Mick Byrne (Australian footballer and rugby union coach)

Michael Byrne (born 2 December 1958), nicknamed Mick the Kick, is a former Australian rules footballer and now rugby union coach, whom specialises in kicking and team skills. Byrne played with Melbourne, Hawthorn and Sydney in the Victorian Football League (VFL) from 1977 to 1989. He also coached his junior side in 1994–95. After a career in AFL spanning almost thirty years, Byrne now coaches fully in rugby union, is currently the head coach of the Fijian national side.

AFL Career
A 200 cm tall ruckman, Byrne started his career at Melbourne in 1977 and one game into his sixth season with the club decided to cross to Hawthorn. Byrne kicked 8 goals straight in his debut game for the Hawks against Footscray in 1982. He finished the year with 47 goals. In 1983, Byrne finished equal fifth in the Brownlow Medal and was a member of Hawthorn's premiership side, kicking three goals in the Grand Final.

He holds the Hawthorn record for the most behinds in a VFL/AFL game without a goal, after kicking 0.8 in a game against Melbourne in 1985. In the history of the league, only Stuart Spencer and Tom Allen are known to have kicked more behinds without a goal (11).

Byrne moved to Sydney in 1987, playing 21 games for the Swans before his retirement at the end of the 1989 VFL season. In all Byrne played 167 league games and kicked 150 goals.

After resting, Byrne turned to coaching, first in an assistant role for the Swans (the club he last played for), before stepping up as head coach for North Shore in 1994. In 1998 he became head coach of University side Bulldogs in New South Wales where he remained until 2001 before a change of codes saw Byre become more active in rugby union.

Early years
Byrne's career in rugby union first began in 1998, where whilst still coaching AFL, he joined the Brumbies as a part-time consultant, which later led to Byrne joining the Wallabies as a kicking coaching in the build up to the World Cup winning campaign in 1999.

In 2001, he left Australia with he took up various consultancy stints; firstly South Africa in 2001, before heading to Europe in 2002 to take on a Skills based role with the Scottish national team between 2002 and 2005. During that he also worked along side Matt Williams at Leinster Rugby Club on a part time basis through out the 2002–03 season. In 2003, Byrne, as well as Williams, left Leinster to focus solely Scotland

His consultancy also took Byrne to England, where for a season, he consulted for Rod Kafer at Saracens until Kafer left his post half way through the 2004/2005 season.

New Zealand, Australia
In May 2005, Byrne left Scotland following an appointment by New Zealand as a skills and kicking coach, which saw him in the role for over a decade. During his tenure as specialty coach of New Zealand, Byrne won two Rugby World Cups (2011, 2015), eight Tri Nations / Rugby Championship trophies (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014) and a British and Irish Lions tour (2005).

Along side his duties in New Zealand, Byrne was also released to help develop the then emerging Japanese side, helping them to 2011 Rugby World Cup qualification, 3 consecutive Asian Cup titles (2009–2011), and their first ever Pacific Nations Cup title in 2011.

After winning the World Cup in 2011 with the All Blacks, Byrne became involved with Auckland-based Super Rugby team the Blues whilst simultaneously remaining inside the All Blacks coaching team, and occasionally consulted with the Canadian women's sevens team between 2013 and 2016. When Byrne left New Zealand in December 2015, the team had accrued a win percentage above eighty-seven percent and is often praised as having deep involvement in building the "All Blacks Empire".

Several months after leaving New Zealand with a desire to be closer to his family in Brisbane, Queensland, Byrne was hired as a skills coach for the Wallabies (July 2016) on a four-year contract, working alongside coach Michael Cheika. Unfortunately, during his four years with the Wallabies, the team failed to win a single major trophy. However, did win the Mandela Challenge Plate (2016, 2017, 2018), the Puma Trophy (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019), the James Bevan Trophy (2016, 2017), the Hopetoun Cup (2016) and the Trophée des Bicentenaires (2016). Byrne was with the Wallabies from July 2016 to March 2020.

Post Australia and New Zealand
Following the 2019 Rugby World Cup and Byrnes departure from the Wallabies national set-up, Byrne took up a post with newly formed Major League Rugby side Austin Gilgronis in the USA. However, his stint as Director of Rugby was cut short, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In February 2021, Byrne was named interim head coach of the Canadian Women's 7s team, which would see him take the side to the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics, where his side only managed to earn one victory and failed to pass into the medal stage of the tournament.

Fiji
On 24 September 2021, Byrne was announced as the head coach of the Fijian Drua ahead there first season in the Super Rugby (2022). It is the first role Byrne has had as a head coach of a major professional team.

In his first season in charge, the Drua only managed to win two games, coming against fellow Pacific team Moana Pasifika and Australian side Melbourne Rebels. However, by the second season in charge in 2023, Byrne managed to turn the team around to be more consistent, making the play-off for the first time with six victories; including a win over the defending, and later defended, champions Crusaders.

After a successful 2023 Rugby World Cup campaign for the Fijian national side, hype grew for the Drua in the Super Rugby, where for a second season in a row, the Drua progressed to the play-offs, only to fall in the quarter-finals again like in 2023.

Byrne's success saw his name be considered for the vacant Flying Fijian head coaching role, and in April 2024, Byrne was confirmed as head coach of Fiji.