Leeds Rhinos chief executive Gary Hetherington says there will be an “exhaustive search” for Richard Agar’s successor as head coach.
Agar resigned on Monday after almost three years in charge at Headingley, with the club looking to keep him on board in a different backroom role.
Hetherington says that the search began immediately to recruit a new head coach for Leeds, who have underperformed so far this season with five defeats from their opening six games.
“This will be a pretty exhaustive search,” said Hetherington. “There are no red lines. We start with a blank piece of paper.
“We’ll identify the skill set that we’re looking for, and we’re looking for someone to come in and take on the current squad of players and look to make a great impact at the club.
“It’s a demanding job, any head coach in Super League is very demanding. But even more so at Leeds Rhinos, so it needs to be a person with special personal qualities and with ability, desire, determination.
“There is no timescale on when that needs to be concluded by.”
Hetherington said it was hard to put his finger on where things have gone wrong at the start of this year but praised the work done by Agar and the rest of the coaching team, including Jamie Jones-Buchanan who has now taken interim charge.
“Normally when a team has lost five of six games, you can pinpoint reasons, but’s much more difficult to do that in our situation,” said Hetherington.
“Richard has done a terrific job as head coach, from where we were three years ago to where we are today.
“I don’t believe we have a coaching problem, with Richard (Hunwicks), Sean Long and Jamie Jones-Buchanan the team are extremely well prepared. The players will tell you there’s been real structure, it’s professional, and no stone has been unturned.
“But of course results and performances are what coaches define themselves on, and Richard has taken this decision and in many ways put the club before himself.”
