Michael Hagan

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Michael Hagan

Personal information
Full name	Michael Hagan
Date of birth	16 August 1964 (1964-08-16) (age 43)
Height	180 cm
Weight	81 kg
Club information
Position(s)	Coach
Current club	Parramatta Eels
Senior clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (points)
1983–1988 1989–1993	Canterbury Bulldogs Newcastle Knights	80 (36) 111 (67)
Representative teams
1988–1989	Queensland	5 (0)
Professional clubs coached
2001–2006 2007–	Newcastle Knights Parramatta Eels
Representative teams coached
2004–2005	Queensland
* Professional club appearances and points counted for domestic first grade only.

Michael Hagan (born 16 August 1964) is a former premiership-winning rugby league player and Queensland State of Origin representative.

[edit] Playing career

The younger brother of former Test centre Bob Hagan, Michael was graded with Canterbury in 1983. Although best suited to play at five-eighth or halfback, the presence of Terry Lamb and Steve Mortimer forced Hagan to play much of his career with Canterbury as a "fill in" at fullback or lock forward - despite the fact that he was clearly too slow for the outside backs and never big enough for the forwards. Hagan did, though, play a superb role filling in for Lamb in Canterbury's upset win in the 1985 grand final.

In 1988 Hagan was injured in a car crash but remarkably recovered to play superbly in Canterbury's three finals, scoring a try in the grand final. With Mortimer retiring, Hagan might have had a chance for a permanent position in the halves, but by this time he had already decided to move to Newcastle where he signed with the Knights.

Hagan's craft and guile at five-eighth led to a rapid rise in the Knights' fortunes: they advanced from fourteenth to sixth (losing a play-off for fifth) in two seasons between 1988 and 1990. He took over Newcastle's captaincy in early 1990 and, despite fluctuating team fortunes and being moved to the less suitable centre position to accommodate the emerging Matthew Johns in his last season, finished his career with the amazing record of having not missed a match in five season with the Knights.

Hagan also played 92 games for Halifax RLFC in 1984-1985 and 1993-1995. During his career with Newcastle, Hagan played five State of Origin games for Queensland, successfully deputising for Allan Langer in 1989.

[edit] Coaching career

Hagan was the media manager for the Hunter Mariners during the Super League war in Australia, and subsequently joined the coaching staff with Mal Meninga at the Canberra Raiders, coaching the President's Cup team in 1998 and First Division in 1999.

In 2000 Hagan became the first division coach at the Newcastle Knights, and succeeded Warren Ryan as coach in 2001. He became the first former Knights player to coach the club, and later that season became the first coach since Phil Gould to win the premiership in his first season. However, many commentators believe it was solely the sheer brilliance of Andrew Johns along with other senior players such as Danny Buderus and Ben Kennedy that won the Knights the 2001 premiership. This is supported by statistics showing Hagans winning percentage without Johns was only 25% from 2001-2006.

Hagan coached the Queensland State of Origin team in 2004 and 2005. Although he was unable to win a series, in both seasons the series went to a deciding game, only for the Maroons to lose. Hagan's replacement, Mal Meninga, has gone on to win 2 series with QLD (2006 and 2007).

In 2005, after losing their first thirteen games of the season, the Knights finished with the wooden spoon. In early 2006, Hagan signed a contract to coach the Parramatta Eels from 2007 to 2009, finishing his tenure at Newcastle at the end of the 2006 season. He is the longest serving coach in Knights history, and guided the Knights to finals appearances in four of his six seasons, more than any other coach in the team's history.

[edit] Jason Taylor incident

After a match between Hagan's Eels and former Eels mentor Jason Taylor's Rabbitohs, won by the Eels 18-12, Hagan was involved in a post-match altercation with the former Eels halfback. Taylor claimed that Hagan had stuffed up what was on offer at Parramatta, and former Eels coach and now Knights coach Brian Smith had fixed up "what Hagan had f---ed up at Newcastle". Taylor also challenged Hagan to win games without Andrew Johns. Interestingly enough, Hagan said: "At least we won without Joey".

[edit] External links

• Michael Hagan at the State of Origin official website.