Thanks Coach! Nic Henderson to Laurie Fisher
Issue: Volume 29 Number 4
For most elite athletes, their coach is the person who helps them finesse the skills required for their sport. For Brumbies prop Nic Henderson, his coach Laurie Fisher actually had to teach him the game.
Rugby union came late into Henderson’s life. The 26-year-old was born in Queensland. His family moved to Wagga Wagga in New South Wales. It was there as he started school that Henderson began playing rugby league. After finishing high school, he was signed by the Melbourne Storm and wound up playing mostly as part of the Storm’s Brisbane feeder club, Norths. When his league career stalled and he fell in love with the city (and a girl), Henderson looked for ways of staying in the Queensland capital ... and rugby union seemed the ticket.
It eventually led him to joining the ACT Academy in 2002 and representing the Canberra Vikings before winning selection in the Australian Under-21s. The following year he joined the Brumbies and in 2004 was named in the Wallabies squad.
All through the meteoric rise, Laurie Fisher has loomed large as a presence in Henderson’s career, even being a major catalyst for Henderson’s decision to re-sign with the Brumbies in 2004 rather than joining a new franchise. ‘I’ve grown up playing rugby around Laurie with the Canberra Vikings and with him as coach,’ Henderson said at the time, ‘I really couldn’t see a better place to play rugby in the world.’
He still holds that view saying that as soon as he knew that Fisher would be head coach again at the end of 2006 he again wanted to re-sign.
‘I wake up every morning longing to get to training just because being around a culture of winning and improving is so infectious and one you don’t want to leave. Sure, sometimes the body says “don’t go to training”, but the mind knows that once there you are going to feel like you’re at home with your family.’
Yet thinking back to his first meeting with Fisher, Henderson says he had no idea how much of an influence the man they call ‘Lord Fisher’ would become.
‘I remember I first got to meet him at the Academy,’ Henderson recalls. ‘I didn’t know anything about rugby, let alone him. The first thing that struck me was, or course, the hair ... you know, he has that Billy Connolly thing going on or you know, Gandalf out of Lord of the Rings.’
Later, Henderson says he quickly discovered Fisher’s ‘no-nonsense’ attitude towards coaching, but an attitude that was tempered by always listening to his players.
‘There was no one thing that Laurie had to deal with when it came to me. I mean, it was the whole playing thing. I didn’t know the game. Just learning it was my biggest issue. He was fantastic to talk to and easy to approach and that was a huge help.’
Henderson may underplay the effect that Fisher did have on him in the early days. Not long after arriving in the ACT, he was ready to pack up and walk out, disheartened by the magnitude of it all.
It is, to say the least, unusual for a rugby league forward to successfully make the switch to union. Henderson was also on the light side when he joined the Brumbies, only 102kg. With Fisher’s help, he has worked hard on adding bulk, improving his scrummaging and adapting to the complexities of the game.
‘Laurie has been there all the way,’ Henderson says. ‘From my Academy days, through the Vikings and the Brumbies. He has an amazing attention to detail. He has us watching tapes on different matches, he’s always thinking about positions and assessing what other teams are doing. He brings a lot to the table.’
Henderson says Fisher is also very involved in his players lives, aware of what people do on their holidays, what their family situation is like and their attitudes.
‘He has an active interest in us on and off the field. He’s always happy to discuss ways of improving or have us drop in at a moment’s notice. He’s that sort of guy.’
But for all the time they spend on the field and at training, Henderson says Fisher is a closed book when it comes to his own personal life.
‘He is very reserved and obviously very much a family man, but that’s probably a good thing ... it gives him another focus.
‘He does have a great sense of humour and can really get stuck into us when it’s needed. He gives as good as he gets. We have a good relationship.’
That relationship has had a marked influence on Henderson’s recent successes. In a period of just a week in 2004, Henderson won a Super 12 grand final, was voted joint Rookie of the Year and named in the Wallaby squad.
But as a prop, Henderson has one of rugby’s toughest jobs and must continue to learn every game and to hang in for the long haul. He made the train-on squad for the 2007 World Cup, but missed out on final selection.
‘Missing out on the World Cup was obviously hard to take, but with Laurie continually driving my focus to improve and to play well in the Australian Rugby Championship, my disappointment was lessened,’ Henderson says.
‘I guess the fact that he has belief in me as a player and as a man has certainly helped me keep my self-belief that I can get back in the Wallabies next year.’
And further down the track Henderson says he wouldn’t rule out a coaching career of his own.
‘Coaching is definitely something that I want to venture into as my football career develops and especially when it ends. Hopefully as my career goes along I can develop my coaching skills and techniques and come out after rugby with something to offer the sporting world.’
