Rohan Smith has arrived at Leeds Rhinos to begin his role as head coach and says that building strong relationships – and firing their attack – will be top of his to-do list.
The Australian has flown in to begin his new role, arriving on Tuesday morning and heading straight to Kirkstall and Headingley to familiarise himself with his new surroundings.
He will take training for the first time on Thursday when the full squad returns, fresh from two wins on the bounce under interim coach Jamie Jones-Buchanan.
But former Bradford Bulls and Norths Devils boss Smith already has some idea of what he wants to do in the short term.
“The first thing is getting to know everyone and building those relationships,” he said. “That’s key for performance, a player-coach relationship and as a team everyone being connected. It’s something I’m big on.
“I’ll spend time with the staff getting to know the existing systems and structures and then add my own bits.
“I eagerly await inviting players for a chat, those who want to sit down and have a detailed chat, that’s the best way to get to know guys and it will help me in getting to know them.
“There’s some aspects of how we play that we can build on pretty quickly. The defence has been pretty strong of late.
“Scoring some more points will certainly be a priority going forward but I look forward to catching up with the other coaches tomorrow (Wednesday), sitting down and going through some things, working through strategy.
“Those guys know the group better than I do so which direction we go and how quickly we move in certain aspects, I’ll be guided by the players a little bit and the coaching staff as well.”
