League: Kidwell to coach Rabbitohs U20s

David Kidwell ultimately wants an NRL post. Photo / Getty Images

As David Kidwell drives along one of Sydney's streets, he's pulled over by a policeman for talking on his mobile phone.

It's against the law in Australia and Kidwell fears the worst. It's his lucky day and he's let off with a warning.

Kidwell has had a good week. A couple of days earlier, he was also named South Sydney's under-20s coach, just weeks after the end of his NRL career.

He had options to follow the well-trod path of many others and head to the UK to finish his playing days but he didn't really want to uproot his young family and the offer to coach was too tempting.

"I have always wanted to coach and I know it's a long way to the top but what better way to start than to coach the young guys at Souths? When the position became available, I threw my hat in the ring," he says.

Kidwell has always known what he has wanted. He has one glaring omission - he came close to an NRL title with Melbourne in 2006 - but most of the time, he can sit back and put a big tick beside his list of goals.

Play NRL: tick. Play for the Kiwis: tick. Win a World Cup: tick. Oust Gary Kemble as Kiwis coach: tick.

He might have just been handed his first coaching assignment but he already knows what he wants to do next.

"I'm a very goals-oriented person," he says. "If you haven't got goals in your life, you are just going through life cruising.

"I definitely want to be a head coach [in the NRL] somewhere in the near future, that's for sure. I have already set that goal. I have always come close to achieving goals in my life."

He certainly had a successful playing career. He played 209 NRL games for five clubs across 12 seasons and also appeared in 25 tests for the Kiwis. He was a member of last year's World Cup-winning squad but played little part on the field.

His NRL playing days ended ingloriously with Souths' NSW Cup side but not all careers end in a blaze of glory.

Kidwell has also been training to become a qualified personal trainer and strict regulations around under-20s and when they train mean he will be able to work with clients in the morning and his youngsters in the afternoon.

New Souths coach John Lang, who was appointed to take over from disgraced former coach Jason Taylor, has agreed to mentor him.

The Souths under-20s finished sixth this season but were eliminated in the first week of the finals, losing to Melbourne. Last year, they were 10th.

Kidwell will have a better idea of what his style will be when pre-season training starts in early November and he sees first-hand the squad he has to work with.

But he has a few former coaches he can draw on. He played under three of the game's most successful coaches of the modern era - Brian Smith, Craig Bellamy and Wayne Bennett - as well as Frank Endacott, Daniel Anderson, Brian McClennan and Stephen Kearney with the Kiwis.

"I am a bit like a sponge and soaked out all the bits I thought would be relevant for my coaching career," he says. "I knew that once my mind was made up, that I wanted to take the job.

"I realise there are a lot of ups and downs. It's a cut-throat industry and you're rated on what your team does. I don't have a lot of grey hairs and I want to keep it that way."

New Zealand isn't blessed with a raft of top-line coaches. It seems just a matter of time before Kearney is handed an NRL club - he's linked with every vacancy that crops up - but only three Kiwis have coached NRL clubs. Frank Endacott (1998), Mark Graham (1999-2000) and Tony Kemp (2004-05) all coached the Warriors with limited success.

Kearney and potentially Kidwell and Tony Iro, who last week was promoted to Warriors assistant, are a new breed coming through.

"I don't feel like a coach," Kidwell admits. "I don't feel anything like a coach... but I'm starting to think like one."