neighbours the Howick Hornets, who won the premier grade Sharman Cup last season and was chosen for the first time as club of the year in the Auckland Rugby League’s centenary year.
Skelton admits the premier side’s performance of finishing second last in the Sharman Cup last season was unacceptable, but both he and Williams have turned over a fresh leaf. They’re not looking back, only forward, and Skelton says Williams is the right guy to guide the premiers in 2010.
And they acknowledge that if the Jaguars and Hornets are both doing well, then it’s good for rugby league in East Auckland, where other winter codes such as rugby and football are popular and competing friendly for participants, especially in the juniors.
Williams knows he’s got a “challenge” on his hands but he’s “100 per cent” up for it, and has a good track record in the junior grades and has groomed many budding players to the point where they’ve got placements and contracts at NRL clubs in Australia and their feeder clubs.
Pakuranga has produced a number of players who have gone on to good careers elsewhere and Williams wants to create a culture at the club which enables it to hold on to star performers.
After losing their first four matches last year, Williams says his Pakuranga under-20 side went on to win 18 games, being defeated in only two other fixtures, “and we didn’t make the playoffs – that’s how tough the competition was”.
Premier grade pre-season training has started and new players are welcome. Sessions start at 6.30pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. For more information, phone Steve Williams on 0272-509-799.
