Anthony Griffin spent three year terms as head coach of the Broncos and Panthers. He was recalled from coaching limbo to take charge of St George Illawarra and hired Matt Elliott who had been boss at the Raiders, Warriors, Penrith and Cowboys. Former Sharks boss, Shane Flanagan, now consults to the club.

Former Raiders head coach, David Furner, now an assistant with the Bulldogs, has filled the same role at another three NRL clubs – Cowboys, Knights and Rabbitohs.

With former premiership coach Phil Gould also at the Bulldogs as coaching director, you’d assume there was enough experience on the Canterbury payroll. Admittedly, Furner has the same thimble-sized ego as his late father, Don, a Kangaroo coach.

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The great NFL coach, Bill Parcells, once advised Storm coach Craig Bellamy to select assistants “who you need, not who you want”.

Bellamy has brought Steve Kearney back as an assistant, after head coaching jobs with the Eels and Warriors. The Storm has two very young assistants and Bellamy, now in his 20th season at the club, prefers to occasionally take a back seat role. It’s important, too, for a club to have someone of Pasifika background on staff for the nearly half the NRL cohort of players to consult.

The Roosters Trent Robinson hired another Storm assistant, Adam O’Brien, to play the role of an architect challenged to put smart additions on a well-designed house. It worked with a second successive premiership and now O’Brien is the head man at the Knights.

Robinson now has another former Storm assistant, Jason Ryles, whose career path should be a case study for all would-be coaches. After retiring as a player in 2013, he captain-coached the West Devils in the tough Illawarra competition before moving to Melbourne as an assistant in 2016 and then working with Eddie Jones’s England rugby team. His experience in “bush football” and with another code has given him exposure to more life experiences than those assistants who never lived “outside the bubble”. Ryles is better placed to offer advice to players when their careers are ending.

There is always an argument to justify the hiring of a sacked head coach but clubs need to open up more opportunities for young coaches to progress.

It’s tough offering advice to anyone sacked but it’s worth reminding them to “love the game; don’t chase the game.”