Salford Red Devils

Paul Rowley fires warning to Salford Red Devils’ players but makes ‘consequence’ admission

by
Sam Cook
May 29, 2025

Salford Red Devils coach Paul Rowley has sent a warning to his players, reminding them of ‘personal standards’ after another heavy defeat.

Wakefield Trinity moved into the Super League play-offs with a 72-10 win over Salford last weekend as the Red Devils conceded their 500th point of the campaign.

The aggregate score of the past three games reads 176-26 with 30 tries conceded in those three matches and Paul Rowley has admitted that the Wakefield performance can’t solely be attributed to the off-field pressures at the club. However, he also noted how little room he and his staff have to punish players.

Speaking to the media ahead of Friday’s visit of Wigan Warriors, Rowley said: “I thought we underperformed at the weekend. I thought the team on paper underperformed. I guess the hard bit is the environment doesn’t enable us as staff to have a consequence to poor performance or poor behaviours.

“There’s been no consequence. What is the consequence? People can’t be dropped, exchanged and all that sort of stuff. I think as a result of that and off-field issues as well, the focus has definitely drifted.”

Salford Red Devils coach calls for personal standards to be looked at

Having admitted that the “focus has definitely drifted”, Rowley confirmed that there has been a “harsh review” but accepted there’s no avenue to turn other than to ask player’s to hold themselves to higher standards.

He explained: “I guess if the only consequence is me telling them off, you get used to that. If someone keeps shouting at you, you just learn to ignore it.

“I think personal standards is (need to be looked at) and what we need to remind ourselves of, and me included, is that we need to represent ourselves in the best case possible. We’re always on the show. We are our own brand.

“Being a professional rugby player is an obsession. You need to dream about playing and dream about what’s happening the day after and come with ideas of stuff you’ve been thinking about. I think that side of things has definitely drifted. That’s got a little bit, I won’t use the term loose, but it’s not been the first thing on everybody’s mind and it needs to be in this sport.”

“Tremendous respect” for players, claims Rowley

Rowley conceded that he can understand why his players would let standards slip, noting how long their current uncertain status has been. For how they’d handled themselves overall, he applauded the players.

He said: “I do understand it. Pre-season started in November, so this has been a long, long time of distractions, if you like.

“I actually just think credit to our players for the loyalty and commitment that they’ve shown up to this point. Credit to the players that actually left for staying and fighting and hoping that we got started for so long as well.”

On those who have left, he explained: “Nobody left this club until the 11th hour, if you like. I’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for players who’ve left and also the players who are still with us now, so I can’t be too harsh on them.

“Every tough review’s got to be laced with an element of understanding and appreciation as well. I think it’s about finding a motivation sometimes and motivation inside yourself and ask yourself the questions of what you’re doing it for and why and all the other things.”