Reds face clouded coaching situation

NICK Stiles is no certainty to be head coach of the Queensland Reds next season, with Super Rugby’s battlers still fiddling with the team’s off-field set-up.

Queensland Rugby Union chief executive Richard Barker yesterday could offer no comment on Stiles’s status even though a formal review of the 2017 season was completed weeks ago.

With no shouting from the rooftop at Ballymore that Stiles will still be in charge when the new season kicks off in February, the QRU has embroiled itself in another coaching speculation saga.

Only four wins from 15 starts this year with 10 Wallabies on the books left Stiles wide open for reassessment.

He may yet surface from this process with his job intact because he is listed as “head coach” on the Reds’ updated website, with former Rebels boss Tony McGahan as his new senior assistant.

Stiles was involved in preseason planning this week so the diligent coach has forged ahead regardless.

The speculation throws up two scenarios aside from a Stiles-McGahan-Brad Thorn troika. Installing novice Queensland Country coach Thorn as head coach would be the L-plater route that has failed the Reds countless times even though McGahan would be his mentor.

The third option would be McGahan as head coach, with a side serve of Thorn, because he has the most head coaching experience with Irish club Munster and the Rebels.

There will be members of the QRU board who are gun shy at a change because it would involve another payout, with Stiles having a year to run on his deal.