Steve Deane: Departing Cleary falls short of greatness

Since Ivan Cleary took over as Warriors' coach in 2006 they have won 48 percent of their matches. Photo / Getty Images

Ivan Cleary will go down as a good rather than great New Zealand Warriors coach.

Good, however, might well be good enough for him to rank as the best coach the club has had.

Sunday's defeat to the Melbourne Storm dropped Cleary's record to two games below the.500 mark. But with a favourable run of games to come his overall winning percentage will likely end up just above 50 per cent.

Historically, few have bettered that effort.

Foundation coach John Monie won exactly half of his 52 games in charge. There are a couple of ways of looking at Monie's tenure. One is to cut him some slack because he was dealing with a brand new club and few organisations are immediately successful.

Then again, Monie started with a clean slate and an open chequebook. The club recruited widely and expensively. A 26-26 record doesn't appear a great return on that investment.

Compared to Monie, Cleary has had to scrape the bottom of the barrel. Big name, big money signings have been few and far between. Given Cleary's starting point - the club hadn't threatened the playoffs in three years and had just copped a $500,000 fine and points deduction for cheating the salary cap - Cleary should rank above Monie.

Ditto Frank Endacott, Mark Graham and Tony Kemp, who combined for a 44-win two-draw and 74-loss record over parts of six seasons.

The one Warriors coach who might be regarded as having done a better job than Cleary is Daniel Anderson. Overall Anderson posted a 51-2-39 record. He guided the club to its lone grand final and a premiership, albeit a minor one that comes with an asterisk given the Bulldogs' points stripping in 2002.

Anderson enjoyed immediate success, guiding the club to three straight finals appearances as the Eric Watson era began with a boom in 2001.
However Anderson lost the dressing room when things went south in 2004 and didn't survive the season.

As it stands, Anderson probably ranks above Cleary. However, that might well change if Cleary is able to guide the Warriors deep into the finals this season.

Should he do so, Cleary's record of having taken the club to four finals appearances in six seasons and having only missed out on another due to a points deduction that was none of his doing would make a pretty compelling case.

It would certainly beg the question as to why the club let their most consistently successful coach be poached by the Panthers with barely a whimper?

Warriors Coaching Stints:

Ivan Cleary
Seasons - 2006 - 2011, Rd 16
Played - 141
Won - 68
Drawn - 3
Lost -70
Winning % - 48.23%

Tony Kemp
Seasons - 2004, Rd 13 - 2005
Played - 37
Won - 13
Drawn - 0
Lost - 24
Winning % - 35.14%

Daniel Anderson
Seasons - 2001 - 2004
Played - 92
Won - 51
Drawn - 2
Lost - 39
Winning % - 55.43%

Mark Graham
Seasons - 1999 - 2000
Played - 50
Won - 18
Drawn - 2
Lost - 30
Winning % - 36%

Frank Endacott
Seasons - 1997, Rd 10 - 1998
Played - 33
Won - 13
Drawn - 0
Lost - 20
Winning % - 39.39%

John Monie
Seasons - 1995 - 1997
Played - 52
Won - 26
Drawn - 0
Lost - 26
Winning % - 50%