One of the constants of my lifetime has been failings from New Zealand Rugby League. Coming up as a youngin' I kept seeing news about the dire financial situation at NZRL, or how poorly the organisation was run so to see NZRL moving forward and following a similar trajectory of the on-field shenanigans (the #KiwiNRL takeover continues) has been an absolute pleasure. There are a few examples of this - growth of the National Secondary Schools Tournament or initiatives like Tauherere - and the appointment of David Kidwell only offers up another example of how NZRL are traveling in the right direction.

As an NRL assistant coach, Stephen Kearney would have had an itch to scratch as top-level coaches or athletes need to take of new challenges and continue their development. Kearney was left scorned by his time as head coach of Parramatta and settled in nicely as an assistant with his buddy Wayne Bennett in Brisbane, now the time has come for Kearney to re-enter the NRL head coaching madness hopefully with more experience to draw upon.

The best sporting organisations are prepared and have plans in place to ensure that success is either maintained, or that systems implemented to bring improvement, are continued. We all know how efficiently the All Blacks are run and a simple example of this is the identification and then the pathway offered to coaches like Tana Umaga and Scott Robertson, who will more than likely move into an All Blacks coaching job once Shag has done his time. Aotearoa obviously has an abundance of good rugby coaches, however the way Umaga and Robertson have been swiftly promoted to key coaching gigs shows that plans are already in place to ensure that the success of the All Blacks is maintained from a coaching stand point. We could even take a look at the identification and planning to ensure that All Blacks success was maintained even with the retirements of so many great players - this is about coaching though.

NZRL and those in the Kiwis management would have been well aware of Kearney's desire to go back to an NRL head coaching job, probably because Kearney would have been transparent with his desires. Kearney would have likely told NZRL that if the right head coaching job came up, he'd take it and we can kinda tell that Kearney was transparent throughout this process because Kidwell's pathway ensured that he was ready to take over the Kiwis job.

In any other situation, this would have been a horrible move for the Kiwis. They have enjoyed a brief patch of dominance over Australia's Kangaroos, yet those Aussies have sussed things out and are a far greater challenge under Mal Meninga with a young wave coming of talent coming through.

The #KiwiNRL takeover means that there's more kiwi talent in the NRL than ever and one look at a full-strength Kiwis forward pack (Bromwich x2, Proctor, Harris, Taupau, Taumalolo, Waerea-Hargreaves, Matulino, Blair, Glenn, Eastwood, Taukeiaho etc along with young depth players (Tapine, Fisher-Harris, Asofa-Solomona, Liu, Seumanufagai )) should tell you all you need to know about how good the Kiwis are and can be.

Kearney has played a key role in bringing all that talent together and then he steps aside just before the Four Nations and World Cup; two tournaments that will be highly competitive.

This is able to be done because Kidwell is ready and has served his apprenticeship not only as an assistant coach at Wests Tigers but also in the Kiwis set up. Some sort of NRL experience is handy for obvious reasons, however the mana of Kidwell in the Kiwis system and his knowledge of how this Kiwis team plays and what Kearney was planning ahead of two big tournaments is far more important.

Kidwell will simply pick up from where Kearney left off and there shouldn't be any major change to how the Kiwis are selected or how they play. The familiarity with the players and the relationship with senior players is all there, already established while there's also scope for Kidwell to add his own flavour to this Kiwis team which could involve ushering out a few older stalwarts in place for youngsters who have simply demanded selection with their consistent performances.

Maybe that's what Kidwell's era will be all about as he will enjoy far greater competition for spots in the Kiwis than Kearney and previous coaches had. Kearney's era as Kiwis coach was about him making the most of more talent, thus bringing the Kiwis up to par with Australia and while Kearney enjoyed depth of talent, he was at the start of the wave.

Kidwell has a chance to develop a plethora of young kiwi talent, blending them into a very solid Kiwis culture; it's now Kidwell's job to ride the wave and steer the Kiwis through a very exciting immediate future ... maybe even beyond.