Craig Deans (born 7 May 1974) is an Australian former football (soccer) player and former head coach of the

Newcastle Jets Newcastle United Jets Football Club, commonly known as Newcastle Jets, is an Australian professional soccer club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier competition, the A-League, under licence from The Australian ...

Playing career

Deans was a central defender for multiple Australian clubs, with most of his appearances coming in the National Soccer League. He made only two appearances in the A-League before a long period of injury Deans forced him into retirement as a professional player in 2007. He had success with the Perth Glory, winning two titles at the club.

Coaching career

In 2008, Deans became the inaugural

youth team In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future i ...

coach for the

for their team in the new

A-League National Youth League A-League Youth, formerly known as the National Youth League and Y-League, is an Australian national soccer youth developmental and under-21s league, founded by Football Federation Australia and now run by the Australian Professional Leagues. Th ...

. On 5 October 2011, he was appointed interim manager of the

after the sacking of Branko Culina. He returned to his previous job when a full time manager was appointed. In 2014 he took over the club's youth team, and then in 2015 he became the head coach of the Women's team. In the 2015/16 W-League season he won the Coach of the Year award for rebuilding a Newcastle Jets team that had senior players Emily van Egmond, Hayley Crawford, Tori Huster, Angela Salem, Katherine Reynolds and Amber Neilson all exit the club in the off-season. After the sacking of Ernie Merrick in Round 13 of the 2019/20 A-League season he once again took the role of interim manager. He had the role for 5 games, with 1 win, 1 draw and 3 defeats and did not apply for the role on a full-time basis. After Carl Robinson was appointed Deans went back to his usual role as an assistant coach.

Newcastle Jets Head Coaching Appointment

When Robinson joined the

Western Sydney Wanderers Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (colloquially known as Western Sydney, or simply as Wanderers) is an Australian professional soccer club based in the Western Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier ...

after they had sacked Jean-Paul de Marigny prior to the start of the Covid delayed 2020/21 season, Deans once again took the interim head coaching role with his first game a 1–0 loss to the Central Coast Mariners on New Year's Eve, December 31, 2020. Unlike earlier occasions Deans applied to take over the head coaching role permanently. After 7 games his side had 2 wins, 1 draw and 4 losses then on Wednesday the 10th of February 2021 he was appointed on a two-year contract as the full time head coach. On 3 June 2021, Deans announced that he would be resigning as the manager of the Newcastle Jets at the conclusion of the season.

Honours

With Perth Glory: * NSL Championship: 2002–2003, 2003–2004 With Newcastle Jets: * W-League Coach of the Year : 2015–16

References

External links

Newcastle Jets profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Deans, Craig 1974 births Living people Soccer players from Perth, Western Australia Australian soccer players A-League Men players National Soccer League (Australia) players Carlton S.C. players Perth Glory FC players Newcastle Jets FC players Newcastle Jets FC managers A-League Men managers A-League Women managers Association football defenders Newcastle United Jets FC players Australian soccer coaches