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| Born | (1961-01-23)23 January 1961 (age 64) Hobart,Tasmania, Australia[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Position | Five-eighth | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Neil Henry (born 23 January 1961) is an Australian professionalrugby league football coach and former player. He was formerly the head coach for the Canberra Raiders, North Queensland Cowboys andGold Coast Titans of theNational Rugby League. He has been described as, "one of the game's best tacticians."[3]
Henry was a foundation player of the Raiders, having played for the club from1982 and1984 in the lower grades.[citation needed] After a succession ofplayer-coach positions at local clubs in theCanberra and Cooma in the Group 8 and 16 competitions, he was made coach of thePerth Reds' Under 19 team in 1997, before coaching Raiders SG Ball and Jersey Flegg teams between 1999 and 2002.[citation needed]He played forHull FC[4] in England for one season.
He was previously the assistant coach of theNorth Queensland Cowboys between 2003 and 2006 under Graham Murray and assistant toMal Meninga in theQueensland State of Origin team from 2006 to 2009.
In his first season as an NRL head coach, Henry incurred a fine of $10,000 for Canberra by questioning the impartiality of the referee following a round 19 loss toMelbourne Storm in 2007. A supporters led fundraiser raised the money within days and was donated to charity.[5]
Henry was namedDally MCoach of the Year for 2008, ahead of other nomineesCraig Bellamy,Ricky Stuart andDes Hasler.[6]
In October, 2009, Henry returned toTownsville, Queensland to take over fromIan Millward as head coach of theNorth Queensland Cowboys. He was also coach of theIndigenous Dreamtime team who played the Welcome to Country game against a NZ Maori team before the2008 Rugby League World Cup.
Henry coached theIndigenous All Stars in the inauguralAll Stars match in 2010, with the Indigenous All Stars prevailing 16–12.
In 2010, Henry was an assistant coach of the PM XIII team that played PNG. In 2010, Henry had a lean year as North Queensland won just five out of its 24 games, only avoiding the wooden spoon afterMelbourne were stripped of its premiership points forsalary cap breaches. In 2011, Henry was able to turn it around by winning 14 games.
Henry was a finalist for Dally M coach of the year in 2011.[7]
However, on 29 July 2013, Neil Henry was informed by theNorth Queensland Cowboys chairman,Laurence Lancini, that his services would no longer be needed in 2014 despite the club making the finals three years in a row.[8]
On 28 September 2013, it was announced that the former North Queensland mentor signed withGold Coast Titans as an assistant coach.[9] He was elevated to the role of interim coach afterJohn Cartwright tendered his resignation following a disappointing 2014 season for the club.[10]
On 17 August 2014, Henry coached his first game with theGold Coast Titans in a 15–12 defeat by theManly-Warringah Sea Eagles on the Gold Coast.
On 21 August 2017, Henry was sacked from his position as head coach of theGold Coast Titans. The sacking came in the wake of a highly publicised feud between Henry and the then Gold Coast playerJarryd Hayne.[11][12][13]
2018 saw Henry return to representative coaching, taking the Junior Kangaroos to a win over the Junior Kiwis. In 2019 Henry was coach of an Australia A (under 23) team which defeated a French team 62–4 in Wollongong. In 2019, Henry began work for the NRL acting as a coaching consultant. Henry re-joined the Queensland State of Origin staff in 2020 as an assistant coach to Wayne Bennett in their series win over NSW. In 2021, he will be assistant to Paul Green.
Henry has recently turned his hand to expert commentary on Fox Sports.
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| Preceded by Matthew Elliott 2002-2006 | Coach Canberra Raiders 2007-2008 | Succeeded by David Furner 2009-2013 |