O’Brien favourite for Saints job

Super League sponsors’ Betfred make Sydney Roosters’ assistant coach Adam O’Brien favourite to take over from Justin Holbrook at St Helens.

He heads the market at 4/1 alongside Rabbitohs’ assistant Jason Demetriou, with various rugby betting websites expecting Saints to look overseas.

O’Brien spent a decade as Craig Bellamy’s assistant at Melbourne Storm before switching to the Roosters at the start of the year.

Despite his vast experience under some of the NRL’s leading coaches, O’Brien has been unable to land a top job down under.

He may now look to Super League to make that step up and will surely be attracted by the prospect of taking over the current Super League leaders.

Should O’Brien be appointed, he would follow in the footsteps of Holbrook who left his position as Roosters’ assistant to take over at Saints in 2017.

As mentioned, South Sydney assistant and former Wakefield player Demetriou is also fancied for the job, although Cronulla’s Premiership winning boss Shane Flanagan is in the running too.

Flanagan is priced at 7/1 while current Saints assistant Richard Marshall is 10/1 to be promoted to head coach.

Other contenders include David Farleigh (10/1), recently sacked Gold Coast coach Garth Brennan (12/1) and former Bradford boss Geoff Toovey (12/1).

St Helens chairman Eamon McManus confirmed earlier this week that the club already have a shortlist of candidates, but it’s unknown as to whether an interview process has started.