John Morris (born 29 July 1980), is an Australian professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

coach who was the head coach of the

Cronulla Sutherland Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Cronulla, in the Sutherland Shire, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. They compete in the National Rugby League (National Rugby League, NRL), Australasia' ...

in the

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

, and a former professional rugby league footballer. He previously played as a or for the

Newcastle Knights The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. They compete in Australasia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Playing in red and blue, th ...

Parramatta Eels The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta that competes in the National Rugby League. The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, and their ...

Wests Tigers The Wests Tigers are an Australian professional Rugby league, rugby league football team, based in the Inner West and South West Sydney. They have competed in the National Rugby League since being formed at the end of the 1999 NRL season as a j ...

and the

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Cronulla, in the Sutherland Shire, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australasia's premier rugby league ...

in the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

. Morris was selected on the bench for

Country Origin The Country New South Wales rugby league team is a representative rugby league football team. Between 1987 and 2017 there were two tiers: the Origin team that consisted of professional players who originated from clubs of the Country Rugby Leagu ...

to play

City Origin The Sydney Rugby League team, known as the City Rugby League team, or Combined Sydney, or Sydney Firsts, or Sydney Capitals, is a representative rugby league team. From 2021, the men's team is to consist of players selected from the New South Wa ...

in 2002 and 2003.

Background

Morris was born in

Scone, New South Wales Scone is a town in the Upper Hunter Shire in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. At the 2006 census, Scone had a population of 5,624 people. It is on the New England Highway north of Muswellbrook about 270 kilometres north of Sydney ...

, Australia. He is the uncle of

Cronulla Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Cronulla, in the Sutherland Shire, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australasia's premier rugby league ...

player

Teig Wilton Teig Wilton (born 25 September 1999) is a professional rugby league footballer who plays as a forward for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the National Rugby League (NRL). Background Wilton played his junior rugby league for the Narooma Dev ...

Playing career

Morris played for the

Scone Thoroughbreds Scone Thoroughbreds is a country rugby league team, based in Scone, New South Wales, competing in the Group 21 competition under the auspices of the Country Rugby League. The club is the most successful team in Rugby League history, winning 29 ...

in his junior years. He made his NRL debut in round 17 of the

2001 NRL season The 2001 NRL season was the 94th season of professional rugby league football in Australia and the fourth run by the National Rugby League. Also called the 2001 Telstra Premiership (due to sponsorship from Telstra Corporation) it was contested b ...

for the

against the

Parramatta Stadium Parramatta Stadium was a sports stadium in Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia, 23 kilometres west of Sydney's central business district. The stadium was the home ground of several western Sydney-based sports teams, at the time of closure t ...

on 22 June 2001. Having won the 2001 NRL Premiership, the Newcastle club travelled to England to play the

2002 World Club Challenge The 2002 World Club Challenge was held on Friday, 1 February 2002, at the Alfred McAlpine Stadium, Huddersfield, England. The game was contested by Bradford Bulls and Newcastle Knights. Background Bradford Bulls The 2001 Super League Grand Final ...

against

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

champions, the

Bradford Bulls The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is predom ...

. Morris was selected to play from the interchange bench in Newcastle's loss. Morris played for NSW Country in 2002 and in 2003. Between 2003 and 2006, Morris played for Parramatta primarily at five-eighth and won the Minor Premiership with the club in the

2005 NRL season The 2005 NRL season was the 98th season of professional rugby league football in Australia and the eighth run by the National Rugby League. The lineup of clubs remained unchanged from the previous year, with fifteen teams contesting the 2005 Telst ...

. Morris played in Parramatta's 2005 shock 0-29 preliminary final defeat by

North Queensland North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its tropical northern part has been ...

. In 2007, Morris switched from Parramatta to the

on a three-year contract. He was bought as a replacement for the recently departed

Scott Prince Scott Prince (born 27 February 1980) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. An Australian international and Queensland State of Origin representative, he played club footba ...

. He played 72 games for the Tigers during this period, never missing a game. In 2009 he signed a two-year deal with the

commencing in 2010. In the 2013 finals series, Morris pulled off a try saving tackle on

player

Kane Linnett Kane Linnett (born 11 January 1989) is a Scotland international rugby league footballer who plays as a or forward for Hull Kingston Rovers in the Super League. He has previously played for the Sydney Roosters and the North Queensland Cowboys ...

in the final seconds of play as Cronulla-Sutherland won 20–18 at the

Sydney Football Stadium The Sydney Football Stadium, commercially known as Allianz Stadium and previously Aussie Stadium, was a football stadium in Moore Park, Sydney, Australia. Built in 1988 next to the Sydney Cricket Ground, the stadium was Sydney's premier rect ...

. On 26 May 2014, Morris played his 300th NRL career game against the

South Sydney Rabbitohs The South Sydney Rabbitohs are a professional Australian rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen pla ...

with the match finishing in an 18–0 loss at

Shark Park Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a Chondrichthyes#Skeleton, cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified with ...

. Morris played 11 games in the

2014 NRL season The 2014 NRL season was the 107th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 17th season of the National Rugby League in Australia and New Zealand. The season started in New Zealand, for the Auckland Nines, replacing the Rugby Leagu ...

which would be his last as a player. Cronulla finished the year bottom of the table and claimed the

Wooden Spoon Wooden Spoon may refer to: * Wooden spoon, implement * Wooden spoon (award) A wooden spoon is an award that is given to an individual or team that has come last in a competition. Examples range from the academic to sporting and more frivolous e ...

Coaching career

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks

In 2017, Morris became the new NYC coach for Cronulla and guided the side to the minor premiership before crashing out of the finals series. At the end of 2017, Morris was named NYC coach of the season. On 3 January 2019, Morris was named interim head coach of Cronulla after

Shane Flanagan Shane Flanagan (born 2 December 1965) is an Australian professional rugby league football coach, and was the Head Coach of the Cronulla Sutherland Sharks. He was appointed assistant coach of NRL team Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in 2006 and was s ...

was de-registered by the NRL for breaching conditions of a suspension handed down in 2014. On 31 January 2019, it was announced that Morris would be Cronulla's new full time coach going into the 2019 season. In his first season as Cronulla coach, Morris guided the club to a 7th-placed finish at the end of the 2019 regular season. Cronulla were eliminated from the finals in the first week losing to Manly 28–16 at

Brookvale Oval Brookvale Oval (also known by the commercial sponsorship name 4 Pines Park) is a sporting ground located within Brookvale Park at Brookvale, New South Wales, Australia. The ground is owned by Northern Beaches Council and is primarily used by th ...

. In the

2020 NRL season The 2020 NRL season was the 113th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 23rd season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 14th consecutive year. ; Notes : : : Pre-season ...

, Morris guided Cronulla to an 8th-placed finish and qualified for the finals. The club were eliminated in the first week of the finals by Canberra. On the 13 April 2021, it was announced Morris would leave Cronulla-Sutherland effective immediately with

Josh Hannay Josh Hannay (born 11 January 1980) is an Australian professional rugby league coach who is an assistant coach of the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the NRL and a former professional rugby league footballer who played as a in the 1990s and 2000 ...

to take over for the rest of the 2021 season pending the arrival of

Sydney Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby league, Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won ...

assistant coach

Craig Fitzgibbon Craig Fitzgibbon (born 16 June 1977) is an Australian professional rugby league coach and a former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s and is the current head coach of Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks. A N ...

as the new head coach starting in 2022.

References

External links

Cronulla Sharks profileJohn Morris at ''Wests Tigers''
1980 births Living people Australian rugby league coaches Country New South Wales Origin rugby league team players Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks coaches Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks players Newcastle Knights players Parramatta Eels players Rugby league five-eighths Rugby league halfbacks Rugby league hookers Rugby league players from Scone, New South Wales Scone Thoroughbreds players Wests Tigers players {{Australia-rugbyleague-bio-stub