A British Head Coach in the NRL

[Maximus Decimus]

As I've mentioned previously, at times I dip in and out of RL rather than following really closely and my memory is shocking, so when I heard that Brian McDermott is assistant coach at the Gold Coast I was unaware.

It struck me that in many NRL games over the last few years I've seen a British assistant coach. I can't name them all but I spotted Paul Wellens recently and have definitely seen others in the past.

The obvious thing to notice is that for all these, none of them are head coaches. I asked AI for the last British coach of an Aussie side and after claiming Brian Smith and Shaun McRae, which I corrected them on, they had Malcolm Reillly. I certainly can't think of another obvious choice since.

What are the reasons then? Is it more a case of they don't rate us, or is it that our coaches genuinely aren't good enough? Brian McDermott is exactly the calibre of British coach who could have got a shot, especially if he's been in Aus for some time.

[sam4731]

The cynical part of me thinks there might be a bit of snobbery going on. They don't want to debase themselves by having the peasants getting too much power.

I think they can justify signing British players by convincing themselves that they taking the cream off the top of a secondary competition but they shouldn't need to resort to British coaches when they have so many natives that are available.

[JonM]

16 hours ago, Maximus Decimus said:

It struck me that in many NRL games over the last few years I've seen a British assistant coach. I can't name them all but I spotted Paul Wellens recently and have definitely seen others in the past.

Loads - Steve McNamara was at Roosters, NZ Warriors, Sam Burgess at Souths, Lee Briers at Brisbane, Richard Agar also NZ Warriors. There's plenty more.

Can't think of any head coaches apart from Mal Reilly. Stevo at Penrith back in the 1970s of course.

[Jonty58]

16 hours ago, sam4731 said:

The cynical part of me thinks there might be a bit of snobbery going on. They don't want to debase themselves by having the peasants getting too much power.

I think they can justify signing British players by convincing themselves that they taking the cream off the top of a secondary competition but they shouldn't need to resort to British coaches when they have so many natives that are available.

Do you think that is the case?

Which English Super League Coach do you think would make a good head NRL Coach better than what is available there locally?

[hunsletgreenandgold]

7 minutes ago, Jonty58 said:

Do you think that is the case?

Which English Super League Coach do you think would make a good head NRL Coach better than what is available there locally?

Matt Peet, Paul Rowley and even Sam Burgess would've done a better job with Newcastle Knights than Adam O'Brien did, as one example.

[Grimmy]

If you assume that any NRL coach needs NRL experience as the highest level of the game (not unreasonable IMO) then the options are next to none, particularly as far fewer British players used to play in the NRL than there are now, and most of them will have moved back to the UK and have families. Sports head coaching is a very precarious position as well. You would be brave to uproot your family to take that risk when you could be gone within a few months of poor results. What are their salaries like compared with top players?

[sam4731]

3 hours ago, Jonty58 said:

Do you think that is the case?

Which English Super League Coach do you think would make a good head NRL Coach better than what is available there locally?

I'm not necessarily saying there is but there is definitely a lot of snobbery going on down there. The amount of mediocre SL Aussies that seem to get an NRL contract over better English players confuses me. Don't get me wrong, the NRL does poach a lot of good English players but they also take a load of rubbish too.

[Jonty58]

10 hours ago, hunsletgreenandgold said:

Matt Peet, Paul Rowley and even Sam Burgess would've done a better job with Newcastle Knights than Adam O'Brien did, as one example.

In any competition you have winners and losers, often the Coaches with the best cattle win more than teams with one player taking a massive part of the salary cap.

I don’t rate Burgess as a Coach at all.

Dont forget the current England coach was an assistant at Newcastle for a long period of this time.

edit

Team	Year	Regular Season					Finals
		Won	Lost	Ties	Win %	Finish	Won	Lost	Win %	Result
	2020	11	8	1	.575	7th of 16	0	1	.000	Lost to South Sydney Rabbitohs in Elimination Final
	2021	12	12	0	.500	7th of 16	0	1	.000	Lost to Parramatta Eels in Elimination Final
	2022	6	18	0	.250	14th of 16	—	—	—	Missed Finals
	2023	14	9	1	.604	5th of 17	1	1	.500	Lost to New Zealand Warriors in Semi Final
	2024	12	12	0	.500	8th of 17	0	1	.000	Lost to North Queensland Cowboys in Elimination Final
	2025	6	18	0	.273	17th of 17	-	-	-	Missed Finals
Total		62	80	2	.438		1	4	.200

Edited April 24 by Jonty58

[yipyee]

11 hours ago, Grimmy said:

If you assume that any NRL coach needs NRL experience as the highest level of the game (not unreasonable IMO) then the options are next to none, particularly as far fewer British players used to play in the NRL than there are now, and most of them will have moved back to the UK and have families. Sports head coaching is a very precarious position as well. You would be brave to uproot your family to take that risk when you could be gone within a few months of poor results. What are their salaries like compared with top players?

Matt Peet hasnt played rugby, like Jose Mourinho didnt play soccer, its a bit of a myth that you need to have played to coach.

[Anita Bath]

On 24/04/2026 at 03:00, Maximus Decimus said:

As I've mentioned previously, at times I dip in and out of RL rather than following really closely and my memory is shocking, so when I heard that Brian McDermott is assistant coach at the Gold Coast I was unaware.

It struck me that in many NRL games over the last few years I've seen a British assistant coach. I can't name them all but I spotted Paul Wellens recently and have definitely seen others in the past.

The obvious thing to notice is that for all these, none of them are head coaches. I asked AI for the last British coach of an Aussie side and after claiming Brian Smith and Shaun McRae, which I corrected them on, they had Malcolm Reillly. I certainly can't think of another obvious choice since.

What are the reasons then? Is it more a case of they don't rate us, or is it that our coaches genuinely aren't good enough? Brian McDermott is exactly the calibre of British coach who could have got a shot, especially if he's been in Aus for some time.

Mal Reilly a hard act to follow….took the knights to their first premiership. It’s Saint Malcolm in Newcastle.

[Grimmy]

1 hour ago, yipyee said:

Matt Peet hasnt played rugby, like Jose Mourinho didnt play soccer, its a bit of a myth that you need to have played to coach.

Yes he has, just not professionally. Peet has done brilliantly and fair play to Wigan for spotting him at amateur level and bringing him through, but he's an outlier and he was in the Wigan system for 14 years before being appointed head coach. How many British coaches are going to stay in Australia for 14 years working their way up from scholarship level soaking up the NRL environment and waiting for their opportunity? 

Edited April 24 by Grimmy