Super League coaches ranked by worst win percentage including 2024 duo and Great Britain icon

We’ve seen some quite unsuccessful coaches over the years in Super League, with over 130 men taking charge of at least one game in the competition to date.

A lot of those men have spent little time at the helm of Super League clubs, relieved of their duties within just a few months.

But who are the most unsuccessful coaches in Super League history based upon their win percentage?

We’ve found out and ranked the worst 10 below…

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Ranked: The Super League coaches with the worst win percentage

To keep it fair, we excluded anyone with fewer than 20 Super League games as a head coach on their CV.

Without further ado, here is that ranking, with the coaches listed from the highest win percentage to the very lowest…

10. Rob Powell – 19.14%

Powell had spent a number of years as Brian McDermott’s assistant at Harlequins before being handed the head coach gig at the start of the 2011 campaign after the veteran’s departure.

Now 44, Powell’s stint at the helm lasted a season and a half, but he won just nine of 47 Super League games in charge. Dismissed after a defeat to Huddersfield Giants in July 2012, he has since coached Lebanon and rugby union side Medway Dragons.

9. Sylvain Houles – 18.51%

Houles is the first of four active coaches in this ranking having taken charge of Toulouse back in 2012. The majority of the last 12 years have seen Olympique compete in the British game, but only one season has been spent in Super League.

That sole campaign in the top flight came in 2022, when the French outfit won five of their 27 league games. There were victories against St Helens and Leeds Rhinos among those five, though Houles’ Super League win percentage does only sit at 18.51%.

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8. Mal Reilly – 16.66%

Reilly has taken charge of over 750 games as a coach, including more than 50 at the helm of Great Britain. Most though came pre-summer era, and when Super League kicked off, he was on the other side of the world in Newcastle Knights’ dugout.

Returning to this side of the globe with Huddersfield in 1999, he managed to win just five of 30 Super League games, with the Giants finishing bottom of the table that year. Leaving at the end of the season, he never coached in Super League again, but did go on to hold a role higher up the food chain at Leeds Rhinos.

7. Mark Applegarth – 14.81%

Now the head coach of ambitious Championship outfit York, Applegarth was – unfortunately – the man that led Wakefield Trinity in the 2023 campaign which saw them relegated from Super League.

Appointed following Willie Poching’s departure, he won four of 27 league games with Trinity in 2023. Leeds, Warrington and Wigan were all beaten at Belle Vue, but Applegarth still takes his spot in this ranking.

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6. Michael Mazare – 13.63%

Frenchman Mazare was in charge of Paris Saint-Germain for the duration of the first Super League campaign back in 1996, and was actually a head coach in the competition’s first-ever game – against Sheffield Eagles in March that year.

PSG won only three of their 22 league games in ’96, and Mazare – who departed at the end of the season – never coached in Super League again. Notably though, the French club didn’t finish bottom, Workington did instead, which we’ll get onto shortly.

5. John Dixon – 11.11%

Dixon, who also coached Wales, was at the helm of Crusaders from October 2005 to September 2009. During that period, only the 2009 campaign was spent in Super League, with the Welsh side winning just three of 27 games.

The Australian lasted until the end of the campaign, but departed a day after the final game that year.

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= Mike Eccles – 11.11%

London boss Eccles had his hands tied behind his back before a ball had even been kicked in 2024, with the capital club knowing they would be demoted at the end of the season due to IMG’s gradings.

Having won promotion against the odds in 2023, he opted to stick with a partially part-time squad in the top flight. There was a huge amount of respect for the Broncos from all angles throughout the year, but they won just three of 27 league games, finishing bottom on points difference.

3. Simon Grix – 10%

When Grix joined Hull FC as Tony Smith’s assistant ahead of the 2024 campaign, he wouldn’t have expected to be the man in charge for the majority of the year, but that’s how it panned out in a dismal year for all connected to the Airlie Birds.

Smith was dismissed in April, with 20 Super League games remaining. And with FC having won just two of those 20 under the tutelage of Grix, the 39-year-old just qualifies to be in this ranking. He’s now returned to his position as assistant, with John Cartwright taking over ahead of 2025.

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2. Darren Abram – 9.52%

Another who only qualifies by a fine margin is second-placed Abram, one of just two coaches with a Super League win percentage in single figures. He led Leigh – then Centurions – to Super League for the first time, but won just two of the 21 league games he spent in charge in 2005,

Another who never coached in Super League again, Abram’s two wins with Leigh in the top flight came at home against London and Wakefield respectively. He departed in August that year, with the Centurions losing all six of their remaining fixtures after his exit.

1. Ross O’Reilly – 9.09%

We mentioned Workington finishing bottom of the Super League ladder in 1996, and it’s the man that was in charge of the Cumbrians that season that takes the unwanted number one spot in this ranking.

O’Reilly only took charge at Derwent Park a few weeks prior to the start of the inaugural Super League campaign, and won just two of the 22 league games that followed. With Town relegated, he departed at the end of the season and seemingly fell off the face of the earth!

A Super League win percentage of 9.09% is the worst-ever in the history of the competition, and if you know what he’s been up to since then, please do let us know.

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