Warriors managing director Jim Doyle says the difference between coach Stephen Kearney now compared to when he was previously in charge of an NRL club at Parramatta is that he is “ready”.
“Stephen has come from being first and foremost with Craig Bellamy at Melbourne, then taking on a head coach’s job at Parramatta, when he himself, with the experience he has had since then, realised it was a bit too early for him,” Doyle says.
“Similar to what we had with ‘Cappy’ (Andrew McFadden) here, a bit too early, and then Stephen learning more with Wayne Bennett (at Brisbane), he’s really ready.”
Kearney coached the Eels in the 2011 season and for most of 2012, before he was sacked. The team won just 10 of 42 games under him.
He coached the New Zealand national team as well, from 2008 until the recent Four Nations tournament, before starting at the Warriors in place of McFadden, who is now one of his assistants.
Doyle says it is about giving the head coach the proper support as the Warriors try to find their way back to finals football in 2017.
“Rather than thinking it’s all about the head coach, we’ve thought more about the coaching staff and creating a really strong coaching staff and with Cappy there we’ve got continuity and we’ve brought in Steve McNamara, an international coach who has been with the Roosters.
“These things are really important and you can see in the pre-season, with the coaching group working together, things are stepping up.”
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And in other news... The Sky is blue and grass is green
Lids, lids, lids...
Doyle is dreaming, this isn't going to go well for the Warriors or SK, I've wiped them from my top 8 because of the SK factor.
No shit Sherlock
Time will tell. SK had a crap team at Parra (on par with the current Newcastle team), but has a strong team on paper at the Warriors. SK has learnt from the two best coaches of the modern game and you would think that he has learnt a lot from them. The big issue SK has is getting the Warriors players super fit and able to play for 80 minutes and keeping his players motivated, as history shows that is very hard from past Warrior coaches. SK will have a very rare luxury in 2017 with having his 4 spine players being 'current' Test players and in theory should have a very strong team. I think for SK to succeed he will need to have excellent man management skills over and above his coaching as the Warrior issues are more psychological as opposed to physical. I wish him good luck as he is a top bloke and a true gentleman.
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