Prospects for change at Leeds Rhinos could be in pipeline

Just as the Leicester City manager was sacked last month, less than a year after leading the Foxes’ to a 5,000-1 Premier League success, it seems Leeds Rhinos head coach Brian McDermott’s own position is now under threat.

Indeed, after their heaviest ever Super League defeat, Thursday’s embarrassing 66-10 loss at derby rivals Castleford Tigers, Leeds chief executive Gary Hetherington has revealed their entire playing squad, coaching staff and senior management, including himself, will come under close scrutiny during the next month.

Essentially, the implication of an email he has sent to fans, suggests they could have four games to save their jobs. McDermott, of course, led Rhinos to an historic treble less than 18 months ago but, having finished ninth last term and failed to make the play-offs, came under real pressure.

Leeds stood by him but, for the first time, Hetherington has now suggested there could be changes in the pipeline at Headingley.

Written after receiving a “record” number of emails following the Tigers debacle, he said the club will be in a better position to make an accurate judgement after those next four games.

Admittedly, Leeds have won two of their opening four matches, an improvement on last term.

Nevertheless, it was the sheer chasm in class between them and Castleford that infuriated and concerned supporters so much.

McDermott, 46, is Leeds’ longest-serving and most successful coach. However, with no major recruitment since last year, even after allowing Man of Steel Zak Hardaker to join Castleford on a season-long loan, they are encountering problems once more.

Granted, they had a raft of players missing last week but clearly there is little leeway for more failures with Friday’s game against Catalans suddenly of great importance. Hetherington wrote: “Our performance at Castleford was very poor from start to finish.

“Our opponents were just the opposite! They were exceptional.

“The result was significant. Our heaviest defeat for over 20 years. This raises two questions. Firstly, how would we have fared if our team had included Rob Burrow, Keith Galloway, Mitch Garbutt, Jamie Jones-Buchanan, Carl Ablett, Brett Ferres and Stevie Ward? And secondly was this one of those ‘one-off’ results which occasionally occur in Super League? Last season, for example, Wigan conceded over 60 points at Wakefield Trinity, but recovered and went on to win the title!

“These are the type of judgement calls that have to be made by senior management in all sports organisations and results like the one last week heighten the need to scrutinise.

“We found ourselves in this position last season and were in no doubt our best policy was no change because we believed the team would show its true colours once the group of senior players returned from injury. “We made a judgement call which I believe was the right one but we’re not stubborn enough to believe no change is always the best option. Equally, we don’t make knee-jerk decisions and any actions have to be carefully thought out with the only consideration of what’s in the best interests of the club now and in the future. With regard to our playing squad we are in a period of transition and the team that played at Castleford included six young players who have fairly recently graduated from our Academy and they are all learning and playing in a high-pressure environment.

“This month is an important one with games against Catalans Dragons, Wakefield Trinity, Huddersfield Giants and Wigan Warriors and at its end we will be in a much better position to make an accurate judgement on the performance of all our players, coaching staff and senior management including myself.”