Canberra Raiders revamp coaching staff

In addition to Mick Crawley's return, Raiders coach Ricky Stuart has also brought in Jeremy Hickmans to replace Nigel Ashley-Jones as head of high performance.

Hickmans helped current South Sydney coach Wayne Bennett to two of his seven NRL premierships during stints at the Brisbane Broncos and St George Illawarra.

Crawley returns for his third spell in Canberra, after previously holding assistant coaching roles in 2007-08 and 2015-18.

He was in charge of the Raiders attack in 2016, when the Green Machine were one of the most exciting teams in the NRL and averaged 29 points per game as the highest-scoring team on their way to the preliminary final.

Crawley's spent the past two seasons as head coach of the Mackay Cutters in the Queensland Cup.

His return will see Andrew McFadden and Brett White again take charge of the Raiders defence, just as they did in the 2019 charge to the grand final.

The Raiders slipped to 10^th on the NRL ladder this year after going deep into the finals the previous two years.

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Crawley will not only be in charge of Canberra's attack, but will also coach the under-21s and has a role overseeing the development of the young talent coming through the system.

After leaving Canberra he spent one season as the coaching advisor at the Dragons before moving to Queensland.

"He'll coach 21s, plus he'll do some attack work and make sure our kids coming through are coming through up to speed," Raiders chief executive Don Furner said.

"It's upskilling them to make sure when they do come up to first grade they're ready."

Hickmans comes in to replace Ashley-Jones, who ended his nine years with the Green Machine to join Welsh rugby club Scarlets about one month before the end of the season.

Raiders strength-and-conditioning-coach Ryan Clayton has also left the Raiders.

Hickmans worked closely with Bennett over 13 NRL seasons across three clubs before taking some time away from rugby league.

Seven of those seasons were at the Broncos across two separate stints, which included the 2006 premiership, as well as following him to the Dragons - were he played a role in the 2010 premiership - and the Newcastle Knights.

Hickmans' also teamed up with Bennett as a performance consultant with grand finalists South Sydney and performed a similar role for Swimming Australia.

He also spent a season as the high performance manager of Super Netball side Queensland Firebirds, before joining the Raiders

"[Ashley-Jones] did a fantastic job and [Hickmans'] an experienced guy as well so it should refresh things up a bit," Furner said.