GOOLE VIKINGS director James Clark thinks Richard Whiting will be just the job as an assistant to the ambitious club’s new coach Brett Ferres.
The former Hull FC and England star, 41, will work alongside Ferres, who has succeeded Scott Taylor for the Vikings’ third season in the professional ranks, and existing assistant Kevin Marshall.
While Taylor now has a role on the Hull staff, Whiting, who topped 250 appearances for the Black and Whites in a variety of positions, is eager to further develop his coaching career.
Having worked as player welfare manager at Toronto, where he hung up his boots in 2018, Whiting, who three times represented England in the mid-2000s, has also been on the staff at women’s team York Valkyrie.
Clark knows him well from his time as chief executive of Hull, and explained: “This appointment reflects our approach to building a coaching staff and playing group for the future.
“We’re not afraid to give good people with the right character, experience and ambition opportunities to grow and develop.
“Richard will complement our existing coaching staff extremely well. He brings a broad range of experience from different roles, which is particularly valuable at this level where you must cover a lot of bases, and he’s a student of Rugby League.
“He has a technical mindset and will focus heavily on that side of our preparation, leading much of our analysis, performance review and individual player development.”
Whiting added: “I’ve known James a long time and have a lot of trust in him. I didn’t have to think twice about the opportunity because of that relationship.
“I’ve also known Brett for a long time, and we share a very similar vision of how we want a team to play.”
