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| This is Neil Jukes!!! |
It was a shock to hear of the resignation of Leigh Centurions Head Coach Paul Rowley just
10 days out from the start of a Championship season that the Centurions are
expected to dominate and which may culminate in them joining the Super League
elite for the 2017 season.
My first thought was that he must have been offered a Super
League job and that he was on his way over to East Hull to take over from Chris
Chester at Hull KR such has been their woeful pre-season performances.
Having said that, I don’t think that even Rovers owner Neil
Hudgell is quite ruthless enough to sack his coach before the season proper has
even started.
The Centurions have built a squad of Super League standard
with a number of last season’s Salford Red Devils best performers – Rangi
Chase, Corey Patterson, Harrison Hansen, Reni Maitua – jumping ship and
dropping down a division to add to an already powerful unit including Greg
McNally, Ryan Brierley, Fui Fui Moi Moi and Gareth Hock.
The surprise loss of their very well respected coach so
close to the start of the season leaves the club in a slightly shakier position
than expected although the quick response in handing the Head Coaches positon
to Rowley’s assistant Neil Jukes, with the backing of Rowley and the players,
should steady the ship. I always wondered who that guy was sitting next to
Rowley when I watched Leigh play – now I know.
The question now is whether Jukes has the ability and
strength of personality to lead this very talented group of players in the same
way that Rowley did or will his coaching style have a negative effect on the
squad.
Without doubt he will want to do things his way and will
make some changes – however small they will have either a positive or negative
effect on how his team play.
A few hours later speculation was rife that star man
Brierley had a get out clause in his contract in the event of Rowley leaving
the club – it never rains but it pours in Leigh but Derek Beaumont has stressed
that this is not true and that Brierley will not be leaving the club for the
Leeds Rhinos, Salford Red Devils or anyone else who is seemingly interested in
his star asset.
The statement issued by Rowley, citing personal reasons, was
very vague and has led to a lot of the speculation that has ensued – including
both Rowley and Brierley heading over to the Marwan Koukash paddock a few miles
down the road.
Koukash posted a photograph of him and Beaumont on Sunday
morning down at one of Koukash’s stables – they were either talking
compensation or that rumour is way off the mark.
The main thing is that, hopefully, all is well with Rowley
and his family as ‘personal reasons’ can cover a multitude of things and
doesn’t necessarily have to be about a man’s family or personal life.
 |
| New England Coach Wayne Bennett. |
The other big coaching news over the weekend was the speculation that the RFL were set to replace Steve McNamara as England Head Coach with the legendary Wayne Bennett.
The press in Australia were confident over the weekend that
the RFL had already made an offer to Bennett and, despite denials from the
hierarchy on Sunday evening, it has now been confirmed that McNamara will not
continue in the role and that Bennett will take on the part time position in
conjunction with his Broncos job.
Most English fans have not warmed to McNamara – he’s not
particularly good at the PR game and most people probably think he got the job
by default in 2010 by being just about the only English born coach in Super
League at the time.
However, I will defend him and say that he has made big
strides with this England side.
Not just with performances on the pitch but with the quality
of the back room staff and the facilities that the players now have at their
disposal when they are in camp – there is no scrimping on quality these days.
The powers that be have been made to realise that the
players are highly tuned elite athletes and McNamara has insisted that they be
given the facilities that other elite level international teams would receive
in other more high profile sports – hence their use of the England football
teams training facilities at St. Georges Park in the build up to and throughout
the Kiwi Test Series last year.
It also appears that the players are fiercely loyal to
McNamara and realise how far their treatment and preparation has come in the
last 5 years and they are now, potentially, on the cusp of having a very
successful team that has a real chance of winning the 2016 Four Nations that
will be held in the UK in November and has just beaten the no. 1 ranked team in
the world in a 3 match Test Series.
Is this now the right time to bring in a new coach from
outside of the current set up?
Even if that man is Wayne Bennett?
Bennett has won 7 NRL Grand Finals (6 with Brisbane and 1
with St. George) and 3 World Club titles (2 with Brisbane and 1 with St.
George) and has also coached Queensland to State of Origin success and was
coach of Australia in 1998, 2004 and 2005 – the man has the midas touch and in
his first season back at the Broncos last year took them to within, literally,
seconds of their first NRL title since 2006.
I’ll be honest and say that I would prefer England to be
coached by an Englishman and it is vitally important that a pathway is put in
place for the next Head Coach to work alongside Bennett during his tenure so
that there is a seamless continuity when Bennett leaves the post – I am
assuming at this moment that he will not look to extend the contract he has
been given that covers this year’s Four Nations and next year’s World Cup.
The man I would have alongside him is Leeds Rhinos Head
Coach Brian McDermott. As far as I am concerned I would have been more than
happy for McDermott to have been given the job now but I can understand that it
must have been difficult to look anywhere else once a coach with the reputation
of Bennett had put his hat in the ring.
As successful as McDermott has been I am sure he, or whoever
was chosen, would chomp at the bit to coach alongside Bennett and pick his brains.
I do have some sympathy for McNamara but we did struggle to
beat an under strength Kiwi side last year and some of his selections could be
strange at times and I felt that we needed someone who was used to winning big
games and could get even more out of the players than they are currently giving
– there are 2 big tournaments in 2016 and 2017 and England have a pool of
talent that has probably not been matched since the early 1990’s.
Don’t forget that Bennett was involved in the New Zealand
coaching set up prior and during the 2008 World Cup Finals in Australia which
the Kiwi’s, headed by Stephen Kearney, won for the first time.
If the same thing happens with England then I don’t think we
will be complaining too much about the Head Coach being an Australian.
PLAYER ACCOUNTABILITY
I have three young boys who play rugby league at U13s, U10s
and U7s and all of them have their favourite players within the game who they
look up to and want to be like – my 7 year old son, for example, is forever
copying the Ken Sio try from last season’s Challenge Cup semi final (including
the little finger wag at the camera). It will be the same the world over in all
other sports as well but let’s just stick to rugby league for now. |
| Mitchell Pearce should know better. |
There will be young and impressionable Castleford Tigers and
Huddersfield Giants fans who will be looking forward to the new season still
wondering why one of their best players are playing for other teams and not
theirs anymore.
Justin Carney and Brett Ferres are highly talented players
and were major parts of their club’s squad – they were not just bit part
players – they made a real difference to their team and were also huge fans
favourites.
Carney had a try scoring record of more than one a game in
his Tigers career – that’s phenomenal – and Ferres has been one of the best
back rowers in the game for the last 3 to 4 years – hence the amount of
interest in both players when they became ‘’available’’.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m an adult and I have spent enough of
my life around open age rugby league teams to know what happens on a boy’s
night out and what the consequences can be.
Many of my team mates during the years have indulged in long
running affairs or one night stands and they would all be discussed, sometimes
in detail, in the changing rooms before and after training on a Tuesday and
Thursday night and in the bar afterwards.
You will be familiar with the old saying ‘’what goes on
tour, stays on tour’’ and everyone reading this who has been involved in open
age rugby league (or any team sport for that matter) will be fully aware what
that means.
Call it loyalty or call it downright stupidity – the fact is
that if you dobbed a team mate in for having an affair or a one night stand you
would not last that long in the changing room and there would be some kind of
retribution.
However, the biggest taboo and something that you did not
even contemplate was having a relationship with a team mates wife or partner.
It is the biggest error that you could ever make and if it
was discovered whilst it was happening there would be up roar, arguments,
fights, threats – everything that you needed to de-stabilise what used to be a
harmonious and smoothly running operation – it didn’t matter if it was a young
kid or one of your best and most experienced players – they would be out of the
door and out of the club full stop. YOU JUST DON’T DO THAT TO YOUR TEAM MATES.
Carney and Ferres have found out that the same rings true at
professional level.
What they also needed to realise is that they are
accountable for their actions and not only will there be repercussions
personally and professionally but there will also be parent’s out there who
will be dealing with some uncomfortable questions from their young Carney and
Ferres fans.
Put simply, they need to be whiter than white and understand
that their behaviour has repercussions, not just for themselves, but also for
their club and the game in general and they must be made to realise that they
also set an example for the next generation of rugby league fan and player.
In the UK the media spotlight is not as great as it is in
Australia but the newspapers are not going to miss out on the opportunities
that Carney and Ferres handed to them on a plate but on the other side of the
world Rugby League players are like our football stars over here and are seen
as fair game.
There have been plenty of ‘scandals’ in the Australian game
over the last few years and Sydney Roosters half back Mitchell Pearce was
involved in one of them only a couple of years ago when he was dropped from the
New South Wales State of Origin squad and fined A$20,000 for an incident in a
nightclub involving a female.
Pearce, the co-captain of the Roosters, doesn’t seem to have
learnt his lesson or realised that he is accountable for his actions, that the
media spotlight is much brighter in Australia or that he has a legion of young
fans that look up to him and want to be like him – cue awkward questions for
parents again.
I don’t think what he has done is particularly nasty or
malicious – I believe Carney and Ferres are guilty of far greater errors of
judgement – but the fact that he has mirrored the previous incident to a
certain extent by trying to force himself onto a female who had rebuffed him is
worrying and needs dealing with – also, I don’t understand this seemingly
Aussie RL players interest in dogs!!!
Pearce obviously needs some help and has admitted as much
and has been removed from the Auckland 9’s squad and the upcoming visit to
England for the World Club Series.
At the end of the day 90% of professional sportsman will
have been involved in a piss up at some time or another – it is unfortunate in
this day and age that we live in a world that is now interested in this type of
incident more than ever before and will pay big money for the type of video
that was made of Pearce during Australia Day.
Why someone even thinks about videoing this type of
behaviour and then selling it on is beyond me, but that does not take any
responsibility away from Pearce.
ALL players need to be aware what affect their actions can have
on the game and, in particular, young fans who are the future of the game. |
| Jonny Lomax |
Lomax has not had much luck over the last couple of years
and has played only ?? games in the last 2 seasons as he has needed 2 knee
re-constructions and has missed large chunks of both the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
He is still young and is such a talented player that it
would be such a shame if injury ruined his whole career.
Another player hoping to make a comeback from ANOTHER
serious knee injury in the next few weeks is Hull KR skipper Terry Campese.
Campese had an outstanding start to last season before he
suffered a bad knee injury in an innocuous challenge against Castleford Tigers
last June.
This is Campese’s third knee re-construction in an injury
hit career and Hull KR will be desperate for him to get back to full fitness and
lead the team.
I hope I am wrong but I do have fears for Campese and his
ability to handle a full season without injury. |
| Luke Robinson. |
Rugby League players, mainly at Super League level, are full
time professional athletes who get nowhere near the financial recompense for
their exertions that the likes of footballers, golfers, tennis players,
cricketers or even rugby union players receive.
Ours is a working class game played, predominantly, by
working class men who have grown up playing the game and dreaming of becoming a
professional rugby league player.
More than at any time in the past, being a professional
rugby league player is an opportunity to earn some really good money that can
set them up nicely for the future.
I don’t know what top line rugby league players earn, I
regularly hear figures bandied around of £100,000 to £120,000 per year for the
top stars but I don’t know how accurate these are and there can only be a
handful of players at each club earning this type of money, I would have
thought, with our salary cap being just £1.825m per club.
I am sure that the vast majority of players will earn a lot
less than this and that all players will look have their incomes added to and
topped up by sponsorship and endorsement deals away from the club.
It’s not a bad life being paid to keep
fit and play a sport you love.
I understand Robinson’s argument regarding the salary cap –
I believe it has to be increased to enable us to compete with the NRL (£3.675m)
and Rugby Union (£5.1m) – but the last thing we want to do is to give the clubs
enough rope to hang themselves with but an increase in the cap may assist SL in
stemming the tide of British players heading to Australia or RU and also of
attracting the biggest names in the game over to the UK.
Robinson made many valid points but who does he have to help
him do anything about it?
Since the SL players union League13 closed down last year
there is no one body representing the highest level of professional rugby league
players in this country.
The lack of support it received from the players themselves
and, therefore, it’s inability to be taken seriously by the RFL meant that it’s
founder, St. Helens Jon Wilkin, lost interest in banging his head against a
brick wall and became so disillusioned that he see’s his future away from RL.
Robinson will get nowhere just having a pop at the RFL by
himself – an opportunity has been missed to give the top level Rugby League
players a mass voice to be heard and listened to by the RFL – if they act as a
body of men rather than just a lone wolf they would have a far greater
opportunity in changing the game, possibly, for the better and for standing up
for their own rights.
Currently, the RFL can ignore any kind of whinge from the players
and do what they want with fixture lists and short turn arounds etc because
nobody is putting them under pressure.
The players are any sports most valuable commodity and this
needs to be recognised and I can’t help but think that they have missed an
opportunity to be represented properly and professionally.
WILL THEY EVER COMEBACK? |
| Andy Farrell |
I wasn’t surprised to see that Andy Farrell was part of the cull
that included the sacking of Head Coach Stuart Lancaster from his position with
the England RU team after their poor World Cup performance.
What I was surprised to see a few weeks later was that he
had been recruited as the new Defence Coach for the Ireland RU team.
My first thoughts were:
Was he offered a position in Rugby League?
Is there a position available for him in Rugby League?
Does he want to come back to Rugby League?
Our sport needs former players like this back in our
game.
Not just for publicity but for their experience and coaching ability.
Without doubt there are so many more opportunities in Union,
whether that is at club level or international level where we have four strong
well run Home Nations who would all pay handsomely for the kind of ability that
Farrell obviously has.Not just for publicity but for their experience and coaching ability.
Will there ever be a time when we see the multitude of
playing and coaching talent that has left our game return to benefit the sport
that started their careers and, in which, the majority of them have spent 90%
of their careers?
Do they owe anything to the game of Rugby League or have
they given it everything they were required too already, on the playing field.
Farrell is just one amongst many.
There are quite a few former rugby league players and coaches in high profile positions. Wigan legend Shaun Edwards has been the long standing Defensive coach of Wales and was recently inducted into the Rugby League Hall of Fame, Mike Ford is the Head Coach at Bath, Joe Lydon was previously the England 7s coach and is now the RFU’s Head of International Player Development with added responsibility as the performance manager for the men’s and women’s 7s squads for the Rio Olympics, former Castleford star and coach Graham Steadman is the defensive coach for Cardiff Blues and has worked for both Scotland and Ireland national teams and former Widnes coach Neil Kelly was the Defensive coach for Romania at the recent RU World Cup.
Don’t forget that former GB RL coach Phil Larder was part of
the England coaching team which won the World Cup in 2003 and was also a part
of the British Lions coaching teams in 2001 and 2005.
That is a huge amount of coaching talent that have had
highly successful playing careers in rugby league that don’t look like coming back to
the game – certainly not in the near future anyway.This is why it is hugely important that when Kevin Sinfield ends his 2 year playing spell at Leeds Carnegie he returns to the Rhinos or to a prominent position within rugby league.
We cannot afford to lose any more talent than we already have.
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