Why Good Coaches Don't Always Pick the Good Players

The hottest debate in any team sport is selection, and we get why it drives people crazy. From the stands, it looks like a simple list of the most talented players. From the coach’s seat, it’s risk management, culture building, and performance under pressure all rolled into one call. That’s the contrarian idea we’re unpacking: selection isn’t about picking the best players, it’s about picking the best team.

We walk through three practical filters that shape real coaching decisions. First is trust: can we count on you to prepare, do the little things, and stay steady when the moment tightens? Then we dig into influence, because every player shifts the environment, whether they mean to or not. The right presence lifts standards and belief. The wrong presence turns bad habits into “normal” and spreads excuses fast.

Finally, we talk about fit and context. A player can be incredibly talented and still make the group worse if they don’t match the game model or disrupt cohesion. We also share a quick recruiting check for character: ask someone from the player’s current team if they’d be a good fit and listen carefully to the first second of their answer.

If you care about rugby coaching, team culture, leadership, and building a squad that actually performs together, this one will change how you watch selections. Subscribe to the Coaching Culture Podcast, share this with a coach or captain, and leave a review with your take: should selection reward talent or protect the team?

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Welcome to the Midweek Reflections. Always a pleasure to have you on here, Midweek. It's been a cracking week, actually. Joey Mongalo chatting this week on his contrarian thoughts. And previous to that, Noel McDamara, the maths teacher that's gone on to become one of the world's best coaches, winning with uh Bordeaux, the European Cup. Two crackers back to back, which have got a huge amount of uh responses from us on the show. A lot of people loving those two contexts. Uh, firstly, with Noel. A lot of people can resonate with someone that hasn't played professional rugby, in fact, hasn't played rugby at all and gone on to become one of the world's best professional coaches, winning European titles. People love that. And if you haven't listened to it, I highly recommend you do it. Joey Mongolo on Sunday came out talking about contrarian things, things against the normal run and way we do things in this sport. And it's lovely to hear that that sort of difference. So crack into those two episodes if you haven't seen it. Today we are going to talk about selection, because it is a topical thing over this side of the world with some recent selections gone on and a lot of argy bargy and chatting round about the point of why certain players were and weren't selected. And I wanted to dive into it just a little bit, a little bit of reflections on why coaches do that and why good coaches don't always pick the

Quick Catch-Up And Listener Reactions

SPEAKER_00 2:47

good players. So here's a little bit of context for anyone that's watching. If you are coaching a team, you're seeing a whole different picture than anyone spectating and watching a game. Because selection, when you are one of the persons selecting a team as coach, isn't about picking the best players. That's a contrarian to belief. It's actually about picking the best team. And there is a big difference there. If you're just purely picking the best players, it's a very different thing about than picking the best team. Okay, so that's that's the first one. So when you see players miss out, one of the biggest things is I wonder how that while why that coach thought that player didn't fit this team. Now it's clearly something being showed off field, which he doesn't believe that he can do it. And here's one of the insights from a coaching perspective, one of the one of the things, the three things I'd like to share with you, three words that a lot of the best coaches in the world do, having

Why Selection Sparks Controversy

SPEAKER_00 3:46

chatted to a lot of them. Um, and here they are. The first thing they're selecting on is trust. First thing they're selecting on is trust. Can they trust you as a player? Can they trust you to prepare? Can they trust you to do the little things? Can they trust you when pressure comes on? It's an important question, that trust. It's like any sort of relationship you're going into. If you're going into a marriage, can I trust this person? Hopefully you don't have to ask that question. Hopefully it's just inherent, which is the same thing with players you're selecting. You know, I think every coach knows, there's some players that they are the first on the list. You just go, yes, yes, yes, because they are grade one player, grade one character. You trust them implicitly. They are the easy ones. And likewise at the other end of the scale, there's those easy ones to not pick. Not good talent, not good character. Where it gets a little bit difficult and where the public don't always see is where sometimes those things differ and there's borderline and gray areas where they may be excellent on field and maybe poor on character, or they may be excellent character and just average on field. And sometimes those are the challenges for coaches to make it work about picking the best team. And sometimes picking guys that aren't good on the field but excellent characters is important because you can trust what they're gonna bring and what they're gonna do to others. And that gets me to my second point, coaches.

Best Players Versus Best Team

SPEAKER_00 5:12

The second thing

Trust As The First Filter

SPEAKER_00 5:13

coaches are selecting on is influence. Every player affects environment. In a team sport, that is just the case. You're connecting, you're influencing, you're affecting those around you. Some players lift standards without doing anything, without saying a word. They're just that presence when they walk in a room, people lift, right? I think we all sort of know those sort of players. I've certainly seen in every team I've been, there's always those one or two guys or girls that as soon as they're playing, the team lifts inherently because they they have this confidence, this belief, all that stuff, and they reflect everything you want as a coach. And people follow them, and and they become great role models, and they they they make that team better for their being in it. Others, on the other hand, can do the complete opposite. They can lower things. They can be one person's negativity becomes another player's excuse, for example. One person's poor habits becomes acceptable. Culture is contagious, and like in a petri dish, when bacteria grow and feed on itself and go into something completely different, so it is with a team environment. One person who's negative affects the three or four people beside them. So for example, if someone's not selected, and they might go sit in their locker room and grumble to the two other or three

Influence And The Contagion Of Culture

SPEAKER_00 6:35

other people not selected, who then agree and they form a little crew, a little click, a little potential mutiny. And that's not good in any team. Those are not is not what you want. So a coach just isn't selecting the individual, they're selecting what that individual brings to the group every single day. And they got to trust in in what they're bringing. Okay, and sometimes what an individual thinks they're bringing isn't in line with what the coach wants them to bring. And that can be a huge disconnect. And sometimes that is an important conversation to have, and the best coaches have it early and they stamp it in the head or knock it on the head, is a better phrase. And finally, as we sort of alluded to, is we're picking a pick for the right fit, to pick for the right context for our group. Like we might have someone who's unbelievable um talented, but just doesn't make our team better. May they may be playing in a slightly different way than what we want them to for our team. And it it has this ripple effect. One little person that's out in a group um is essentially can be like a little drop of poison in a well. It can affect the whole bit of water underneath. And it doesn't take too much time before everyone's affected. Sometimes too, also, coaches might have a certain way of playing or a certain way of leading or a certain way of being that for some reason certain players just don't fit that mould. And sometimes, no matter what they do, whatever they press um and press outwardly, never really lands with the coaching crew. And I think all coaches know that feeling where they just don't quite know if this player's right for this team, if this fits right. And sometimes as a coach, you've got to trust that feeling because you're the one that's putting this team together. You're putting this group together, you're trying to mesh 15 to 30 players all together to make them work harmoniously. So you've got to make sure that fits right. A lovely little thing when it comes to selection, this is something

Fit And Context Matter More Than Hype

SPEAKER_00 8:37

that I learned myself, is is a good little takeaway. One little takeaway, if you want to know if someone's character is right for your team, so let's take this example, you're looking at a player from uh another team to potentially come to yours. If you know someone in that team or anyone, you ring them and you say, Hey mate, I just want to know about this player. Can you tell them if they'd be a good fit for our team? Now, if in that first one second, if the person you're talking to goes, uh, you don't need them to say anything else. That is that is a a question mark, an eyebrow lift, a rub of the chin, a scratch of the beard, that sort of thought, ooh, this is this is an interesting question. They might then go on to go, well, uh look, yeah, but in my eyes, that's uh that's a red flag around you've got to get that player right. And you may be able to do that. But it's a really good one just to have in your mind around where they're currently at. If the opposite were to happen and immediately, without even blinking, the player goes, oh yeah, that player's perfect. He is he or she is great. Yeah, they're they're awesome. Then that's the character assessment. And when you talk to someone who's worked alongside that player and understands their character really well, that first second that they talk to you

A Fast Character Check For Recruits

SPEAKER_00 9:57

is a great read for you as a coach to know everything you need to know about what they're going to bring to your team. Now it's small and it's little, I know, and it can always be proved wrong. But as an overall guideline, that little conversation piece and that small one second where someone hesitates to answer that very defiantly is a bit regular flag for you and your coaching and your selection. So keep that in mind whenever you're trying to recruit players from other places or other teams, or maybe they're progressing up the teams. That is something to ask the coach or fellow players, any one fact. Because that first one or two seconds gives you a big insight into what they bring to the current team they're in. So that is us for today. Really interesting piece. When you are watching from a broad selection, understand that the best coaches in the world don't always pick four the best players. It's about picking the best team. And I love that. Selection isn't about rewarding talent. Selection isn't about rewarding talent, it's about protecting the team. Right. Until next week. Dwell on that. Have a think. And we'll see you next time on the Coaching Culture Podcast.