Club by club coaching guide: Inside your NRL club’s coaching set up in 2024

He only retired as a player six months ago, but the Cowboys believe James Maloney is the man to reignite their attack in a new career start. Every club’s coaching situation assessed inside.

North Queensland have made the surprise move of the NRL off-season by adding premiership-winning half James Maloney to their coaching staff.

The 2016 Dally M five-eighth of the year, who retired six months ago after playing in France, has only recently arrived back in Australia. Such was the swiftness of the appointment, Maloney’s family had planned to settle back in Sydney before the Cowboys’ opportunity came up.

Nicknamed “Jimmy Wins” for his success as a player, Maloney has long been touted a potential first-grade coach.

Cowboys general manager of football Micheal Luck said the former Blues and Kangaroos playmaker would bring a “new dimension” to North Queensland’s premiership push.

“With an experienced assistant in Justin Morgan coming on board this year, we made the decision to target a younger coach with recent experience on the field to focus on our attack,” Luck said.

James Maloney playing for Catalans Dragons.

“We met with Jimmy in Townsville last week and we were impressed with how he presented and the ideas he had to improve our team.

“He will be an excellent sounding board for our spine, in particular our young halves in Tom Dearden, Tom Duffy and Jake Clifford.”

Maloney, 37, is three years older than North Queensland’s eldest player, Jake Granville, and five years older than his former halves partner Chad Townsend.

Meanwhile, the Roosters plan to rejuvenate the way they play and they have done so by making sweeping changes to their coaching and support staff.

Ex-Titans coach Justin Holbrook comes onto Trent Robinson’s coaching team but perhaps the biggest shift will be the transformation of former high-performance guru Hayden Knowles into a coaching position.

Knowles will work on skill development across the club while being the NRL’s ‘transition coach’.

Two-time premiership winner Brett Morris will be head coach of the club’s NSW Cup side while Boyd Cordner will work with Robinson and ex-hooker Jake Friend on the club’s pathways.

“Hayden has come in moving from more performance into starting his coaching career,” Robinson said. “His main role is skills throughout the whole of the Roosters systems – junior and seniors. He will also do last play transition.

Rooster head coach Trent Robinson with assistant Cooper Cronk. Picture: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

“Justin coming in to do the attack. Boyd on the defence. King spanning the two.

“B Moz (Morris) will develop his coaching through reserve grade which is a real a positive for him to go through the narrow view of an assistant to the wider view of a head coaching your own team. That’s part of his development. He will focus on the players he has developing through reserve grade. It is a big role.”

Cooper Cronk also retains his role with the club. The Roosters have also hired Simon Jones to be their new head of performance. Jones has a long career in rugby where he has worked with the All Blacks and Japanese national teams. He spent the past four seasons as head of athletic performance with Super Rugby club Highlanders.

“Our biggest change is Simon coming and Justin,” Robinson said. “Simon is a high performance manager which I really like. I like people from outside of rugby league. We have enough rugby league knowledge. It’s nice to have a wider variety.”

Will NSW Blues coach Michael Maguire keep his role at Canberra?

The Roosters are not the only club to embark on a drastic shift to their coaching staff. While the likes of St George Illawarra (Shane Flanagan), Gold Coast (Des Hasler) and Wests Tigers (Benji Marshall) have made changes to their head coach, a raft of clubs have also made significant moves to those who support the head coach.

Only grand finalists Penrith and Brisbane as well as Dolphins, Sharks, Knights and Eels have kept their coaching set-up the same.

The Cowboys are still in the market for an assistant coach while the Raiders may also be searching for one too given Michael Maguire’s impending move to coach the Blues.

The Bulldogs have revamped their structure completely under second-year coach Cameron Ciraldo with ex-Eels, Rabbitohs and Tigers mentor Jason Taylor joining as an assistant coach. They have also promoted Jersey Flegg premiership winning coach Luke Vella.

Former Bulldogs players Josh Jackson and Steve Turner will coach the club’s Jersey Flegg and SG Ball teams respectably.

Ex-Dragon Shaun Timmins will coach Illawarra’s SG Ball team.

Originally published as Club by club coaching guide: Inside your NRL club’s coaching set up in 2024