Steven John Folkes (30 January 1959 – 27 February 2018) was an Australian professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer and coach of the

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facilitated by ...

in the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

. He represented both

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Playing career

Folkes, who was Captain of Punchbowl Boys' High School, came from the Bankstown Sports Junior Rugby League Club. He played 245 first grade games and 308 grade games for the Bulldogs between 1978 and 1991, as well as 24 games for

Hull FC Hull Football Club, commonly referred to as Hull or Hull F.C., is a professional rugby league club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Hull play their home games at the MKM Stadium and compete in Super League, the t ...

in England. He also represented

on nine occasions in State of Origin football. At the end of the 1986 NSWRL season, he went on the 1986 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France. He played a total of five Tests between 1986 and 1988. As a player, Folkes played in 6 Grand Finals (1979, 80, 84, 85, 86 and 88) winning on four occasions.

Coaching career

After serving as reserve grade coach of Canterbury between 1996 and 1997, Folkes was appointed coach of Canterbury-Bankstown to succeed Chris Anderson. In his first year as coach, Canterbury made the 1998 NRL grand final, where they lost to Wayne Bennett's

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Red Hill, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos compete in the National Rugby League (NRL) and play their home games at ...

. Canterbury-Bankstown appeared poised to claim the 2002 NRL premiership but were disqualified and stripped 37 premiership points after a major salary cap breach was uncovered. Folkes claimed his premiership two seasons later with a 16-13 victory over the

Sydney Roosters Eastern Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club, known as the Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), Eastern Suburbs. The club competes in the National Rugby Lea ...

in the grand final. Steve Folkes was awarded Dally M ''Coach of the Year'' in 2004. The 2004 grand final victory continued a unique tradition at the Bulldogs: Every coach appointed by the club since 1978 ( Ted Glossop, Warren Ryan, Phil Gould, Chris Anderson and Folkes) has won a premiership. At the end of the 2007 season, Folkes' win record with the Bulldogs was 60%. On 7 April 2008, Canterbury-Bankstown announced that Folkes tenure as would end with the 2008 season. To date, he remains the club's longest serving coach Following his departure from the Canterbury club, Folkes took up a position as strength and conditioning coach for the West Indies cricket team. In October 2009, Folkes returned to rugby league, accepting the role of strength and conditioning coach for the

Wests Tigers The Wests Tigers is an Australian professional rugby league football team, based in the Inner West of Sydney and South Western Sydney. The Tigers have competed in the National Rugby League (NRL) since being formed at the end of the 1999 N ...

. In 2011, he was an assistant coach with the club. It was announced in May 2011 that Folkes would join the St George Illawarra Dragons as the assistant coach to Steve Price from 2012. In 2014, Folkes was appointed head coach for the

Australia women's national rugby league team The Australia women's national rugby league team, also known as the Australian Jillaroos, or Harvey Norman Jillaroos for sponsorship reasons, represents Australia in women's rugby league. They played their first formal international in 1995 und ...

Personal life

Folkes was of English descent. He was married to Karen Moore, the daughter of Bulldogs 'godfather', Peter Moore. She died on 2 June 2013 from cancer.

Death

Folkes died at his home on 27 February 2018, reportedly of a heart attack, at the age of 59. An autopsy found that he had been suffering from

chronic traumatic encephalopathy Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease linked to repeated trauma to the head. The encephalopathy symptoms can include behavioral problems, mood problems, and problems with thinking. The disease often gets wor ...

, a

neurodegenerative disease A neurodegenerative disease is caused by the progressive loss of neurons, in the process known as neurodegeneration. Neuronal damage may also ultimately result in their death. Neurodegenerative diseases include amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, mul ...

caused by repeated head injuries.

Coaching record

Footnotes

External links

Canterbury Bulldogs profileSteve Folkes Official Bulldogs profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Folkes, Steve 1959 births 2018 deaths Australia national rugby league team players Australia women's national rugby league team coaches Australian rugby league coaches Australian rugby league players Australian people of English descent Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs coaches Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs players Hull F.C. players New South Wales City Origin rugby league team players New South Wales Rugby League State of Origin players Rugby league players from Sydney Rugby league second-rows 20th-century Australian sportsmen