Armani Sharrock has made the step up from on-field captain to off-field coach at Warrington Wolves and aims to put her playing experience to good use in her new role.
OVER the years rugby league has seen many of its stars make the transition from playing to becoming a head coach.
It’s a move that usually doesn’t happen overnight; instead a few years tend to pass where they find their coaching feet with assistant roles or jobs in the amateur game before moving back to the pro ranks to continue the new phase of their careers.
Certainly few will have made the change as quickly as Armani Sharrock, Warrington Wolves’ new head coach, who as recently as last season was leading the side on the field as captain.
Having been part of the Wigan Warriors side that won the inaugural Super League crown in 2018, Sharrock soon joined the Wolves, where she played an integral part in their promotion from Super League 2 in 2022.
After being handed the captaincy by former coach Lee Westwood last year, the 28-year-old announced her retirement through injury when the season came to a close, and was almost immediately handed the task of replacing Westwood, who was stepping down after five years with the club.
While suddenly going from ‘one of the girls’ in the changing room to being their coach might come with some difficulties, Sharrock is also aware of one positive that could come from her elevation to the top job.
“The transition from playing to coaching has been really good,” Sharrock told Rugby League World.
“I did think I’d struggle with it a bit more than I have, to be honest, but the girls have been receptive to what I’ve been trying to do which has helped a lot.
“I have coached boys from the ages of six to 16 before and done a bit of stuff with Warrington Academy as well as coaching at women’s open age level in the community game. So I have done this role for a long time, which meant I wasn’t worried about the change from a coaching point of view. I’ve always believed in my ability to lead the girls, but it was just about the transition of them seeing me in a different light. I think we’ve achieved that quite well.
“When I took over, I made a point of drawing that line in the sand and stepped away from things like the girls’ group chats and such like just to make that clear separation between me the coach and me the player.
“That was a little strange, but as I say they have all been great.
“But I think the best thing I have had in my back pocket going into the job is knowing, from being involved as captain last year, where we didn’t get things right on the field or the little extra one per cent things that we wanted off the field. Things that the girls were longing for to support their game that don’t actually take that much time, effort or money.
“I’ve got that insight so I have been able to give them some of that in pre-season, and I think the girls feel more valued for that this pre-season.
“Lee was great for the girls, he was here from the beginning and he really drove for this club to exist.
“He was a big part of this club and the main thing I have taken from him is his no-nonsense approach to the game. Defensively he wanted everyone to be tough and that is something we have carried through. The want and desire to work for each other that he put into the girls is still there.
“He did massive things for the club and paved the way for us to be here now and I will always be grateful for the way he supported me as a captain. He drove me to be better and all of that has put me in a better position to lead the girls this year.”
It’s not just off the field where the Wolves have seen changes this year. There have been a few significant ones on it too, with former first-team regulars Kacy Haley and Michelle Davis heading to Huddersfield and Salford respectively, while Grace Ramsden has also left to join the Giants.
Louise Fellingham, who captained Salford last season, has joined, but Sharrock has a largely young squad at her disposal.
Having previously worked in player development, she knows that this could prove to be the start of a whole new era for the Wolves, whose Challenge Cup campaign came to an end with a 70-10 defeat to Leeds Rhinos in the quarter-finals – a stage that has been their undoing in the past few seasons.
“We’ve maybe had to recruit a bit differently to some of the bigger clubs, who can attract the bigger names, but we’ve gone into this year and brought in some really exciting youngsters and some unknowns,” added former prop Sharrock, who is also a qualified referee.
“It is going to be exciting to see if some of those girls can start to make a name for themselves in the game and show people that they are here to compete with the best.
“Trying to guess the next wave of talent that is coming through has driven our recruitment this year, and I do think some of these younger girls will be knocking around the Knights set-up by the end of the year and starting to get a name for themselves.
“I was fortunate enough to get the chance to do some commentary down at Wembley last year so I got to see the occasion that the girls at Leeds and St Helens got to be a part of that day.
“It was great for the game and I don’t think it really mattered who won the game, it was women’s rugby league at Wembley and we put that on a pedestal.
“We’re not putting any ceiling on what we can achieve this year, if we’d made Wembley it would have been fantastic. But the main thing for us this year is to put the foundations in place to have longevity with this squad and that the girls who turn up for Warrington this year, turn up for the next four or five years and we all grow together.
“The new structure, with the two new teams coming in, does help to give us a bit of space to make these changes this year.
“Last season was particularly tough because we faced those top teams back-to-back, but the the fixtures fall this year is better. We have got a better spread in terms of the order of games so we’re not hitting those top teams one after the other again.
“We’ll be able to enjoy more competitive fixtures in between facing those top three clubs and that will help us to build, start to push those top teams and compete with them at that level.”
Sharrock’s place on the field has now been taken by Katie May Williams who has been handed the captaincy role for 2024 and is fully supportive of how her former teammate has stepped into her new role.
“There have been a lot of changes this year, but they have all been really good,” added Williams.
“We have got a lot of new younger girls coming in this year and that shows how well the Academy structure is working for us as a club.
“It’s nice having them in as well because they’re all a bit faster and that keeps the rest of us on our toes.
“It’s meant we’ve had to do a lot off the field to create new bonds within the group, which is something we maybe didn’t do last year.
“Just little things like having a night away at Farmer Strong (an outdoor fitness company), where we did a lot of group activities together.
“It helped a few people come out of their shells a bit and when you’re doing things like that together you always find out a little bit more about each other and it makes us a stronger group – which can only benefit us.
“We have got a new strength and conditioning coach this year as well in Sam Booth, and it’s been a bit of a love/hate relationship with him over pre-season, but we will see the benefits of that throughout the year.
“Realistically we do want to break into the top four this year and I don’t see why, with everything we’ve done over pre-season, we can’t do that.”
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 496 (May 2024)
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