Tim Sheens

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Tim Sheens

Personal information
Full name	Tim Sheens
Date of birth	30 October 1950 (1950-10-30) (age 57)
Place of birth	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Club information
Position(s)	Coach
Current club	Wests Tigers
Senior clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (points)
1970–1982	Penrith	166 games
Representative teams
1983	Country Seconds
Professional clubs coached
1984–1987 1988–1996 1997–2001 2003–	Penrith Canberra North Queensland Wests Tigers
Representative teams coached
1991 1991 1997 1997 2006–	City Origin New South Wales Australian World Nines NSW Super League Tri-Series City Origin
* Professional club appearances and points counted for domestic first grade only.

Tim Sheens (born 30 October 1950) is a football coach in the National Rugby League, the premier Australian rugby league football competition. He currently coaches the Wests Tigers.

[edit] Playing career

Tim Sheens was educated at St Dominic's College, Kingswood, near Penrith and also St Gregory's College, Campbelltown. Sheens had a lengthy playing stint with Penrith, playing 166 first grade games as a prop from 1970–1982 and scoring 11 tries. In October, 2006, in recognition of his contribution as a player, Sheens was named as one of the Penrith Panthers "Team of Legends".^[1]

[edit] Coaching career

Although his first ever game as first-grade coach was a 24–12 loss to St George, Tim Sheens has a track-record of reforming under-performing teams to premiership victory. He brought Penrith to their first final series ever in 1985 and he coached the Canberra Raiders to their first premiership in 1989, a feat he repeated in 1990 and 1994.

However, Sheens' time with the North Queensland Cowboys (1997-2001) was less successful and, after board discussions, a period of stress-leave and while News Limited launched a take-over of the club^[2], he resigned from North Queensland on May 25, 2001.^[3]

In 2002, Sheens accepted the coaching position with the Wests Tigers for the 2003 season, replacing Terry Lamb. The feat of the Wests Tigers winning the 2005 Grand Final against the Cowboys has been largely attributed to Sheens.

Sheens has coached four premiership winning teams, making him second only to Wayne Bennett among current coaches. Sheens was awarded the Dally M Coach of the Year in 1984, 1990 and 2005.

In December 2007, Sheens' contract with the Tigers - due to expire at the end of the 2008 season - was extended to 2010.^[4]

[edit] Milestones

Sheens was the first coach in the NRL to reach the 500 games milestone. Sheens reached this mark on 2 April 2006, while with the Wests Tigers and celebrated in style with a win over Melbourne Storm.^[5]

On 20 April 2008, Sheens coached his 550th first-grade game, a win over the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

[edit] Representative coaching

At the representative level, Sheens coached the 1991 City Origin team to a 22–12 win over Country. In the same year, as coach of the NSW State of Origin team, he led the side to a 2–1 series loss to Queensland.

Sheens returned to the representative arena in 2006 when he succeeded Graham Murray as coach for City Origin, a post he retained in 2007 and 2008.^[6] In 2006, City lost to Country, 12 points to 10 but won in 2007, 12 points to 6. The 2008 match was a 22–22 draw, with City retaining the trophy.^[7]

[edit] Coaching record

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

• Profile at NRL.com
• Wests Tigers Official Site - current team

[edit] Succession information