Matt Peet only 4th and shock winner as Super League coach of year candidates ranked
Clockwise: Paul Rowley, Adrian Lam, Brad Arthur and Willie Peters.
It’s getting towards the business end of the 2025 Super League season, which means it’s fast approaching the time for the end-of-season awards, too.
The headline will be the crowning of this year’s Steve Prescott MBE Man of Steel, but there are plenty of other awards to be handed out on the night next month, too. One of them is coach of the year: and this season, we think there are a whole heap of contenders in contention to win the award.
Only one man can come out on top, though. Here’s who we see as the favourites right now, as the final few rounds of the campaign approach.
7. Paul Rowley
Controversial? Perhaps. After all, Salford have won just three games all season long.
But Rowley deserves some level of recognition not only for sticking it out at Salford given all their drama, but the manner in which he has conducted himself all season long. He may not be crowned coach of the year, but he has to be recognised somehow. We hope he will be.
6. Daryl Powell
A tough choice up next for our two candidates in sixth and fifth. We’ve just gone with Powell in sixth, even though they ironically currently sit in sixth in the Super League table.
Powell has continued the fine momentum from last season and turned Trinity into a genuine Super League threat. For that, he deserves immense credit.
5. John Cartwright
Given how Cartwright inherited a side that finished 11th last season and were utterly abject for most of 2024 – if not all of it – and has transformed them into a credible top six side, Cartwright’s name has to be in the conversation.
They almost certainly won’t win the competition this year, and are currently outsiders to make the play-offs at the expense of Wakefield, but the work Cartwright has done is very impressive. You’d expect they’ll be even stronger in 2026, too.
4. Matt Peet
They’re the reigning champions, but it’s not quite been as brilliant a season for Wigan. In any other year it would be considered successful; on course for a home semi-final in the play-offs as things stand. But the Warriors have set some mighty high standards in recent years.
That said, we’d firmly expect Peet to be in the conversation for the coach of the year again given how he’s managed to keep Wigan in the top two despite losing his best players for spells. He remains one of the world’s elite coaches without question.
3. Adrian Lam
A former winner of this award, just like the two men either side of him on this list, the work Lam has done at Leigh Leopards in 2025 really shouldn’t be dismissed in our opinion.
Leigh are right in the mix for a first-ever Super League Grand Final and it wouldn’t be a surprise, as it stands, to see them reach Old Trafford. Nor would it be a surprise to see Lam’s name on the coach of the year shortlist.
2. Willie Peters
He has done a wonderful job yet again in 2025, and established Hull KR as one of the sport’s premiere forces yet. There’s no doubting that when it comes down a smaller shortlist than this one, Willie Peters’ name will be on it.
Of course, this is the race to be the Super League coach of the year so Challenge Cup exploits don’t come into the thinking. But Rovers have been consistently brilliant all season and it really wouldn’t be a surprise if Peters was the man collecting the award for the second successive year. However..
1. Brad Arthur
We know it’s controversial. We know Hull KR fans may well disagree. But the turnaround from last season to this has factored heavily into our thinking, as has the fact that Leeds look among the firm favourites to be walking out at Old Trafford in October.
They’ve beaten Rovers twice, the only team to do so, and Arthur has performed nothing short of a miracle in transforming a club that finished eighth in back-to-back seasons in 2023 and 2024.
He, right now, is our narrow favourite ahead of Peters to be crowned coach of the year!
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