Rugby League Coaching Manuals

Barry Toohey, Daily Telegraph - Illawarra's title-winning coach, Brett Jones, has emerged as a contender to coach NSW Country this season. Jones is one of four contenders for the job with incumbent Mal Graham, CRL development manager Chris Brennan and Northern Rivers junior coach Wayne Cullen also throwing their hat in the ring.

The position will be voted on at a meeting of the CRL's management committee this month. Graham, who coaches Newcastle club Macquarie and was previously on the coaching staff at the Knights, has been at the helm of Country for the past three seasons and has done an outstanding job.

He is highly regarded by officials and players and the CRL will find it hard to go past him. If they do vote for a change, Jones' credentials stack up. Illawarra has been the dominant division under his coaching over the past two seasons, winning the Centenary Cup last year.

The Country under-18s coaching job is also hotly contested. Singleton's Gary Gardner, who has coached the side for the past three years, is a contender again, along with former Firsts coach Scott Mieni, Lithgow's Graeme Osborne, highly credentialled North Coast coach Peter Barrett and Cullen, who is in for both jobs.