Kearney’s middling mediocrity
The abrupt end of Stephen Kearney’s reign makes it an even
10 New Zealand Warriors head coaches across the National Rugby League club’s 25-year history.
His sudden axing after six matches in season 2020 begs the question: Was his record that poor? And how does it stack up alongside the other nine coaches?
In his fourth year at the helm, Kearney finishes with a 42 per cent win rate (31 from 74 matches). Not great by any measure, and purely on results the Warriors hierarchy has grounds for looking elsewhere.
Still, Kearney’s record is nowhere near the worst at the Warriors, perennial underperformers across the Tasman with two grand final appearances and still no premiership despite a wealth of talent in New Zealand.
In fact, Kearney’s win rate is the best of the five New Zealanders who coached the Warriors, with none of the other four topping 40 per cent. In descending order of success, they were: Frank Endacott (13 wins, 39.4 per cent), Brian McClennan (eight wins, 36.4 per cent), Mark Graham (18 wins,
36 per cent) and Tony Kemp (13 wins, 35.1 per cent).
Remarkably, only two of the 10 Warriors head coaches ended with
50 per cent or better: the club’s inaugural coach John Monie and Daniel Anderson.
Monie, who began with a starstudded roster in 1995, won 26 of his 52 matches in charge over three seasons to end on an even 50 per cent.
Anderson remains the most successful Warriors coach at a 55.4 per cent win rate including the
2002 season when they stormed into the grand final before losing to the Roosters. He later coached the Eels, too, and went at just 48 per cent across 2009 and 2010.
Ivan Cleary, who oversaw the club’s other grand final appearance in 2011 (a loss to Manly), ended with 49.6 per cent, and remained sought after with roles at the Tigers and Panthers.
The two other Australian coaches of recent times – Matthew Elliott and Andrew McFadden – both ended with similar records.
Elliott’s 13 wins from 29 gave him 44.8 per cent which saw him sacked mid-season for McFadden. The bloke they called Cappy was then usurped by Kearney after winning 22 of his 50 matches in charge (44 per cent).
Todd Payten takes over now as interim head coach as the Warriors search for Kearney’s fulltime successor to – in their words – move the club forward.
One likely contender – Nathan Brown – has hardly been a roaring success either. With his former team the Dragons he went at 53 per cent (80 wins from 151), then at the Knights it was just 26 per cent (24 wins from 94) including successive wooden spoons before he and the club parted ways in August last year.