Out of the NRL head coaching ranks for the past five seasons after being banned for breaching conditions of his previous suspension, Shane Flanagan enjoyed a memorable return on Saturday courtesy of St George Illawarra’s dominant win over Gold Coast.
It’s far too early to judge the controversial ex-Cronulla premiership-winning mentor’s reinstatement – and there’s been some spectacular successes and dismal failures throughout premiership history of coaches attempting to pick up where they left off.
From the astute to the ill-advised, relive rugby league’s most notable coaching comebacks.
Bill Kelly
A dual international in his native New Zealand, brilliant centre Kelly represented Australia in 1914 and captain-coached Balmain to its maiden premiership the following season. Kelly’s playing career ended due to injuries sustained while fighting in WWI.
But he later took to coaching and guided University to its first finals appearance in 1926.
After a decade-long break – aside from coaching New Zealand against Great Britain in 1932 – Kelly earned the tag ‘The Prince of Coaches’ during stints with Newtown (1936-37), Balmain (1938-43), St George (1944) and Canterbury (1945).
Kelly missed the finals just once with Balmain and won a premiership in 1939, while the Dragons also made the playoffs under his direction.
Arthur Hennessy
Hailed as South Sydney’s founding father – as well as being Australia’s first Test captain – Hennessy led the club to the title as player-coach in the inaugural 1908 season but hung up the boots a year later.
A prominent administrator post-playing, Hennessy had a standalone season as coach in 1918 – and helped Souths break Balmain’s stranglehold on the premiership.
Almost three decades later, Hennessy was called upon by the Rabbitohs again…with considerably less success. The 69-year-old’s charges failed to win a game in 1946 and he handed over the reins after just one season.
Norm Robinson
One of the most influential figures in Balmain’s history, ‘Latchem’ Robinson held the captain-coach role in 1930 and later moved into administration. But he took the Tigers’ coaching reins in 1944 and guided the club to three premierships and a runner-up finish in a decorated four-season stint.
Robinson became an Australian selector (including an infamous role in incumbent Australian captain-coach Len Smith’s non-selection on the 1948-49 Kangaroo Tour) and manager, before returning to the coaching caper with Balmain in 1954, eventually signing off with a grand final loss to St George in ’56.
He coached Australia in the 1958 Ashes series, served as Balmain’s secretary and president, and had a stand named in his honour at Leichhardt Oval.
Norm Provan
‘Sticks’ Provan sealed the legacy that would eventually see him attain Immortal status by captain-coaching St George in the last four of his 10 straight grand final victories with the club.
Stepping away at the end of 1965, Provan returned as non-playing coach for 1968 and took the Dragons to the preliminary final.
The successful businessman had a lengthy hiatus from the premiership but accepted the reins at Parramatta in 1975, steering the previous year’s wooden spooners to a historic pre-season Wills Cup triumph and a finals appearance.
Provan made another comeback to the coaching ranks with Cronulla in 1978, which garnered a grand final appearance (losing to Manly in a replay) and a third-place finish during a two-season stay.
Don Furner
Former Australian Test forward Furner took Eastern Suburbs to the 1972 grand final in the last of his three seasons as coach, before returning to the relative obscurity of Group 8 where he led Queanbeyan Blues to nine straight grand finals.
Furner returned to the NSWRL premiership in 1982 as Canberra Raiders’ inaugural coach, a position he held with little on-field success until his last season, when Wayne Bennett arrived as co-coach and the club reached its first grand final.
Furner, whose son David also later represented Australia and coached the Raiders, also coached the Australian Test team from 1986-88 before becoming an administrator with the basket-case Gold Coast Seagulls and a long-serving representative selector.
Bill Anderson
A lower-grade coach and assistant under Jack Gibson at Easts, Anderson coached Souths with moderate success from 1980-82 before concentrating on cricket – including leading NSW to a Sheffield Shield title.
Still in his thirties, Anderson returned to rugby league with a one-season stint at Balmain in 1987 that garnered midweek Panasonic Cup glory and a finals appearance, but Warren Ryan arrived to take the reins at the Tigers the following season.
Anderson was a popular and long-serving commentator in the 1980s and ’90s.
Ted Glossop
Controversially replaced by Norm Provan after an impressive rookie season as Cronulla coach in 1977, former St George halfback Glossop instead took over at Canterbury and led ‘The Entertainers’ to a grand final in 1979 and a premiership in ’80.
‘Gentleman Ted’ resigned after the Bulldogs’ 1983 preliminary final loss – giving way to Warren Ryan’s ‘Dogs of War’ era at Belmore – but Glossop returned five years later to take over from Roy Masters at St George.
Though the Dragons won the 1988 Panasonic Cup, the Winfield Cup campaign was a failure and Glossop was sacked after just one season.
Malcolm Clift
Ex-Canterbury player Clift coached the Berries’ reserve grade team to a title in 1971 before taking over the firsts, with his 1973-77 tenure in charge featuring a grand final loss to Jack Gibson’s Easts side in 1974.
Clift spent well over a decade away from the premiership scene – though he did coach Leeds for a short-lived stint in the mid-1980s – before taking over from Gold Coast Seagulls’ foundation coach Bob McCarthy in 1991.
The Seagulls won just two games and collected their first wooden spoon despite the arrival of living legend Wally Lewis, who became captain-coach in 1992 at Clift’s expense.
Arthur Beetson
Future Immortal Beetson captain-coached Easts in 1977-78 and held the same role at Redcliffe before hanging up the boots, coaching Queensland and Australia.
Beetson coached the Roosters from 1985-88 – a largely disappointing stint, aside from a preliminary final run in 1987 – before stepping down and guiding the Maroons at Origin level again 1989-90.
‘Big Artie’ surprisingly threw his hat into the ring to coach Cronulla in 1992, but the club won just 17 of 44 games while he was in charge. Returning to Easts as a recruitment manager, Beetson found himself filling in as caretaker coach in late-1994 after the axing of Mark Murray.
Bob Fulton
‘Bozo’ finished his Immortal playing career as Easts captain-coach in 1979, steered the Roosters to a grand final as non-playing coach in 1980 and returned to Manly from 1983-88, netting a premiership in 1987.
Fulton concentrated on the Australian Test job from 1989, but he answered an SOS from the Sea Eagles in early-1993 when Graham Lowe stepped down for health reasons. The club dominated the mid-1990s under Fulton, though they had just one title to show for three straight grand finals.
The rugby league icon retired midway through 1999 with the Sea Eagles on a steep downward trajectory.
Tom Raudonikis
Legendary Western Suburbs and Newtown halfback Raudonikis hung up the boots following a player-coach stint at Brisbane Brothers, before further BRL coaching roles with Ipswich – famously nurturing precocious playmaker Allan Langer – and Norths in the later-1980s.
Raudonikis returned to his old stomping ground and the coaching ranks in 1995, replacing Warren Ryan as the Magpies’ mentor.
He led Wests to their last finals appearance in 1996 and coached the NSW Origin team in 1997-98 but missed out on the Wests Tigers gig in 2000 after the Magpies finished their standalone era with back-to-back wooden spoons.
Graham Lowe
Aucklander Lowe carved out an amazingly successful coaching career with Otahuhu, Brisbane Norths, New Zealand, Wigan, Manly and Queensland, but recurring health issues saw him reluctantly hang up the clipboard ahead of the 1993 season while still in charge of the Sea Eagles.
But after taking Western Samoa to the World Cup in 1995, Lowe returned to the premiership pressure-cooker in Townsville – succeeding North Queensland’s foundation coach Grant Bell. The Cowboys managed just six wins under Lowe and Tim Sheens arrived at the club in 1997.
Allan Fitzgibbon
Fitzgibbon represented NSW and won a premiership with Balmain before becoming a highly-successful coach in the Illawarra competition during the 1970s. He was the Steelers’ foundation coach but stood down after the 1983 season, taking a complete break from the game.
Fitzgibbon made a spectacular return to the premiership in 1988, however, succeeding Jack Gibson at Cronulla and leading the club to the minor premiership. Another finals appearance followed in 1989 but he departed two years later amid waning results.
There was one more chapter to come in his coaching career: Fitzgibbon answered an SOS from the Steelers in early-1995 after Graham Murray signed with Super League, filling a caretaker role until the end of the season. Son Craig became a Roosters great and later a Sharks first-grade coach.
Steve Martin
Former Australian halfback Steve Martin’s star faded as quickly as it rose at North Sydney, graduating from a reserve grade premiership in 1989 to overseeing the Bears’ most successful season in decades in 1991. Just 12 months later, ‘Whiz’ was punted by Norths in favour of Peter Louis.
Martin had a stint in England with Featherstone before being given an NRL chance at South Sydney in 1998 – which lasted a mere 18 games and garnered just three wins, sacked by the Rabbitohs amid a running battle with his players and club management.
Warren Ryan
Former St George and Cronulla forward Ryan became established as one of the all-time great coaches during stints with Newtown (1979-82), Canterbury (1984-87), Balmain (1988-90) and Wests (1991-94), taking his teams to two premierships, six grand finals and nine finals series.
The abrasive ‘Wok’ left the Magpies on bitter terms in late-1994 and embarked on a high-profile media career but made a shock return to the coaching ranks in 1999 after Malcolm Reilly’s departure from Newcastle.
After a first-up seventh-place finish, Ryan broke Bob Fulton’s record for most first-grade matches as coach and took the Knights to a preliminary final in 2000 but the season was dominated by Matthew Johns’ forced exit from the club.
Ryan retired for good and Newcastle won the 2001 premiership under rookie coach Michael Hagan.
Mark Murray
Former Queensland and Australian halfback Murray was a highly-rated coaching prospect after cutting his teeth at Redcliffe, but his four-season Sydney stint in charge at Eastern Suburbs largely flattered to deceive and he was sent packing late in the 1994 campaign.
Resurfacing as the Maroons’ Origin coach in 1999 while also coaching Norths Devils, ‘Muppet’ received an NRL chance at Melbourne thanks to Chris Anderson stepping down in early-2001.
Murray’s two years at the Storm remain the only seasons the club finished with a losing record and he was replaced by Craig Bellamy in 2003.
Mal Meninga
Canberra legend Meninga succeeded long-serving coach Tim Sheens in 1997 and led the club to three finals series in five seasons with a 53 percent win rate. But the rigours of fulltime coaching took their toll on ‘Big Mal’ and he took a break from the game after the Raiders’ 11th-place finish in 2001.
Meninga stepped up to coach the Queensland Origin team in 2006, however, and led the Maroons – who were on the verge of an unprecedented fourth straight series defeat – to a record-shattering eight consecutive series wins.
After regaining the Origin shield in 2015, Meninga again took over from Sheens – this time as Australian coach. He has solidified his standing as the most successful representative coach of all time with 22 wins in 25 Tests in charge of the Kangaroos.
Chris Anderson
A premiership-winning coach at Canterbury and Melbourne, Anderson took a break from coaching after a tumultuous two-year stint at Cronulla ended in late-2003 and he suffered a heart attack during an Ashes Test while coaching the Kangaroos a few months later.
‘Opes’ was recruited as Ricky Stuart’s replacement by Sydney Roosters in 2007 (after the club had botched a deal with Wayne Bennett) but lasted just 16 games, stepping down mid-season after the Tricolours lost three straight games to the Eels, Bulldogs and Sea Eagles by a combined 130-22.
John Lang
An Australian Test hooker during the 1970s, Lang had a successful club coaching career in the Brisbane competition during the 1980s and ’90s before taking over at Cronulla in 1994.
Lang led the long-suffering Sharks to the 1997 Super League grand final and three preliminary finals in an eight-season stay, then orchestrated Penrith’s unlikely 2003 premiership triumph. He moved on from the Panthers at the end of 2006, apparently bringing his NRL coaching career to a close.
But after 18 months as South Sydney’s football consultant, Lang was pitched into the Rabbitohs’ head coach post following Jason Taylor’s sacking in late-2009. Souths achieved respectable mid-table finishes under Lang in 2010-11.
Peter Sharp
Former Newcastle lower-grade coach Sharp stepped into the breach at Manly in 1999 following Bob Fulton’s mid-season retirement. Sharp helmed Northern Eagles’ tumultuous three-season existence and Manly’s rocky reintroduction to the NRL before Des Hasler took over at the end of 2003.
Sharp’s only head coach role in the ensuing decade was a couple of seasons at Hull FC, but he was reluctantly thrust into a caretaker role in the wake of Shane Flanagan’s suspension for his role in Cronulla’s supplements scandal.
The stalwart lasted 16 games of the Sharks’ arduous 2014 campaign before stepping down.
Tim Sheens
Following highly successful stays at Penrith (1984-87) and Canberra (1988-96), Sheens endured a disastrous five seasons in charge of North Queensland before joining Wests Tigers in 2003 and leading the joint venture to one of the most unlikely premiership triumphs of all time two years later.
Sheens led the Tigers to the finals in 2010-11 but was let go after a disappointing 2012 campaign. Australia’s Test coach from 2009-15, Sheens had three seasons at Hull KR but his stint at Widnes was cut short after just seven games in 2020 due to falling out with management.
A return to the NRL after more than a decade garnered predictably poor results when Sheens was restored to the Tigers’ head coach position, with 2005 premiership heroes Benji Marshall – anointed to take over in 2025 – and Robbie Farah his assistants.
The succession plan was moved forward a year as Sheens led the Tigers to just four wins and a second straight wooden spoon in 2023.