New Coach

It is now three weeks since Back left the club. Gary Hetherington has been busy in that time. Players' departures have been announced. Some expected, others not totally unexpected. Alongside all that activity we hear that interviews have taken place for the role of coach. Who has been interviewed? I've no idea but some people have thrown their names into the hat:

Llyn Howells - experienced coach who knows the Championship very well. Downside is that he has not achieved much whilst he was at Donny.

Simon Middleton - more than 10 years at Leeds, knows the players and the club ethos. Downside as defensive coach his sides leak points like they are going out of fashion.

Gary Mercer - ex RL man who knows the club. Experience? Limited.

Other names have also benn bandied about. These include John Callard ( the fans favourite) - lives locally and has worked with the backs when they were good. Diccon Edwards - former head of the academy who would be a Lanny-like appointment (& hence a bit of a gamble) and finally Phil Greening who has done good things at London Welsh & who quit to try his luck elsewhere.

Whoever gets the job will have to hit the ground running and adopt a different approach to his predecessor. These are hard times and money is tight ( while we have the Key/Back debt on our backs). Her will have to get the best out of the players we have already. I cannot see GH letting them out on a shopping spree. Two or three key positions might get covered. Nothing more.

Expect a decision this week.

Who is to blame?

Leeds Carnegie rugby club is in turmoil, again. The 3-year plan of the management team is in tatters and the Leicester duo, Back and Key, have gone - Key sacked & I suspect Back resigned before he too was axed.

So what went wrong and who is to blame? The second year of the plan had been a success in that the club had avoided relegation. When Neil Back trumpeted his "top 6 finish" as the third phase of the plan we thought that a mid-table finish was on the cards.

The pre-season was an absolute disaster. To my mind things had started to go wrong before then. I had heard that we were signing Charlie Hodgson from Sale. His body language, when seen on TV, said that he wanted away. I am sure that the Leeds management thought he was coming, hence the lack of any other decent stand-off in the close season signings. For whatever reason Charlie changed his mind & we were left scrabbling for decent players who could perhaps fill the 10 shirt. We ended up with a decent, injury-prone 12 who, to my way of thinking, did not fill the 10 shirt in any way, shape or form.

That was the start of the season-long failure to move up to the "next level". Everything else was incidental. No number 10 = no success! Therefore I have no hesitation in pointing the finger at a certain Yorkshireman from Halifax (not Mallinder this time) and saying;

                                        "Charlie - it's your fault!"