Dean Young emerges as fresh contender for vacant head coach position at Parramatta
In the competition for the Parramatta Eels’ open head coaching position, a late bloomer has surfaced.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Dragons have given assistant coach Dean Young a second interview opportunity.
Wayne Bennett, whom the Eels attempted to recruit before the supercoach committed to the Rabbitohs, has given him a great recommendation for the position.
“You can’t coach if you can’t lead. He ticks that box,” Bennett told the Herald.
“He’s an outstanding person. Simple as that. When you go through all the details of what makes someone outstanding, that’s what he is.”
Young played under Bennett in the Dragons’ triumphant 2010 campaign.
“The best part is Dean actually wants to do it … he obviously thinks he can do it, and I know Dean Young well enough to know he wouldn’t have applied for the job if he didn’t have the qualifications and the ability to do it,” Bennett explained.
“Those champion players, they don’t like failure, no matter what they do. He’s in one of those categories. He’s doesn’t do failure.
“One thing about Dean, he doesn’t talk it. He lives it. That separates him from a lot of people.”
Bennett also revealed to the Herald he had previously tried to recruit Young to both the Rabbitohs and Dolphins to work as an assistant under him.
Young made 209 appearances for the Dragons between 2003 and his retirement in 2012. He moved into coaching not long after.
His only real experience as a head coach at NRL level came at the back end of the 2020 season when he held an interim role at the Dragons after Paul McGregor was sacked.
After Anthony Griffin was given the Dragons job for 2021, Young moved to the Cowboys where he did three years under Todd Payten. Shane Flanagan brought him back to the Dragons for this season.
He’s also held roles with the Indigenous All-Stars team, and with the Tongan national team alongside Kristian Woolf in 2022.
To this point, Jason Ryles and Josh Hannay were considered favourites for the Parramatta job.
Michael Chieka, Michael Maguire and interim coach Trent Barrett were also in the early running but have since dropped out.
Despite having turned down the job himself, Bennett praised the Eels as a club.
“It’s a wonderful club, it was the club of the ’80s,” he said.
“It’s had some success over its time and they have had some lean years. They’re a bit like the Dragons, they didn’t win a premiership for a long time until Dean played in that premiership team.
“Those clubs have been through the Super League war, the reduction of teams, all of that type of stuff.
“They have survived and are stronger than they have ever been. It’s a credit to them, there’s nothing there you wouldn’t want to coach.”
