Bullish James Ford breaks silence on shock Sean Long exit

Former Wigan Warriors and Leeds Rhinos assistant Sean Long was expected to join Warrington Wolves as assistant especially when he left his role at Featherstone Rovers abruptly despite leading them to the top of the league with only a handful of defeats throughout the season.

However, this wasn’t the case with Wakefield Trinity instead snapping up the former St Helens and Hull FC coach.

It seems he was sacked because the club weren’t sure he would secure their promotion to Super League.

Now his replacement James Ford has spoken about Long and is bullish about the club’s chances for promotion.

”Everybody at the club and in and around the cub has a great affinity for Sean and there are some very positive relationships that he’s built,” Ford told FRTV.

“I think I can speak for everybody by saying that we wish him all the best at Wakefield and I’m sure that him and Mark Applegarth will compliment one another really well and they’ll have a really positive end to the season.

“My role now is to work with this really talented bunch of players. We have probably the best Featherstone squad that the club has had and they are doing a lot of things right.

“There are one or two areas to fine-tune and it is my job to find those areas and help this club get promoted.

“That could sound a lot of pressure but I’m in no different position from any other Featherstone coach, you are here to win and play a nice brand of footy. So there’s no pressure on me any more than anyone else who has been in this post.

“I wouldn’t have taken this on if I didn’t think I could do it. I’m fully aware of the expectation in and around this place and have had some tough times throughout my coaching career. I’m confident that with the support of the playing group and the quality of it, we can get Featherstone in Super League.”

The club are the favourites for promotion in a year that it is vitally important to secure promotion given IMG’s incoming changes.