Jamie Soward will take over as the St George Illawarra Dragons' NRLW coach, while Matthew Head will become the club's main assistant coach.
The Dragons announced a raft of staffing changes on Thursday afternoon as they attempt to move from a team battling for a spot into the eight into something more.
Anthony Griffin, who will enter his second season with the club, has reshaped his team of assistant coaches, with Head given the nod to join the NRL squad.
The 39-year-old Head will move into the role, having played 67 games with the Dragons during his playing career between 2003 and 2007, and again in 2009.
He has been coaching with the Dragons since 2016 when he started out with the team's under-20s, before moving into the New South Wales Cup from 2017. His team at that level won the minor premiership in 2019.
Head was also supposed to become the NRLW coach, however, with time constraints now making that impossible, Soward will move into that role.
Soward will also be continuing in his specialist halves coaching role at the club he won a drought-breaking premiership with in 2010 under the coaching of Wayne Bennett.
Ben Hornby and Dean Young are also assistant coaches with the South Sydney Rabbitohs and North Queensland Cowboys respectively out of that premiership team.
Matthew Elliott, who was part of the assistant coaching team in 2021, will remain with the club, but move into a leadership and culture development role across the organisation.
Former Storm and Sharks playmaker Russ Aitken will be New South Wales Cup coach, while also handling the development coaching role.
Dragons' director of football Ben Haran said the appointments were pleasing.
"We are extremely pleased with the quality personnel joining the Dragons' expanding football department," Haran said.
"These additions will all play crucial roles throughout the Dragons' football structure, ensuring a stronger connection between the NRL and NRLW programs, the NSWRL competitions we compete in and our junior representative pathways.
"The Dragons' dedication to our male and female academies and our vast catchment area will continue with the further allocation of resources toward our development programs."
There was no mention of Peter Gentle in the Dragons' statement. He was the assistant coach at the Dragons in 2021 following a stint in Brisbane, where he coached five games as acting head coach after Anthony Seibold's resignation in 2020.
