Craig Coleman (born 31 January 1963) is an Australian former 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 Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

. He primarily played at , and remains fourth on the list of most first-grade games played for Souths, 208.

Playing career

Coleman was graded to South Sydney as a seventeen-year-old in 1980. In 1981 he played in the under-23 side coached by Brian Smith which lost only two games in the season and won the Grand Final at the

Sydney Cricket Ground The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in Sydney, Australia. It is used for Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australian rules football and occasionally for rugby league, rugby union and association f ...

. He made his first-grade début for South Sydney in round 14 of the 1982 season, playing off the bench against 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 facilit ...

Redfern Oval Redfern Oval is an Australian football ground, in the Sydney suburb of , New South Wales, Australia. The South Sydney Rabbitohs Rugby League Football Club played at Redfern Oval between 1948 and 1987. Rabbitoh supporters often refer to Redfern ...

. His first match at halfback was in round 22 of the 1982 season against Peter Sterling, and the

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 ...

. During his eleven seasons with Souths, Coleman spent three off-seasons playing in England –

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 census had a population of 61,464. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the northern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form th ...

Hull FC Hull Football Club, commonly referred to as Hull or Hull F.C., is a professional rugby league football club established in 1865 and based in West Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The club plays in the Super League competition and were ...

and

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...

. After he was released by Souths at the end of the 1992 season, he played a fourth off-season in England, for

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

. Due to his late return to Australia (after 1 February signing deadline), Coleman was unable to sign with the Gold Coast for the 1993 season. He threatened to take the

Australian Rugby League The Australian Rugby League Commission (ARL), formerly the Australian Rugby Football League known as the Australian Rugby League is an Australian rugby league football competition operator. It was founded in 1986 as the Australian Rugby Footbal ...

to court when he was denied the clearance but spent the year playing park football for the Coogee Wombats in Souths' A-grade competition. He was back in first grade in 1994 with the

Gold Coast Seagulls The Gold Coast Chargers were a professional rugby league club which played in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership from New South Wales Rugby League season 1988, 1988 to New South Wales Rugby League season 1994, 1994, the Australian Ru ...

, and finished his first-grade career playing one season for the

Western Suburbs Magpies The Western Suburbs Magpies (legal name: Western Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club Ltd) are an Australian rugby league football club based in the western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. Formed in 1908, Wests, as they are commonly r ...

in 1996 under coach,

Tommy Raudonikis Thomas Walter Raudonikis (13 April 1950 – 7 April 2021) was an Australian rugby league footballer and coach. He played 40 International games and World Cup games as Australia representative and captained his country in two matches of the 1 ...

Coaching career

Coleman returned to the Rabbitohs as a reserve-grade coach and took over from

Steve Martin Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He has won five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 2013. Additionally, he was nominate ...

as first-grade coach in round 19 of the 1998 season. In 2000, the Rabbitohs were excluded from 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 ...

competition. Coleman, while working as a baggage handler for Ansett, joined the fight to have the club included in the competition. On the club's return in the 2002 season, Coleman was once again head coach but after a poor season the South Sydney board considered his position in late September. A split decision opted to retain Coleman as coach but revised the coaching staff, appointing

Phil Blake Phil Blake (born 24 November 1963) is a former rugby league footballer and a professional rugby union coach. Originally a , Blake developed into a utility player and played first grade matches in all the backline positions, as well as at and ...

(former Souths utility player) as the club's new coaching coordinator with

Paul Langmack Paul Langmack (born 10 May 1965) is an Australian former rugby league coach and representative and premiership-winning player. Langmack won three premierships with the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in the mid-eighties. He later joined the Weste ...

appointed as defensive coach. Five months later and only eleven days before the official start of the 2003 season, Coleman was sacked by the club after a series of losses in the pre-season trials. Under his coaching, the Rabbitohs won 17 of 54 games (31%) over three playing seasons. 1999 was the most successful of Coleman's coaching seasons in NRL, with the Rabbitohs narrowly missing the semi-finals.

References

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Footnotes

External links

''Craig Coleman'' at ''stats.rleague.com''''Craig Coleman'' at ''NRL Stats''All Time Players Records from 1908-2015
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coleman, Craig 1963 births Living people Australian rugby league coaches Australian rugby league players Gold Coast Chargers players Hull F.C. players Leeds Rhinos players Rugby league halfbacks Rugby league players from Sydney Salford Red Devils players South Sydney Rabbitohs captains South Sydney Rabbitohs coaches South Sydney Rabbitohs players Western Suburbs Magpies players Widnes Vikings players