Brown ‘not coming back’ to Highlanders
‘‘You don’t want to lose money, but you want to make sure that you know that you’re able to try and make a difference.’’ Paul Kean New Highlanders chair who bought a 10% share in the franchise last year
New Highlanders chair Peter Kean says they have started the search for a new head coach for 2023 and beyond, with Tony Brown moving on at the end of his three-year deal.
Kean has replaced Doug Harvie as Highlanders chair, and will bring business acumen and experience to the role, having served as a New Zealand Rugby board director for six years.
One of his first tasks will be to oversee the appointment of a successor to Brown, who will devote his energies to Japan next year in the buildup to the Rugby World Cup in France.
‘‘That got delayed by Covid, but we’re going through a process of recruiting for a head coach at the moment,’’ Kean said yesterday.
‘‘You clearly we don’t want to destabilise things during the season, but certainly that process is starting.
‘‘From my understanding Browny is not going to come back and as head coach next year. I think his time’s up.’’
Brown’s exit in 2023 has been well signposted by the Highlanders, and Kean said the Highlanders would now have to weigh up the merits of an internal candidate such as current assistant coach Clarke Dermody versus an external one.
‘‘We’re looking wider but Clarke Dermody would certainly be a contender,’’ Kean said. ‘‘I think it’s like anything in sport or business. Generally, you have a really good internal candidate, and you normally would have a good external candidate.
‘‘Hopefully, we come out with a really good coaching group. We’ve got a really good coaching group now but change gives you opportunity.
‘‘Brownie has been a great coach, but he’s obviously got international tie-ups with Jamie [Joseph] with Japan, and who knows what the future could be with Tony Brown, because his name was all over the show last time when they were picking the All Blacks coach.’’
Brown has been head coach at the Highlanders for two years. During that time, the Highlanders made the final of Super Rugby Trans-Tasman, and Kean praised Brown and Dermody for building a good culture in the squad, with no evidence of
‘‘dropped lips’’ despite their underwhelming results so far this year.
On the flipside, the Highlanders have won only three games out of 16 against the four other Kiwi clubs in the past two
seasons, justifying the search for an external candidate.
Kean – who alongside Steve Hansen is also part of the group that owns world-class racehorse Nature Strip – said he was far
from discouraged by the Highlanders’ results this year, noting that they could have won ‘‘over half’’ their games in different circumstances.
However, his years of corporate experience
– he used to run Lion Nathan – had taught him to look at the bigger picture.
‘‘It’s not a despondency on the board,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ve got to take stock, look back at what we’ve achieved [in the past], and what we’ve got coming through.
‘‘Clearly, we’d love to make those playoffs because the Highlanders are a team that can beat any team on the day.
‘‘... but you do have seasons like that, unfortunately. But, there’s a really good feel in that team.’’
Kean’s reference to ‘‘what’s coming through’’ – the group of promising new players in the Highlanders’ highperformance programme – is critical when assessing the side’s future, and the new head coach will likely have to demonstrate a strong track record of developing emerging talent.
Kean also said that previously shaky bridges between the Highlanders and the region’s three provincial unions – Otago, Southland and North Otago – were well on the way to being mended.
‘‘We’re starting to see that we have a really good bunch of young players coming through,’’ Kean said, citing lock Fabian Holland, prop Saula Ma’u, flanker Sean Withy and No 10 Cam Millar.
‘‘And we are working probably as well now if not better than we have for a long time with the Southland union, with Otago and North Otago, so that those young players have a pathway through to play for those provincial unions.’’
The new chair also has skin in the game, having bought a 10% share in the Highlanders last year.
‘‘It was about putting something back to the region,’’ he said. ‘‘You don’t invest in a rugby team or probably many sports teams – unless it’s a Manchester United – to make money.
‘‘You don’t want to lose money, but you want to make sure that you know that you’re able to try and make a difference.’’