{"id":322019,"date":"2025-12-18T02:17:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T02:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/322019\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T02:17:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T02:17:14","slug":"former-wigan-warriors-forward-switches-sports-as-coaching-role-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/322019\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Wigan Warriors forward switches sports as coaching role revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1200\" height=\"767\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1Z1B8067.jpg\" class=\"attachment- size- wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/>\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<p>Former Wigan Warriors man Ryan Hoffman has landed a new role down under that has seen him switch sports.<\/p>\n<p>Hoffman, who represented the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seriousaboutrl.com\/rugby-league\/wigan-warriors\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cherry and Whites<\/a> for one season in 2011, will move to the Australian Football League, or AFL, and will work with Melbourne Demons.<\/p>\n<p>Joining in a leadership role where he will utilise his incredible experience he has gathered over a 16-year career, the news comes from Australian outlet \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/nrl-great-joins-new-look-demons-171819\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Zero Hanger<\/a>\u2018 \u2013 who also confirmed that he has quietly been in the role for close to a month.<\/p>\n<p>The Melbourne Storm legend will work with the side weekly, and is one of many changes to the club\u2019s coaching staff in recent times.<\/p>\n<p>Hoffman isn\u2019t the first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seriousaboutrl.com\/rugby-league\/nrl\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a> great to switch to the AFL, with fellow Storm icon and current Queensland head coach Billy Slater making the move in 2019, where he had a brief stint with St Kilda.<\/p>\n<p>The ex-Warrior is a six-time Australian international and a 14-time New South Wales representative. He also racked up an impressive 325 NRL games, before retiring from playing in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>At Wigan, he was part of the Challenge Cup-winning squad that defeated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seriousaboutrl.com\/rugby-league\/leeds-rhinos\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Leeds Rhinos<\/a> in 2011. In 35 games under Michael McGuire, he scored 11 tries, including one on debut in a 16-16 draw against St Helens at that year\u2019s edition of Magic Weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Check out the latest episode of The Serious About Rugby League Show on our <a class=\"in-cell-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RJEg5OR1XRo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">YouTube channel here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Exclusive: Melbourne has called on former Australia and Origin forward Ryan Hoffman in an off-field capacity. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/eg2DcmyZb8\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/eg2DcmyZb8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Zero Hanger (@zerohanger) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/zerohanger\/status\/2001109104019038722?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">December 17, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765275256_81_srl-logo.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Wigan Warriors man Ryan Hoffman has landed a new role down under that has seen him switch&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-322019","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\/322019","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=322019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}