Plenty of assistants have made the big leap into head coaching and have struggled early on, but Justin Holbrook has made an immediate impact at the Knights as he prepares to return to Sydney where his side will take on the Roosters.
Holbrook spent a couple of seasons at the Roosters as their attack coach after he was let go by the Titans, with players from the Sydney glamour club regularly praising him for making them one of the most prolific teams with the ball.
He was rewarded with the Knights gig where he’s turned the worst attack into something a lot more potent, with last year’s wooden-spooners a joy to watch despite being without injured stars Kalyn Ponga and Dylan Brown.
“He’s a really good man manager,” Roosters forward Angus Crichton said.
“He knows how to get the best out of his players, and it’s impressed me seeing him go across and still be happy.
“You see a lot of great assistants go across, and it helps when you’re winning, but he looks like he’s learnt a lot from his first head coaching gig. I’m so happy for him, he’s such a great bloke.
“I’ve got a lot of time for ‘Justo’. He really got us humming, so it’ll be a good test for us.”
The Roosters will host Newcastle on Sunday after they stormed home to beat the Sharks in Perth on a day they couldn’t hold on to the ball for the first 20 minutes but steadied things in the second half to kick clear.
“I think we’re still so far from our best and we’re nowhere near where we want to be yet,” Crichton said.
“We’ve got so much work to do, and we were back working hard again out there today. We are still nowhere near where we want to get to; we’re super aware and not running around thinking we’re world beaters yet.
“We’re just still breaking it down today, looking at some of our timing and some of our shapes. We’re still not in the right spots at the right times, and I think that’s only going to come with a little bit more game time together and continuity.
“We’ll keep building those combinations and making sure that everyone’s doing their job.”
The Roosters won last week’s game by 12 points but it could have been more had Robert Toia not been denied a clear try by the Bunker for a disrupter which sparked plenty of outrage and led to an admission from the NRL that the call was wrong.
Toia missed training on Tuesday as he recovers from the flu, with Crichton joking that mid-season interpretations are nothing new.
“How long have you been in rugby league for? You shouldn’t be surprised. This is what we do!” he laughed.
“I’m not surprised. This stuff happens every year; there are always different things that pop up, and it’s just how as a team you can get around it, understand it, and practise it best.
“There’s no point in having a sulk and crying about it. The only way you move forward is by adapting to it and making sure you’re across it, and then when it changes back, you’re ready to go. Hopefully in the next couple of rounds, we’ll be back to where it needs to be.
“There’s been a lot of chat about it, and the NRL came out and said that they got that one wrong. It’s good that hopefully they can try and stamp it out and a bit of common sense will prevail in the future.”
Meanwhile, Crichton is getting used to fatherhood after he and his partner welcomed Sullivan into the world on Easter Sunday.
“We went in there (the hospital) on Saturday night, and he arrived Sunday morning,” Crichton said.
“The club was great. The boys were meant to train on Monday, but I called the coach on Sunday and he let me have Monday off. I came in on Tuesday and just did the bare minimum; I did field, missed all the meetings, did some gym, and cruised home after that.
“I went back to the hospital, and then the boys travelled to Perth on Wednesday. I got to stay an extra night to make sure they were home and settled before I took off on Thursday.
“The club was great, it was a special time, and it’s good to be back at home now so I can help out.”
Originally published as Roosters issue ominous warning as former assistant receives high praise ahead of his return to Sydney