Are the stars aligning for Wentworthville Magpies?
When they changed their name from Parramatta to Wentworthville in 2008, they won the premiership in their first year with Rip Taylor as their coach.
In 2020, Wentworthville are reverting back to the Parramatta Eels, they’re in the Canterbury Cup NSW Grand Final at Bankwest Stadium on Sunday and Rip Taylor is their coach.
Rip was ‘Taylor-made’ for the role when he took it on at the end of last year. He’s managed to take a team that missed the finals and used a massive 52 players throughout 2018 to the 2019 Canterbury Cup NSW Grand Final.
Taylor’s coaching record is simply remarkable. It’s no surprise he’s taken an eighth placed team to the big dance.
This is his 40th year of coaching. In those 40, he’s taken teams to 25 Grand Final for 12 premierships. He’ll be hoping to make that 13 this Sunday.
He’s also taken his teams to 34 finals series out of the 40 years he’s spent holding the clipboard.
In 2007 he coached the Parramatta Eels to the then-NSW Cup premiership, before they formed into Wentworthville the next year for the exact same result.
He started his coaching career at just 20 years old while still playing as a halfback when he took Bellingen to their first Group 2 premiership in 19 years.
Taylor went on to captain-coach Lakes to back-to-back Newcastle premierships in 1985-86, before coaching them to three Grand Final appearances in his second stint from 2000-2002 (winning 2001).
He took the reigns of the Newcastle Knights Jersey Flegg team and steered them to a Grand Final in 2006 before the back-to-back Parramatta/Wentworthville premierships.
More recently he’s been the coach of the Wyong Roos Canterbury Premiership team where he took them to two Grand Final appearances in 2015 and 2017.
Taylor spoke to NSWRL.com.au last year when he was uncertain about his future as a coach at this level. Now he’s made his 25th Grand Final.
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