Game Unites to Help Anderson Adjust to 'New Normal'

NSW coach Brad Fittler phoned the Sydney Roosters office and was pleasantly surprised when Daniel Anderson answered the phone.

“I know he is back working there and doing some stuff so that is awesome,” said Fittler, whose son Zach plays SG Ball for the Roosters.

“He is incredibly passionate about footy, whether it is first grade or under 16s, so it is refreshing because he is so into it.”

Anderson, who suffered a spinal injury in a body surfing accident last December that has left him a quadriplegic, returned to work in his role as head of recruitment for the Roosters earlier this month as he adapts to his “new normal”.

For the former Warriors, Eels, St Helens and Kiwis coach that means widening doorways to fit a wheelchair, having to be strapped into a taxi to travel anywhere and help to do basic tasks, such as cleaning his teeth.

The 56-year-old Anderson told a function to raise funds for the support he is going to require at Royal Randwick racecourse last Friday that his ambition was to regain as much independence as possible within the next two years.

Among those in attendance at the Unite for Daniel lunch were players, coaches and officials from the NRL’s 17 clubs, as well as St Helens, as the game rallies around a life life-long servant of rugby league.  

Many told of the influence Anderson had on their careers, including Roosters coach Trent Robinson, former Eels and Kiwis captain Nathan Cayless and members of the Warriors 2002 grand final team.

“Daniel Anderson is someone who has had a massive impact on a number of clubs and the players he has coached and the coaches he has worked with,” Cayless said.

“He started with the development squad in U14s at Parramatta and coached a number of us boys who came through during Brian Smith’s time there as kids. He left a massive mark on my career, and a lot of boys from that era as well.

“I was lucky enough to go and see him a couple of weeks ago and he is actually really positive. The strength that he has shown is quite inspirational.”

Anderson’s NRL coaching career began at the Warriors in 2000 after an ownership change and he took the Auckland-based club from the threat of extinction to the 2002 grand final – a feat he repeated at the Eels in 2009.

Players from those teams remain close to him and a group of former Warriors, including Stacey Jones, Monty Betham, Awen Guttenbeil and Kevin Campion, travelled to Sydney for the fundraising event, along with the Mad Butcher, Peter Leitch.

“I hadn’t seen him for a while and we had the Old Boys’ 20-year reunion last year so we all got together and a really good time, we caught up and had some laughs and everyone was there from that 2002 side so that was fantastic,” Campion said.

“He would be embarrassed about all the hoo-haa but it is well deserved. I had some really good times under him, and we had a special team.”

Jones added: “We understand how much he has given back to the game in New Zealand, especially for the Warriors. The Daniel Anderson era is certainly one of the parts of the club’s history that we still look back at very fondly”.

Robinson’s relationship with Anderson goes back to his time as a student at St Gregory’s College, and he was the three-times premiership winning Roosters mentor's first coach.

He estimated that Anderson would have had an influence on thousands of young players during his stints at the Eels, Warriors, Roosters and St Helens, whose CEO Mike Rush headed a delegation from the club in attendance.

“The amount of people that talk to me from school about Ando, from Parramatta, from New Zealand, from the Roosters, from Fiji, from England and St Helens, it is just an incredible amount of people that he has impacted over his life,” Robinson said.

“It was the way he went about coaching and the way that he went about teaching our game and mentoring people that was pretty special.

“He had such a huge impact on me, I thought all coaches were the same when I had Ando and that wasn’t to be the case.

"He was a special coach, he was brutal, honest and caring. Those early days for me were very important so there is a lot of gratitude from me.”

The NRL has dedicated Round 25 to raising funds for Anderson and the Warriors will re-name their stadium, Go Media Stadium, to Daniel Anderson Stadium for the August 18 clash with Manly.