Kristian Woolf: What I have learned from St Helens players and staff

We caught up with him for one final Q&A. The conversation was long, in depth one and covered so much ground that we will have split it into three parts – this is the final part.

MC: Going back to when you first came to St Helens, Covid struck within three months and the World changed. How did you and your family deal with that period?

KW: For me, I found the positives in Covid. First, we had gone into it off the back of a couple of unsuccessful games.

I don’t buy into it being an unsuccessful period because if you look back at the results we were great in round 1, we had seven players out in round 2, we were great in Round 3 at Hull FC and against Roosters in week 4 despite a number of injuries to key player.

We were unlucky not to be even closer in that contest.

We were great against Toronto – backing up after that physical and emotional challenge against the Roosters.

We faltered in two games and that took the shine off anything good that we had done.

What Covid gave me a chance to do was sit back and reflect on why that was the case and what part I played in that in particular. And also what other parts were a factor in that.

It gave me a chance to pull everything apart, let me look at what we were doing and what we needed to do different and sell it to the players.

That was an important period for us and that certainly set up the success that we have had since then.

There were other elements of Covid that I found quite positive. I hadn’t had that much time with my family at home ever since I got involved with rugby league and in particular Tonga.

My seasons had rolled from finishing the season and then going on international duties and then going back to pre-season and then not really getting a break.

I found some real positives there.

What was tough during that period was my wife and my kids never really got that opportunity to build some relationships and feel part of the community like they do now.

The relationships my kids have got now and their friendship groups and supporting groups that my kids have got in the town now means they are going to find it extremely hard to leave.

I look at my wife and the friendships she has built since Covid – she will go with a very heavy heart as well and I wish they had had that opportunity in 2020. But that was a negative among a lot of positives.

MC: Your boys Jack and William have both enjoyed playing up at Thatto Heath and Pilks Recs haven’t they?

KW: Jack was given a nice send off at Thatto Heath. And that is what I mean about people that make you feel welcome.

He has got a great coaching staff there and a great little group of mates – and that shows you what they are as a group.

He was chuffed with the reception that he got – that is something that he will remember forever as well.

A few tears earlier as we said goodbye today to one of our teammates. We wish you well Jack Woolf and will miss you immensely, it has been absolutely brilliant to have you as part of our team these last few years. Good luck and we look forward to seeing you smashing it down under pic.twitter.com/LJ21szHFFr

— Thatto Heath U13’s (@ThattoU13) September 25, 2022

My youngest fella William plays at Pilks and I can’t speak highly enough of the group that he gets to play there, a great coaching staff and through his friendship with some Joseph Wellens and some other boys there – and they have allowed him to play up a year. They have been great for him as well.

They are the sort of people you remember.

MC: Looking at England - five Saints players selected – but if we can focus on two of those, Matty Lees and Joe Batchelor, what will they get from this World Cup in terms of their development?

KW: I am extremely proud of both of those guys. And proud that I got to play a little bit of a part in helping them achieve that.

Matty Lees, if you go back to 2019, and the injuries that he had and at that stage was a bit of a lightweight front rower, who knew how to play really tough but was raw around the edges.

Matty Lees (Image: Bernard Platt)

Compare that to the way he played in a Grand Final a week ago, for me he was the best middle forward on the field and is so deserving of an England call-up and I am so glad he has got that opportunity.

It is a real credit to his resilience, his toughness and how hard he has wanted to work to improve his game.

Joe Batch is just as remarkable in terms of his story.

When I first arrived here in 2020, in Round 2 we had seven of our key players out when we played Warrington and he got a run.

At that stage of his career he was not quite a Super League player for that kind of game.

The way he has improved is to his credit and he stuck to it that year and continued to develop.

At the end of that year I told him he might be best off moving to the middle forwards because I thought what he lacked in terms of an edge back rower he could make up in his work ethic and his desire to scrap and work really hard in the middle.

That was the track that we started to take him down. But a couple of injuries in 2021, just before the Challenge Cup, and Sione Mata’utia’s suspension before the Challenge Cup Final, opened up that opportunity.

He was outstanding in the Challenge Cup Final and from there he has not just kicked on, but he’s improved immensely in every opportunity he has been given.

I look at the player he is now and how well he does so many things and when he is given opportunity with a bit of space, how well he handles that and how well he handles situations like the semi-final against Salford when he gets a short kick or a late pass off Jonny Lomax.

That is about class but then he backs that up with his work ethic, toughness and his defensive resolve – all those things.

I am really proud of the footballer he has become as well as the person he’s become.

That is the really rewarding part of where I get to sit. I get to see bloke likes that develop into the elite players that are and they deserve every success.

Curtis Sironen (Image: Bernard Platt)

MC: And your role in this? After the final you spoke modestly about your small part in this success. It is probably left to us watching to make our own judgement on what you have added.

I’ll suggest there’s a harder edge to the side, an ability overcome teams who previously sought to win a physical tussle, and an ability to handle those big games after losing all bar one of the semis or finals between 2015-19?

KW: At the end of the day I can preach plenty of things that I value. I value hard work, the toughness of teams and how hard a team wants to compete.

But these players need to want to do that and need to make the decisions to buy into that and want to do it.

That is why they deserve the credit. Anyone can sit in front of them and tell them what they should look like and tell them what they should do. It is when they buy into it they get that success.

That is what this group do and that’s why they deserve the credit that they get.

MC: You have said what memories you will take away of the people of St Helens and the fans, but what will you take from the Saints as an organisation?

KW: There are so many things I will take away. There is a great staff here that were great long before I got here.

The way that they welcomed me to the group and bought into the ideas that I brought along and the way they want to work in the same direction to have success is a big part of our role as a staff and a big part in how we help the players do what they do on the field.

Kristian Woolf at training (Image: Bernard Platt)

It is the same with the players, you go to work and you’re dealing with good people who want to work and want to win and who want to buy into what you give them.

They want to have success ultimately.

I have learned so much of them and would say that they have taught me more than what I have ever taught them – that is both the playing group and the staff.