Kearney quits Storm for Eels
October 2, 2010 - 6:41PM
New Zealand rugby league coach Stephen Kearney has quit his position at Melbourne, telling Storm officials he will join NRL rivals Parramatta.
The Eels sacked Daniel Anderson earlier this week and Kearney, who has been Craig Bellamy's assistant at the Storm for five years, has been strongly linked with the job.
Parramatta chief executive Paul Osborne would not confirm he has hired Kearney when contacted by AAP on Saturday evening.
"There's two great teams playing in a grand final tomorrow," was all he would say.
Kearney led the Kiwis to the 2008 rugby league World Cup title.
"As expected, Kearney today informed club officials he would be taking up the vacant Parramatta Eels coaching role in 2011," a Storm statement read.
Melbourne CEO Ron Gauci said the club would announce a replacement for Kearney and backs coach Brad Arthur, who the Storm said would also join the Eels, in coming weeks.
"Stephen has been a great servant of the Melbourne Storm both as a player and a coach," Gauci said.
"The entire club is greatly appreciative of the role Stephen has played here and the life membership he received just last month was evident of the respect he holds here.
"We were always aware that, at some point in his career, Stephen would want to take the step up to a head coaching role and we had been planning accordingly.
"We are confident that we will be in a position shortly to publicly announce a replacement for Stephen."
