Lee Briers delighted to get to work at hometown St Helens

Briers has joined with defence coach Eamon O’Carroll, who left his head coach’s role with Bradford Bulls, to form Paul Wellens’ new look backroom set up.

And the 46-year-old has explained how delighted he is to be coming back to the hometown club he left in 1997 after picking up some great insights and experiences along the way.

Briers said: “Time goes quickly and obviously being at Warrington for 25 years and not thinking about anything else and then next minute I am at Wigan and then Brisbane and now Saints.

“I’ve probably been at the most elite clubs you can in rugby league, obviously won Challenge Cups with Warrington and then go to Wigan and be successful and then Broncos, who are the biggest club in the NRL in terms of fans and the expectation and then obviously back to Saints.

“So a lot of experience, a lot of fun and a lot of learnings along the way and hopefully I can pass that experience on to people at the club here.”

Briers was sold to Warrington in 1997 just as he making an impression on the first team, and although there had been talks to bring him back in 2003 to replace Tommy Martyn, that fell through when Ian Millward opted for Jason Hooper instead.

But all that is water under the bridge now for Briers, who brought up a drop-kick away from Knowsley Road in old Eccleston, and is delighted to be back on home turf.

Briers said: “It's really nice to be able to walk around the town – and I'm a really proud St Helens person always have been, always will be. If you are from this town, you are proud of the people in it.

“And so it's nice to reconnect with those people – with people stopping me in the street and talking about Saints and St Helens.

“If anybody had stopped me in the past it was either to have a bit of a joke or give me a ribbing about a result against Saints.

“It's just great to be here to back at a club that I supported at three to four years of age.

“It was a dream come true when I first signed and it's just great to be full circle back here where it all started “As soon as I walked in into the club you could feel that pressure, you could feel the expectation that you you've got to be successful. When you are at a big club, there's a pressure anyway to perform.”

After leaving Warrington, where he had spent the best part of a quarter of a century, Briers enjoyed a successful spell at Wigan as attack coach a record that earned him a crack at the same role in the NRL with Brisbane.

But after getting his feet under the table, two years into his stay in the sunshine state of Queensland, Briers got a call that was too good to ignore.

Briers said: “I would never have expected to get the call to come back.

“I was really happy at Broncos and we weren't looking to come back and but it's weird how the world works.

“I got offered a head coach's job and I turned that down because I was happy at the Broncos and being a head coach is not really in one of my goals, as yet.

“I was never thinking about leaving and we were actually just about ready to put our house on the market and then Saints got in touch because of this other job offer.

“As soon as I got the message the first thing was ‘no, we're not coming home, but now that you've enquired let's see what we can do’ because at the back of your mind you always want to play or work for your hometown club.

“It was just the right time to come home. We we're never going to stay in Australia for the rest of our lives, so the timing was right.

“I'm a big believer in fate and that's basically how it happened.

“It took about two seconds to make our minds up to come back. It didn't take too long at all – it just felt right. And sometimes you have just got to go with it.

“The timing was right and the chance to work with Paul Wellens, to work for my hometown club and to come home.

“I ever I was going to come home there's not many clubs in rugby league where I can come home and move back into my home house and not travel too far.

“So, it all fits for us all.”