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Kelly's destiny
NEIL Kelly always felt that it was in his destiny to coach Leigh Centurions.
Now Kelly gets his chance after being named as Leigh's new head coach on a two-and-a-half-year contract.
Almost a month after previous boss Darren Shaw stood down, Leigh made their choice and Kelly was appointed on Saturday.
He travelled from his Ulster base to Whitehaven on Monday to see his new side in action before officially taking over at Hilton Park the next day.
"I always had a feeling that one day I'd coach Leigh," a delighted Kelly told the Journal.
"If you can admire a club from afar, I've done that and when the vacancy came up, I was very quick in getting my application in."
For the last three-and-a-half years Kelly has been in Northern Ireland , coaching the Ulster rugby union side but he doesn't see his time out of league as a disadvantage.
"I've enjoyed my time in union," he said, "But I always considered myself a rugby league coach first. I'm more naturally a rugby league coach, so it's really good to be back," he said.
Kelly established an extensive coaching pedigree after finishing his playing days with Dewsbury, Featherstone and Wakefield.
After succeeding Tony Fisher at Dewsbury in 1996, he built a strong Rams side that was edged out in the 1999 Grand Final before beating Leigh in 2000. He then took Widnes into Super League, winning the coveted Coach of the Year award and also took charge of the Welsh international side before switching codes.
"From an opposition point of view I've actually coached other clubs against Leigh in significant games that they have unfortunately lost.
"Looking back on the 2000 Grand Final for example, I thought that Leigh were the better side.
"It's nice that Leigh have shown the confidence in me, to coach them at this time when they are looking to move to the new stadium. It's a very important time for the club.
"I think we can build on some very solid foundations already there and build the club up. Whether it's for next season or in three years time, I've got to build the club from top to bottom with the help of the people that have already done some good work.
"If I achieve my ambitions I am sure it will more than fulfil Leigh's ambitions as well.
"I'm very fortunate in coming in when there is a blank weekend next week.
I'll probably have a little bit of a watching brief for the rest of this week, but knowing myself I can't really watch for too long. It gives me chance to look a who the leaders are, what the strengths of the squad are, how things are done, what the medical side is like - all those sorts of things.
"The short term goal is to get the side ready to play for me against Featherstone in the first home game of my time in charge. We want to get it off to a good start."
1:07pm Wednesday 7th May 2008
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