Warriors assistant Andrew McFadden was shocked when Stephen Kearney asked him to work alongside him as Kiwis assistant coach and it means he now watches NRL games in a different way as he takes a closer interest in the New Zealand players.
McFadden was yesterday announced as Kearney's assistant for the next two years, starting with the Anzac test in Sydney on May 2. He takes over from Ivan Cleary, who couldn't continue because of his commitments as Panthers coach.
It means there's no room for David Kidwell, who was keen to be Kearney's assistant after missing out on the top job, but Kearney was looking for someone to oversee the side's attack - McFadden is an attack coach with the Warriors, Kidwell is a defence coach with the Wests Tigers.
"It was a pretty easy decision to make based on the skill-set needed," NZRL high performance manager Tony Iro said.
"We looked at the option of appointing two assistants to share the load with Stephen but with such a short preparation time, we decided to keep things really simple this time."
They will review the setup after the Anzac test and could look to involve Kidwell for the Four Nations at the end of the season.
Kearney approached McFadden when the Broncos and Warriors played a pre-season match in Dunedin last month.
"It wasn't something that I thought would come up but sometimes that's how things happen," McFadden said. "It's going to be a great experience and great for my coaching development. In terms of anything more than that [at international level] I don't know. I have aspirations to be a head coach of an NRL side one day."
McFadden joined Matt Elliott at the Warriors last year after previously working as an assistant coach with the Catalan Dragons in France and the Raiders. The 36-year-old got into coaching soon after retiring as a player in 2004 due to injuries - he played 100 games as halfback for the Raiders, Eels and Storm, where he was a teammate of Kearney's.
- By Michael Brown of APNZ
