Born-again Salford Red Devils plan to ‘take the absolute mick out of everybody’ this season now their future is finally assured.
Coach Paul Rowley’s side were beaten 32-6 by Leeds Rhinos on Saturday in their first game since the takeover, which ended their financial crisis, was approved by the RFL.
After the match Rowley admitted his side are “behind the eight-ball” and need to improve following a badly disrupted pre-season, but insisted they have been overwhelmed by support from within the game and won’t be harbouring an ‘us against the world’ mentality.
“I am hearing a lot about [a siege mentality] and we have had that before, but not at the minute,” Rowley stressed.
“I think that’s because we’ve had a lot of good support around us in terms of players at other clubs and other people in and around the game.
“They’ve been great, really supportive, so we’ve not got that, but we have standards and a pride in the shirt.
“We’ll probably get written off quite a bit so that gives us power as well and something to prove. We like to prove people wrong.
“I remember one article in pre-season that gave everyone’s motives – Warrington must win something, Leeds must finish top-six – and it said Salford have to continue to take the absolute mick out of everybody.
“We love that, that’s what we are about. It’s a bit of a ‘crazy gang’ more than a siege mentality.
“We have fun, but it’s really important we raise our game because we weren’t good enough against a really strong Leeds side who totally deserved their win. We’ve got no complaints.”
Rowley emphasised he was only commenting on Salford Red Devils’ disrupted build up because he was directly asked about it, but admitted it did take its toll.
“It has been four months,” he pointed out. “The last two weeks in particular have been up and down.
“I am tired – it has been draining and that’s just me – I don’t have to put my boots on. We are behind the eight-ball, we started after everybody else, so we’ve got to catch up and catch up quick, but I am really proud of the lads, I am chilled.
“We don’t accept mediocrity and we don’t like losing, but we got here intact, together and you look around the dressing room, we’ve got a good group of lads.
“But that will only last so long. We’ve got a game at Hull KR on a short turnaround so you’d think they’d planned it almost – stitch them up and send them on a short turnaround to Hull KR.
“But that’s a real character test and I love character tests so we will look forward to the short turnaround and test of character on Thursday and every time we take to the field is a bonus for us. We’ll just keep working hard to get where we want to be.”
Rowley fielded a completely different Salford Red Devils side – with 17 changes – to the one beaten 82-0 at St Helens in Super League round one.
He accepted Rhinos were “more battled-hardened”, completed better and won the physical battle, but pledged: “It has given us a start point and we’re happy to have that and some focusses going into a new week.
“We’ll pick the bones out of that one and regardless of it being our first game or whatever excuses we could throw in, we’d rather be honest with each other.
“There’ll be some good chats and it’ll give us as a coaching staff an opportunity to provide some clarity of expectations to our players. We won’t hold back on that, they will accept it and they want it as well.”
For Rowley, being able to concentrate on coaching, rather than worrying about the club’s future, is relief.
“I’ll be honest, a week on holiday would be pretty good,” he said. “You don’t get a chance to think, really.
“It’s great the club’s now in a forward-thinking position, however, as a coach it’s what’s next.
“The game’s finished, you pick the bones out of it in the morning while doing your prep’ for the next game at the same time, especially on a short turnaround. It’s just so busy at the moment, which is good, so onwards and upwards.”
