Radlinski lands new Wigan role
Wigan have appointed former full-back Kris Radlinski as the club’s Rugby General Manager.
Radlinski, 33, who scored 183 tries in 322 appearances for the Warriors during his playing career, will report directly to new head coach, Michael Maguire.
The ex-Great Britain star said: “I am honoured to be given such an important and prestigious position within the Club and look forward to the challenge. I enjoy my work with the Scholarship players and am delighted I will be able to combine the two roles, in particular using my experience to ensure the players understand what it means to play for Wigan whilst also looking after their welfare.”
Radlinski will operate as right-hand man to Maguire, and provide a link between Wigan’s performance department and other functions of the club.
Maguire said: “We are pleased to appoint ‘Rads’ to this position. One of my first briefs was to take a look at the Club as a whole and to look at areas for improvement and development. Kris suits the role, has the respect of everyone at the Club and I am delighted to be working closely with him.”
The new role has been created to allow Maguire and his frontline team of coaches and conditioning staff to concentrate on player coaching, performance, discipline and standards with Radlinski ensuring that these are implemented uniformly across the Club from First Team to Scholarship.
Chairman Ian Lenagan said: “This is an important role within the organisation and an area identified as needing improvement to ensure that today’s new standards, disciplines and levels of performance, skills and behaviour required from a Wigan player are the same from Scholarship to First Team.
“Kris has quickly shown his qualities already in Scholarship Management and in his special role with the England Team and is a perfect candidate. He will liaise between Michael and all other aspects of the Club to enhance the smooth running of the Performance Department.”
Radlinski originally retired in March 2006 due to persistent injuries, but made a shock return later on that season, playing for free as Wigan survived relegation from Super League.