Warriors sack NRL coach Nathan Brown immediately after revelation

Nathan Brown has become the second NRL coach to lose his job this season after the Warriors were forced to take immediate action.

Warriors Coach Nathan Brown. NRL Photos

The Warriors have sacked Nathan Brown as coach, effective immediately.

The NRL club cut Brown loose ahead of a meeting this morning with CEO Cameron George and owner Mark Robinson.

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The decision comes after Brown told the club earlier this week he was not willing to move to New Zealand when the team returns home full-time in 2023, following three seasons disrupted by Covid-19.

Kiwi footy legend and Warriors assistant coach Stacey Jones will take over from Brown in the interim.

“Nathan told us he had made a personal decision that for family reasons he wouldn’t be able to relocate to New Zealand as originally planned for the long term,” George said in a statement.

“We fully appreciate his position and the call he has made.

“Given those circumstances we agreed we needed to make an immediate change.

“It’s tough for everyone involved but, in the best interests of the club, we felt we had to go in a different direction now.

“Nathan has worked so hard for our club and we are extremely disappointed it has come to this. We’re truly grateful for what he has done and wish him and his family all the very best for the future.”

The Warriors have parted ways with Nathan Brown.

Brown, who has previously coached St George-Illawarra and Newcastle, took charge of the Warriors in 2021 after Stephen Kearney was axed and caretaker coach Todd Payten took the North Queensland Cowboys job.

His tenure has coincided with the Warriors being forced to relocate to Australia due to the pandemic in order to keep the competition going.

Brown’s family lives in Sydney and his daughter will soon complete her HSC, which reports this week said were behind his unwillingness to relocate to Auckland.

The decision to part ways comes just two weeks before the Warriors will be allowed to play in New Zealand for the first time since Covid disrupted the NRL.

Brown’s departure also comes after prop Matt Lodge controversially quit the team mid-season because he too indicated he did not want to relocate to New Zealand, sparking questions about why he walked away with a $700,000 payout.

Brown’s position has been under fire after a string of disappointing performances. The Warriors have suffered five straight losses — and gone down in seven of their past eight matches — including a 44-12 thrashing at the hands of Manly on the weekend.

That result prompted star fullback Reece Walsh to hit out at his teammates for not showing enough backbone.

Nathan Brown’s time in charge of the Warriors is over. (Photo by Ashley Feder/Getty Images)

“It’s tough. We just go out there and we sabotage ourselves,” Walsh said.

“There’s no other way to put it. We put ourselves under pressure and, you know, we keep doing it every week.

“It’s not good enough. We keep shooting ourselves in the foot. There’s just patches where we just don’t get it right. We just make it so easy for the other team. It’s really frustrating.

“We’ve just got to go home, look ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves, ‘Do we want to be here?’

“Do we want to be trying for our mates? At the moment, the things we’re tossing up, we’re just not working for our mates beside us. It’s first grade, and it’s not good enough. We’ve got to get tighter as a group ... and start working harder for each other.”

The Warriors are 14th on the ladder and next play Cronulla on Sunday.