Waka Leonard, Hawke's Bay's most successful rugby league coach ...
By Jack Riddell
Multimedia journalist·Hawkes Bay Today·
17 Oct, 2024 01:41 AM3 mins to read
Waka Leonard takes the Hawke's Bay Unicorns forwards through some practice moves at Kirkpatrick Park ahead of a 2016 game against the Warriors under-20s. Photo / Warren Buckland.
Waka Leonard, a Hawke’s Bay rugby league life member, guru and icon who spent the past 50 years coaching at every club in the region, has died at the age of 85.
Leonard, who coached the Hawke’s Bay Unicorns to consecutive national division two titles in 1978 and ‘79 among countless other championships and titles, will be remembered by his son Alan Mason as a kind and humble man, who didn’t mince words.
“He didn’t say much, but he showed it.
“He was still trying to coach last year. For the last 30 years he would say this is his last year coaching, but you never could keep him down.
“If there was a Hawke’s Bay rugby league hall of fame, he would be at the front of it.”
Chairman of Hawke’s Bay Rugby League in the 1980s and ‘90s Denis O’Reilly remembers asking league great Kevin Tamati who was the hardest man Tamati had played against, to which he replied: “Waka Leonard”.
“Waka coached nearly every team in the competition, including the rep team the Hawke’s Bay Unicorns. In this he passed on to every club and successive coaches the concept of cause-and-effect thinking - which is the think style of the warrior and predicates achievement thinking,” said O’Reilly.
In an interview with Hawke’s Bay Today in 2006, after he had won the Hawke’s Bay club rugby league grand final with the Maraenui Ford Phoenix, Leonard said there was no secret to his success.
“You’ve got to learn to coach first, and that’s taken me 30 years. All up, I’ve been in this game about 46, 47 years, so I should know something about it.”
Leonard was described by the author of the article as “not exactly over the moon” after the win, but Maraenui skipper Russell Brown commented, “That’s Waka”.
“He’s a hard man and he gives you plenty of stick, but you can’t take it to heart.”
In 2009, when Leonard was coaching the Hawke’s Bay Unicorns under-20 side with sons Alan and Adrian Rowlands, he told Hawke’s Bay Today he had been discussing retirement for 10 years.
“The old body keeps telling me I’ve got to call it quits but then I see another lot of talented youngsters come along and I want to help them.”
After receiving a Sports Hawke’s Bay award for Service to Sport in 2016, Leonard said he coached because he loved being around young people, as old people were boring.
Beyond rugby league Leonard is remembered as a father of six, a grandfather and great-grandfather, and he was also a popular taxi driver around Napier.
