Nobody seems quite sure where Leeds Rhinos’ search for a new head coach will end up, perhaps not even Gary Hetherington, but the clock is ticking. Almost three weeks have passed since Richard Agar stepped down from the Headingley hot-seat after admitting his methods were no longer working.
“I just plainly and simply feel that I’ve not had a big enough impact on the team,” said Agar on March 21, the day his resignation was announced. "As head coach, looking at form and performances, I felt I needed to have a stronger impact on where we’re at and what we are turning out. Perhaps I have taken the team as far as I can and they may well need a fresh voice at this moment in time.
“I just feel that in the best interests of the team, and the club, that this change might help them to get out of the poor performances.”
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Well, two games on since Agar jumped ship and it cannot be said that performances have improved. Certainly results have not got any better.
Under interim head coach and club legend Jamie Jones-Buchanan, the Rhinos were stuffed 40-16 by Castleford Tigers in the Challenge Cup and then beaten 26-0 by St Helens six days later. It seems that Hetherington has already decided that Agar’s successor will not come from within. He is currently in Sydney to meet a number of potential candidates.
Reports down under say that Hetherington is considering Cronulla Sharks coach John Morris, ex-St George Illawarra Dragons coach Paul McGregor, Penrith Panthers assistant coach Cameron Ciraldo, Sydney Roosters assistant Jason Ryles and former Sharks premiership-winning coach, Shane Flanagan.
Ryan Carr, Parramatta’s assistant coach, is also said to be a strong contender and is known to Hetherington from his work as Featherstone Rovers, who enjoy a close relationship with Leeds. But if a highly-paid Australian comes in, as seems almost certain, what will happen to Jones-Buchanan and Sean Long?
At 45, assistant coach Long is five years older than Jones-Buchanan and has considerably more coaching experience, having worked at Salford, St Helens and Harlequins rugby union before moving to Headingley at the end of 2020. In 2018, Long got down to the last three as Eddie Jones’ attack coach in the England national team set-up.
Long said in an interview in November 2020: “At Saints, [head coach] Justin Holbrook would say, ‘You run the attack,’ but at Quins I would put my ideas forward and be told, ‘No one does that.’ I’d say, ‘Why can’t we be the first team to do it?’ so I became frustrated.”
Long was essentially brought to Leeds by Agar, his old pal from their days together at Hull FC, and had hoped that moving to Headingley would help him to become a head coach in the future. In that interview of nearly 18 months ago, Long added: “Rich has said he wants to groom me into becoming a head coach in the next couple of years.
“And I know he will. I’ve not been this excited for a long time.”
And yet with Agar having departed, it seems that Long does not have a sniff of the top job at Headingley, not even on an interim basis. With him having been very much Agar’s appointment, will Long even stay on when the new man comes into position, or he could decide to pursue an opportunity elsewhere?
Unlike Long, who made his name at St Helens as a brilliant scrum-half, Jones-Buchanan is very much a Leeds man. In every sense of the word. Cut him open and he bleeds blue and amber. The Rhinos have made a habit of creating roles for their popular ex-players but Jones-Buchanan and Long have both been a part of the coaching team who, along with Agar, struggled badly to fashion a winning formula this season.
Any new head coach, certainly from Australia, is unlikely to bring in his own staff in the current climate with money still tight everywhere in the game. David Furner had to work with the coaches already in place at Headingley and it has been a similar situation at St Helens during the Justin Holbrook and Kristian Woolf eras.
Quite how the coaching department at Leeds will look when the new man is appointed remains to be seen, but it is an interesting dynamic in the search for Agar's successor.
