McDermott sacked with Leeds facing ‘desperate challenge’ to top-tier status
Yesterday’s sacking of coach Brian McDermott after eight years in charge surprised some people. Dave Craven reports on how and why it came about.
LEEDS RHINOS chief executive Gary Hetherington conceded he never “envisaged” sacking head coach Brian McDermott, but says he had to due to the Super League champions’ “critical” state.
The club parted company with the most successful coach in their history yesterday just eight months after he had led them to the fourth Super League title of his eight-year reign.
However, it was an alarming run of seven successive league losses that led Hetherington to make the surprise move as the club slipped perilously close to the bottom four.
Leeds were in a similar position in 2016 when they did fall into the Qualifiers and had to fight to avoid relegation.
Hetherington stood by McDermott then and Rhinos recovered to win at Old Trafford again last year.
However, the chief executive has decided now is the time for change – McDermott did not “agree” – and Hetherington will immediately begin the search for a new head coach.
Explaining the decision, Hetherington said: “In 2016, having taken everything into account, my estimation was our best chance of success in 2017 was the people we already had both in terms of players and coaching and backroom staff.
“To affect a big change then wouldn’t necessarily give us the best chance of being successful.
“(But) at this moment in time we do need to affect a change and to affect that needs a change of direction and refocusing of our senior management.
“There has been a concern – shared by everybody in our club including Brian McDermott, the coaching staff, players, management, fans and sponsors – that our level of performances this season have not been where we’d like them to be.
“I have to say at this moment we find ourselves in a critical position, so there is a desperate challenge to improve our position with immediate effect.
“Only time will tell if it’s successful or not. We never envisaged finding ourselves in this position. I met with Brian (on Sunday) having had several discussions with him prior to that.
“This is the outcome and it is a sad day in many ways because we are reflecting on someone who will be remembered forever and has made a major contribution to the success of this club and team.
“We have both always known there would be a day when we’d be talking about his departure.
“We had hoped it would be a mutual decision. I have to say Brian is disappointed and it wouldn’t have been his choice.
“It hasn’t been the perfect departure he’d hoped for and it’s not lost on me this is a traumatic time for Brian himself.”
Castleford Tigers’ Daryl Powell – who coached Leeds between 2001 and 2003 – is the bookmakers’ new favourite to take over although he is contracted at Wheldon Road until 2020 and has spoken before about his desire to deliver a maiden title for Castleford.
Australian Dave Furner, the former Leeds second-row, currently assistant at South Sydney, was the initial favourite and he has also been linked with the vacant Wigan role in 2019.
Hetherington maintained yesterday that he has no successor in place and is open to all options including a domestic or overseas appointment as well as potentially an interim coach until the end of the campaign.
They have slipped to eighth with just four rounds remaining and visit Castleford on Sunday when the remaining coaching set-up of Barry Eaton, Jason Davidson and Chev Walker are likely to be in charge.
McDermott – who could now come into the running for that Wigan job – said: “I am extremely disappointed this has happened and obviously it is not a decision I agree with.
“I wish everyone at the club the best and my thoughts will be with the team on Sunday and through to the end of the season.”
IT WAS the imposing backdrop to Gary Hetherington’s interviews yesterday that perhaps suggested a primary reason for Brian McDermott’s surprise sacking as Leeds Rhinos head coach.
Every time anyone visits Emerald Headingley, the sight becomes even more impressive as more work is completed on the stadium re-build.
When finished, it will be the finest rugby league stadium in the country.
However, of course, it has come at vast expense and leaves a debt that needs to be paid.
Boasting a splendid ground of such magnitude is folly for a Super League club if it is then relegated to the Championship and, as absurd as it sounds for the defending champions, that is probably Hetherington’s biggest fear.
Suffering the drop would be catastrophic for Leeds, especially if the majority of top-flight club bosses get their way and subsequently return to the traditional one-up, one-down form of promotion and relegation.
But Rhinos suffered a record seventh successive Super League defeat at Wigan on Thursday and by Sunday – when Hetherington delivered that shock news to the club’s most successful-ever coach – they were clinging on in eighth only by virtue of a superior points difference to Huddersfield.
Leeds have just four games remaining to make sure they do not fall into the bottom-four and put themselves at risk of relegation via the Qualifiers.
It would be the second time in just three years they would have to go through that jeopardy and, frankly, they can’t afford to.
As harsh as McDermott’s sacking may seem to some given his record of success with the club – four Grand Final wins, two Challenge Cups and a World Club Challenge – he, more than anyone, must know how brutal professional sport is.
Rhinos clearly feel the need to act now to arrest this current decline as it would be too much of a lottery to go through it all again and, sooner or later, support – both in terms of fans, commercial and sponsors – will wane.
Admittedly, McDermott helped dig them out of trouble in 2016, when many called for his head when things turned sour, and they duly responded by winning the title last season.
The 48-year-old deserved that opportunity, though, given his past record. It is harder to fight his corner when they are so quickly in another perilous state yet again.
Then, questions seriously need to be asked.
Another way of looking at the subject, however, is through some telling comments made by Kevin Sinfield in the recently-released film As Good As It Gets.
Not the ones about how the legendary Rhinos captain kept a daily written diary to detail his thoughts after McDermott controversially dropped him in 2015.
No. The point at which Sinfield gives his belief that, if you listed a set of categories you want from a head coach, McDermott would probably not be a 10 out of 10 in any but a seven or eight in all.
It wasn’t derogatory. But maybe Leeds now need a coach with a perceived higher average.
Although there is no suggestion McDermott had ‘lost’ the dressing room, there will certainly be plenty of players who will be pleased that the club has moved in a different direction.
Some of the younger players, for instance, may feel they have a better chance of advancing under a different type of man-manager.
Some of the older ones may look forward to playing with more team structure and in roles better suited to their skills.
McDermott is the club’s longest-serving coach but, after eight years in the role, a change was undoubtedly needed.
Arguably, he should have left at the end of 2015 after completing that famous ‘Treble’ with those departing stars Sinfield, Jamie Peacock and Kylie Leuluai.
Or even after last year’s surprise Grand Final win against Castleford Tigers.
If so, he could have bowed out in glory. But now, this exit is far from harmonious.
Indeed, even in yesterday’s statement to announce his departure, McDermott said “it is not a decision I agree with” when, ordinarily in such cases, there is talk of ‘mutual agreement’.
That is no real surprise; he has often been forthright and sure of his views and beliefs.
Looking back, it was a surprise he did not replace right-hand man Jimmy Lowes in 2013 when he left for Leeds Carnegie.
Maybe McDermott has needed a senior figure alongside him but, then again, players will tell you he has always been his own man.
Leeds have twice finished fifth under his reign and also sixth and ninth. Not great.
Yet the former Royal Marine has often come up with a gameplan for the matches that matter most.
No one, then, can deny that McDermott has been a huge success for the club. But, equally so, all parties will now benefit from this parting of the ways.
Rhinos clearly feel the need to act now to arrest this current decline ... Dave Craven on the reasons behind Brian McDermott’s sacking as head coach, yesterday.