Brad Arthur enters his 11th season as Eels coach with just one grand final appearance and after missing the finals he needs to show the club he is the man to break their title drought.
Meanwhile, Jason Demetriou needs to get one of the best rosters in the NRL firing after missing the finals last year as Wayne Bennett’s shadow looms large.
And Todd Payten’s Cowboys went from a preliminary final to missing the top eight and need to get back their hard edge amid a key leadership change at the club.
Read on for the five coaches most under pressure heading into 2024.
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Mam’s future CONFIRMED | 00:30
BRAD ARTHUR – Eels
Entering his 11th full season at the Eels with just one grand final and zero premierships, Brad Arthur will be feeling the heat.
He may have made the 2022 decider, but his side slumped badly to miss the finals last season.
While it is not Arthur’s fault the Eels have the longest premiership drought in the NRL dating back to 1986, with every year that drought continues, the pressure grows on the coach at the helm, especially one that has been there more than a decade.
The Eels missed the finals for a number of reasons last season, including the departure of key players, injuries and suspensions, but given the roster he has at his disposal there will be no excuses if they can’t get back to the finals and push for the top four in 2024.
The Eels have arguably the third best halves pairing in the NRL in Mitchell Moses and Dylan Brown and the playmakers need to earn their big money contracts, given that the club has struggled to replace hooker Reed Mahoney since his defection to the Bulldogs.
With one of the best packs in the game and excellent backs including skipper Clint Gutherson and centre Will Penisini, the Eels have the players to make a deep finals run.
Arthur has been consistent as a coach for the Eels over a long period, but unless he can get them a lot closer to their ultimate goal in 2024, it might be in both parties’ best interests to go their separate ways.
JASON DEMETRIOU – Rabbitohs
The honeymoon is certainly over for Jason Demetriou as he enters the third year of his tenure as head coach of the Rabbitohs.
After making the preliminary final in his first season in 2022, Souths slumped to miss the finals last season after leading the competition after 10 rounds.
The loss of their best player in Latrell Mitchell to injury for 10 weeks was a massive blow, but Souths’ roster has shown it is capable of doing a job without their fullback in recent years and they should have been able to make September at least.
Souths have struggled to replace former skipper Adam Reynolds at halfback and incumbent Lachlan Ilias will be feeling the pressure from recruit Jack Wighton.
Souths overhauled their coaching set-up after last season’s failure and showed Sam Burgess and John Morris the door, before giving Demetriou an extension.
However, Souths will want to see the club not only back in the finals but competing for the title or that new deal won’t be worth the paper it is written on.
There are murmurs of a potential reunion with former coach Wayne Bennett if Demetriou can’t oversee massive improvement in 2024.
Bennett is entering the final year of his Dolphins deal, before handing the reins to Kristian Woolf and has made every indication he plans to coach on in 2025.
Should Souths fail to make the finals for the second straight year, Russell Crowe could be giving Bennett a call, which will have repercussions for Demetriou’s future as head coach at Redfern.
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TODD PAYTEN – Cowboys
He may be locked into a long-term deal after his heroics in 2022, but a year is a long time in rugby league, especially for coaches and Todd Payten again has a point to prove in his third season at the helm of the Cowboys.
After finishing 20 minutes short of a grand final in 2022, the Cowboys slumped to miss the finals altogether last season in a disappointing campaign.
Like all teams that fall down the ladder, injuries and suspensions played their part, but of more concern was the Cowboys staunch defence from a year prior deserting them in 2023, with their 66-18 capitulation to the Tigers evidence of their fall in that area.
Veterans Chad Townsend and Jason Taumalolo were below their best last season and Payten has signalled a new era by taking the captaincy off the pair and handing it to Tom Dearden and Reuben Cotter in 2024.
Valentine Holmes had a tumultuous 2023 campaign punctuated by a season ending suspension and an off-field scandal and Payten needs him back to his best in 2024.
The Cowboys have only brought in Viliami Vailea (Warriors) and Thomas Mikaele (Warrington) for 2024 and neither is expected to make the best 17, so if they are to get back to their best it will be with largely the same side.
Payten made his players uncomfortable in the 2022 pre-season and it worked wonders, but he will need to get them back to that level of commitment every week if they want to get back to being finals contenders this season.
Payten has the runs on the board to be a long-term coach at the Cowboys, but if the club misses the finals again, patience runs thin in the NRL coaching game.
CAMERON CIRALDO – Bulldogs
Cameron Ciraldo came to the Bulldogs last season on a mega five-year deal, but his tenure got off to a slower than expected start as the team arguably went backwards in a lot of areas.
Change takes time and Ciraldo deserves more time to mould the roster in his vision for the future, which he has wasted no time in doing.
After they finished third last in 2023, Bulldogs boss Phil Gould and Ciraldo brought in 10 new signings and let as many go to try and weed out the culture of underperformance at the club.
There is now not a single survivor from the 2021 Bulldogs side still at the club, which shows just how much Gould and Ciraldo have shaken up the roster.
However, the players they have brought in with the exception of Stephen Crichton are not elite stars.
The knock on the club is that they have brought in too many utility players in the likes of Drew Hutchison, Connor Tracey, Blake Taaffe, Kurt Mann and Jaeman Salmon and there is no obvious starting roles for any of them at the club.
Still, Ciraldo and Gould believe the commitment and hunger from these role players will help them become a better defensive unit after they leaked points in atrocious fashion last season.
The proof will be in the pudding and it remains to be seen if this team of utilities can match it with the best in the competition and compete for finals.
However, the Bulldogs are looking for improvement and to instil pride back in the jersey and these players just might do it until more stars come to the club.
Ciraldo has been given a five-year term to turn the club around, but while he still has time on his side, if the Bulldogs keep getting flogged in 2024, serious questions will be asked about his and Gould’s direction for the club.
ANTHONY SEIBOLD – Sea Eagles
The former Rabbitohs and Broncos coach is in the second year of a three-year deal with the Sea Eagles after Des Hasler was ousted in 2022.
The club was always going to give Seibold time after the tumultuous ending to their last coach’s tenure, which has seen the new Titans boss sue the club for unfair dismissal.
However, Seibold’s first year at the club was not exactly a raging success as Manly finished 12th and didn’t really look like a finals team all season.
Part of that was due to another injury to their most important player Tom Trbojevic, who suffered a pectoral tear on Origin duty.
However, Manly need to start working out how to win without their superstar fullback because he has missed more games than he has played over the last five seasons, despite winning the Dally M Medal in 18 games in 2021.
Seibold looks to have bought insurance in the backline in the form of Tommy Talau and Jaxson Paulo should Trbojevic go down again, which will add depth to their backline stocks.
Manly showed in a brutal clash with the Storm last season that they can match it with the best when they are on, but they need more buy in from their forward pack every week.
The addition of Luke Brooks and Josh Schuster moving back to the back row could unlock the Sea Eagles in attack and take the pressure off Trbojevic and Daly Cherry-Evans having to carry the load in that department.
But Seibold needs to do something he hasn’t done since his rookie season with the Rabbitohs and turn Manly into a defensive juggernaut if they want to compete for the title.
If Manly miss the finals for a third straight season and second under Seibold, questions will be asked about the direction of the club given the roster they have at their disposal.
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