Anthony Seibold

Seibold was born in Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia, and is of German descent from his grandfather and predominantly Irish and English from his paternal grandmothers side.[2]

As a player, Seibold had stints in the lower grades at the Brisbane Broncos (1992–1995) and in the National Rugby League with theCanberra Raiders (1997–1998). In 1999 Seibold signed for the London Broncos where he played two seasons in the Super League.

Seibold played for the Ipswich Jets in the 2002 Queensland Cup Grand Final before returning to the UK. In 2003 he signed for the Hull Kingston Rovers, where he captained the team during their 2003 and 2004 seasons. He returned to the Brisbane Broncos organisation in 2005 where he captained the Toowoomba Clydesdales team in the 2005 Queensland Cup.

In 2006, he moved to Wales where he was assistant coach at Celtic Crusaders between 2006 and 2009, playing in the first season. He helped to lead the club to Super League and assisted John Dixon in their first season at that level.

Seibold has a Bachelor of Teaching and a Masters of Education and lectured in the Faculty of Education at the University of Southern Queensland after his retirement from rugby league.

Following his spell at Crusaders, he took on his first head coach role, at South Wales Scorpions where he led the club to the play-offs in the club's first ever season. He then moved back to Australia to coach in the Queensland Cup.

After working as an Assistant Coach at the Melbourne Storm under Craig Bellamy, Seibold was recruited to join the Manly Sea Eagles before joining the Rabbitohs. Seibold is also Assistant Coach of the Queensland Maroons State of Origin team.

On 6 October 2017, Seibold was announced as the new South Sydney Rabbitohs coach.[3]

In his first year as Souths coach, Seibold guided the club to a third-placed finish at the end of the regular season. Souths went on to reach the preliminary final but fell short of a grand final appearance losing 12-4 to Sydney Roosters. On 27 September 2018, Seibold was named Dally M coach of the year.[4]

In November 2018, Seibold angrily spoke to the media about a possible switch with Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett. He went on to say “I have had a gutful. I’ve been sitting here for four weeks and feeling like a punching bag. It’s not acceptable and it’s not fair … He’s (Wayne Bennett) been ringing up the Souths boys but then tells his press conference he hasn’t spoken to anyone. That’s absolute bullshit … I’m sick of Wayne carrying on.[5]

On 2 December 2018, Seibold was announced as the new Brisbane Broncos coach from 2019 onwards a year earlier than expected after Wayne Bennett was sacked as coach.[6]

The 2019 NRL season started off badly for Seibold and Brisbane as the club endured their equal worst start to a season since the club entered the competition in 1988. This included a 4-36 loss against the Sydney Roosters at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Between rounds 16 and 24, Brisbane only lost 2 out of 8 games and qualified for the finals with a 17-16 victory over the Parramatta Eels at Suncorp Stadium.[7][8]

In the 2019 elimination final against Parramatta, Brisbane suffered their worst ever defeat and were also handed the biggest loss in finals history losing 58-0 at the new Western Sydney Stadium. In the post match press conference, Seibold said “I’m really disappointed, I’m embarrassed. I can’t toss up any excuses for that. I’ll wear it, I’m the coach of the club so I’ll take responsibility but it’s also my job to fix that. "I got a whiff of it last week leading into the Bulldogs game. Maybe I was too optimistic. It was men against boys today, it was embarrassing".[9][10][11]

Three matches later, in round three of the 2020 NRL Season the Broncos were again thrashed by the Parramatta Eels, 34-6 - but this time at their home ground of Suncorp Stadium. Seibold said his side were 'brave in the first half' and that he was 'proud of their effort'. He has been named the worst coach not only in nrl history but sporting history [12] However, just seven days later, the Broncos managed to go one better than their 58-0 loss in the previous season, going down 59-0 to the Sydney Roosters at home - the worst defeat in the history of the once-powerhouse club. Seibold conceded his young side had some learning to do, saying 'I don't think we are mentally weak, but there's some big lessons'. Following his sides 30-12 loss against the bottom placed titans, the broncos slipped to second last in the table. This caused outrage amongst the fans with most demanding him to be sacked. Some believe he is the worst coach in NRL history. [13]

• Brisbane Broncos profile
• South Sydney Rabbitohs profile