{"id":285172,"date":"2025-11-26T23:05:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T23:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/285172\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T23:05:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T23:05:16","slug":"ex-man-of-steel-takes-up-head-coaching-role-alongside-former-super-league-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/285172\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Man of Steel takes up head coaching role alongside former Super League men"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Former Super League Man of Steel, Ben Barba, has taken up a coaching role in Australia, following his retirement from playing.<\/p>\n

The former St Helens man, who was named the competition\u2019s best in 2018, has recently announced the decision to hang up his boots, but will stay within the sport and will take the helm at a side in Australia.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old began his career in 2008, and went on to make 168 NRL appearances, scoring 99 tries.<\/p>\n

He came to the UK near the end of the 2017 season, becoming a key part of Saints\u2019 free-flowing attack. He left the club at the end of 2018.<\/p>\n

Off-field issues saw him banned from playing NRL or Super League for the rest of his career, and after brief stints playing football and Aussie Rules, he moved back the 13-man code to play in the regional leagues.<\/p>\n

He featured for Souths Sharks, in Mackay\u2019s NQBE A Grade competition in 2025, and that is where he will take the reigns, after helping them to Premiership success on the field.<\/p>\n

Also in the Sharks side this season were former Catalans Dragons duo Sam Kasiano and Kenny Edwards, as well as ex-Hull FC man Mahe Fonua who recently announced his retirement from the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure a few people already know but I have taken up the role as South Sharks RL Mackay A Grade coach for 2026,\u201d Barba confirmed to media Down Under.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething I\u2019m absolutely looking forward to but nervous at the same time but with the help of the great people at the club I\u2019m looking to make 2026 just as successful as this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next season, the club will join forces with the \u2018League Kings Academy\u2019, founded by Edwards, meaning that the club will have a fully functioning youth set up to allow them to develop their own players.<\/p>\n

Coaching the academy will be Fonua and former FC teammate Manu Ma\u2019u, who retired from the sport in 2024.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Super League Man of Steel, Ben Barba, has taken up a coaching role in Australia, following his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-285172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}