New Easts coach Craig Hodges starts tenure at Langlands Park
A former Gold Coast Titans NRL coach has started his new job with the aim of taking one of Brisbane’s proudest rugby league clubs to a drought breaking premiership.
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AFTER spending the past two seasons as an assistant coach and interim head coach in the NRL, new Easts Tigers coach Craig Hodges is finally the man in charge.
Hodges, who replaced the sacked Garth Brennan as Gold Coast Titans coach for eight games this year, was announced as the new mentor for the Tigers Intrust Super Cup team in late August, taking over from Scott Sipple.
The 45-year-old has also been an assistant coach with the Wynnum Manly Seagulls, where he was part of back-to-back premierships under Paul Green, and has also coached the Norths Devils in the Intrust Super Cup.
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He also led the Brisbane Broncos under-20s side from 2013-2016, where he helped develop young talents such as Ash Taylor.
But after so many years as a deputy, Hodges, who started his tenure at Langlands Park earlier this month, said the chance to run his own program at a proud and historic club like Easts was too good an opportunity to pass up.
“It was kind of frustrating being an assistant in recent years, you’re kind of helping someone else get their ideas and philosophies across and you might not agree with those things,” he said.
“I sort of lost the love for coaching a little bit.
“Then I was slotted in as interim coach at the Titans and I actually really enjoyed it. I loved being able to run trainings, run the meetings, being in charge of putting the game plan together and all that stuff. During that time this year, I rediscovered the reason why I love coaching again.
“Then the Easts job came up and I wanted the chance to run my own club so I went for it … It was an extremely happy day when I got offered the job, to be a head coach at a club with so much history, that is well resourced and run well, it’s a great opportunity for me.”
Despite being at the Gold Coast at such a turbulent time in the club’s history, Hodges said he learned a lot during his time there that he would take into his role at Easts.
“I learned there really is no substitutions for hard work, there are no substitutions for a good pre-season,” he said.
“Going forward at Easts we will be an effort-based team that works hard at every training and in every game, you won’t see us getting beaten because we didn’t work hard that’s for sure.
“We will play a lot of footy on the back of our hard work but everything starts with effort and we will have players and a staff that fits with that.”
Hodges has brought in a new staff to help him at the Tigers with assistant coach Nathan Cross, head of high performance Tony Guilfoyle, strength and conditioning coach Elliot Jackson and manager Kevin Ryan.
Easts are a powerhouse in the Intrust Super Cup and despite playing in grand finals in 2013, 2014 and 2018, haven’t won a premiership since 1991.
“The club hasn’t been unsuccessful but if you judge success by winning premierships, we haven’t done that,” Hodges said.
“The guys who played in that last premiership are old now and I want to help break that drought.
“But we won’t think or talk about that, our first goal is to start pre-season and get through to Christmas and build from there.”
Easts have already re-signed several players from last season’s squad including co-captain Brett Greinke, winger Curtis Dansey-Smaller, forwards John Puna and Jarred Tuite, Heath Wilson and Jack Peoples as well as welcoming back Linc Port from Souths Logan and adding Michael Purcell from Ipswich and Jayden Berrell from Wynnum Manly.
“We’ve got a lot of talent as far as youth and quality Intrust Super Cup players, we just want to try and add a player with NRL experience in each of the major positions, so a forward, a playmaker and a back. We are in discussions with players who have that experience at the moment,” Hodges said.
Pre-season for Easts starts on November 11.
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