‘‘It is like Poke´mon Go’’ Why an Otago oldboy is coaching up a Storm and launching kicking tees as cryptocur

After finding success in the 15-man code, Kiwi kicking coach has transferred his methods to the NRL with the Melbourne Storm. Marvin France reports.

Life after Cameron Smith has been largely seamless for the Melbourne Storm, as a trip to another NRL preliminary final shows, but it’s taken a collective effort.

That was always going to be the case when replacing one of the all-time greats.

Jesse Bromwich and Dale Finucane assumed the captaincy Smith held alone since 2008. Brandon Smith and Harry Grant essentially share his old position of hooker, while all the spine have taken on more responsibility directing the team.

Which leaves the goal-kicking. Of the many duties Smith performed across his incredible 19-year career, the Immortal-inwaiting’s work off the tee was probably his most under-rated asset to the casual fan. Not that the Storm were guilty of such a thing when getting their next batch of goalkickers up to speed.

Enter former Otago and Northland rugby player Peter Breen, who was brought in as kicking coach in the pre-season, joining an already healthy Kiwi presence on board for Melbourne’s title defence.

‘‘Obviously Cameron Smith retired and he’d been the kicker for however long he’d been at the Storm, so no-one else ever had to think about it,’’ Breen told the Sunday Star-Times.

‘‘I had done some work with

(Storm fullback) Ryan Papenhuyzen previously and he must’ve mentioned my name. Frank Ponissi, the general manager, calls up and says we’d love for you to come in for a six-week stint and do some work with the boys. It was really good, I went in there and went hard with it all.’’

Breen’s relationship with Papenhuyzen started through his online coaching and kicking tee company Ruby Bricks, which has a strong following in the 15-man code.

But be it union or league, you simply can’t put a price on a reliable goal-kicker, particularly at this time of the year.

While Breen found the Storm kickers to be less structured in their approach, he didn’t have to make major changes for the results to flow, with Papenhuyzen and Nicho Hynes converting at 86 per cent and 74 per cent respectively this season.

Working off his ‘‘10 pillar principle’’, Breen focused on streamlining their process; making small tweaks that when performed right can make a huge difference to the outcome of a game.

‘‘All we tried to do was just organise their techniques a bit better – their approach, their ball set-up, all the little details,’’ he said. ‘‘Guys like Ryan and Nicho Hynes had some real good success just by getting organised.

‘‘We go through your kicking technique based on the 10 pillars and Ryan’s a thought-out guy. He just loves detail, loves process and he understands why he misses now and what the fix is within his technique, so that’s been really exciting.’’

Breen also assists with kicking in general play and highlighted the progress of Kiwi Jahrome Hughes, whose pinpoint kicking game has been essential to his rise as one of the leading halfbacks in the NRL.

‘‘He’s really excelled this year with his kicking game.

‘‘As soon as he stayed in the kick for longer, let his leg get full extension, got off the ground with his high kicks, he was getting more height, hang-time and distance, which then gives the kickchase more time. That was a real win for him and I’m stoked because he’s kicking so well now. He understands that he’s got to finish his job of the kick rather than bracing.

‘‘And I think when you start doing things well they snowball positively.’’

Last week’s victory over Manly left the Storm one win away from a fifth grand final in six years. They meet the winner of last night’s playoff between Penrith and Parramatta in the preliminary final this weekend.

While the bulk of his coaching was done in the first block of the season, the NRL’s relocation to Queensland meant the Melbourne-based Breen, who was also the attack coach for the Australia women’s rugby team, has had to communicate with players online.

That is right in his wheelhouse thanks to Rugby Bricks, which he founded in Dunedin in 2017 by taking skills coaching to social media.

Rugby Bricks now has more than 140,000 followers on Instagram and their New Zealand-made kicking tees are widely used by professional rugby players around the world, including Quade Cooper during last week’s matchwinning comeback for the Wallabies. They are popping up more and more in the NRL and his partnership with Melbourne has continued with a Stormbranded tee.

In another innovative move, Rugby Bricks are believed to be among the first organisations in the sport to enter the NFT space.

Breen on Friday launched his first kicking tee as an NFT, or non-fungible token, the latest trend in the crypto-economy and touted as the digital answer to collectibles.

‘‘Another way to look at it is like Poke´ mon Go, when everyone was running around with that massive craze collecting digitally, and that’s exactly what NFTs are coming into this space,’’ he said.

‘‘We’re releasing are own NFTs online.’’

‘‘All we tried to do was just organise their techniques a bit better – their approach, their ball setup, all the little details.’’ Peter Breen