Webster secured to guide Warriors
The Warriors have confirmed the appointment of Panthers assistant Andrew Webster as their new head coach.
The 40-year-old Australian will take the reins from next season, replacing interim coach Stacey Jones, who stepped up in the wake of Nathan Brown’s mid-season departure.
‘‘I’m excited and honoured about becoming head coach at the Warriors,’’ Webster said.
‘‘I loved my time in Auckland when I was last there and I’m really looking forward to making it home again.
‘‘I feel we have a real opportunity to progress the club and I can’t wait to hit the ground in November.’’
Webster will be familiar to Warriors fans, having started his NRL coaching career in Auckland as an assistant to Andrew McFadden from 2015 to 2017.
He left the Warriors to take up an assistant role with Wests Tigers, where he briefly served as interim head coach when Jason Taylor was sacked three games into the season, losing both matches in charge.
Webster then teamed up with Ivan Cleary at Penrith, helping them win last year’s NRL premiership. He still had a year to run on his Panthers contract, but a clause allowed him to leave to assume a head coaching role.
Prior to the Warriors, Webster had stints as a player-coach at the Connecticut Wildcats in the US and as an assistant and academy coach with English Super League outfit Hull Kingston Rovers.
Warriors chief executive Cameron George said he was ‘‘absolutely thrilled’’ to secure an ‘‘exciting coach’’ of Webster’s calibre.
‘‘Andrew is a guy that’s known to our footy club, spending some time here in 2015 and 2016. Since then, he’s been a part of the Wests Tigers system and more recently the Penrith Panthers system as assistant coach.
‘‘He’s done a comprehensive apprenticeship in the game well before that, both as a player and a coach globally.
‘‘He believes in the footy club, he believes in the playing roster, he believes in what we have been doing behind in the scenes with our development pathways. And he’s thrilled to be joining the club as our new head coach.’’
Jones – who has taken charge of three games since Brown’s shock exit – will remain at the club as an assistant. George said Webster could bring in his own staff if he felt it was necessary.
According to George, the feedback on Webster from players and leading figures in the game such as Penrith coach Cleary had been ‘‘outstanding’’ and helped convince the club he was the right man for the job.
‘‘He’s really developed into an exciting coach,’’ George said. ‘‘He’s been overseeing their attack over the last year at Penrith and we’re very happy to have him join us.’’
Despite his lack of head coaching experience and the Warriors’ on-field struggles this season, George insisted Webster was not coming to New
Zealand to begin a rebuild and was determined to start ‘‘winning from day one’’.
‘‘He knows what he’s doing, he knows we’ve got a great roster for next year. We’re very excited about that, he’s very excited about that,’’ George said.
‘‘He wants to start winning from day one, he’s not coming here to rebuild, so we are looking forward to those results unfolding as we get further into his tenure.’’
Webster’s appointment comes during a tumultuous week for the Warriors that saw star fullback Reece Walsh return to the Broncos on a three-year deal after being granted an early release from his contract for personal reasons.
The club only gave the homesick Walsh permission to speak to Brisbane once it had secured the services of Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad from Canberra.
‘‘He knows what he’s doing, he knows we’ve got a great roster for next year.’’ Cameron George Warriors CEO on incoming coach Andrew Webster