Parramatta captain Tim Mannah has backed Stephen Kearney to help the Warriors realise their unfulfilled potential. Photo / Getty Images.
Parramatta captain Tim Mannah has backed Stephen Kearney to help the Warriors realise their unfulfilled potential. Photo / Getty Images.
The dramas Stephen Kearney endured in his first incarnation as an NRL head coach have him well positioned to excel at the rugby league enigma that is the Warriors.
That is the opinion of Parramatta skipper Tim Mannah, who believes Kearney is the man to turn the Warriors fortunes around.
Kearney won just 10 of 42 games in 2011 and 2012 in his first head coaching gig in the NRL with the Eels before standing down late in his second season.
Since then he has built New Zealand into the best rugby league side in the world as coach.
He has also been credited with developing Brisbane's reputations as one of the best defensive outfits in the NRL while working under Wayne Bennett.
"I think he will really excel with the Warriors," Mannah told AAP.
"Steve is a great person. I have seen him grow a lot over the last few years. What he has done with the Kiwis is pretty special and working under Wayne he will have learnt a lot of things.
"He has become a lot more balanced over there and I'm sure he will succeed."
Mannah says he always believed Kearney would find another NRL head coaching gig after an unsuccessful stint at the Eels. Photo / Getty Images.
Mannah said it was the familiar tale of turmoil at the Eels that consumed Kearney when he was at Parramatta, not the fact he wasn't ready for the role.
"I don't know if he came in too early, he was ready for it, I think the club situation at the time, pretty similar to a lot of coaches that came around that time, there was a lot of turmoil there wasn't much stability and that didn't help him," said Mannah, who remains in regular contact with Kearney.
"If it was another time it might have been a different story, I don't think he was rushed into it, I think he was ready and I think he is ready now
"He is very personable, he is easy to talk to and relate to.
"I always thought he would get another gig somewhere else, it was just going to be a matter of time."
Kearney has spent the last two seasons at Red Hill as an assistant under Bennett. That would allow him to hit the ground running in Auckland, Mannah said.
"The success that Brisbane have had over the last couple of years, Steve has had a big part in that," he said.
