Following the biggest win of his budding career, Cronulla's rookie coach John Morris has admitted his focus this NRL season has been to change as little as possible.
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Morris, 38, was named the Sharks coach on a three-year deal after Shane Flanagan was deregistered, and less than two months before the opening round.
The youngest coach in the NRL has led the Sharks to seventh on the ladder after eight rounds, with a 4-4 record, including a win against the high-flying Melbourne Storm on Friday.
Morris, who played 300 NRL games, is just one year older than Cronulla skipper Paul Gallen and credits his relationship with the players for his early success.
"The transition has been quite smooth ... as a past player at the club but also the last couple of years of transitioning through the Holden Cup system," Morris told NRL 360.
"I was an assistant to Shane Flanagan last year ... so I know what success looks like for our team.
"I didn't really want to change too much to be honest, we were only a game away from a grand final last year.
"My focus this year is not to change too much, we've been a top four club and only won a comp a couple of years ago, in fact it's probably been the opposite, to try and simplify our game.
"Just being real clear so the players know their role and have that narrow focus. I think they've enjoyed that approach and that will build over time with what I want to do with this playing group."
The Sharks were fined $1.25 million and had $350,000 cut off their cap allowance for the next two seasons as part of the punishment following Flanagan's exit.
Morris said he was doing his best in a tough situation.
"Given our fine, we've got to manage. This year and next year has been quite challenging, it's been full-on actually," Morris said.
"Before round one we were racing the clock to get our cap into shape so we could be under the cap to play for points.
"We've got different challenges at the moment. We're restricted with who we can bring in and how we retain our talent."
Australian Associated Press
