Cricket record holder Don Bradman scored runs for fun by hitting most of his shots along the ground, so the ball couldn't be caught by a fielder. Yet most batsmen actively look to hit the ball into the next suburb these days, and wonder why they get caught out.
Doesn't make sense, does it?
When assessing the big issues in the game of rugby league, who better to channel than Coach of the (20th) Century Jack Gibson?
There is a funny thing about rugby league.
We have never had more analysts, more data, more technology, more coaching staff, more video, more sports scientists and more sophisticated tactical systems.
And yet sometimes I wonder whether we have become very good at finding complicated answers to problems that Jack Gibson would have solved with about six words.
Gibson died in 2008, but some of his observations about rugby league still sound remarkably relevant.
That isn't because the game hasn't changed, it has changed enormously!
Indeed, Gibson himself was one of the great innovators in sport. He embraced technology, video analysis, scientific testing and ideas from other sports. He was hardly someone who believed the game should stand still.
In fact, one of his most famous observations was:
“In football, if you are standing still, you're going backwards fast.”
That might be the perfect place to start. Because perhaps the lesson from Gibson isn't that modern rugby league should go backwards. It is that we should keep changing without forgetting what actually makes a football team good.
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Gibson understood that successful teams had to evolve and that applies to the NRL now as much as it did when he was coaching.
The best clubs aren't necessarily the ones with the most fashionable systems or the most complicated attacking structures. They are the ones continually identifying where the game is going and making sure their players and coaches are prepared for it.
The rule changes in the sport seem to have caught some teams on the hop, hence last year's top four is completely different and the 2025 Premiers are doing their best impressions of wooden spooners in 2026.
The problem is that rugby league can sometimes confuse change with improvement.
A new system isn't necessarily better because it is new or neither is a new coaching term better just because it sounds sophisticated.
And more information isn't necessarily better if players can't turn it into better decisions on the field. Gibson was an innovator, but his innovations were designed to make his teams better.
That distinction matters.
“The defensive player will get you to the grand final and win it for you.”
This might be the Gibson quote that should be printed and pinned to every NRL coaching office.
Gibson recognised that attacking players might sell tickets, but defence was what could win championships.
That means the Warriors and Panthers would be the stand-outs to lift the silverware this September, as both combine to make the best two defensive sides in this years comp.
And yet watch the way we talk about rugby league.
We obsess over attacking shapes, who should play five-eighth and who should be the ball-playing lock. Apparently, Isiah Yeo not being available for Penrith is enough for many to put a line through them.
There is nothing wrong with any of that, but when the biggest games arrive, the questions become very different, can your team defend for 80 minutes? Can players still make great tackles when they're exhausted? Can they get off the line, scramble or make the ugly play when the opposition is attacking your edge? Can your team survive the period of the game when everything is going against you?
The great teams still answer those questions. Maybe Todd Payten and the Cowboys have to consider these questions in their future recruitment after shipping 80 points plus to the Roosters a few weeks ago.
Perhaps Gibson would look at some of our selection debates and wonder why we sometimes treat defence as something that can be coached into a player later, and that's why he said:
“To win a championship, you've got to have a nucleus of five or six real tough, hard competitors.”
That is another Gibson observation that seems almost tailor-made for the modern NRL. We love talking about talent and identifying the next superstar.
We love assembling lists of the best players in every position despite the fact rugby league isn't played by 17 individual players.
It is played by a team and teams need a personality. They need players who have been through difficult games together.
Players who understand what happens and don't panic when the opposition gets momentum.
Teams need players who can drag teammates through a difficult period and that is particularly relevant when we talk about premiership contenders.
A team doesn't suddenly become a premiership team because it has assembled enough talent. It becomes one when those players develop a collective identity.
Gibson talked about toughness because he understood that toughness isn't simply about how hard you run or tackle. It has to become part of the personality of the team.
Which brings us to State of Origin.
Origin selection is perhaps where Gibson's philosophy could cause the most arguments.
Every year we get the same debate. Who are the best 17 players? Who has the best statistics?
Who has scored the most tries? Who has the best running metres? Who has the best attacking numbers?
And then somebody gets left out because another player is statistically superior.
But Gibson had another way of looking at football.
“The best players don't automatically make the best team.”
Origin is the ultimate example. You don't just need 17 talented footballers. You need combinations. Leaders in the form of players who understand their roles and who can handle pressure.
This isn't anti-talent, it is about understanding what talent is supposed to achieve.
“The big test in football is how a captain leads under conditions of adversity.”
That one should probably be shown to anyone selecting an Origin team. Because leadership is easy when you're winning.
Everybody looks like a leader when their team is 24-0 in front.
The real test comes when your team is 12-6 down, your best player has gone off injured, the referee has just made a decision you don't like and the opposition has all the momentum.
Who takes control then? Who settles the team? Who gets everybody back to the plan?
That is leadership.
And it is one of the reasons I think we sometimes underestimate the value of experience when selecting representative teams. Statistics tell us what happened.
They don't always tell us who you want beside you when everything goes wrong.
And then there is the Kangaroos selections. Kevin Walters is faced with a growing list of injured stars and other incumbents who won't be playing finals footy prior to the World Cup later this year.
This is where Gibson's philosophy becomes even more interesting.
Australia should not simply be just selecting the best 17 Australian players, it should be selecting the best Australian team which sounds like a subtle distinction, but it isn't.
International rugby league is not simply an NRL All Stars team with a different jersey. Kev's Kangaroos need combinations, identity, toughness, adaptability and players who can handle the responsibility of representing Australia.
Because when Gibson talked about talent or indeed toughness, he wasn't simply talking about physical toughness.
He was talking about character:
“You can't be a mug all week and not be a mug at the weekend football.”
That might be one of his funniest lines, but there is a serious point underneath it. Wests Tigers, St George Illawarra Dragons and Brisbane Broncos may wish to spend more time considering that preparation matters, habits matter and culture matters.
What happens during the week eventually turns up on the weekend.
You can't spend 12 months talking about development and then panic when a team has a bad game.
You can't talk about building combinations and then constantly change your selections.
You can't talk about developing your own players and then abandon them because an external recruit becomes available.
You can't say defence is important and then select players purely because of what they can do with the ball.
And you can't say you're developing coaches while giving them no time to actually develop.
The weekend is usually just the scoreboard for what happened during the week. Last week, the Broncos were pathetic in a week where half their dirty laundry was spread across the nations' newspapers.
Maybe Gibson's greatest lesson was simplicity. There is a temptation in modern sport to believe that because something is complicated, it must be intelligent.
It isn't.
Sometimes the most intelligent thing a coach can do is make something simple.
Gibson could be innovative and traditional at the same time. He could embrace computers and video while still believing in toughness.
He could study American football while still understanding the fundamentals of rugby league.
He could introduce new training methods without losing sight of the importance of defence.
That is why I don't think Jack Gibson would be complaining about modern rugby league.
I think he'd be studying it, looking at the data, watching the video, stealing ideas from other sports.
He'd be asking questions and then he'd probably turn around and tell us that half of what we're arguing about doesn't matter.
Because ultimately, his philosophy came back to some very simple things.
Be tough. Be prepared. Defend. Have good players around you. Build a team. Keep improving. And when the pressure arrives, don't panic.
Perhaps that is what rugby league needs to remember.
Not Jack Gibson's football, but Jack Gibson's way of thinking.
The game has changed and It should continue to change. But the fundamentals haven't gone anywhere.
And maybe, just maybe, the Supercoach still has a few things to teach us.
As Gibson himself put it:
“Played strong, done fine.”
Lee Addison is a former club coach at Sea Eagles and Panthers and the founder of rugbyleaguecoach.com.au. He is a Coach Mentor and his programmes for coaches and clubs can be found HERE.
