The Mount Isa-born Super League premiership-winning coach Kristian Woolf has downplayed rumours he was eyeing a return to Australian soil, saying he was looking forward to another year at St Helens RLFC.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
"I've been very lucky to be here at such a strong club and a great group of players to be honest," Woolf told ABC north west on Monday.
When asked if he might be eyeing off a role with the incoming Redcliffe Dolphins who will join the NRL in 2023, Woolf noted that Wayne Bennett had taken up the job, and that he was going to focus on his time at St Helens for the 2022 season.
However, he did admit there had been challenges taking on a role with a team internationally, after some of the allure had been to bring family and friends to England to travel abroad and show them his new stomping grounds.
"You certainly have the idea of your family getting to come over - we were only four or fives games in [when lockdowns were announced] and it ended up being shut down for 15 or 16 weeks - it wasn't quite what we had planned."
But it didn't hurt the coach or the team too harshly, bouncing back to a 2021 premiership win over Catalans. Woolf said St Helens were a foundation club in Super League and one of the most successful teams in the comp, so people live and breath footy around town.
And funnily enough, it reminds him a bit of home.
While Woolf said he had done a couple of stints at boarding schools and his university years in Brisbane, he still called Mount Isa home and enjoyed the similarities that St Helens offered to northern Queensland.
"It's quite similar to somewhere like Townsville in terms of population, but very much like north Queensland - rugby league is the heart and soul of the town and the area," he said.
"It's got a lot of similarities to places like Mount Isa ... but when Mount Isa is 42 degrees we're two degrees over here", he said with a laugh.
Woolf said he was glad to hear that Australia was starting to emerge from additional lockdowns this year, while a bit of normality was returning for those in the UK as well.
"We're being able to start living a bit more normal - a real highlight was the challenge cup in July and our families coming to a big game at Wembley Stadium in London."