IF there has been one Super League head coach that has endured a difficult time during the 2023/24 off-season then it’s Paul Rowley.
Head coach of Salford Red Devils, Rowley has watched his play-off hunting be ripped apart with the likes of star men Brodie Croft, Andy Ackers (both Leeds Rhinos), Ken Sio (Australia) and Joe Burgess (Hull KR) all exiting the club.
It almost seems like Rowley has had to start afresh once more – but he is embracing the challenge as well as the extreme highs and lows that come with being a rugby league boss.
“It has been and it hasn’t been. Like rugby league, it has its highs and lows and its extreme highs and lows this pre-season,” Rowley told League Express.
“The lows of the squad being dismantled but the highs of new people coming in and the way they have applied themselves in pre-season, fostering new relationships with players and enhancing the ones we have already got with existing ones have been absolutely out of this world.
“The energy and enthusiasm our players have got is quite inspirational and the highs and the lows is a perfect example.”
For Rowley, the exits of the likes of Croft, Ackers and Ken Sio were made worse by the fact that they were made late in pre-season.
“The exits were out of my hands and late in the piece as well. No one likes surprises especially when they are not pleasant ones but what can you do?
“Do you stay lost in it or look for the positives and move forward and I think I’ve got responsibility of the good people I am surrounded with at the club to lead a way through that. You control the controllables and that’s what my job is.”
When asked if he has ever considered stepping away from the helm at Salford due to the tough as year on year, Rowley was defiant – and it’s obvious to see why he has been so successful with the Red Devils.
“Every day I consider it (stepping away) but I think the relationship I’ve got with the people around me, I get lost in how much fun I am having when I go to work.
“And that’s due to being surrounded by a group of unbelievable people, talented and good people. That’s what keeps you going.”
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