Nathan Brown has confirmed his head coaching days are behind him after his shock departure from the Warriors on Tuesday.
Brown parted ways with the NRL club after he informed owner, Mark Robinson and CEO, Cameron George, that he couldn't commit to their relocation to Auckland.
The Warriors have been based in Australia for the past two years due to COVID-19 restrictions, with Redcliffe in the north of Brisbane acting as their 'home' base.
Brown admits it was a frank conversation with his family five weeks ago that he realised he would not be able to see out his contract with the Warriors.
"My wife informed me that my two oldest daughters weren't prepared to move to New Zealand and my youngest daughter said she wanted to live with her sisters," Brown told NRL 360. "Basically, I said to them 'well, that's pretty much the end of my coaching career.'"
"We're a family that have done everything together. We've always operated together and that's been our golden rule. There are a lot of people in professional sport; head coaches I suppose all over the world that relationships become a bit of a statistic because work becomes more important, and I'm just not prepared to do that."
The Warriors have done it tough this season, and have been embroiled in controversy away from the field, which hasn't helped their cause on the pitch. They sit a lowly 14th on the ladder, having won just four games from a possible 13.
But Brown is excited by the Warriors' prospects in the future, and is pleased with the work being done behind the scenes in the face of such adversity.
With the likes of Mitchell Barnett and Dylan Walker to join the club next season, Brown has urged patience and believes the results will come.
"I feel really good that we've got the right players coming to help the Warriors. Unfortunately, I won't be there to coach them, but I think the next coach is going to get a good job and, at the end of the day, for me personally, that's an important thing," he said.
"They identified that to stop the drain of players going to Australia, they needed to give the players an opportunity to play in a Warriors jumper from a young age, so they had something to aspire to and the club put that in place then Covid came.
"They've been working really, really hard behind the scenes and if Covid didn't come, the Warriors would be in a great spot now. But Covid has been a hit for the club.
"It doesn't matter what people say about allowances, there's no football in the country and it's hard to sign kids when you're not there, that's been a hit for the club.
"I think the youth of the roster is very, very good…the salary cap is in good shape and going home is going to be great for the club but I honestly believe that in 12-18 months' time, the Warriors are going to give people plenty of things to talk about."
It was thought that Brown could be a consideration for the recently vacated Canterbury Bulldogs or Wests Tigers head coaching position.
But Brown reaffirmed he has no intention of applying, with his sights set on working on another role within the game.
"I'm not going to appear at another club. I said you can decide whether you want me to stay for the rest of this year or not, but my head coaching days are over," he said.
"I'm going to go into another field in rugby league, and I'm going to honour what I told those blokes. I want to help another coach keep their job so you blokes stay off their backs.
"My head coaching days are done. I'm moving into a new field and I'm very grateful for the 20 years I had doing it."
