Central Coast Mariners appointed Danny Schofield as an assistant coach to first-team boss Mark Jackson in the Isuzu UTE A-League.
It is a reunion for former Huddersfield Town and Doncaster Rovers head coach Schofield and Jackson after the pair spent a brief period together at Leeds United.
Schofield made over 400 professional appearances in the English Football League between 1998 and 2015, playing for the likes of Huddersfield and Millwall before retiring and turning to coaching.
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“I’m very pleased, when I spoke to Jacko and the opportunity came up, it’s an exciting project for both of us,” said Schofield, who was on the bench for Sunday’s showdown with Melbourne Victory.
“It’s a totally different challenge [to working in England or Europe]. All my playing and coaching career had been in England.
“To come all the way around the other side of the world and to coach in Australia was something I’ve always thought about in the back of my mind and the opportunity came at the right time.”
The 43-year-old moved into coaching full-time back in 2016 after joining Leeds as their Under-15 and U16 boss before being promoted to professional development phase coach.
After leading Middlesbrough’s U23 side, Schofield returned to Huddersfield and even took charge of the club’s first team on a caretake basis for the side’s final match of the EFL Championship season in July 2020 before he was handed the permanent reins in July 2022.
Following Carlos Corberan’s resignation, he took over but after one win from eight league games, he was relieved of his duties in September 2022.
The next month, Schofield was appointed head coach of League Two outfit Doncaster, where the Rovers finished 18th in 2022-23 and he was subsequently moved on.
Jackson added: “I’ve known Danny for a number of years now, we first met at Leeds when we worked in the academy together, so we’ve had that working relationship for a long time.
“We both went off on different journeys, but we’ve always kept in touch and more recently spent a lot of time together, watching and discussing football because we have very similar ideas of the game and player development.
“When the opportunity came up for me to come to the Mariners, I knew I needed a certain type of person with me, for my development as a manager and what I need to support me, and Danny fits that bill.
“He’s a fantastic coach, he understands the game and we have got alignment in how we see the game being played.
“The fact that he can lead players on the pitch and look at designing and implementing sessions I want, is fantastic.”
