Ivan Henjak (born in 9 March 1963 in Croatia)^[1] is an Australian professional rugby league football coach and former player. He is the current head coach for the Brisbane Broncos of the National Rugby League, having taken over from Wayne Bennett in 2009. Henjak played his football in the NSWRL premiership with St. George, Canberra and Wests. He is also the uncle of Australia international rugby union player Matt Henjak, whilst Henjak's son plays front row for Australian Schoolboys.

[edit] Playing career

In 1987 Henjak, while playing for Canberra, was involved in a publicised dispute over an agreement he made to negotiate playing for Newcastle, despite having signed a contract to stay with the Raiders.^[2] That year he played at halfback in the Raiders' first grand final, which they lost to Manly.

[edit] Coaching career

Following his final season playing football in England in 1993, Henjak became the Brisbane Broncos' reserve grade coach in 1994. He was later promoted to assistant coach under Wayne Bennett. Henjak was interviewed for the position of head coach at the Broncos in 2009 following Bennett's departure^[3] and was selected to take over the coaching reins for the 2009 season after Wayne Bennett left to head up St. George Illawarra Dragons.^[4][5]

Henjak's coaching career began well, with wins in all of his first three matches until the Broncos played against Wayne Bennett's Dragons in round four and lost. At round 7, his team had won all but one of their matches and were at the top of the ladder, having won 86% of their matches so far that season.

Henjak has recently been vocal about the alcohol culture of young players and their clubs after his nephew Matt Henjak and teammate Haig Sare were involved a drunken pub brawl which left Sare with a broken jaw.^[6]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Rugby League Project profile
• Points
• Ivan Henjak at yesterdayshero.com.au