Name Gerard Stokes | Children Ben Stokes | |
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Gerard James "Ged" Stokes (born 1955) is a former New Zealand rugby league coach and player who represented his country. He is a former coach of the Serbian national side and father of England international cricketer Ben Stokes.
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Playing career
Stokes began playing rugby league early in life. In high school, he would sneak out of his boarding school in New Zealand every Saturday morning to play league for Canterbury. He was a Schoolboy Kiwi in 1971 before later representing New Zealand in one test match and playing for Workington Town in 1982.
At the age of 27, Gerard took his first coaching role as player-coach of Canterbury club, Marist-Western Suburbs.
Coaching career
In 1994 he was appointed coach of the new Canterbury Country Cardinals in the Lion Red Cup. The team made the finals in 1994 but finished tenth the following two years. The competition folded after the 1996 season.
After this he was appointed head coach of the Canterbury Rugby League representative side, facing irregular provincial competition.
In 2000 he coached the Canterbury Bulls to a victory in the inaugural Bartercard Cup grand final. He was also named New Zealand coach of the year that season.
He applied to coach the Kiwis in 2001 but was overlooked for Gary Freeman. Instead he was appointed Assistant Coach and a co-selector, working under Freeman and in 2003 he was in charge of the New Zealand 'A' tour of Great Britain.
In 2002 Stokes moved north and coached the Wellington Franchise in the Bartercard Cup. He re-applied for the job at the end of the 2003 season but wanted too much money and so was not reappointed.
Instead, at the end of the New Zealand 'A' tour, he was offered the opportunity to stay in England and coach his old club, Workington Town. The club was in a state of disrepair and only seven players were contracted to the club. Stokes rebuilt the squad. However he was later fired by the club over an alleged disciplinary breach, despite being cleared by a RFL investigation. The club later agreed to a £14,000 pay-off days before a court case brought by Stokes was due to be heard.
As of 2013 he and wife Deb had moved from rugby league and back to Christchurch to a job working with young offenders; they were also involved in the restoration of Christchurch following the 2011 earthquake.
Whitehaven
In early 2008 he was offered the job of coaching Whitehaven, Workington Town's bitter local rivals, after coach Paul Crarey left the club citing personal health issues.
In late 2008 he travelled to Serbia and helped the national side prepare for the RLEF Euro Med Challenge. This move quickly proved beneficial to his club side as Whitehaven signed young Serbian national Soni Radovanovic in January 2009. Stokes was sacked in August 2010 after winning only 1 game in 14, with a disastrous record 13 game losing streak that ultimately led to Whitehaven's relegation from the Championship.