SUPPORTERS of Sheffield Eagles, Hull FC, Wakefield Trinity, Batley Bulldogs and Bradford Bulls in particular have reason to remember the noted coaching attributes of John Kear.
For there were eye-catching times at all five clubs for the hugely-respected and popular Rugby League figure and television pundit, former Castleford Tigers player and France, England and Wales coach, who has died aged 71.
Kear led the original Sheffield to a famous 17-8 against-the-odds Wembley win over Wigan Warriors, where he later worked as an assistant coach, in the 1998 Challenge Cup final.
It’s considered one of the greatest shocks in the long and eventful history of the competition which he won again with Hull FC in 2005.
This time it was at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, where Leeds Rhinos were beaten 25-24 by Danny Brough’s conversion of Paul Cooke’s late try, sealing the Black and Whites’ first Challenge Cup final triumph in 23 years.
After Kear left Hull during the 2006 campaign, then-struggling Wakefield turned to him as they desperately sought Super League survival.
It looked an impossible task, but he somehow instilled confidence and belief and conjured four wins from the last six games to keep Trinity in the top flight.
The last of those matches was a tense relegation decider against Castleford, his hometown club for whom he made 133 appearances as an outside back from 1978 and where he cut his coaching teeth as conditioner and assistant (he was alongside Mal Reilly when Hull KR were defeated 15-14 in the 1986 Challenge Cup final at Wembley).
While a 29-17 home victory, with current London Broncos boss Jason Demetriou among Wakefield’s try-scorers, sent Castleford to the second tier, Kear continued his good work with Trinity, and in 2009 led them to a final position of fifth, their joint-highest of the summer era.
In 2013, the second of five seasons at the Batley helm, he took the Bulldogs to the second-tier grand final against Sheffield, who won 19-12 at Leigh Sports Village.
That meant he pitted his wits against Mark Aston, who had been Eagles scrum-half in the 1998 Wembley win and helped set up the current Sheffield club in the wake of the controversial late 1999 merger of the original with Huddersfield, Kear taking the reins of the Super League side in 2000, when he also led England to the semi-finals of the World Cup.
After leaving Batley after the 2016 season, he returned to Wakefield as head of rugby, and with Chris Chester as team chief, Trinity again finished fifth in Super League in 2017, when he led Wales into the World Cup.
Kear still loved hands-on club coaching, and after former world champions Bradford ended up bottom of that year’s Championship and so dropped to League One, he headed to Odsal, tasked with leading the Bulls out of the third tier at the first attempt.
It wasn’t plain sailing, but calling on the experience gained over a career which also included stints at now-defunct Bramley (1992) and Paris Saint-Germain (1995-96), he succeeded via the play-offs, with Bradford, having finished runners-up to automatically-prompted York Knights, beating Workington Town 27-8 in their home final after a semi-final victory over Oldham.
Kear masterminded a memorable 24-22 Challenge Cup sixth-round (last 16) victory over Leeds at Odsal in 2019 and remained with the Bulls until April 2022.
That year he coached Wales in another World Cup (he bossed the Dragons for eleven years from July 2014 all told, having been with France in 1997 as well as England in 1999 and 2000).
Kear was in charge at Widnes Vikings from July 2022 to June 2023 before last year enjoying a second spell at Batley.
He steadied the ship at the Championship side following the June departure of Mark Moxon, his previous assistant there, and played a key role in identifying his successor James Ford.
Having appeared in the 1983 Yorkshire Cup final, in which Castleford lost 13-2 to Hull at Elland Road, Leeds, Kear also worked in the player performance department of the Rugby Football League in the 1990s.
He was an established Rugby League pundit for the BBC, and having worked at Saturday’s Challenge Cup final between Wigan and Hull KR, died during his return north from Wembley the following day.
Kear was also involved in Wakefield’s matchday hospitality team, and made a number of appearances on totalrl.com’s weekly League Express Podcast.