Daryl Powell: Super League's innovator prepares to face new coaching generation

To get an idea of just how all-consuming being the head coach of a top-level sporting organisation can be, just let Daryl Powell tell you how few and far between waking moments where he is not thinking about rugby league.

The professional game has been a dominant presence in Powell's life since making his Sheffield Eagles debut in 1984, being good enough to earn 27 caps for Great Britain and win a Challenge Cup with Leeds Rhinos before hanging up his boots in 2001.

But since moving into coaching as player-boss at Keighley Cougars, along with stops at former club Leeds, Featherstone Rovers, Castleford Tigers and now Warrington Wolves, the 56-year-old rarely has a time where he is not thinking about planning training sessions or tactics for upcoming games.

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"The biggest difference is how much work you have to do," Powell said. "Players will always be surprised at what time you get home at night and then having to do work at home, then you're up at 5.30am working again.

"As a player, you just roll in, do your job, go home and forget about it. Everybody is a little bit different, and some players are more reflective and prepare a fair bit more in terms of the time they take.

"But coaching you have to; you think about it when you get up to go to the toilet in the middle of the night, you think about it first thing when you get up and you're always dealing with lots of players. The transition from just looking after yourself, unless you're a key leader in the team, to looking after a group of people is significant.

"You move to the other side of the fence and instead of trying to get the best out of yourself, you're trying to get the best out of other people and that is a completely different concept."

You think about it when you get up to go to the toilet in the middle of the night, you think about it first thing when you get up and you're always dealing with lots of players.

Given how much of a demanding vocation it can be, it is perhaps no surprise there are some players who move into coaching after retiring only to find it is not for them.

Nevertheless, elite-level player to elite-level coach remains a well-trodden path, but recent years in the Super League have seen the rise of the career coaches who have dedicated themselves to their craft from a relatively young age.

Rohan Smith, the recently appointed head coach of Warrington's Friday night opponents Leeds Rhinos in a match which is live on Sky Sports (8pm kick-off), has joined those ranks in the competition and Powell believes they are proving their worth.

"Everybody is a little bit different, and Rohan has been around outstanding coaches all of his life in his dad and some of the other members of his family," Powell, who has come to be regarded as one of the most innovative coaches of his generation, said.

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"He knows what it's all about and we've seen in different sports people who haven't played at the top level but have been good coaches. Coaching is about different things and not necessarily the experience of playing.

"I think they all bring something different based on their own personalities and some guys like Rohan are real studious individuals who pick the game apart. Then it's about how you put things across to your players and how much they believe in what you're telling them.

"I think he'll do an awesome job there. He's got coaching experience where he's coached at a high level and got a lot out of his players."

St Helens' Grand Final-winning boss Kristian Woof, Wigan Warriors' Challenge Cup-winning rookie head coach Matt Peet and Powell's predecessor at the Halliwell Jones Stadium Steve Price are among those who have ascended to the top level recently after realising early on their future lay in coaching as well.

Each coach has their own story and own experiences, so I don't see it as being the way forward - that's just my way.

Smith, the son of former Super League and NRL boss Brian Smith and nephew of current Hull Kingston Rovers head coach Tony Smith, believes it is just a different way to go to those who have followed the more traditional route though.

"Each coach has their own story and own experiences, so I don't see it as being the way forward - that's just my way," Smith told Sky Sports.

"Being a coach from around 17 or 18 helping coach some young kids in Wollongong and I was teaching kids how to swim when I was at university - if you can deal with five or six five-year-olds at a time I think 30 young men is not too hard!"

For his part, Powell's thoughts over the past two weeks have been preoccupied with how to build on the performance against St Helens in Warrington's last Super League outing which was regarded by many as their best of the season despite ending in a 12-10 defeat.

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As much as he would have rather been involved in last Saturday's Challenge Cup final as he was in 2021 with Castleford, Powell was still grateful for the time to work on some new combinations as the Wolves aim to book a Super League play-off place in the second half of the campaign.

"Last year I was involved in the Challenge Cup final and I don't really like watching them - although I did watch it - because you want to be involved in them and it's disappointing when you're not," Powell said.

"But it also gives you some time to reflect and work on things and give players a little bit of time to freshen their bodies up as well and get ready what is coming up.

"It's both sides; I'd much rather be involved in it because that's what we're involved in the game for, but it is what it is and I think we've been able to work on a few things."