Cleary will take on the role until the end of the 2020 NRL season.

Cleary, 46, has coached 252 NRL games at the New Zealand Warriors and Penrith Panthers, plus was Head Coach of the 2015 Prime Minister’s XIII team and was named the 2014 Daly M Coach of the Year.

Wests Tigers chair Marina Go welcomed Cleary to the club.

“On behalf of the Wests Tigers Board I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome Ivan to Wests Tigers,” Go said. “We look forward to him building a strong relationship with our players and staff and working with them long into the future.

“In appointing Ivan as head coach we as a club have worked through a thorough process and are thrilled to be making this announcement today,” she said. “Throughout this process Ivan was incredibly impressive with his vision for this club and where it can go both on and off the field.”

Cleary said he was looking forward to joining Wests Tigers.

“This is a great opportunity to join a club with a lot of potential,” Cleary said. “I look forward to getting to work with the playing group and coaching staff.

“The Wests Tigers are a huge brand with a strong Membership base and a lot of supporters and I look forward to getting stuck in over the coming weeks. Day one is today and from here we start working on improving, we’ll do a lot of exploring and analysis on how things work at Wests Tigers and how the people within the club work. We need to decide as a group what we want to be and go about achieving this.

“I can’t wait to get to work here. It’s no secret that I’ve missed it, this is a fresh start for me and I’m committed to seeing this club reach its potential and to be the success that I know it can be.”