Steven John Folkes (30 January 1959 – 27 February 2018) was 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 ...

footballer and coach of the

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facili ...

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 ...

. He represented both

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

and Australia

Playing career

Folkes, who was Captain of Punchbowl Boys' High School, came from the Bankstown Sports Junior Rugby League Club. He played 245 first grade games and 308 grade games for the Bulldogs between 1978 and 1991, as well as 24 games for Hull F.C. in England. He also represented

on nine occasions in State of Origin football. At the end of the 1986 NSWRL season, he went on the 1986 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France. He played a total of five Tests between 1986 and 1988. As a player, Folkes played in 6 Grand Finals (1979, 80, 84, 85, 86 and 88) winning on four occasions.

Coaching career

After serving as reserve grade coach of Canterbury between 1996 and 1997, Folkes was appointed coach of Canterbury-Bankstown to succeed Chris Anderson. In his first year as coach, Canterbury made the 1998 NRL grand final, where they lost to Wayne Bennett's Brisbane Broncos. Canterbury-Bankstown appeared poised to claim the 2002 NRL premiership but were disqualified and stripped 37 premiership points after a major salary cap breach was uncovered. Folkes claimed his premiership two seasons later with a 16–13 victory over the Sydney Roosters in the grand final. Steve Folkes was awarded

Dally M The Dally M Awards are the official annual player awards for the National Rugby League competition. As well as honouring the player of the year, who received the Dally M Medal, awards are also given to the premier player in each position, the be ...

''Coach of the Year'' in 2004. The 2004 grand final victory continued a unique tradition at the Bulldogs: Every coach appointed by the club since 1978 ( Ted Glossop, Warren Ryan, Phil Gould, Chris Anderson and Folkes) has won a premiership. At the end of the 2007 season, Folkes' win record with the Bulldogs was 60%. On 7 April 2008, Canterbury-Bankstown announced that Folkes tenure as would end with the 2008 season. To date, he remains the club's longest serving coach Following his departure from the Canterbury club, Folkes took up a position as strength and conditioning coach for the West Indies cricket team. In October 2009, Folkes returned to rugby league, accepting the role of strength and conditioning coach for the Wests Tigers. In 2011, he was an assistant coach with the club. It was announced in May 2011 that Folkes would join the St George Illawarra Dragons as the assistant coach to Steve Price from 2012. In 2014, Folkes was appointed head coach for the Australia women's national rugby league team.

Personal life

Folkes was married to Karen, the daughter of Bulldogs 'godfather',

Peter Moore Peter or Pete Moore may refer to: Politicians *Peter Moore (British politician) (1753–1828), English civil servant of the East India Company and politician *Peter Moore (Queensland politician) (born 1938), member of the Queensland Legislative As ...

. She died on 2 June 2013 from cancer.

Death

Folkes died at his home on 27 February 2018, reportedly of a heart attack, at the age of 59. An autopsy found that he had been suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative disease caused by repeated head injuries.

Coaching record

Footnotes

External links

Canterbury Bulldogs profileSteve Folkes Official Bulldogs profile
1959 births 2018 deaths Australia national rugby league team players Australia women's national rugby league team coaches Australian rugby league coaches Australian rugby league players Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs coaches Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs players Hull F.C. players New South Wales City Origin rugby league team players New South Wales Rugby League State of Origin players Rugby league players from Sydney Rugby league second-rows {{Australia-rugbyleague-bio-stub