Cowboys release NRLW coach Ben Jeffries effective immediately
Foundation Cowboys NRLW coach Ben Jeffries has been released from his contract with the club effective immediately.
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Foundation Cowboys NRLW coach Ben Jeffries has been released from his contract with the club effective immediately.
It comes less than 48 hours after this masthead broke news of interest from back-to-back NRLW champions Newcastle in appointing Jeffries to lead the club’s program.
Knights coach Ron Griffiths left the NRLW system this season to take over the club’s New South Wales Cup side, leaving Newcastle hunting for a coach to drive the Knights to a premiership three-peat.
“We would like to thank Ben for his service to the club through his roles as both Elite Pathways coach and most recently NRLW head coach,” Cowboys chief executive Jeff Reibel said.
Jeffries has been contacted for comment.
Cowboys football chief Micheal Luck said Jeffries had requested a release from the final year of his contract and after some internal discussion it had been granted.
This masthead understands Jeffries is a front-runner for the Newcastle post but has not yet won the job.
Jeffries coached North Queensland to two wins and seven defeats in the club’s maiden NRLW season, including an upset over Newcastle for the Cowboys’ first win in the competition.
North Queensland successfully dodged the wooden spoon with an inexperienced roster, scoring the ninth-fewest points and conceding ninth-most posts in the competition.
Jeffries’ frustration at the team’s performance spilled into public in a series of withering post-match press conferences.
In October he pledged to re-evaluate his recruitment tactics, vowing to focus on signing experienced state-level players for the 2024 season.
In November Jeffries hailed the contract extension of co-captain Kirra Dibb as a sign the halfback was “truly invested in what we’re trying to develop here.”
By December Jeffries was gone.
The former Dragons and Tigers halfback turned to coaching in 2017 after a 273-game playing career, mostly in the Super League with Wakefield Trinity and Bradford, between 2001 and 2012.
Current Knights director of football Peter Parr appointed Jeffries to Todd Payten’s Under-20s coaching staff at the Cowboys in 2017, where he served for a season before assisting Dolphins coach-in-waiting Kristian Woolf at the Blackhawks in 2018.
In between those stints in senior men’s football Jeffries began a six-year stint as the Queensland Rugby League’s head coach for it’s U18 and U19 girls teams.
In 2021 he was appointed head coach of the Indigenous All-Stars women’s team and in 2022 led the Papua New Guinea Orchids to the nation’s first semi-final at a Rugby League World Cup, male or female.
Luck said the Cowboys had been “inundated” with expressions of interest for the NRLW coaching role since news of Newcastle’s interest in Jeffries went public.
“We want to take our time and consider who our next coach will be,” Luck said.
“In the last 24 hours we’ve been inundated with expressions of interest. We’ll work through those and make sure we’ve got the best candidate for the job to give our girls the best coach and program.”
Originally published as Cowboys release NRLW coach Ben Jeffries effective immediately
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