Wigan Warriors head coach Matt Peet believes the sport and its media need to show more empathy to under-pressure coaches like Huddersfield Giants' Ian Watson.
An abysmal run of form hit a new low for the Giants with Friday’s 54-0 thumping at erratic Leeds Rhinos, ahead of a daunting trip to Peet’s Warriors this week.
Huddersfield’s humbling left their head coach vowing to “die on my sword” in a brutally raw post-match interview that will inevitably have consequences and casualties.
It brought to an end a sour week for the club that saw speculation of interest in Justin Holbrook after his sacking by Gold Coast dismissed as a “totally incorrect and malicious rumour without any foundation whatsoever”, before being rolled over by the equally out-of-sorts Rhinos.
Watson was left absolutely shell-shocked as he fought for his future down the unforgiving barrel of the Sky Sports cameras, his veins bursting with rage in an extraordinary, shell-shocked exchange. It was the kind of manager interview that usually only ends one way. And one that hit close to home for Wigan boss Peet.
“I have empathy because I know at some point that is probably going to be me who’s suffering,” Peet told The Sportsman.
“When it’s good it’s good, but when it’s bad it can be pretty brutal.
“I haven’t reached out to Ian personally because I don’t want to come across as patronising, but the coaches are very supportive and drop you a text when it goes well or not so well.
“What Ian has achieved working his way through the leagues and getting to big finals, he knows his ability and it is going to turn. I do think there is a tight community of Super League coaches, but I also think coach welfare is something that should be considered more closely. I do think sometimes we could look after one another a bit more.”
Huddersfield’s plight has led to the inevitable media coverage of Watson’s position, which peaked with last week’s unsubstantiated Holbrook rumour that angered Huddersfield so much.
“I don’t like it at all,” Peet added of the media scrutiny of head coaches.
“I understand why the game or the media sometimes looks for sensationalism but I sometimes think there is a lack of empathy from the rugby league media.
“We are not football. Your job is constantly on the line but we all have mortgages to pay. I’m not crying about it but when I see it happen to other people I feel the lack of empathy and support for people within our own sporting community.
“We are very good in rugby league at getting around people when they need support, but sometimes we also enjoy sticking the knife in as well. Don’t be pleasant to one person and then enjoy revelling in someone else’s misfortune.
“Every coach in Super League is trying their hardest and I just wish sometimes we could all show a bit more empathy for one another as some of it I find a bit unsavoury.”
The 46-year-old Watson is adamant that he won’t be the casualty of this season’s unexpected slump, despite a dismal run of seven defeats in eight games that has left only Castleford Tigers and Wakefield Trinity below Huddersfield after 16 rounds.
But how on earth has it come to this for last season’s upwardly mobile Betfred Challenge Cup runners-up, and a head coach tipped for a big future in Australia’s NRL?
“Is he the right man still? I think so,” Kevin Brown tells The Sportsman.
Brown knows Watson’s ways as well as any, after playing under him in Salford Red Devils’ 2020 campaign that yielded another Challenge Cup Final appearance.
“Where do they go if they change it? Chairman Ken Davy is not someone who reacts emotionally so I think they will keep him. I have worked with Watson and he is a very, very good coach, but at the same time something needs to change pretty quickly.”
Some may question Brown’s take on Watson.
He is the kind of coach who brings the best out of up-and-coming players, and fixes “lost souls” like Tui Lolohea and Jackson Hastings - a coach who will enhance under-performing teams, but as yet hasn’t kicked on for success at the very top level. Watson has an incredible attention to detail, a micro-manager from top to bottom, but he also has personnel problems.
Danny Levi and Ricky Leutele were two big losses and Huddersfield is now an ageing side. Seven of their starting 13 at Leeds were over thirty, of which star men Chris Hill, Chris McQueen, Leroy Cudjoe and Jermaine McGillvary are 35.
Rising star Will Pryce is leaving for the NRL after this season, so where best to accommodate him each week? And star signing Jake Connor, one of Super League’s most flamboyant game-breaking mavericks in the black and white of Hull FC, is currently in the Giants reserves, deemed not fit enough.
Watson’s take on Connor is intriguing too. “Hull tried to build a team around Jake and as an individual to win games, but that’s not why we brought Jake here,” Watson explains.
“We brought him to be a team player and improve certain areas. What we need him to do is certain things that sometimes are not natural with such a talented attacking player.” That is a baffling take. If the Giants have signed an off-the-cuff enigma and asked him to conform to rigid gameplans, then would it not have been wiser just to sign someone else?
The issue though is none of the above, according to Brown. Far from being a lack of talent, it is actually a surplus of talent that Watson has been so far unable to manage.
“Every player is on notice that if they don’t play brilliantly then they are out. That is not good for continuity or trust.
”The balance in the squad is just not right at the moment. There are almost too many really good players in similar positions, a top-heavy side with too much quality and you can’t keep everyone happy.
“Pep Guardiola once said that everyone wants us to sign more good players, but you have got to keep the ones that you have got happy.
“Good players want to play every week, they don’t like to be rested or rotated. Look at the squad of players they had in the reserves just this week in Harvey Livett, Jake Connor and Sam Halsall who are all used to starting and being key figures.”
Guardiola though has an ego, which Watson seems not to possess. Perhaps that is how the best managers find a way not to feel too unsettled by having to make unpopular calls. Could Watson be caring too much? About this Huddersfield team and perhaps even about his own career trajectory?
Either way, a glance at the fixture list suggests there will be no quick fix. It’s Catalans Dragons away next weekend, after this week’s trip to the team that pipped them to Challenge Cup glory, in-form Wigan.
“They are a proud club, a proud group of players, super talented with strength in depth and an excellent coach who will be very determined,” adds Peet, who himself tipped Huddersfield to challenge this year.
“They are going to click at some point. Everyone in the game is confident that Huddersfield will find a run of form, they have too much class on and off the field for that not to happen.”
Watson may remain adamant that he will fix Huddersfield’s season but in truth he won’t - it will be the players that will.
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