Keiron Cunningham has been reassured by St Helens that they recognise the scale of his task in succeeding Nathan Brown as the coach of the Super League champions.
Cunningham has become the first man since Brian McClennan, the New Zealander who took over from Tony Smith at Leeds in 2008, to accept the daunting job of building on a Grand Final victory. Leeds retained the title in McClennan’s first season in charge.
“The challenge ahead is an extremely big one since the competition will be stronger next season and beyond,” said Eamonn McManus, the St Helens chairman. “Keiron has the experience, ability and strength of personality to deal with it – and will receive all of our support in so doing.”
Cunningham’s first game in charge next February will be against a Catalans Dragons team determined to mark their 10th Super League season in style, having signed the occasionally errant but indisputably gifted Australian scrum-half Todd Carney.
Then Cunningham takes Saints on a short trip to Salford to face a Red Devils team who have also recruited extensively and intelligently but whose most significant piece of business may prove to have been persuading the fiery former England forward Gareth Hock to withdraw a transfer request – St Helens having appeared one of his more plausible destinations.
But McManus and Saints would dismiss defeats in both of those fixtures if Cunningham can plot a victory against the National Rugby League champions South Sydney in the club’s first appearance in the World Club Challenge since 2007.
That will be a landmark occasion at Langtree Park, the stadium where Saints have been playing since 2011, Cunningham having scored the last try at their old Knowsley Road ground in the autumn of 2010.
McManus, a former banker in Hong Kong who drove the move to a ground where the club has even started to turn a small profit, clearly relished the symbolism of appointing as coach the former hooker whose outstanding playing career was celebrated by the erection of a bronze statue on the approach to the new stadium. “We understand the town and the club and their highest expectations,” he said. “We will together continue to do our very best to meet them.”
Cunningham, a veteran of dozens of Saints-Wigan derbies during his playing career, said the Wigan coach, Shaun Wane, had been among the first to congratulate him, before his appointment was even announced. The Good Friday derby of next season, which has incendiary potential after the stormy events in the Grand Final meeting at Old Trafford, may benefit from the mutual respect between the pair.
“Shaun’s a really good friend of mine,” Cunningham said, adding that he had also been called by Daryl Powell, a former Great Britain team-mate now coaching Castleford. “I didn’t know I had that many friends.”
Cunningham added: “I’d agreed an extra two-year contract as an assistant but the idea was for Nathan to get me up to speed and, if I was ready, then I’d get the job. What Nathan has done for this club has been immense. He’s basically rebuilt the squad and put us in a good spot. There is nothing much going to change. We’ll fine-tune things if we can. I’ve been in charge of the attack for two years now and, if anything, we’ve added a bit of extra spice.”
Brown has gone home for family reasons, with no guarantee of employment, although he has been linked with a possible assistant coach role at Manly.
Cunningham has been involved in the decisions to sign Travis Burns from Hull KR, and Atelea Vea from London Broncos. “I’ve always seen myself as a leader,” he added. “From being young, it’s something I’ve always done. I swore to my wife that I was never going to rush into it. I’ve seen too many great players who have probably gone into a head coach’s role a little bit too soon. They thought they knew everything but fell flat on their face. I’m quite a humble person and if I wasn’t ready, I wouldn’t have taken the job.”
