Willie Peters jokes he needed help to get his point across to Sam Burgess
WILLIE Peters will use more metaphorical weapons to get the better of Sam Burgess after admitting he may have needed a BAT to get his way.
But the Hull KR chief is in no doubt his opposite number at Warrington has what it takes to be a top coach after working with him at NRL side South Sydney.
Peters was assistant coach while Burgess was senior player – they were essentially in charge amid a coaching change ahead of the 2019 season.
And the smaller man recalls wanting some extra help on his side whenever they disagreed while revealing he has known for five years he would cross to the dugout.
He said: “When we disagreed, I’d have to jump on a chair or get a bat or something, that’s what I’d do!
“But the good thing about players and leaders like him is it’s a discussion. You’re not always going to agree – in the best environments, you don’t want to always agree.
“I remember when Wayne Bennett and Anthony Seibold swapped jobs, I took charge of the squad for two weeks before Wayne came.
“Sam and I were pretty much running the show together, and Sam was a player. He was a great support for me and I knew then he was going to be a coach.
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“These days, dictatorship in terms of coaching – saying ‘This is what we have to do, this is what we are doing’ – doesn’t work.
“What you want to try and create is players to have a lot of input in terms of how you want to do things, standards and behaviours.
“They’re the ones who action that and Sam brought it a bit earlier. As a coach, when you’ve got leaders like that, you just let them go.
“Sam is one of the best leaders I’ve seen, along with Andy Farrell. It was the way he got the group together and led with his actions.
“Sam knows what he wants and you can see that in the way Warrington are playing.”
After defeating Wigan and St Helens in successive games, Peters is not buying into the talk a win at Warrington tonight would mean they are Super League contenders.
However, he admits working with Burgess has had an effect on his current side while expecting a lot more than the physical beast the Wolves boss was as a player.
He added: “We’re certainly getting the leaders in our club that drive the standards and behaviours and things like that.
“But Sam also has a really good understanding of the game – he was a prop, a loose forward, a back rower and he played them all a certain way, with intent.
“That’s how he loved to play but he was smart. He knew how to break a team down. Most of the time, he’d leave it to other players but he’s a smart guy for a middle forward.”