Leeds Rhinos chief executive Gary Hetherington reflects on the club's response to Rob Burrow's death and reveals if fan pressure led to the exit of coach Rohan Smith
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00:00I want to start, if you don't mind, by congratulating you on everything you've done in the Rob Burrow situation.
00:06I still can't say his name without feeling emotional.
00:10You've done such a wonderful thing, and Phil and all of you, in fact.
00:15So I just wanted to say that, if you don't mind.
00:19On Rowan, I just wonder whether you've just reacted to all the criticism,
00:27particularly on social media, that Rowan was subjected to.
00:31I've rarely come across a situation where a coach has had so much vitriol directed against him.
00:39On any article written about him, if you look at the comments underneath, they've all been very antagonistic.
00:46It's interesting that what you've just said about him makes me wonder why he's gone, really.
00:55Because he has done some very good things, there's no doubt about it.
00:59And you've explained some of them.
01:02But I just wondered whether you've overreacted to...
01:05And instead of reacting in the way you did, whether you might have explained to the fans, perhaps a bit more effectively,
01:12as you've done here, about some of the good things that Rowan actually did at the club.
01:17On your first bite, Martin, thank you very much for those kind words.
01:21And indeed, it's been the whole club that's come together, and that includes all parts of the club,
01:26the fans, the directors, the sponsors, the players, the staff,
01:30they've all come together to actually contribute towards the Rob Burrow events.
01:40And I am particularly proud of the way the club has managed all of this.
01:44And as I say, tomorrow, in many ways, is yet another major event.
01:49So I think it has put the club under quite a bit of pressure in actual fact,
01:53but I think it's come out of it so far in pretty good shape.
01:57On your second point about the timing, yeah, those criticisms that you mentioned,
02:06that's really, it is really unfortunate.
02:09And of course, all teams in all sports have to suffer this type of criticism
02:15towards their team and their manager or their staff and so on.
02:19And it's one of the unfortunate elements of the business that we're in.
02:23But I don't think you can do much about it, in truth.
02:26Maybe a bit better explanation might appease some,
02:30but many people will actually criticise to the extreme in the way that they do.
02:36Probably they're not interested in listening anyway.
02:40And I've got a pretty fixed and narrow view of life in general and things.
02:45So I don't think Rugby League suffers as much as some other sports,
02:50but nevertheless, it is disappointing when this happens at any club.
02:54And it does, and we can only just be disappointed when it does actually,
02:59because people don't normally understand the situation.
03:04They don't understand the background factors
03:07and they don't give a balanced view.
03:10The silent majority of those who are supportive but don't say so,
03:14they're the silent majority, and there's quite a lot of those at Leeds Red House.
03:18Of course, but this year has been very disappointing.
03:23When you started with three wins from your first four games
03:26and things looked very promising at that stage.
03:28You beat Salford here, you beat Catalans,
03:30but then you've run into one or two difficult results.
03:36We have not, but I think one thing that we as a sport,
03:39and you people as the media, don't necessarily give enough credit to
03:42is that we have a very competitive competition.
03:45We've got about ten of the twelve clubs really competing on a fairly equal basis.
03:52So it's inevitable that one of those is going to be number one
03:55and one of those is going to be number ten.
03:57And there's not much to choose between them.
03:59And on a given day, anybody can beat anybody else.
04:02This is probably the most competitive Super League we've had in 20-odd years.
04:07And that's a good thing, particularly for the neutral fans.
04:14But it's inevitable it's going to throw up teams that are disappointing
04:18with their results at the halfway stage of the season.
04:21And we're one of those.
04:22Absolutely. Final point from me though.
04:25Having said all that, I think as a team, as the first team here,
04:31we've had an awful lot of problems this year with injuries apart from anything else.
04:35And I think Rowan was fighting a battle with one hand tied behind his back because of that.
04:42You've got players out long term.
04:44You know, young Morgan Gannon out for the season and so on.
04:47James Bentley out with concussion symptoms also.
04:51And various other players who have had quite significant setbacks in various ways.
04:57With respect, it's difficult for me to see how any coach would have found it easy.
05:02I mean, if Paul Rowley, for example, Ian, had had that many injuries at Salford,
05:07where would you have been at that club?
05:10So, you know, I'm no defender of Rowan.
05:14I don't want to behave as though I'm his sort of advocate.
05:19But I do think he's had a tough time.
05:23No, I concur with all those points that you've made, Martin.
05:26They're all very relevant.
05:29And they're part and parcel of the mix that we and all the teams are going to manage on a day-to-day basis.
05:37But collectively, you know, everybody's looking to improve and to get bigger and better.
05:43And we're no exception.