DANE ELDRIDGE: NRL coaches Benji Marshall, Kieran Foran and Andrew Webster are using new methods to motivate

A new style of coaching is taking hold in the NRL where hierarchies are blurred and the Xs and Os are kisses and hugs.

Modern mentors like Benji Marshall, Kieran Foran and Andrew Webster are the new breed of rugby league mentor, with the trio educating the coaching fraternity in 2026 on the ways to foment the modern player.

How? By being a coach that is nothing like a traditional coach whatsoever.

With the Wests Tigers and Warriors both airborne in the top four and Manly no longer propping up the back page after two straight wins, these coaches have ushered in a new dawn in more ways than one, namely by engineering their relative resurrections without blowing their top.

As we know, the old school coach has been slowly grandfathered out of rugby league in recent times, with articulate thinkers in vogue over deputy-principal disciplinarians with their whistles and rabies.

This is no more evident in 2026 with taskmasters like Craig Bellamy, Shane Flanagan and Ricky Stuart struggling to get a reaction while screaming in to an abyss, all while cool cats like Marshall, Foran and Webster incite their players by remaining chill and demonstrating a clear understanding of the modern generation.

Harnessing the ethos of mates over masters and bros before honchos, they’re proving coaching now is less about actual footy and more about connection and relationships and all those other buzzy things only discussed on LinkedIn or beyond the fifth beer on Mad Monday.

Admittedly nobody can really define what constitutes ‘toughness’ in the modern day, because let’s be honest, it could be anything from displaying emotional maturity or just sleeve tattoos.

It’s a style advented by Wayne Bennett, a old-timer who’s always been the exception to the rule with a simple game plan but only because he’s more preoccupied with his players family backgrounds and their favourite PlayStation games.

Of course, none of us see inside the inner sanctum, and for all we know, these quiet types could still be going off behind closed doors like a hairdryer full of tear gas.

But with Foran and Marshall only recently removed from life as a player and Webster arriving at the Warriors as a relative unknown with scant reputational clout, there’s no way their success comes from sheer fear factor.

It’s humble egalitarianism by the bucketload, with Foran already admitting to leaning on the senior players at Manly and Webster speaking previously of his “very inclusive” style when revealing to the Sydney Morning Herald in 2023 he’d “rather work with a player than stand over the top and intimidate them.”

Add Tigers half-back Latu Fainu describing Marshall’s style like an “older brother” and it’s clear being the player’s chum is getting better results over an iron fist and high blood pressure.

However, it’s Marshall who’s reverse engineering the new style by adopting a quiet prickliness from his predecessors that has coincided with his side’s stunning breakout start.

Admittedly nobody can really define what constitutes ‘toughness’ in the modern day, because let’s be honest, it could be anything from displaying emotional maturity or just sleeve tattoos.

But Marshall goes pretty close to delivering the clearest definition by showcasing everything about modern coaching while being selectively grumpy when required.

After slowly finding his feet in the dog-eat-dog world of pro coaching — who could forget his dignified reaction to being smeared by Camp Lachie Galvin — Marshall is now comfortable firing back at journos and warning players “there’s the f..king door” in laying down team standards.

However, he still retains the new-age ideals that flip coaching on its head and endear him to his players as an everyman, just like his decision in 2024 to upend the expectations to coach 23 hours a day to take a mid-season holiday because “family is number one and footy is number two.”

While drawing howls of derision from the game’s conservative sect at the time, it’s a quality that has his skipper Jarome Luai cooing “I would die for a coach like that.”

Of course, with Foran’s career in its infancy, Webster yet to strike turbulence and Marshall at a club that’s only ever one board meeting away from pandemonium at any time, there’s plenty of time yet for these trailblazers to pierce a neck valve.

But with the Gen Z footballer responding more favorably to camaraderie and cuddles instead of getting whipped up a sand dune to the point of puking, it’s clear hardheads are being left behind as players respond better to mates rather than masters.