Brayden Mitchell: Winning player to winning coach
“You can’t really enjoy it watching as a coach. It’s a weird thing because you are watching it but you are not, you are worrying about a lot of things."
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When Brayden Mitchell was initially asked to take on the head coaching duties at Star in 2024, he initially pondered whether he would be out of depth.
After a bit of thinking Mitchell agreed - although it came with one condition.
“I said to the boys at the start of the year, if I am going to do this I don’t want to be mucked around. It is a lot of sacrifice and time.
“We talked about respecting the fact that a lot of our coaches have got kids and if the players aren’t prepared to put the time in and effort in then that’s not what we are about.
“We created a culture where we work hard for each other.”
Greg Pleasants-Tate and Mark McHugh joined Mitchell as assistant coaches and Callum Rutledge jumped on board as a fitness trainer.
Rutledge’s role proved pivotal.
“I got the senior players together at the start and they talked about what they wanted to do. They said they have been too unfit for the last few years, so we gave them a bit of a flogging.
“Credit to our fitness trainer Callum, he thrashed them at the start of the year,” Mitchell said.
The coaches at times also got involved, rather than simply barking orders.
“I remember one Saturday we had a big training camp and the management joined in and I think it gets a bit of respect back when you are joining in as well,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell had previously tasted Galbraith Shield success twice as a player with Star.
On Saturday, in his first season as a head coach, Mitchell added a third Galbraith Shield title to the mix, in a personal capacity.
It came on the back of a hard-fought 22-18 victory over a spirited Pirates-Old Boys outfit in the 2024 premier club rugby final played at the Les George Oval.
It was Star’s first title since 2015 and 30th in total since the Galbraith Shield was first played for in 1908.
The 35-year-old carved out an impressive player career, which included captaining the Southland Stags, winning an U20 World Championship with New Zealand, and playing Super Rugby for the Highlanders, Hurricanes, and Chiefs.
He would still probably be playing if a neck injury hadn’t halted the hooker’s playing career.
Mitchell’s tentative steps into coaching has helped scratch the rugby itch.
Although he admits it has been a different experience being involved from the sidelines.
“You can’t really enjoy it watching as a coach. It’s a weird thing because you are watching it but you are not, you are worrying about a lot of things.
“It’s the first time I’ve had to deal with that. But it is very cool to be able to win it as a player and as a coach, to be honest.”
Star has racked up a lot of points in 2024, often running up 50-plus points against some useful teams through the round-robin phase.
Although it has been Star’s defence that has been its major asset this season.
That again showed in Saturday’s final when Pirates-Old Boys put Star under pressure for long periods. Particularly in the first half.
“That’s what we talked about before the game, our defence has been the cornerstone of our game for what we have done all year.
“Merv [Mark McHugh] has been in charge of that, and he has set a really good platform for what we do.
“We just talked about defence is attitude, and their attitude on defence has been amazing. In that first half [Pirates-Old Boys just kept coming at us.
“We probably lacked a bit of discipline, but that’s what I said to the boys at halftime - ‘we have got to trust our defence and give them an extra inch because they are not coming through us’.”
The focus for Southland rugby now switches to the Stags season. Star will have some players in the mix and Mitchell is interested in what some of his players can produce during the representative season.
It appears prop Jack Sexton, lock Josh Bekhuis, No 8 Semisi Tupou Taeiloa and first five-eighth Byron Smith are the most likely to feature.
“I’m always going to bias towards my Star players. I do feel like we have a few that should go to higher honours.”