Ivan Cleary claims the club administration “didn’t want me,” which is why he quit his position as head coach of the Warriors.
In his latest book, Not Everything Counts, But Everything Matters, the modern-day NBA great coach—who was a player for and coach of the Warriors—opens up about the highs and lows of his career.
This includes the highs, like winning four Premierships with Penrith and mentoring his son, Nathan, who is among the finest players in the world, and the lows, like struggling with depression, Sonny Fai’s untimely death, and his tumultuous departure from the Warriors.
Both Ivan and Nathan Cleary could be at the Warriors if things were managed differently, according to mentor and former All Blacks coach John Hart, who served as the team’s executive director of football. This revelation would make long-suffering Warriors fans shiver.
And according to his new book, which was published in Australia on Wednesday, he wanted to stay in his position. In mid-2011, he asked Warriors management for a contract extension after being approached about a possible move to coach the Penrith Panthers.
The Warriors didn’t want me, but I hadn’t wanted to leave. They were looking for someone who could help them advance. They have the right to do so because it was a business decision.
After the 2009 season, when the team was shaken by tragedy and finished in 14th place, Cleary claimed he had worried that he was “on borrowed time as head coach of the New Zealand Warriors.”
He believed that the board and club owner at the time, Eric Watson, preferred a Kiwi to coach the team, and Brian McClennnan was the preferred candidate.
However, McClennan’s decision to leave the team inside the first season of his two-year contract set off a coaching whirlpool.
Cleary wrote, “John did everything he could to persuade the Warriors to keep me, but when he realized that he was no longer receiving support, he played a key role in arranging my early departure so I could join the Panthers for the 2012 season.
In the foreword of the book, Hart also discusses Cleary’s departure from the Warriors at the conclusion of the 2011 campaign.
He claimed that he “held him the highest regard” and that the two shared a “close bond.