News from the sideline: find out who's coaching your club in 2027

The 2026 season is barely in the rear-view mirror but clubs are already planning for their 2027 campaigns.

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Several Group 4 clubs have announced their coaching appointments.

Some will welcome new faces to the helm; some have gone with the status quo. One has even wound back the clock.

After steering them into the preliminary final, Trent Taylor has been reappointed Dungowan coach for the 2027 season. File photo Gareth Gardner

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After guiding the Cowboys back into the finals arena for the first time in several seasons, Trent Taylor has been given the nod to build on what he and the team achieved in 2026.

"It was a big step in the right direction," he said.

In their 25th anniversary season, the Cowboys bowed out in the preliminary final at the hands of two-time defending champions Moree.

"It was not how we wanted to finish, but to actually make the finals and be there in the end was pretty pleasing for me as a coach, but also as a player," Taylor said.

Stepping up to the captain-coach role after serving as the side's co-captain, and then sole captain for the 2025 season, the extra responsibility brought out the best in the 25-year-old.

"It took my game to another level," he said.

He went so far as to rate 2026 probably his best season in a Cowboys jersey.

"I wanted to be a leader, not just with my words but with my actions," he said.

Acknowledging that he needed to "grow up" when it came to some of his actions on the field, such as backchat "and stuff like that", he said he felt he had grown as a leader this year, not just on the field, but off it.

To that end, the biggest lesson he took from stepping up to the coaching role was that it wasn't just about his own game anymore.

"You're not just the player turning up to play, you've got to make sure you've got everyone there ready to go, everyone's happy, everyone's on the same page," he said.

Hoping to go at least a step further next season, Taylor identified consistency as the biggest key to doing that.

"Over the last two or three years we've played with inconsistent teams...whereas this year we went into each game with the same group of boys playing," he said.

"If we can stick together and build on those bonds and relationships on the field that we built this year, it will go a fair way towards being successful in the coming season."

"But it also comes down to our willingness and how hard we train during the preseason."

"I think we had a great preseason this year and it put us in the position to be where we were this year."

The Bulldogs will be keeping it in the family.

Callum Hayne will take over the Bulldogs coaching reins from father Sean.

The hooker takes over the coaching role from his dad, Sean.

When Hayden Bell took on the Blues' first grade coaching role for the 2026 season, he and assistant coach Brodie Rumsby always intended it to be more than a one-year project.

"We thought if we're going to do it, we want to take it on for two years," Bell said.

Hayden Bell ,pictured with wife, Sally, and their children: Jack, left, Hunter, Charlotte and Georgie. will coach Narrabri again in 2027. Picture by Snapped! by Kylie Browne

So when the club approached them about continuing on in 2027 it was an easy yes.

Especially after what they measured as a successful season, not just for the first grade side but the club as a whole after sitting out the 2025 season because of a lack of numbers.

It didn't necessarily start well for first grade. A 64-4 loss to Werris Creek in their opening game was "a bit of a reality check" for Bell and Rumsby.

But they ended up picking up a couple of wins - and in Bell's mind probably should have had a couple more - and finished sixth of eight teams.

"We were just delighted to see those players after a couple of years out continue to turn up, to try to improve," Bell said.

"We had some really good wins throughout the season and had some really good games at home, especially when we got [ex-NRL player] James Maloney down."

"It was the biggest crowd I've ever seen at Narrabri and it just showed what rugby league does bring to Narrabri."

This season is about "continuing on where we left off".

"As long as we finish in front of where we finished this year and continue on improving I think that's a success for us," he said.

He can't see any reason they shouldn't. With the squad they had, with a couple of additions and some juniors coming through, and the coaching staff across the club everything is "lining up in the direction we want to go".

It's just a matter of "buying in that little more, training that little bit harder, and doing all the things that premiership winning teams consist of " like those "one per cent efforts".

"Building that camaraderie within the team as well, making sure that the whole team's nice and tight and everyone knows and is buying into the standard that we want to set," he added.

Nick Millar was only ever supposed to be in Boggabri for six months. The plan was to play a season with his older brother Nathan.

Eight years later he is deeply ingrained in the town, to the point that last season he and Nathan revived the local cricket team.

Nick Millar will step up to coach Boggabri this coming season. File picture Mark Bode

Both will also have coaching roles with the Kangaroos for the 2027 season with Nathan to take charge of the under 18s side with Cam Kerr while Nick will coach the first grade side.

He takes over from Shane Rampling, who stepped down following the 2026 season after eight seasons at the helm.

His hulking figure was a notable absence from the field the just-completed season, linking up with a good friend at Coolah.

"He rang up and said they were short this year. I said I'd give him one year and come back," Millar said.

He said coaching first grade is something he's always wanted to do.

"I've got my best mate Jack Hayes helping me. We've grown up playing footy together and we've always wanted to do something like this," he said.

The prop and former best and fairest will be a welcome sight back in Kangaroos colours in 2027 after playing with Coolah last season. Picture Sue Haire

He identified club culture as being a big focus, and wants to bring "the joy back into footy for some of the boys".

He hopes that if he can do that, it will encourage them to "stick around" for the juniors coming through and they can get "a healthy Boggy system going again".

It will too hopefully foster that commitment, particularly to training, that hurt them this year.

Reliant on players from other towns around, Millar acknowledges it's hard.

"You're committing to three days a week and some of the boys were travelling 100 kilometres each time," he said.

It's why it's important that they "really want to buy in" "to what we want to achieve".

"If they do that we should be good," he said.

For that reason they won't start pre-season until January 12.

"I just thought if people start travelling now, then they're travelling to Boggy eight months of the year; it's a bit too much," Millar said.

The man they call Spitter will be back at the helm for North Tamworth in 2027. File photo Mark Bode

The Bears have turned to one of their favourite sons.

Six years after COVID-19 cut short his return to the Bears' den, Brad McManus' storied coaching career with the club is set for another chapter.

The man they call Spitter is set to take the first grade reins again, taking over from first-year joint captain-coaches Mitch Sheridan and Ryan Ingram.

"The boys that were doing it last year, they done a fantastic job," McManus said.

"But they were sort of a little bit green and they [the club] sort of wanted a senior sort of coach there."

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