Former NRL dummy half Mark Riddell has confirmed his return to the St George Illawarra Dragons, where he will take up an assistant coaching role in the NRLW team.
It's the next step on a long coaching journey for Riddell, who has been involved at multiple levels of the game since retiring as a player at the end of 2011.
Making his debut with the Dragons in 2001, Riddell - affectionately known as Piggy - played the first 92 games of his career for the joint-venture before shifting to the Parramatta Eels, where he played another 86.
He then had a two-year stint at Wigan, before finishing his NRL career with the Sydney Roosters.
He has then coached through the women's game, and at SG Ball level while also being involved in the media.
His most recent commitment was as an assistant coach for the Illawarra Steelers SG Ball coach under another ex-Dragon in Shaun Timmins.
Female football manager Sam Bremner said Riddell's appointment was lucky for the club.
"I'm so happy with the appointment of Piggy; we're lucky to have someone of his calibre here with the girls," Female Football Manager Sam Bremner said in a club statement confirming the news.
"He actually was my first ever representative coach at Origin in 2012, and, for me, he has been on the journey of women's rugby league since I first met him. I observed the interaction between Piggy and Crossy chatting all things women's rugby league, this team, what it needs, what they're great at, and I really admired the depth of knowledge between the two of them and knew that they would work really well together.
"From my perspective, Piggy was actually one of the first coaches to come into this space and really change the dynamic of the type of rugby league we played."
The Dragons' NRLW side, to be coached by Nathan Cross this year, will be looking for a dramatic turnaround in results in 2025, and Riddell said he was keen to jump on board, having lived in Wollongong for almost a decade.
"I've known Sam for a long, long time and, yeah, she gave me a call," Riddell said.
"Her and Crossy were keen to sit down and see if I, first of all, was able to help them out. A couple of phone calls later, and catch up for a coffee, and we sort of worked out that it could work. We had a good chat for a while. Crossy mapped out his plan and what he's thinking, and Sammy did as well, and I was keen to help them out, so I jumped on board with them. They've been doing a lot of good work. It's exciting.
"I've lived down here for the past seven or eight years now, and my kids have all been brought up down here; it's a special place for me.
"As an ex-player and an ex-player that coaches, you just want to help the next generation and hopefully some of those players can come through and have a career in rugby league. Timmo and I have been doing that in SG Ball at the Steelers for the last couple of years, and now I get an opportunity to help out the girls. Hopefully, we can see a lot of them have some really successful years here at the Dragons and successful NRLW careers."
The Dragons kick off their NRLW campaign on July 5 in Canberra against the Raiders, before having a home game at Jubilee the following Saturday against the Sydney Roosters.
The NRLW will be played over 11 rounds for the first time this year with the New Zealand Warriors returning to the competition, and the Canterbury Bulldogs joining for the first time.
