When you think of Super League’s greatest ever teams, one of the first ones that comes to mind is the St Helens side of 2006 who won the treble at a canter.
Two of the pillars of that side Sean Long and Paul Wellens are regarded as icons of Super League and now they’ve moved onto being Head Coaches with both being named in Head Coach roles today within hours of each other.
Wellens took the reins at hometown club St Helens on a two-year deal as he looks to take the Saints to a fifth consecutive title.
Meanwhile, Sean Long has taken over from Brian McDermott as Featherstone Head Coach striving for promotion to Super League.
Today Wellens spoke to the press for the first time after being unveiled as the Saints boss about his ambition to keep improving the Champions whilst Sean Long opened up on Rovers TV about his attitude to the job.
He spoke about his attitude to man management and play style.
He said: “I’m pretty laid back if I’m being honest, all my staff as long as they’re doing their job then I’m fine and I’m cool with all my players, I get on with them because you want to get the best out the players so you don’t want to be in their grill all the time and get them on board really.
“Playing a good brand of rugby and everyone buys into it then you’re on for a winner.
“I know some players there and there’s some new players coming in, it’s exciting times for me.”
He’s also excited about being able to try out new ideas that he hasn’t been able to use as an assistant coach in the past: “When I’ve been an assistant in the past, I’ve had ideas and things that I want to implement and not had the chance so I’ve been looking and asking and they go ‘no, no, no’ but now I get to attack my way and coach my way.”
That said, he wanted to give credit to the coaches who helped develop him as a coach: “I’ve been under some great coaches don’t forget, Richard Agar, Justin Holbrook and I went down to London. I’ve had some good times and learnt a lot.”
𝙊𝙐𝙍 𝙉𝙀𝙒 𝙃𝙀𝘼𝘿 𝘾𝙊𝘼𝘾𝙃
Sean Long shares what we can look forward to seeing from him as a Head Coach in 2023.
Watch the full interview with @georgeyboy now on ROVERSTV. pic.twitter.com/FKucwW6vQM
— Featherstone Rovers (@FevRoversRLFC) October 5, 2022
Lastly, he has also underlined his ambitions as Featherstone boss.
The headline goal is of course promotion to Super League but he has his heart set on far more than just that: “I want to get back into the community, to play a good brand of rugby, get promoted. I don’t want to finish second, I never want to finish second. I want to win trophies and get into Super League and I’ll be working my hardest to do that.”
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