THE big announcement last night was that Castleford Tigers had appointed Danny Ward as their new head coach.
But alongside that groundbreaking story, an assistant coach by the name of Dane Dorahy popped up in a bid to help the Tigers until the end of the 2023 Super League season.
Both Ward and Dorahy will work together with current assistant coaches Craig Lingard and Scott Murrell in a rather unusual quadrumvirate.
But who is Dorahy?
Of course, rugby league fans of an older generation may be familiar with the name given that Dane’s father, John, who was an illustrious fullback and centre in both hemispheres during the 1970s and 1980s.
Dane also played in the UK, plying his trade for Rochdale, Wakefield, Hull KR and Halifax before hanging up his boots at the end of 2003 to go into coaching.
In fact, the former playmaker played just 55 career appearances in the space of five seasons before leaving the sport.
Dorahy returned at the end of 2006 to take up the assistant coaching role at Wests Tigers where he spent two seasons before moving to St George Illawarra Dragons’ reserve grade team, the Illawarra Cutters.
The 45-year-old left that position in September 2013 to set up his own business, the Dorahy Building Group, before taking up a role as
production supervisor for the Mastermyne Group – one of Australian mining’s most trusted contractors.
But, Dorahy’s first love for rugby league has kept coming back and the former fullback and halfback took the head coaching role at South Sydney Rabbitohs’ reserve grade in January 2021.
There he spent 18 months before taking up the assistant coaching role at St George Illawarra Dragons’ under-21s side.
Alongside that position, Dorahy is also the safety and training coordinator at Wollongong Coal, but he will be giving that up for a move to The Jungle in a bid to help the Tigers survive in Super League.
It’s definitely a left-field choice by Castleford, with director of rugby Danny Wilson explaining the decision to move for Dorahy, saying: “We looked overseas to see who the young talented coaches are within the NRL system and Dane’s name came up. We started a process to look at that and his coaching background which was very exciting to us.”
Click here to purchase a digital edition of League Express.
Click here to purchase an online edition of League Express through pocketmags.com.
League Express is widely available from local newsagents across the north of England.
