Newly appointed Sydney Roosters assistant Brett Morris has explained how he landed his new role despite having no coaching experience.
Morris, 35, officially joined the club’s coaching ranks last week having retired as a player earlier this season.
Playing under coach Trent Robinson for the last three seasons, Morris revealed that he was already picking up teaching traits in the later stages of his career that were noticed by his head coach.
“It is something that I spoke to quite a bit with Robbo, about potentially going into coaching once I’d finished playing rugby league,” Morris said on SEN 1170 Afternoons.
“Being an older guy, I was always there to help mentor players and get the best out of them and teach them what I’d learned along the way.
“I was kind of already doing that in my playing role, and once the injury occurred it was, how can I help, what can I do to help the team? I still wanted to be a part of the system.”
Having endured a career-ending injury in Round 8, Morris remained with the Roosters for the entire 2021 season where he began working as a coach despite being a listed player.
“Robbo quite early on had me running meetings with the outside backs, cutting video and sending that through regularly,” Morris explained.
“So, Robbo was very good that he kept me involved, and with a few guys moving on at the end of the season there was an opportunity there for me to move into.
“Luckily enough for me, Robbo made that position available to me and it’s something I’m very excited about.”
As a player, Morris represented the Bulldogs, Dragons and Roosters, and he explained what makes Sydney’s culture one of the league’s strongest.
“It’s a great environment,” Morris explained.
“When you walk through that door in the morning everyone’s on the same page, everyone’s treated as an equal, there’s never any bad blood or moping around.
“Everyone’s there to become a better player and a better person.
“You’ve got some of the greatest minds in rugby league inside that building, it’s a great place to work and every time you walk in you want to uphold those values, you want to become that better player and become that better person.
“It’s a great place to work at, I know that all comes from the top with Nick (Politis), the board there and the coaching staff with Robbo, he’s the one that drives it.”
Morris will be joined by experienced assistant Jason Ryles as Robinson’s understudies for season 2022.
Listen to the full chat here.