‘I was a distraction for Trent Robinson’: The humility of Daniel Anderson

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Whether he was coaching the Auckland Warriors or New Zealand, St Helens or Parramatta, or occupying the hot-seat as the NRL referees’ boss, Daniel Anderson was known for his humility in jobs that required large servings of ego and pride.

But that modesty elevates to another level altogether when he partly blames himself for the Roosters’ slow start to this NRL season, clinging to dear life to the thought of sneaking into the top eight.

Anderson, who is being celebrated this weekend with the NRL’s Unite for Daniel Round, suffered a serious neck injury last December while body surfing on the Central Coast.

He was left quadriplegic, although he’s returned to his job as Roosters head of recruitment in recent weeks and goes into the office twice a week.

“I was a distraction for the coach, my injury,” Anderson says of Trent Robinson. “There have been off-field distractions that have taken the focus away from our club. The World Cup had an influence, too. Players were getting back to training late. With a more settled environment and more training over summer, we can certainly play at a much higher level of football.”

So, no dramatic change to the roster? No dramatic clean-out as widely speculated?

Roosters head of recruitment Daniel Anderson.Credit: Janie Barrett

“I don’t think so,” Anderson continues. “If we put the same roster we had this year around next year, do you think we could play as poorly as we did for the first half of the year? We don’t have much movement in our roster for 2024 — we never did — but in 2025 there are a lot more players off contract. But we’re trying to retain first. It’s not easy.”

Anderson tells me this sitting in a motorised chair in the sun outside the northern suburbs’ rehabilitation centre where he currently resides and exercises daily.

He’s made considerable progress in the past fortnight and can make a fist with his right hand. The left hand and arm, however, barely move.

As a young man, Anderson taught mathematics at St Gregory’s College Campbelltown and counted Robinson, and future NRL stars Trent Barrett and Russell Richardson among his pupils. “There’s a certainty to maths that I like,” Anderson says. “You get instant feedback. And it was easy to mark.”

Daniel Sewell at training with the Eels at the end of 2008.Credit: Dean Sewell

As an “incomplete” quadriplegic, though, there’s no certainty about his immediate or long-term future; he doesn’t know how much movement he will regain.

A fundraiser at Randwick Racecourse last month provided a startling reminder of Anderson’s contribution to rugby league with players and officials from the clubs he coached, and even those he did not, in attendance.

There was a strong contingent from the Warriors, who Anderson coached from 2001-04, including the 2002 grand final loss to the Roosters.

“The best games the Warriors played were against the Broncos,” he recalls. “We loved playing them. I loved the match-ups with Wayne [Bennett]. He’s an icon who has been stupidly successful, but I fancied myself against his teams. I had a style of coaching and team that I felt could push a button on them. I didn’t have to throw a lot of burley in the water to get them aroused for Broncos games. We were big and mean and happy to take on bullies.”

Club politics chewed him up and spat him out at the Warriors, just as it did at Parramatta, who he coached to a grand final loss in 2009 before being inexplicably sacked a season later after getting caught in the crossfire following messy board elections.

How does he reflect on his time at the Eels, after almost taking them to the promised land off the back of fullback Jarryd Hayne’s run of performances?

“Lost opportunity if anything,” Anderson reflects. “It was turbulent. I went in there under [former chief executive] Denis Fitzgerald, and I was the last person [left] from that era. I didn’t see it [getting sacked] coming, but I knew I was on the outer. Most coaches who have been moved on before they finish, can sense it.

“I don’t miss head coaching; it’s a brutal lifestyle. The coaching’s always great, but then there’s the media, the personalities, the families good and bad. You have an enormous amount of power over people’s livelihoods.”

Daniel Anderson with then Warriors owner Eric Watson in 2001.Credit: Nigel Marple/ALLSPORT

He had happier days at St Helens, who he coached from 2005-08, winning three Challenge Cups and a Super League grand final.

One of his charges was James Graham, who he sat down at the end of his first season. “I can close my eyes and take myself to that meeting,” Graham says. “He helped map out the path to take. I was 18, sleepwalking into my career. I was in limbo. I had goals but not like this. The way Daniel broke it down, he didn’t tell me what to do but asked the right questions. He put me on the trajectory for the way my career panned out.”

Anderson was, according to Graham, a man manager cast from the same mould as Bennett — not that he saw everything his players were up to.

In those days, St Helens were like the Broncos, usually playing on a Friday night, which gave them a full weekend off. It meant they did just two weight sessions per week.

So Anderson scheduled an additional session on a Sunday afternoon. Afterwards, Graham and a handful of others snuck away to a nearby pub to work on their biceps in another manner, lifting pints of delightful English beer.

Word spread and, soon enough, the whole team was skipping into training on a Sunday, knowing there would be a reward after it.

Then Anderson cancelled the Sunday session, ending the players’ own Sunday session.

“Keep it going, gaffer!” Graham told the coach. “It brings us all together.”

Now the game is coming together for Anderson when he needs it most. All 17 club captains will donate signed jumpers this weekend in support of Anderson, a feat that’s never happened before. Graham is donating all of his premiership medals and rings.

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