After last years Grand Final win, Royce Tout, with Aaron Gorrell, and Aaron’s two children Will (left) and Charlie.
Last years premiership winning Tigers Coach Aaron Gorrell has been hard at work in his new role as Coach of Jersey Flegg side the Ste George Dragons.
Gorrell led the Tigers to their 5th premiership in a decade and cement himself as one of the best coaches on the bush, before returning to his roots on the coast at the club which made him famous.
“It’s been good so far. It’s obviously good to get back home and I’ve sort of done a full circle, sort of moment. That’s where I started and back there now, in a different role, obviously coaching and that’s been great.
“We’ve got a good squad and I think the club as a whole, is probably heading the right way. So yes, it’s really exciting.
The last first grade premiership for the Dragons, was 2010 under Wayne Bennett and Gorrell agrees the club as a whole has definitely changed.
“Obviously, things are a lot more professional, and that’s obviously with every club. And we’ve got our Centre of Excellence that should open in the next couple of months, which is exciting. Every club is sort of going through that patch at the moment. We are the latest, so you’d think ours should be up there with one of the best, everybody learns from each other and we’ll have a look at other clubs and then see what we can do better.
“It looks like a great space and it would be a pleasure to work there.
“I think we’ve got some exciting young kids coming through. NRL has started to sign some key players as well. I think it’s an exciting time for the club.
Gorrell admitted that there’s still some familiar faces at Red V headquarters.
“There’s still a few there. I finished 2006. We got beaten in a prelim by Melbourne and there’s still a few back-of-the-house staff there. Some of the office is still the same. But pretty much new, especially in the space I’m in.
“I’ll be working with Willie Talau, who’s the NSW Cup coach, and he’s been great for me. I’ve learned so much from him already and I feel I’m a better coach. We’ve only been going since November, but I believe in him a lot, and I’m definitely a better coach than I was when I started. I’m really looking forward to it. Keep on working with him and we’ve got some great players in our squad and it’s exciting to try to help them in their journey to hopefully play NRL and we’ve got a couple of players in some NRL trials and NSW Cup trials.
“Our Flegg squad played a trial on Saturday against Souths and we won six tries to one, but we were missing a fair few key players that are playing up in the higher grades at the moment, which is only going to give them some experience to bring back to us and hopefully make our squad better as well.
Gorrell understand the importance of defence and this was never more clear than in last year’s grand final.
“I think it’s a key in rugby league, in most sports, to be honest, if your defence is right, which mostly it’s an attitude thing and obviously doing the reps and being comfortable with putting your head in places, but that’s why we play the game too, and that’s why the game is not for everybody because not everybody can do that. But you have just got to get your group to be comfortable with doing that and get the reps in and do as much of it as possible in different scenarios and as a club, we sort of try to play the same structure and the defensive systems as NRL does. So Willie’s full-time and he brings that back to us and then we implement that.
The move back to the coast has been a positive one for family Gorrell.
“We have all moved up to Wollongong, two weeks before Christmas, so I travelled up for training for the first six weeks.
So I was up and back on a Monday, up and back on a Wednesday, up Friday, train, stay Friday night, train Saturday and then drive back. So it was a pretty hectic few weeks, but you could see long term it was going to be great. The family is loving it and two young kids are loving being at the coast. My wife grew up in Narooma, so she’s happy back on the coast as well. When life’s good at home, it makes it a lot easier at footy. We are in a happy place at the moment.
The Tigers won’t be far from Gorrell’s mind and he wishes them the best as they attempt to go back to back.
“Yes, for sure. I speak to Marty and Touty weekly, sometimes daily. It’s got a special place in our heart. It was actually tough to leave. It was a great year for us on and off the field and for the whole family. It’s probably one of the most enjoyable years I had as a coach so far. We will get back there where we can and we will try and watch some games, but we’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on it. I’m sure they are a big chance of going back to back, which would be great.
