Leeds Rhinos chief executive Gary Hetherington reflects on the decision to part ways with coach Rohan Smith.
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00:00Thanks Phil, thanks everybody for coming this morning. It's been a pretty eventful time.
00:07An eventful last few weeks for us here at Headingley and Leeds Rhinos with the sad passing of course of Rob DeVoe.
00:16With the game against Castleton here at Headingley, with the appointment of Ian Blees, with the trip to Hull FC last week
00:26and just only yesterday the departure of Roland Smith. So a pretty eventful time, a lot's been happening
00:35and of course I think the key focus this morning is Roland's departure and the search for a new head coach
00:44which we'll be able to answer questions on and perhaps if I start by opening it up and asking for questions.
00:52Gary just elaborate a little bit for us on why you thought a change needed to be made?
00:58Well as I say it's been an eventful time, I think it's fair to say several reasons.
01:02Since Ian's appointment there's been meetings with Ian and Rowan and myself and Rowan and myself and Ian.
01:08All three of us have been meeting on a fairly regular basis and it's fair to say that over the course of the season
01:15results have been disappointed by our own expectations and fairly inconsistent as well in that regard.
01:22I think our last two performances and results have been indicative of that and I know certainly from Rowan's point of view
01:30we're particularly keen that tomorrow night against Leeds the focus should be on the Rob DeVoe tribute
01:37and the focus should be on the Rhinos fans getting behind the Rhinos team and helping to secure a good performance
01:44and not necessarily about anything else and that was a particular key focus of Rowan's.
01:50So it was generally felt that a change was necessary at this moment in time
01:56and that decision was reached mutually and very amicably.
02:01So just reading between the lines of that statement, it would suggest that Rowan facilitated the parting
02:09to make it less of a distraction ahead of Friday, would that be the case and does that show the character of Rowan?
02:15What's fair to say is that it was very amicable conversations, very open and honest conversations
02:21and yes we arrived at an outcome and that's not always the case in delicate discussions
02:30but I would certainly pay tribute to Rowan, his integrity, his general interest not only in himself
02:38in fact not in himself in actual fact but in the club and the club's welfare
02:43in the fact that the Rob DeVoe tribute and everything that goes with it
02:48and that's testament to the man himself.
02:52How would you quantify Rowan's contribution to the team over the last two years?
02:57Quite significant and sometimes team performances and results can mask the actual situation
03:03you know when a team's winning on a regular basis everybody thinks everything in the organisation is pretty good
03:08and it might not be and conversely if the first team are not winning on a regular basis
03:13everybody thinks that everything's chaotic and the shambles and once again it might not be.
03:17So Rowan was with us just over two years, it's fair to say he inherited a very difficult situation
03:23the team was second from the bottom of the Super League and we had a pretty disjointed rugby league population in many respects
03:30and Rowan had quite a remarkable first season, took the team to the Grand Final which was quite a remarkable achievement
03:39last season was always going to be a difficult one with I think we've got 13 of our players coming out of contract
03:44but in many ways that was the start of the journey of putting together his squad and the squad that he would have going forward with
03:51and that was very much the case for this season, there was quite a lot of changes made to the squad this season
03:56a lot of changes have been made to the back room staff and that's in a pretty good shape now in terms of the play development side
04:04and all the sort of supporting sections of the rugby league department and Rowan has been instrumental in that change
04:11and when I talk about him doing some really good stuff behind the scenes that's what I'm referring to
04:16we're in a pretty good shape in that regard, we'll get even better now that Ian's on board of course
04:22and part of Ian's brief is to have a good look at everything that we're doing, it's a fresh pair of eyes to have a look at everything that we're doing
04:30and where can we improve in every aspect of the rugby league, there's some areas that we need to improve quite a lot
04:35and other areas probably we're doing okay, but certainly in terms of Rowan's contribution
04:42he certainly leaves our organisation in much better shape than what he found
04:48I think that's always an indicator as to someone's contribution that they may have made to a team and a club
04:55and Rowan has certainly made a contribution, it's disappointing that our results have not gone the way that we and he hoped they might this season
05:05but certainly his contribution has been quite a significant one
05:08I'll ask you about his successor or potential successor in a moment, Ian could I just get your thoughts on what's been an eventful first week
05:15and your post, how's it been for you and what sort of input did you have in Rowan's departure?
05:20Yeah I think as Gary's said it has been an eventful week, eventful first few days
05:25when I first sat down with Rowan we had a discussion, various discussions with Gary and back to Rowan
05:33and decided to obviously mutually fire, which was difficult obviously, it's never easy
05:38but I'll always make the decisions for the best of the club, that's what I'm here to do
05:43and we arrived to that decision pretty quickly once we started to talk of it
05:47and I pay respects to Rowan because Gary's said he's done a tremendous job while he's been here
05:50having said that, this year performances aren't where they should be, this club expects to be at the top of the league
05:56and that's where we needed to get to and I recognised that pretty quickly, hence why we did the match with Ian
06:02Gary, what sort of person do you need to come in now and pick up where Rowan left off?
06:10Well Ian's going to be leading that search and it's always a difficult one
06:15because being a head coach of a super league team and indeed any team in any sport is a difficult job
06:22it's a very difficult job and there's all sorts of pressures and sport is like no other business
06:27we all live in a goldfish bowl existence, every decision that we make is analysed and scrutinised and often criticised
06:35that's the difference between sport and other businesses, sport is a business but it's very different to most others
06:41and the role of the head coach is quite a significant one
06:45clearly the person's got to be able to coach but there's so many more qualities