By Alan Irving

Last updated 12:17, Thursday, 28 August 2008

WHITEHAVEN have had a succession of famous New Zealanders holding the Recreation Ground coaching reins: Kurt Sorenson, Kevin Tamati and the almost iconic Stan Martin.

• View more pictures...

Ged Stokes

There are hopes that the latest Kiwi incumbent of the hot seat, the charismatic Gerard Stokes, might eventually prove the best of the lot especially as over the next two or three years the club looks to raise itself to elite standards on and off the field.

Super League is where Whitehaven want to be – as does the ambitious head coach.

After a traumatic, near soul-destroying experience at Workington Town, there were those who doubted the wisdom of bringing Ged Stokes to the Recre but in double quick time New Zealand’s coach of the year in 2000 has dragged Whitehaven up by the bootlaces and surely confounded most of his critics in the process.

A Kiwi international prop and coach to the New Zealand A team, Haven’s new board had no doubt this was “the right man, for the right job at the right time” but he was low on confidence.

“There’s always highs and lows. Coming to Whitehaven was a big high, the place was in a bit of turmoil when I arrived but the directors did a fantastic job bringing everything back from the brink of disaster,” he said.

“What happened at Workington was a very stressful part of my life.”

Was it the lowest point? – “Yes, it would have been, I’d never been out of work before, it was very hard mentally and financially, your self esteem does drop.

“At Workington a lot of people don’t know the real truth of the matter. I hope people don’t think it was anything to do with the way I coached Town. I had a good record.

“With the little man on your shoulder and a lot of hard work you can come through as I did in the end. At Whitehaven we are a team of battlers, I’ve been a battler all my life.”

How do you feel now? – “You have to feel good about yourself and get satisfaction from your job. This group of players express themselves a hell of a lot more than I think they have done in the past. All these things make you sleep better at night, that’s for sure.”

You come across as polite and affable but in sport nice guys don’t always make good? – “There is another side to me, I can be tough when decisions have to be made. I think being nice and having respect for people is important.

“I’ve been known to be a little bit aggressive at times but with good reason. I don’t think there is a mean streak in me, I take decisions that have to be made the same as anybody in a leadership role.”

Is it your coaching style to give a rollicking? – “I think if you talk to the players you will find that half-time is fairly analytical, looking at areas we may need to improve and exploit but there have been occasions when you need to be straight down the line and be honest about people’s performance.

“You can only really go off now and again. I am not a great believer in chucking things and raising my voice too much.

“Sometimes it needs to happen but I generally find if you can analyse the first half and make it brief and understandable you generally get a positive reaction from the players.

“They have to enjoy their environment and all our coaching team are part of making that comfortable.”

Who was your own coach when you first came to Workington in the early 80s? – “Paul Charlton – We had some memorable and torrid training sessions with Paul, a legend and absolute fitness freak.

“When Paul left Ike (Southward) came in, another legend, but it was chalk and cheese. Ike had a different way of coaching, I only wish he was still around. I was very proud to be a pall bearer at his funeral.

“Ike was one of the most charismatic coaches I have ever been under, he probably had a different style to any other coach that’s ever been and he was successful.

“The first three weeks I had no idea what he was talking about when we were working on the Derwent Park groundstaff together. That was the same for a lot of Cumbrians, I didn’t know what was going on half the time in conversations.

“Coming into coaching myself was a bit of a rude awakening.

“Video analysis was very rare even when I was playing international rugby league in New Zealand, now it’s a very big part of the game, something I relish.

“I’d love to play today, totally different conditions, the players have to be a lot fitter now, everything’s done for them, there’s no excuse now, nowhere to hide.”

Alex Murphy once said that Cumbrians play for pints? – “Whatever that means, but there is a modicum of sociability in rugby league, I don’t think we should ever lose that. We have some fairly strict procedures to follow.

“The social side is something we probably lack a little bit at the moment, it’s just finish the game and have a bite to eat, and get on the bus.

“Maybe 20 years ago when there wasn’t such an emphasis on recovery and rehab, you spent a little more time having a crack over a few beers, but things change, for the best in some ways.

“Our players at Whitehaven are very professional in what they do before and after the game, they are not saints but can enjoy a night out, at the appropriate time.

“If they do break the rules then they get found out. We have to be a team playing 100 per cent all the time or else we are going to struggle. I don’t go round knocking on players’ doors before a game and ringing them up that’s for sure.

“There is a responsibility to the team, to the town and to the supporters that the players act in the right ways, especially now when we are bringing through a whole group of young players.

“Role model is a word I seldom use, but we have to make sure we are doing the right things.”

I imagine there were a few players in the Town team of your playing era who played hard and drank hard! – “Yeah, but it was a different time, a different culture. By the same token those guys worked very hard off the field part time professionals, and also at training.”

Did you like a few pints in your time as a player? – “At the appropriate time but I used to try and make sure I looked after myself. Sometimes you liked nothing more than to get on the bus and get home but if the directors weren’t ready to leave you stayed.”

Have you had a drink problem? – “No, absolutely not, never in my life. That was something brought up by some people who obviously had an agenda. I very rarely drink now at all.

“You have to be right on top of your game as a head coach and make sure that your lifestyle is beyond reproach.

“You will always get things said about you. I hate it when people tell lies; the tall poppy syndrome we call it in New Zealand, as soon as you put your head above the parapet somebody wants to cut it off.”

When you took the job there were obviously a few detractors but you have made the critics eat their words – “Well, I’m pleased about that. People are allowed their opinions and as long as they are put in a proper manner that’s fine by me but there’s always the odd person or two who wants to put it in a detrimental or derogatory way.

“They don’t bother me too much now, it’s water off a duck’s back.”

Do you have a thick skin? – “I think you have to, but I’ve still got feelings. Things have been said about me and my family in the past that make the hairs stand up on the back of your head, but you have to learn to control your emotions. There are breaking points for anybody.”

What about your wife Deb’s part in your career? – “She’s been absolutely fantastic supporting me all the way. I don’t think I could have done it without my family and friends when we were going through that bad patch.

“We got a lot of solace at the time following our son Ben who is an excellent cricketer and made it into the England under-16 team.”

Did you always want to be a rugby player? – “I played both, union and league, but everybody in the family had played league at some stage, so it was a no brainer.

“Back in Christchurch I had a tough upbringing, my father was a plasterer but he did two jobs so the family could send me to a good college, one of the big four in New Zealand.

“A lot of the All Blacks came from those colleges, I was selected for representative rugby at union but my goal was to make the schoolboy Kiwis, I made it with the likes of Kurt Sorenson.

“I was a rebel at college and ended up being asked to leave – really a pain-in-the-butt, 15-year-old.

Corporal punishment? – “Very much so. They gave you the cane on a regular basis and I was a regular attender (laughing). You just learned to take the pain. I left school and thought I was going to be able to loll around doing nothing but two days later my father had me on the building site as an apprentice plasterer. A very big wake up call.”

Winning honours for New Zealand right through the age groups culminated in Ged’s selection for the senior Kiwis making his full international debut in ‘82 on the tour of Australia against Queensland.

“Mal Meninga, Wally Lewis and Co. were all playing. That Australian team was fantastic.

“I never played in a Test match; I believe I should have done. Ces Mountford was the coach and got very influenced by certain players such as Kevin Tamati, a good prop.

“One tour game I walked away with the man of the match but when we had the team meeting next day I had a ridiculously low tackle count. And guess who was doing the tackle count? Kevin!

“There were some very good players in the front row such as Mark Broadhurst; Mark Graham was Test captain. Halfbacks were Clayton Friend (Carlisle, Whitehaven) and Shane Varley who went to Workington and recommended me.”

What brought you to West Cumbria? – “The money really. Town were in the First Division then.

“My first outing was against Warrington at Derwent Park and I got the player of the match but I got a really bad injury, which stopped me playing for Cumbria against New Zealand, and didn’t play as many games I’d hoped to.”

Ged reckons he would have been good enough to play in Super League today bringing the same qualities as Karl Edmondson has to Haven’s present pack.

Were you a bit fiery? – “Well, you need a bit of fire in your blood to play your best rugby, it’s an aggressive game but controlled aggression. I’ve had my fair share of judiciary duties.”

While coaching two Canterbury teams (Bulls and Cardinals) Stokes had several Kiwi internationals under his wing, including Tevita Vaikona (Bradford Bulls).

You like to give young players a chance – “Always. For me that’s the future strength of Whitehaven, there’s some very good youth talent here who have come through the systems, I think you will see that talent flower over the next two or three years.”

Your own ambitions? – “I would love to coach in Super League – be involved with any team from Cumbria that goes into Super League. I think Cumbria in any shape or form should be the next team in.

“I honestly do feel that the RFL would rush in with both hands and say yes please do it.

“I have achieved my international coaching qualifications and was very close to coaching the national team when I was assistant to Gary Freeman.

“Daniel Anderson (St Helens) came into the frame, I was disappointed not to succeed Gary, I think I could have done a very good job.”

Ged has a legacy from his playing days, losing part of one of his fingers.

It wasn’t through a Kevin Tamati skirmish was it? – “Actually, it was. We were playing against each other in Christchurch the week before I came to play for Workington Town. It wasn’t anything other than my finger getting caught in his sock at the play the ball.

“I dislocated it, went over to the sideline and asked them to put it back in, they said ‘no’ we are not allowed to you have to go to hospital it’s too bad a dislocation’ so I put the finger back in myself, taped it up and went back on but I had broken it.

“I reckon it was Kevin’s fault for kicking back at the play the ball. I used to get it injected all the time but in the end it was that bad I had to get it taken off.”

Ged Stokes looks forward to a fruitful next two years at least with Whitehaven but as he says: “I have always been a day-to-day person, not a planner, sometimes I don’t know where my next penny’s coming from.

“My brother’s the other way round, he’s a multi millionaire property developer back home owning some high class rest homes.”

One thing for sure: There will be no rest for anyone under the Ged Stokes regime at The Recre.