One of New Zealand rugby league’s most decorated sons has been handed one of the biggest jobs in the game. The Manly Sea Eagles have confirmed former Kiwis five-eighth Kieran Foran as their permanent head coach on a three year deal that runs through to the end of the 2029 season, rewarding a turnaround that has dragged the Sydney club off the canvas and back into the NRL top eight.
Foran, who turns 36 this year, took charge as interim coach in the opening weeks of the campaign after Manly sacked Anthony Seibold. Seibold’s tenure ended after a wretched start in which the Sea Eagles lost three straight games at their Brookvale home and shipped almost a century of points, including a heavy defeat to a Sydney Roosters side carrying former Manly favourite Daly Cherry-Evans. The club turned to a man who already knew its corridors better than almost anyone.
The interim brief was meant to steady the ship. Instead Foran rebuilt it. Manly have won seven of the nine matches he has overseen, a 7 and 2 record that has lifted them to fifth on the 2026 ladder with seven wins and five losses from twelve rounds. That form line, rather than any sentimental pull, is what convinced the board to make the appointment permanent rather than shop the role around at season’s end.
“I’m truly honoured to be the head coach of a club that means so much to me, a club that has played a significant part in not just my footy career but my entire life,” Foran said in confirming the deal. It is not hard to see why he means it. He played 196 games for Manly across two separate stints as a premiership winning five-eighth, and was a central figure in the maroon and white era that delivered the 2011 title.
Sea Eagles chairman Scott Penn left no doubt about the thinking behind the call. “We’ve been impressed with everything Kieran has done since taking on the interim role and are delighted to appoint him for the next three years,” Penn said. The chairman has pointed to the fact that Foran only recently hung up his boots, giving him an immediate read on the demands of the modern game and the trust of a playing group that shared a dressing room with him.
For New Zealand fans the story carries an extra layer. Foran was born in Auckland and made his name as one of the country’s finest playmakers, winning 34 test caps for the Kiwis and scoring 44 points in the black and white jersey. He was part of the New Zealand side that won the 2014 Four Nations and later added the 2023 Pacific Cup, and at his peak he formed one of the most dangerous halves combinations the game has seen. A long and at times difficult playing career also took him to the Warriors, the Parramatta Eels, the Canterbury Bulldogs and the Gold Coast Titans before he returned to Manly as an assistant coach this season.
That journey, full of injuries and personal setbacks as well as silverware, is part of what makes the appointment resonate on this side of the Tasman. Foran is the latest in a line of New Zealanders to move from playing into senior NRL coaching, and he joins the head coaching ranks at a club where he is genuinely loved rather than merely employed. Manly will underline that bond by renaming their home ground “Foz Pines Park” for Thursday night’s match against South Sydney, a nod to the nickname that has followed him through his career.
The challenge now shifts from survival to ambition. Steadying a sinking season is one thing, building a side capable of going deep into September is another, and the permanent deal comes with an expectation that Manly will become genuine contenders again rather than a team that flatters and fades. Foran has spoken of wanting to continue the success the club has enjoyed across many decades, and a three year runway gives him the time to shape a roster and a style in his own image.
There is also a wider point for New Zealand rugby league. The Warriors aside, the country has long exported its best talent to Australian clubs, and seeing a Kiwi great installed as a head coach in the NRL rather than as a marquee player is a marker of how far that influence now reaches. Foran spent part of his own career at the Warriors, and a successful run in charge of Manly would only strengthen the case that New Zealanders belong in the game’s top coaching jobs.
For now the focus is Thursday, a renamed ground and a chance to keep a remarkable run going. From an interim caretaker to a man with a contract through 2029, Foran has turned a short term rescue mission into a long term project, and he has done it at the one club that has always felt like home.
You can read the full appointment details at NRL.com, with further coverage from Zero Tackle and the NZ Herald.
What do you make of Kieran Foran taking the reins at Manly, and which Kiwi do you rate as the next to land an NRL head coaching job? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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