The Warriors’ Andrew Webster and Canterbury’s Cameron Ciraldo experienced contrasting Round 1 results in their first matches as fulltime NRL head coaches, but the past 25 years overwhelming suggests both clubs have pulled the right rein by handing the gig to a rookie.
Since 2001, 16 of 22 grand finals have been won by clubs who handed the title-winning coaches their first NRL opportunity. Three achieved premiership success in their maiden season, while another four took teams to the Holy Grail with five years.
Check out how every club has fared by putting their faith in a first-timer rather than going down the recycled coach route.
Brisbane Broncos
After the 21-season, six-premiership ‘reign of Wayne’ came to an end in 2008, the Broncos had reasonable first-up success with a pair of first-time NRL coaches.
Long-serving assistant Ivan Henjak endured some harrowing lows in ’09 – including a club-record 56-0 loss in Canberra during a midyear slump – but ultimately got the Broncos to sixth and a preliminary final.
Henjak was sacked deep into the 2011 pre-season after the Broncos’ 18-year finals streak was halted the previous year. NYC coach Anthony Griffin took the reins and the Broncos landed third before being bundled out in another prelim, thwarted by Darren Lockyer’s absence with a broken cheekbone.
Griffin’s stint petered out, paving the way for Bennett’s return. The Broncos’ only other rookie mentor is current coach Kevin Walters, who won just seven games and landed 14th in 2021 before helming a semi-revival last year.
Canberra Raiders
Prior to Ricky Stuart’s return to the capital in 2014, all four of the Raiders’ NRL-era coaches were premiership newcomers. Mal Meninga took over for the 1997 Super League season (third, prelim final) and stayed until 2001.
Matthew Elliott steered a modest squad back to the finals in 2002 before being poached by Penrith for 2007. Neil Henry’s first season garnered a 14th-place finish. The Raiders came sixth in 2008 but Henry, too, was lured away, this time by North Queensland.
David Furner took over from Henry, mixing bottom-four finishes (2009, 2011 and 2013) with fast-finishing Top 8 appearances (2010 and 2012).
Canterbury Bulldogs
Champion clubman Steve Folkes took over from Melbourne-bound brother-in-law Chris Andersonat Canterbury in 1998 and took the club to a grand final at his first attempt courtesy of one of the greatest post-season charges of all time.
Folkes stayed for 11 seasons – including the club’s 2004 premiership at the end of a tumultuous three-year period for the club – but stepped aside following the Bulldogs’ 2008 wooden spoon.
Another brother-in-law, rookie coach Kevin Moore, led a remarkable resurgence in 2009 as the Bulldogs finished second and reached the preliminary final. The Bulldogs’ only other untried coach in the NRL era, Dean Pay, finished 12th in 2018-19 before being axed midway through 2020.
Regarded as the hottest coaching prospect in the game, ex-Penrith assistant Cameron Ciraldo’s tenure began with a heavy loss to Manly in the club’s opening foray of 2023.
Cronulla Sharks
John Lang joined Cronulla in 1994 after a long period coaching in Brisbane and turned the struggling outfit around, staying until the end of 2001. After a rocky stint under Chris Anderson, the Sharks turned to rookie Stuart Raper in 2004.
Raper’s charges finished 10th in his first season and squeaked into the 2005 playoffs. Following Ricky Stuart’s exit in 2010, Shane Flanagan led Cronulla to a modest 13th in his initial crack but a wildly eventful tenure – including two NRL-enforced bans – peaked with the club’s maiden title in 2016.
The Sharks entrusted John Morris with the job after Flanagan’s second ban at the end of 2018 and they arguably overachieved by finishing seventh and then eighth. Morris departed in early-2021 after the club announced Craig Fitzgibbon would be taking over in 2022.
Cronulla rocketed up the ladder under highly-rated rookie coach Fitzgibbon – whose father, Allan, coached the club from 1988-91 – finishing second with an 18-6 record.
Gold Coast Titans
The Titans went for an untried coach for their foundation season – and John Cartwright, a long-time assistant to Ricky Stuart, stayed in charge until midway through 2014. He oversaw respectable 10-14 campaigns in 2007-08 before guiding the young club to the top four in 2009-10.
Highly-rated Garth Brennan’s first NRL stint lasted less than two seasons as the Titans landed 14th in 2018 and picked up the spoon in 2019.
Justin Holbrook returned from a successful Super League stint to accept his maiden NRL head coach gig in 2020, inspiring immediate improvement with a ninth-place finish then ending the club’s finals drought in 2021. The Titans tapered off in 2022 with just six wins.
Manly Sea Eagles
Peter Sharp took over from the legendary Bob Fulton at Brookvale midway through 1999 and was head coach throughout Northern Eagles’ tumultuous three-season existence and the underwhelming 2003 rebirth as Manly.
Sea Eagles great Des Hasler stepped into the breach as a rookie coach in 2004, with his team finish 13th. But they reached a grand final three years later and won premierships in 2008 and 2011.
After Hasler’s shock exit to the Bulldogs following the latter triumph, assistant and fellow Manly icon Geoff Toovey was promoted. Under Toovey the Sea Eagles finished fourth in 2012-13 – making another grand final in the latter year – and second in 2014.
The fiery ‘Tooves’ was controversially axed in 2015, a season where Manly finished ninth, before another coaching newcomer in Trent Barrett took over. Barrett’s unflattering three-season stint bookended a 2017 finals appearance with 13th- and 15th-place finishes.
Melbourne Storm
Craig Bellamy is the only rookie coach the Storm have employed after going with Chris Anderson and Mark Murray for their first five seasons…safe to say that hire worked out pretty well.
‘Bellyache’ led Melbourne back into the finals at his first attempt in 2003 and would have an unbroken 20-season finals streak to his credit if not for the salary cap penalty that befell the club in 2010.
The Storm have reached nine grand finals for five wins (two titles stripped) and collected eight minor premierships (three stripped) during Bellamy’s incomparable reign.
Newcastle Knights
Newcastle’s first three coaches had never coached in the Australian premiership, culminating in 1997 ARL premiership euphoria under Brit Malcom Reilly. After two relatively successful but troubled years under crusty mentor Warren Ryan, the Knights went back down the rookie route.
In 2001, Michael Hagan became just the third coach (after Balmain’s Leo Nosworthy in 1969 and Canterbury’s Phil Gould in 1988) to win a grand final in their first season. Rick Stone succeeded Brian Smith and steered the Knights to respectable 11th in 2010 and eighth in 2011 prior to Wayne Bennett’s arrival.
Adam O’Brien crafted a big reputation as an assistant at the Storm and Roosters before being handed the Newcastle job. The Knights finished seventh in 2020-21 under O’Brien – ending a seven-year finals absence – but his tenure hit the skids in 2022.
North Queensland
Relative unknown Murray Hurst stepped into the breach following Tim Sheens’ turbulent mid-2001 exit, but he was punted just three rounds into 2002.
The Cowboys’ next dalliance with a rookie coach came in the form of ex-Origin halfback and successful Wynnum Manly head coach and Sydney Roosters assistant Paul Green, who led the club to the 2015 premiership in his second season at the helm.
Another grand final appearance followed in 2017 before the post-JT Cowboys hit hard times, with Green exiting midway through 2020. Green’s tragic death last year shattered the rugby league community.
Todd Payten accepted the post after a 14-game interim stint at the Warriors, taking just two seasons to guide the Cowboys to a top-four finish and their first-ever home preliminary final.
Parramatta Eels
Jason Taylor took over early in 2006 when Brian Smith’s decade at the helm came to an abrupt end, making history as the first interim coach to steer a club to the finals. But the rookie headed to Souths the following season with the Eels job already assigned to Michael Hagan.
World Cup-winning Kiwis mentor and highly-rated Storm assistant Stephen Kearney took over from Daniel Anderson in 2011, but the Eels’ diabolical recruitment strategy propelled ‘Mooks’’ squad to a 14th-place finish and a wooden spoon in his two years in charge.
Brad Arthur picked up the pieces in 2014 after Ricky Stuart cut his stay short after one terrible season. He started with a heartening 12-12 campaign and – after the lows of salary cap penalties and wooden spoons – took the club to the playoffs for the fifth time in six years and a grand final in 2022.
Penrith Panthers
The only rookies Penrith has entrusted with the head coach duties in the past 40 years are former stalwarts Tim Sheens (1984-87) and Royce Simmons (1994-2001). Equally unusually, no ex-Panthers players have coached the club since Simmons departed with the ’01 wooden spoon.
St George Illawarra Dragons
St George Illawarra’s record with rookie coaches may explain why the club went with twice-sacked Anthony Griffin in 2021.
Nathan Brown was handed the reins at the implausibly young age of 29 – and within four games he’d slapped his star playmaker on the sideline in full view of the TV cameras on his way to 10th-place finish.
Despite boasting a premiership-ready roster (proved by Wayne Bennett leading the Saints to the title within two seasons of taking over) one top-four finish and two prelims was the best Brown could muster in six years.
Steven Price accepted the poison chalice of following in Bennett’s footsteps and came ninth and 14th before being punted midway through his third season.
Interim coach Paul McGregor took over fulltime and led the Dragons back into the finals in 2015, but his tenure was largely an exercise in frustration until his pink slip arrived in 2020.
South Sydney Rabbitohs
Souths great Craig Coleman guided the club to an improved 12th in 1999, but the Rabbitohs were sent into two year-exile by the NRL at the end of the year.
Paul Langmack replaced Coleman in 2003 and picked up a wooden spoon before his axing midway through 2004. Experienced on the British scene, Shaun McRae’s first NRL gig garnered a 13th-place finish in 2005 and a spoon 12 months later.
Originally slated as McRae’s assistant, Jason Taylor assumed head coach duties in 2007 in the wake of his interim heroics at Parramatta and helped end Souths’ 18-year absence from the finals at his first attempt.
Taylor’s stint ended in bizarre fashion though – sacked after a drunken fight with enforcer David Fa’alogo – and veteran John Lang came on board.
A Super League title winner at Wigan, Michael Maguire had immediate success with the Rabbitohs: three straight top-four finishes, culminating in the club’s first premiership in 43 years in 2014.
Ex-Storm assistant Anthony Seibold was Dally M Coach of the Year as a rookie after his Rabbitohs came third, after which he switched hotseats with the Broncos’ Wayne Bennett. Bennett’s successor, Jason Demetriou, received a strong pass mark as Souths powered to a preliminary final in 2022.
Sydney Roosters
A club with a proud and successful history of giving head coaches their start in first grade (Jack Gibson, Don Furner, Arthur Beetson, Bob Fulton) and unperturbed by the odd misstep (Bert Holcroft, Russell Fairfax), the Roosters returned to the strategy after stints under Phil Gould and Graham Murray.
Ricky Stuart won a premiership in his 2002 rookie year, snapping the club’s 27-year title drought in the process, and featured in grand finals in 2003-04 before Brad Fittler’s retirement triggered a decline.
Chris Anderson’s tenure lasted just 18 games, pitching Fittler into the role midway through 2007. Following a spirited last-season revival that year, the Roosters came fourth under ‘Freddy’ in 2008 but plummeted to the wooden spoon – and off-field disgrace – in 2009.
Trent Robinson replicated ‘Sticky’s’ feat in 2013, taking over from Brian Smith and winning the compt at his first crack. Robinson has become established as one of the great coaches in a decade at Bondi, winning two more grand finals and finishing lower than sixth just once.
Wests Tigers
The joint venture has proved a graveyard for rookie coaches and experienced mentors alike.
Terry Lamb took over from foundation coach Wayne Pearce in 2001 and it’s a minor miracle his side managed nine wins and a 12th-place finish in the face of John Hopoate’s finger-poking antics and other stars’ illicit drug suspensions. He was gone a year later and never coached in the NRL again.
Mick Potter arrived with a solid reputation after Tim Sheens’ decade-long tenure ended in ugly circumstances, but the Tigers endured their lowest finish to that point – 15th – in 2013 and he was shown the door at the end of the following season. Potter filled in as the Bulldogs’ interim coach in 2022.
Jason Taylor and Michael Maguire failed miserably in their bids to revive their NRL coaching careers at the Tigers, while Ivan Cleary was controversially poached by the Panthers – all of that leading to Sheens’ return in 2023.