Following his retirement as a player in 1996, Potter started his coaching career as assistant coach for the
Super League team, the
Bradford Bulls, alongside
Matthew Elliott. He remained there until 1999 when he took over the coaching position for the New South Wales Under-17 squad, coaching them to consecutive wins over Queensland. Potter coached St. George Illawarra's Premier League side for four years before being appointed in February 2006 as head coach for the
French rugby league team the
Catalans Dragons, succeeding Steve Deakin. He coached St Helens to the
2009 Super League Grand Final defeat by
Leeds at
Old Trafford. In May 2010, he announced that he would be leaving St. Helens at the end of the 2010 season. In July 2010 Potter signed a two-year contract to return to
Bradford, this time as head coach, commencing in 2011. Despite the club being placed in receivership in 2012, the team was on the verge of making the semis as Potter remained as unpaid coach. "I think I served above and beyond what I needed to do there," Potter said. "I felt obliged to do that. It has made me a better coach. The reasons I want to coach aren't financial but because you love the game." In October 2012, NRL side
West Tigers confirmed that Potter would be the head coach for the 2013 and 2014 seasons. With papers reporting that he had been endorsed by the club's players, Potter said, "I am very happy to be here, there's not many jobs like this. I have served a long apprenticeship and I think I am ready." After much speculation during the 2014 season, following reports of miscommunication between him and the playing group, as well as continued poor results on the field, it was announced on 17 September 2014 that Potter would not be extended as a coach. He had completed two seasons as their coach. He later said, "I found it to be a different club to any club I’d been with. It was a political hotbed. I knew the first day I went in there it was going to be a tough gig. I went in there to coach, not be a politician. It was conflicted." Potter spent a large part of 2015 coaching the
Fiji Under-20s side, and was an assistant coach with the New South Wales under-16s team. In November, it was confirmed that he would be joining the
Newcastle Knights as an assistant coach under
Nathan Brown. In 2016, along with his role as assistant coach at the Newcastle club, Potter became the new coach of the
Fiji national rugby league team on a deal to the end of the year that would see him coach Fiji in the 2016 Pacific Test against Papua New Guinea, with the
Fiji National Rugby League and Potter, at the end of the year, to discuss extending that into the
2017 Rugby League World Cup. In 2018, Potter stood down from his role as coach of the Fijian national team. On 2 November 2018, Potter was announced as an NRL Development Coach at the
Parramatta Eels. In 2020, he became head coach of
NSW Cup side,
Mounties. On 18 May 2022, Potter was made interim coach of the
Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs after
Trent Barrett stood down as head coach for the remainder of 2022.
Fiji coaching record ==References==