Warriors coach Nathan Brown set to be sacked, won’t move overseas

The New Zealand Warriors are set to part ways with their coach Nathan Brown as soon as tomorrow after he dropped a bomb on the club.

Is Nathan Brown set to move on from the Warriors? Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images

New Zealand Warriors coach Nathan Brown appears set to be the next coach on the scrapheap after reportedly telling the club he won’t relocate to Auckland long term.

Brown, who has coached St George-Illawarra, Newcastle and now New Zealand, took over the helm of the club in the 2021 season after previous coach Todd Payten took over the North Queensland Cowboys.

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His tenure has coincided with New Zealand being forced to relocated to Australia due to the Covid-19 pandemic, where the players had been separated from friends and family during football season.

But theSydney Morning Heraldhas reported Brown has informed the Warriors that while he is committed to finishing his contract with the club, which lasts until 2023, he is not committing to moving to New Zealand long-term.

His family lives in the Sutherland Shire and his daughter is doing her HSC.

And The Daily Telegraph reported Brown has called an “emergency meeting” with club owner Mark Robinson and CEO Cameron George at 9am on Tuesday.

The report states that club legend and assistant coach Stacey Jones is set to be the interim coach for the remainder of the season and will have an audition to take over long-term depending on results for the remainder of the season.

The drama comes just two weeks before the Warriors will be allowed to play in New Zealand for the first time in two years.

The ball is in the Warriors’ court.

Brown has been under pressure in recent weeks as well as the side has lost five straight games — and seven of their last eight including a belting by a Tom Trbojevic and Daly Cherry-Evans-less Sea Eagles on the weekend — and sit 14th with just four wins this season.

The Daily Telegraph’s Phil Rothfield told Sky Racing’s Big Sports Breakfast that Brown’s future beyond this season remained uncertain.

“Cameron (George, Warriors CEO) would not guarantee Browny’s job for next year, he said he’d spoken to Nathan with the owner Mark Robinson,” Rothfield said.

“They’ve decided to put his future on hold until the end of the season and just hope that a return home will give the players a bit of a lift.

“He needed to win some football games between now and Round 24, their performance the other night was poor again.”

Rothfield praised Brown’s ability as a coach but said it had been a tough ask to manage the players while away from home for so long.

“I think technically and tactically Browny is as sharp as any coach in rugby league but being a coach of an NRL club is a lot more than that,” Rothfield said.

“It’s about managing players, managing salary caps, taking into account the culture issues that come with the Maori boys at the Warriors.

“In fact they’ve been away from home for so long and managing all that.

“I think Browny’s going to fight to keep that job.”

Perhaps this will make Warriors bosses’ jobs easier when deciding Brown’s future.

Originally published as Warriors coach Nathan Brown set to be sacked, won’t move overseas