Why would anyone
So the Warriors are about to replace a World Cupwinning Kiwi coach with another Australian blowin who has never won a title and has lost almost 60 per cent of his NRL games?
The latest mail from Australia has it that Nathan Brown – who failed at the sinceresurgent Newcastle Knights – is set to replace the sacked Stephen Kearney, although Australian compatriot Todd Payten holds the reins for the rest of the illstarred 2020 season.
If it’s true, then Brown needs his head read. The Warriors job is a poisoned chalice.
Any Warriors aspirants should note this is the fourth time in 26 years that the club has sacked its coach mid-season. A fifth – Daniel Anderson – walked the plank before the axe fell.
Kearney joins John Monie (1997), Brian McClennan (2012) and Matt Elliott (2014) on the mid-year scrapheap.
Yes, the Warriors’ 40-12 defeat to South Sydney last Friday was disgraceful – and there’s no escaping Kearney’s 35 per cent wins ratio as a NRL head coach – but it was still a big call to punt the coach of a team which three weeks ago had a NRL record near-perfect completion rate.
When Autex Industries became the Warriors’ sole owners late last year, the club boasted of the Auckland company’s long support for New Zealand rugby league.
Yet, not only have this Warriors board sacked a coach, who’s had to deal with the Covid19 pandemic-caused relocation challenges in the most difficult season in the club’s history, they have overlooked two New Zealand assistant-coaches – club legend Stacey Jones and former Kiwi Tony Iro – as interim coach and plumped for Payten, who only joined the club this season.
This isn’t only a kick in the guts for Kearney, it’s a vote of no confidence in two of the club’s most loyal stalwarts (presuming either, or both, were keen on the hotseat).
It shouldn’t surprise that the Warriors are looking offshore. It’s been clear for years that there is no pathway for New Zealand rugby league coaches.
Beyond Jones and Iro, there are only two New Zealanders coaching assistants at NRL clubs, former Kiwis coach David Kidwell at the Parramatta Eels and World Cup winning captain and 2019 Warriors reserve grade coach Nathan Cayless at the twotime champion Roosters.
Why would either want to quit title-contending clubs for the hottest of hot seats at the Warriors?
Payten (before he likely hands over to Brown) will be the club’s sixth Australian coach.
Two – Daniel Anderson (2002) and Ivan Cleary (2011) led the Warriors to grand finals – a feat that eluded the club’s Kiwi coaches, Frank Endacott, Mark Graham, Tony Kemp, Bluey
McClennan and Kearney.
Anderson – who has the best wins percentage (55 per cent) of any Warriors coach – and Cleary (49 per cent) set good structures in place, but both were eventually forced out, Anderson fell on his sword after a poor start to the 2004 season while Cleary was blindsided by the club’s refusal to match the Penrith Panthers’ long-term deal offer.
The Warriors have effectively been in free-fall since Cleary’s departure.
McClennan’s appointment in 2012 ended in tears, so Elliott was anointed as the club’s great Australian saviour in 2013. The former Canberra and Penrith