Personal information
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Full name | Gerard James Stokes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nickname | Ged | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Playing information
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Position | Prop | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Coaching information
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Source: NZLeague |
Gerard James "Ged" Stokes is a former New Zealand rugby league coach and player who represented his country. He is a former coach of the Serbian national side and father of England international cricketer Ben Stokes.
Stokes began playing rugby league early in life. In high school, he would sneak out of his boarding school in New Zealand every Saturday morning to play league for Canterbury. He was a Schoolboy Kiwi in 1971 before later representing New Zealand in one test match and playing for Workington Town in 1982.
At the age of 27, Gerard took his first coaching role as player-coach of Canterbury club, Marist-Western Suburbs.
In 1994 he was appointed coach of the new Canterbury Country Cardinals in the Lion Red Cup. The team made the finals in 1994 but finished tenth the following two years. The competition folded after the 1996 season.
After this he was appointed head coach of the Canterbury Rugby League representative side, facing irregular provincial competition.
In 2000 he coached the Canterbury Bulls to a victory in the inaugural Bartercard Cup grand final. He was also named New Zealand coach of the year that season.
He applied to coach the Kiwis in 2001 but was overlooked for Gary Freeman. Instead he was appointed Assistant Coach and a co-selector, working under Freeman and in 2003 he was in charge of the New Zealand 'A' tour of Great Britain.