Ella's time at the Rams in the Western Plains competition was sandwiched between long periods at Randwick and Tests for the Wallabies.

"I had more fun playing in that competition than any other," Ella said. "I had knee problems and wasn't playing. At the time, I was working with Department of Aboriginal Affairs and they said if I'm not playing, we'd like you to go bush."

A chance to reconnect with grassroots was the catalyst for Ella to join the coaching staff at Lake Macquarie.

The youngest of the famous Ella brothers, Gary and his wife moved to Morisset Park late last year.

"I did a junior coaching clip with Campo (David Campese) at Lake Macquarie and a lot of the coaches and some of the parents were basically my neighbours. I thought if i am going to get involved, this is the club." Ella said.

"If I went to a club that was well established and doing well, it's almost just watching. Lake Macquarie are in need of a little bit of help. I won't be at every training session. When I can, I will help first grade coach Seru (Rainima) run the sessions and give them advice on game day.

"They have a lot of young players with talent. They need a bit of guidance. It is getting the guys to gel and getting a style of play that everyone is comfortable playing."

Ella, 61, has a long and successful coaching resume. He steered Randwick to a grand final and has held roles with the NSW Waratahs, Leinster and the Australian under-19s.

Asked if he would encourage a running style similar to the Galloping Greens, Ella said: "You definitely have to get the basics right before you play that style of rugby. We touched on it a little bit last week with some of the skills aspect. It is going to take a little while. You don't make good teams overnight."

A severely depleted Roos outfit were torched 113-0 by Wanderers last Saturday.

"It was a perfect storm," Ella said. "A lot of the guys who were training on Tuesday weren't available to play on Saturday. "I was very impressed with Wanderers, they were fairly ruthless."

The rout to Wanderers, followed a 48-0 loss to Maitland.

"It is all fairly new but I have been impressed with the standard," Ella said. "Some of the guys I have seen over the past two weekends could be playing first grade in Sydney without any issues. And possibly higher.

"It is always the same. You go to a country areas and there are fantastic rugby players running around but they are committed to work and family."

While his focus is Lake Macquare, Ella has been impressed with the progress of the Hunter Wildfires - on and off the park.

"The Wildfires are the perfect stepping stone," he said. "If guys are playing in the local competition and want to step up into the Wildfires, that is a great introduction to the next level of rugby."

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