A decade after his last head coach role, Paul Cooke has been thrust unexpectedly into the Featherstone hot seat.
NOT for the first time, it’s all change on Post Office Road.
In Rugby League World’s recent preview of the new Championship season, we remarked upon the fact that Featherstone were starting a year with same coach as the last for the first time in four years.
Lo and behold, James Ford only took charge of two league games – the second a shock defeat at London – and was gone before the end of February.
Our club preview also pointed to the return of Paul Cooke as something to watch out for. He’ll now have an even bigger part to play, having stepped up from an assistant coach to the top job.
Things tend to move fast at Rovers and that’s again been the case of late, with Cooke unexpectedly thrust into his first head-coaching role in a decade.
“I didn’t see it coming,” he says of Ford’s sudden exit and his own promotion. “It’s been a tough one for everybody, because when you don’t expect it it’s really difficult to come to terms with for everyone.
“For whatever reasons, James Ford hasn’t got his job anymore. Those reasons I don’t understand and don’t need to understand. What’s important for me is that the players come to terms with it, move on and we try to get the best out of the group that we’ve got, which is an extremely talented group.”
Three times Featherstone have been on the cusp of promotion to Super League in recent years.
In 2021, they lost the Championship Grand Final to Toulouse. In 2022, they were overhauled by Leigh in a financial arms race. In 2023, they were utterly dominant yet slipped up against London in the play-offs.
With promotion and relegation then removed and replaced by club grading, Rovers had to refresh. Ford, who replaced Sean Long late in that 2023 season – after a short spell as director of rugby – despite the club leading by eight points at the time, picked up the pieces.
A team centred on the creative talents of Caleb Aekins and Ben Reynolds, the pack power of Brad Day and Danny Addy plus the tries of Connor Wynne scrambled into the play-offs, where they fell at the first hurdle.
All those players were retained for 2025 while Derrell Olpherts, Carlos Tuimavave and King Vuniyayawa were among 14 new signings. Faith in Ford was the message, yet a single defeat in the capital saw the coach dispensed with and Cooke, who only joined in pre-season to work on their attack, handed the full reins to the talented team.
“If there’s one thing we need to thank James Ford for, it’s that. He’s brought in the group we’ve got so that’s testament to him,” says Cooke.
“He’s left it in a better place than he found it, which is all you can ask when you join a club.
“We’ve now got to do the best with what he’s left behind and we’re working hard towards that.”
That’s Featherstone’s journey, but what of Cooke?
A halfback of great distinction for both the clubs in his hometown Hull – scoring the winning try in the Black and Whites’ 2005 Challenge Cup triumph before a famously controversial move east – he appeared to have a bright new career ahead of him when he won the Championship Coach of the Year award in 2014.
Cooke was 33 then, the player-coach at Doncaster whom he led to an impressive fourth-place finish. He retired early the following season – a move later reversed – but was let go after 13 straight defeats.
“Being player-coach there was really difficult,” he reflects. “When I gave up the playing just to become coach, they were missing an experienced player on the field.
“This is a bit different (at Featherstone). I don’t envisage giving myself any opportunities to play!”
Cooke had already done some coaching at the Doncaster Knights rugby union club, and that’s where he returned both after ending his playing career (again) at Featherstone, and after a year-and-a-half spell at Leigh in which he helped Neil Jukes lead the side to Super League promotion.
As Leigh cut costs following relegation in 2017, Cooke was let go, and remarkably it was 2024 before he returned to the frontline as an assistant coach at York.
In the meantime he established himself as a popular pundit, particularly on talkSPORT’s Super League radio commentaries – a role he still intends to continue.
“I thought the media might be enough for me, and it was in some ways,” Cooke explains.
“But once you get your teeth back into coaching and you’re making a positive difference to players in a team, it’s very easy just to carry on that journey and see where it takes you.
“I didn’t expect to become a head coach this quickly. I never had any intention of being a head coach this year. But when you are invested in a team, a club and the players, once you’re called upon it’s a no-brainer and you’ve got to honour that commitment to the players.”
Like any top-level player, Cooke has been influenced by a range of notable coaches, but his experiences across all levels of the game – and both codes – stand out.
“I’ve picked up something from everybody, from being eight years old. There are things I still remember from my amateur coaches, never mind the top professional coaches,” he says.
“You think about working under Clive Griffiths (at Doncaster Knights), John Kear, Richard Agar, Andy Last. Being around Lee Radford, who won two Challenge Cups, Justin Morgan at Hull KR, Peter Sharp, I’ve worked with lots of very good coaches.
“And that’s in both codes. I’ve got knowledge of some of the plays in rugby union that I may be able to tap into as well. There’s probably 40 years of experience built up in one way or another.”
Last year he spent a day in Wigan with Matt Peet and his coaching team, and like Peet he considers creating a strong culture key to success.
“I want a trustworthy team. I want what goes on in the club to stay in the club,” adds Cooke.
“Trust is a big thing for me. You can’t say you’re going to do something and not do it. Players have got to commit to that, and the staff have got to commit to the players.
“It’s going to be one big family, and if you go outside of that you’ve ostracised yourself from that family and you don’t become part of it again.
“Respect is a really big one for me. Everyone should respect everyone else, respect each other and the club and the supporters and the community, as well as respecting the opposition.
“We want to work really hard and we want to see where we can get to, but we’ll do it in a respectful manner.”
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 507 (April 2025)