Jim Lenihan (born 16 May 1973) is an Australian professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

coach who is the

assistant coach A sports coach is a person coaching in sport, involved in the direction, instruction and training of a sports team or athlete. History The original sense of the word ''coach'' is that of a horse-drawn carriage, deriving ultimately from the Hung ...

for the

Gold Coast Titans The Gold Coast Titans are a professional rugby league football club, based on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australia and New Zealand's national rugby league club competition. The ...

in the

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

and a former professional rugby league footballer. A or er, he played for the

Gold Coast Seagulls The Gold Coast Chargers were a professional rugby league club which played in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership from New South Wales Rugby League season 1988, 1988 to New South Wales Rugby League season 1994, 1994, the Australian Ru ...

and

St George Dragons The St. George Dragons is an Australian rugby league football club from St George District in Sydney, New South Wales that played in the top level New South Wales competition and Australian Rugby League competitions from the 1921 until ...

in the

ARL ARL may refer to: Military * US Navy hull classification symbol for repair ship * Admiralty Research Laboratory, UK * United States Army Research Laboratory * ARL 44, a WWII French tank Organizations * Aero Research Limited, a UK adhesives compan ...

and

, and the

Huddersfield Giants Huddersfield Giants are an English professional rugby league club from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, the birthplace of rugby league, who play in the Super League competition. They play their home games at the John Smiths Stadium which is sha ...

in the

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of ...

. As head coach of the

Burleigh Bears The Burleigh Bears are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Gold Coast, Australia. They compete in Queensland's top rugby league competition, the Queensland Cup. Since their admission to the competition in 1997, th ...

, he won two

Queensland Cup The Queensland Cup, currently known as the Hostplus Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the highest-level regional rugby league football competition in Queensland, Australia. It is run by the Queensland Rugby League (QRL) and is contested by fo ...

premierships (2016 and 2019).

Playing career

Born and raised in Ipswich, Queensland, Lenihan started his career with the

Ipswich Jets The Ipswich Jets are an Australian rugby league football club based in Ipswich, Queensland. Their name comes from nearby RAAF Base Amberley, one of the largest airbases in Australia. The Jets compete in the Queensland Cup competition. Original ...

, playing for the club from 1991 to 1994. In 1995, he joined the

and made his first grade debut in round 7 of the

1995 ARL season The 1995 ARL premiership was the 88th season of professional rugby league football in Australia, and the first to be run by the Australian Rugby League following the hand-over of the Premiership's administration by the New South Wales Rugby Leag ...

, scoring a try in a 16–28 loss to the Eastern Suburbs. In 1996, after playing six games for the Gold Coast, he joined St. George. In three seasons with St. George, he played 40 games, scoring nine tries and was a regular in the side during the

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

seasons. Lenihan played in St. George's final game before they formed a joint venture with the

Illawarra Steelers The Illawarra Steelers are an Australian rugby league football club based in the city of Wollongong, New South Wales. The club competed in Australia's top-level rugby league competition from 1982 NSWRFL season, 1982 until 1998 NRL season, 1998 ...

to become St. George Illawarra. A semi-final loss to

Canterbury-Bankstown Canterbury-Bankstown is a customary region of Sydney, Australia, in the south-western suburbs. The area is located around the Bankstown railway line, to the west of the St George region and to the south of the Inner West region. The suburbs o ...

Kogarah Oval Jubilee Stadium, also known as Kogarah Oval or by its Naming rights, sponsored name Netstrata Jubilee Stadium, is a multipurpose stadium in Carlton, New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. The stadium is mainly used for rugby league and the A-Leagu ...

. In 1999, he joined the

in the

. He spent one season at the club, playing 21 games and scoring 12 tries. In 2000, he returned to Australia, joining the

, playing three seasons at the club.

Coaching career

From 2004-2005, Lenihan was the assistant coach of the

' FOGS Colts side. In 2006, Lenihan was appointed as head coach of the Bears'

side, replacing Rick Stone, who eventually joined the

Newcastle Knights The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. They compete in Australasia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Playing in red and blue, th ...

as an assistant coach. After making three straight Grand Finals under Stone, the Bears missed the finals for four straight seasons under Lenihan, with sixth being their highest finish. He resigned from the club at end of the 2009 season. In 2011, after a year away from coaching, Lenihan joined the Bilambil Jets, winning the Bycroft Cup in his first season at the club. In December 2013, he rejoined Burleigh as an assistant coach after three seasons with Bilambil. In May 2014, Lenihan became head coach of the Bears for the second time, replacing Carl Briggs. In 2016, the Bears won the Queensland Cup Grand Final, defeating the

Redcliffe Dolphins The Redcliffe Dolphins are a semi-professional rugby league club based in Redcliffe, Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1947, they were accepted into the Brisbane Rugby League (BRL) premiership competition in 1960, and since 1996 have played i ...

26–16 at

Suncorp Stadium Lang Park, also known as Brisbane Football Stadium, by the sponsored name Suncorp Stadium, and nicknamed: 'The Cauldron', is a multi-purpose stadium in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, located in the suburb of Milton. The current facility co ...

. In 2019, Lenihan won his second Queensland Cup Grand Final with the Bears, defeating the

Wynnum Manly Seagulls The Wynnum-Manly Seagulls are an Australian rugby league football club based at Kougari Oval, in Brisbane's bayside suburb of Manly West, which neighbours the suburb of Wynnum. They competed in the Brisbane Rugby League from 1951 to 1997. Since ...

28–10 at

Dolphin Stadium Hard Rock Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in Miami Gardens, Florida. The stadium is the home field for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL) and the Miami Hurricanes, the University of Miami's NCAA Division I college ...

. On 8 October 2019, he joined the

as an assistant coach on a three-year deal.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lenihan, Jim 1973 births Living people Australian rugby league coaches Australian rugby league players Burleigh Bears coaches Gold Coast Chargers players Huddersfield Giants players Ipswich Jets players Rugby league centres Rugby league players from Ipswich, Queensland Rugby league wingers St. George Dragons players