Outsider steps up to Rhinos’ challenge

Conn comes to the Rhinos with a wealth of rugby knowledge and coaching behind him and is the first real ‘outsider’ to take on the first grade job at the Rhinos.

He admitted he hadn’t seen them play but looked at their results and said they could only improve.

“Like all clubs they have some good individual players,” he said.

“But to get them to play and produce results as a team we will have to do some recruiting before we get into training in the second week in January.

“My passion is coaching and taking on this role will challenge myself to develop the guys as players and as individuals.”

A back stress injury forced Conn out of the game for a year as a player in 1994, so he took on coaching the Wellington under-13s.

This team won the competition first up and his coaching career began.

While Conn has lead Wellington Redbacks in the President’s Cup for the past four years he has also been involved with local and representative junior teams for the past 10 years.

“I really enjoyed my two seasons with Central West Blue Bulls A teams in 2003 and 2004, then went back to Central West 19s for the following two seasons and up to Central West 20s in 2006 and 2007.

“I’ve also coached Country under 17s for four years as well as having Western Area Primary Schools, so yes, coaching has taken up a lot of my time, but it’s something that I enjoy.

“I felt I’d been around at Wellington for a while and it was time for someone else to step up, hence my decision to come to the Rhinos.”

Last season the Rhinos didn’t win a game in first grade and finished bottom of the ladder in seconds. Thirds made the first week of the finals and Colts were competitive through to the preliminary final.

Conn will be working with second grade coaches Ricky Medway and Rob Albouze, Paul Hausia with thirds and Doug Sandry and Guy Turner with the Colts. Nuki Gordon, a New Zealander, will also be involved with the Rhinos as a backs coach.

Rhinos president Dallas Pomfret said Conn’s coaching experience was just what the club needed.

“We’ve been speaking to Graham on and off since early in the year but he didn’t want to make any decision until he had finished his club and representative rugby commitments,” he said.

“I’m sure Graham’s presence with us will attract players to the club but we’ll also be doing some recruitment ourselves.”

Three of the current Rhinos first graders, Sam Macleod, Mark Amey and Ben O’Leary have all played under Conn in representative teams and were looking forward to his involvement with him at club level.

“Our other interesting signing is that of Nuki Gordon who is working around Dubbo and offered his services as a backs coach,” Pomfret said.

“I believe we’ve got the infrastructure for a better season in 2011.

“It will be the players really who will make or break it for us.”