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Keeping his killer instincts:David Warner and trainer Wayne Geber at Maroubra.Credit:Steven Siewert

Warner flew to Adelaide,the site of this week’s second Test against England,at the weekend,aiming to repeat his exploits in Brisbane,where his 124 in Australia’s second innings helped set up a 381-run win for Michael Clarke’s team.

It was his first Test century in a year,a period in which he averaged only a fraction more than 30,was shifted around the batting order,stood down for disciplinary reasons in England and generally did not live up to the lofty expectations that were set with three hundreds in his first 11 matches.

Headache:David Warner discusses his batting woes with Mickey Arthur during Australia's Ashes tour to England this year.Credit:Getty Images

Woodhill,a highly respected batting expert who was assistant coach with New Zealand and maintains positions at Melbourne Stars and Delhi Daredevils,believes the trigger for Warner’s flatlining was a directive in the Mickey Arthur era for him to shelve his aggression and focus on defence.

‘‘They were so concerned about turning him into a really classy Test player that they forgot about how he scored his runs,’’ Woodhill said.

‘‘They were trying to get him to play more correctly I felt,to play with a straight bat. As soon as we take instinct away from an athlete and they start thinking about defence,or about technique,to me they’re not going to have a long career.

‘‘This is not a criticism of Mickey. I’ll be the first to say I love Mickey and his philosophies on the game ... It’s just a case of I felt I knew David’s game better than the international coaches but they weren’t prepared to pick up the phone to me.’’

Woodhill was in a temporary role with Victoria when he saw Warner in the midst of a rut in the early stages of the Ryobi Cup.

He had been sent home from Australia’s one-dayers in England because of poor form,omitted from the one-day team to India that followed and was battling for early season runs for NSW.

The former Sydney grade player had kept his distance from advising Warner while with the Black Caps,and while working as batting coach for Pakistan at the Champions Trophy,but what he saw at Bankstown Oval in October alarmed him. He sought a meeting with his former charge,who he began coaching in 2008,before Warner’s first-class or international debut.

‘‘We spoke about his batting ... I thought that he wasn’t ‘the Bull’ any more,’’ said Woodhill,who also coaches emerging NSW batsman Nic Maddinson. ‘‘I didn’t think he was intimidating bowlers the way I remembered.

They were so concerned about turning him into a really classy Test player that they forgot about how he scored his runs.

‘‘I was on the other side with New Zealand when he got his first Test hundred and our bowlers then struggled with him because they didn’t know what a natural line was to bowl to him.

‘‘You’d bowl top of off,he’d pull you for four. Anything wider and he’d cut you. If you bowled full,he drove you and they were too scared to bounce him because he wouldn’t just hit you for four,he’d hit you for six.’’

Woodhill and Warner restarted their association soon after,the coach using private sessions to tinker with his positioning at the bowler’s release point,and the results were immediate.

North Sydney Oval,and the opposition bowlers unlucky enough to be sharing it,were the victims as three tons followed in four games for the Blues,including a record-breaking 197 against Woodhill’s Victoria.

There was another century two weeks later for NSW in the Sheffield Shield against the Bushrangers,then the one against England at the Gabba. Five times,all up,he has been to three figures in just over a month. Woodhill does not claim to have all the answers but something is clearly working.

‘‘If they need quick runs or if he needs to bat a certain way,Darren[Lehmann] and Michael are the ones that tell him and David needs to react to that,’’ he said. ‘‘That’s not my job. What I prepare David to be able to do is to react to the situation that’s required in the game without changing his inherent nature.

‘‘All I’ve asked David to do is revisit who he is and how he got there so he can repeat that.’’

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