Long road to Rabbitohs
Seibold opens up about his globe- trotting coaching career path to NRL
FROM the South Wales Scorpions to South Sydney Rabbitohs.
This is the extraordinary journey of Rabbitohs coach Anthony Seibold, who has travelled from the furthest rugby league outposts to be at the helm of the game’s most famous club.
A 26- year trek which has landed Seibold at Redfern and at the edge of creating history.
Seibold’s passion for footy has only been matched by his insatiable wanderlust.
His coaching resumé reads like a backpackers’ guide – France, England, Wales, Papua New Guinea, Estonia and Germany.
“I was very much a journeyman as a player,” Seibold, 43, said. “I have been fortunate enough to get a lot of opportunities across the game, as a coach and player.
“That has helped me along the way, there’s no doubt about it.”
Having had stopovers in Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne and Manly, Seibold is attempting to guide the Rabbitohs to their 22nd premiership.
They will get to test their title credentials in a top- ofthe- table clash with ladder leaders the Storm at ANZ Stadium tomorrow night.
Humble and unassuming, Seibold didn’t want to tell this story. He prefers his players to enjoy the focus limelight.
“I am very conscious of making it about the players,” he said.
But after some convincing, Seibold opened up on a career that has taken him from SaintEsteve to Tallinn, Hull to London, Port Moresby to Bridgend, Perpignan to Munich and Toowoomba to Ipswich.
“They all add up as experiences,” Seibold said.
Just eight years ago, Seibold was coaching the South Wales Scorpions – a third- tier club in the UK now known as the West Wales Raiders – after his coaching stint with the Celtic Crusaders ended.
“The Crusaders got sold to a different franchise in north Wales,” Seibold said of Celtic’s move from Bridgend in the south to Wrexham in the north.
“I intended to come back to Australia and didn’t want to move, so I stayed behind and coached South Wales during my last eight months in Wales.
“They were in the second division over in England. It was called Championship One. This was 2010. The Crusaders used them as a feeder team. I coached them more because I didn’t want to move the family.
“I had already told the club I was going home at the end of the season. There were a lot financial issues at the Crusaders but I won’t go into that.
“They left some players and staff in south Wales and others went up to north Wales.”
Rugby league has even taken him to Estonia, where he represented Germany.
“My grandad is German so I was over there coaching the Crusaders at the time. They had a bye weekend and the German side were playing Estonia, so they asked me to come up and give them a hand,” he said.
“So I went and did that up in Tallinn in Estonia and played for Germany. They all add up, different experiences.”