Tim Sheens - Coaching Career

Coaching Career

Although his first ever game as first-grade coach was a 24–12 loss to St George, Tim Sheens has a track-record of reforming under-performing teams to premiership victory. He brought Penrith to their first finals series ever in 1985 and he coached the Canberra Raiders to their first premiership in 1989. In the post season he travelled with the Raiders to England for the 1989 World Club Challenge which was lost to Widnes.

Sheens won further premierships with Canberra in 1990 and 1994. However, his time with the North Queensland Cowboys (1997–2001) was less successful and, after board discussions, a period of stress-leave and while News Limited launched a take-over of the club, he resigned from North Queensland on 25 May 2001.

In 2002, Sheens accepted the coaching position with the Wests Tigers for the 2003 season, replacing Terry Lamb. The feat of the Wests Tigers winning the 2005 Grand Final against the Cowboys has been largely attributed to Sheens.

Sheens has coached four premiership winning teams, making him second only to Wayne Bennett among current coaches. Sheens was awarded the Dally M Coach of the Year in 1984, 1990 and 2005.

In December 2007, Sheens' contract with the Tigers – due to expire at the end of the 2008 season – was extended to 2010.

On 3 May 2010 Sheens became the first coach in Australian rugby league history to reach 600 games. In 2011, Penrith Panthers offered Tim the job as head coach for the club. However, on 29 April 2011, Tim decided to stay coach for the Tigers and extended his coaching contract for until 2014. On 25 September 2012, after days of speculation about Sheen's future due to a poor recent season, the Tigers announced Sheens would not coach the team in the 2013 season, but offered him other roles at the club.