England coach Steve McNamara has been appointed as an assistant coach

[SConcierge]

England coach Steve McNamara has been appointed as an assistant coach at the Sydney Roosters.

The premiers have been on the lookout for another assistant to Trent Robinson after Paul Green left to take up the head coaching position at North Queensland.

After a worldwide search, they settled on McNamara, whose England side recently lost a heartbreaking World Cup semifinal against New Zealand.

It is unclear whether he will retain the national duties after taking on the new post.

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McNamara will join a coaching staff which includes Jason Taylor, Craig Fitzgibbon and under 20s mentor Adam Hartigan next year. He was linked to a number of positions, most notably at the Parramatta Eels and Bath rugby union club, but chose to further his career with the NRL champions.

Several star England players including Sam Burgess, James Graham and Kevin Sinfield publicly backed McNamara after their last-minute loss to the Kiwis.

The 42 year old had a distinguished playing career in the English Super League for Hull, Bradford, Wakefield Trinity and Huddersfield.

The backrower earned national honours before taking over as coach of Bradford and then Great Britain.

The Roosters, attempting to become the first team to win back-to-back titles since the Brisbane sides of 1992-3, are expected to make an official announcement about the appointment on Friday.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/l...#ixzz2nGTy3STO

[Tommy Smith]

Wow ... interesting addition.

Robbo must hold him in very high esteem to add him as his assistant.

And he knows better than us so I'm excited by what he might be able to bring.

[Guest]

I think Wigan's chances of giving the Roosters a game has improved.

[rwbfl]

I think Wigan's chances of giving the Roosters a game has improved.

Wouldn't his addition make it harder for Wigan? Since he should no their team and players fairly well? Or better than our current staff anyway

[Darkone]

Wow ... interesting addition.

Robbo must hold him in very high esteem to add him as his assistant.

And he knows better than us so I'm excited by what he might be able to bring.

I think its more about what he can learn from our staff

a strong addition to our structure & again strengthens our efforts to retain the title.

[Kingsgrove-Loiner]

I know we all TIT, but this doesn't make sense.

A bloke who couldn't hack it as a club coach in SL, and who got the England gig because no one else wanted it.....and who just got the arse, being picked up by the premiers?

Maybe he's a good bus driver.

[theGman]

McNamara was present at Allianz Stadium towards our run into the finals.
He obviously wasn't just there as the Poms coach doing his homework for the upcoming World Cup campaign.

[Guest]

Kiwi's got lucky, poms by far the better team, just lacked of discipline from george burgess, NO WAIT more like more like SBW at his usual professional best, sucker punch george

[stsae]

I know we all TIT, but this doesn't make sense.

A bloke who couldn't hack it as a club coach in SL, and who got the England gig because no one else wanted it.....and who just got the arse, being picked up by the premiers?

Maybe he's a good bus driver.

I can recall last pre-season and many thought Maubs, Friendly and FPN would not make the 17 over the SuperMegaresherveGraders.

But Trent knew.

New season, fresh ideas and a different approach from a coaching perspective can't be a bad thing.

We haven't purchased much player wise.

Every team needs to evolve every season.

Looking forward to see what he brings to the table.

[roosterproud]

the career so far

Hull

Steve joined Hull from local amateur side Skirlaugh at the age of 17 and He was selected to go on the 1992 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand. McNamara won caps for Great Britain while at Hull in 1992 against France (sub), in 1993 against France (sub), won caps for England while at Hull in 1995 against Wales (sub), and France. He'd spent seven years with Hull, before moving to Bradford in 1996.

Bradford

While at Bradford in 1996 he also played for England against France. He played for Great Britain while at Bradford in 1997 against Australia (SL) (2 matches) (sub). McNamara played for Bradford Bulls at loose forward in the 1999 Super League Grand Final which was lost to St Helens RLFC. In 1999 he represented England against France (2 matches). At Bradford he was the main goal kicker and kicked over 319 goals.

Wakefield Trinity

McNamara was released from the Bulls in 2000 and joined Wakefield Trinity Wildcats. In 2000, at the height of a financial crisis at Wakefield Trinity, the contracts of all players aged over 24 were terminated during September 2000. The players affected were; Andy Fisher, Bobbie Goulding, Warren Jowitt, Tony Kemp (player-coach), Steve McNamara, Francis Maloney, Martin Masella, Steve Prescott, Bright Sodje, Francis Stephenson and Glen Tomlinson

McNamara joined Huddersfield before joining the coaching staff at Odsal at the end of the 2003 season.

Coaching career

He coached the Bradford Senior Academy to Grand Final success in his first year as a coach at the club. Since joining the coaching staff at Bradford, he has been named as Bradford coach following the departure of Brian Noble. Bradford fans became increasingly frustrated with his team's lacklustre performances since taking over the reins in 2006 and following defeat by Harlequins RL (the 8th defeat in a row, the Bulls worst run in Super League history) his Bradford career came to an inglorious end as his contract was mutually terminated on 13 July 2010.

On 20 April 2006 Steve was promoted to head coach of Bradford following Brian Noble's departure to Wigan. At the time he was the youngest coach in Britain.

In his first season in charge, he guided Bradford to the Super League playoffs before the club were knocked out of the grand final eliminator by Hull

McNamara was appointed Great Britain assistant coach on 30 April 2007.

His coaching career while at Bradford contains several unwanted records, such as being the first Bradford coach in Super League to fail to guide his team to the end of season play-offs and being in charge for the worst losing streak the club has seen in 20 years.

His time as Bradford head coach came to an end on 13 July 2010 as the Bradford board ended his contract by mutual consent and allowed him to become full time England coach.

As of April 2010 he was part time England coach until the end of the 2010 Super League season. He became full time England coach afterwards. He won his first game as England coach against France 60-6. This game was played at the Leigh Sporting Village on Saturday 12 June 2010.

11th of the12th 13 he joined the Sydney roosters to help them win their 14th premiership.

[Tommy Smith]

I think its more about what he can learn from our staff

a strong addition to our structure & again strengthens our efforts to retain the title.

I totally disagree.

We didn't sign McNamara out of the kindness of our hearts to teach the bloke a few things.

We're not a charity. Clearly Robbo thinks we can gain a lot from his presence. As such I'm all for his appointment because Robbo has never given us reason to have anything less than absolute faith in his decision making

[Guest]

At least he will be comfortable decking out in our club colours

[The Rooster Oracle]

He will be a good signing if he is well liked by the players, a good motivator and can contribute to our game plans. It is very important that he is liked by the players otherwise he could be counter productive. Brandon Costin was Robbo's replacement as Smiffy's assistant coach back in 2011, and he was $hithouse as the players didn't like him.

You would think that our club could have got Steve Georgallis or Trent Barrett if we wanted to, but instead opted for McNamara. Must indicate that he was Robbo's preference and must see him as the best option.

[Guest]

The poms did give Australia their closest and toughest game of the World Cup and if it wasn't for dopey George Burgess they would've had a re match with the Aussies in the final so he might just know what he's doing.

[SConcierge]

I totally disagree.

We didn't sign McNamara out of the kindness of our hearts to teach the bloke a few things.

We're not a charity. Clearly Robbo thinks we can gain a lot from his presence. As such I'm all for his appointment because Robbo has never given us reason to have anything less than absolute faith in his decision making

I agree ESL is a great attacking game, I am sure he has plenty to bring to the table