Cayless has spoken for the first time as head coach of Hull KR
New Hull KR head coach Nathan Cayless
Nathan Cayless has spoken for the first time as Hull KR head coach as he prepares to take over from Willie Peters at Craven Park.
Cayless was appointed in June and barring the initial comments that accompanied the announcement, he hasn’t spoken publicly about Rovers or the job that he will be taken on.
That was until this week, with club media conducting a 20-minute interview with the former New Zealand international to post on their channels.
Cayless is currently away with his family in Bali, but he’ll be heading over to east Hull in the coming weeks and the hard work will really begin when pre-season gets underway next month.
The 48-year-old spoke well in the interview, with his vision, drive and mindset coming across. His excitement to get started at Craven Park was clear to see as well.
With that in mind, here’s what we learned from the interview.
Pre-season plans in place
Cayless is due to arrive in England on November 3 and he’ll have just under a week to acclimatise before pre-season gets underway on November 9. KR won’t welcome their full squad back on that day with a number of key men in international action, but that won’t stop Cayless from making strides forward from day one.
The head coach has already spoken to his fellow coaches on numerous occasions, detailing exactly what he wants off them and he’s had conversations with his players, too, on the back of watching training sessions.
As such, plans are in place for the coming weeks and Cayless, who comes across as meticulous, knows exactly what he wants to see from his players on a day to day basis over the winter months.
The head coach also confirmed he had passed up on the opportunity to be a part of New Zealand’s coaching team this autumn to give himself as much time as possible to ready himself for the start of his Rovers tenure.
KR connections
Cayless knows more than his fair share of former KR personalities so he already has a feeling of what to expect when he arrives at Craven Park. He spoke about former KR head coach Justin Morgan being a mentor for him in the early days of his coaching career.
He also named Mick Vella as a close friend and explained connections with Ben Galea and Mark O’Neill.
Done his homework
Those Rovers connections will have Cayless clued up, but it’s clear that Cayless has spent time researching the history of the club, it’s foundations and the background of the fans who turn up in their thousands on a weekly basis to watch them.
Rovers being founded in 1882 by apprentice boilermakers was a fact he rolled off, before expressing his desire to get to know people within the community in east Hull.
Youth excitement
One thing that does come across during his interview is his ambition to develop the youth at KR. That’s something he has done throughout his career so far of course, working in the New South Wales Cup and reserve grades and he values the importance of producing homegrown talent.
He spoke about the youngsters being able to play and train exactly the same way as the first-team to ease the transition of those who are capable of stepping up. He also revealed he had gone as far as to watch academy games and training sessions while doing his research.
He watched the clash with St Helens last month in which a host of young players were given opportunities and building on that to create a sustained model of long-term success is one of his major goals.
The reserves next season will be a big focus of his as well, with a second sting competition set to be introduced by the RFL.
New signings insight
Rovers fans don’t know much about the three players that Cayless has signed to add to his first-team, but he managed to paint an exciting picture to give them a flavour of what to expect.
Power seems to be the buzz word, with all three men being strong ball carriers who can bend defensive lines, bust tackles and get Rovers rolling in yardage and good ball.
The boss praised the defensive mentality that has been drilled into KR under Peters but it would seem as though the trio of players have been signed to add bite with the ball.
Players on their toes
KR’s players are certainly in for a challenging few months at Craven Park as they ready themselves for the season ahead and they’ll certainly be put through their paces.
However, Cayless plans to meet with every player individually during the first week or two of pre-season to lay out exactly what he wants from them with personalised plans to address any weaknesses the head coach has picked up on while watching games and training from afar.
Nothing beats working with and watching players in person, but Cayless already has a fair idea about the squad he will be inheriting it seems.