PETER Wood admits he was stunned when he was approached by the NSWRL to take on the assistant coaching position with the NSW Country under 16 representative rugby league side.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
"You could have knocked me over with a feather,'' Wood, of Taree laughs.
Wood wasted little time in agreeing. He'll now join the Country side in camp on Wednesday, May 11 in preparation for the May 15 fixture against City at Penrith. Wood turned to coaching almost as soon as he stopped playing football at the age of 36, starting when he took charge of his son's under six side.
"He's 23 now, so that's how long I've been coaching,'' Wood said.
"I loved playing rugby league and now I love coaching. It's just in the blood I suppose.''
The Country gig will be his biggest appointment so far and he knows City will throw plenty at the Country team.
"There's obviously a lot of quality players there. They're going to be very strong,'' he agreed.
He had charge of the North Coast 16s in this year's Country Championship. This threw up some unexpected hurdles.
"We lost three players with COVID from our starting side in the first game and we got beaten. When we had our full side we beat the Titans, and they went on to win the championship,'' he said.
"We lost five players with COVID just before we played Newcastle and we lost - and that's one we should have won.''
The Bulldogs at full strength accounted for the hitherto unbeaten Illawarra South Coast Dragons to give them a shot at a finals berth. However, North Coast turned in a mixed effort in the last match against the Central Coast and this finished in a draw, ending their campaign.
But, COVID was just part of the problem. Wet weather and resulting closed fields also presented challenges.
"We were training on a beach just get keep the side together. Then the big seas started so we couldn't even train there,'' he said.
"We had to try and find places like hockey fields to train.''
Wood has a philosophy about coaching.
"I like winning - everyone does. But I get as much enjoyment in seeing young blokes improve - being able to do things at the end of the season that they couldn't do at the start,'' he said.
Wood recalls taking over as coach of Taree Panthers under 16s last year.
"They'd hardly won a game for two years and we ended up making the semi-finals,'' he said.
"We beat Port Sharks at Port - they'd never beaten Port before. It was like we'd won a grand final at fulltime, it still gives me goosebumps thinking about it.''
