jools wrote:you mean the merger we were forced into by the RFL? funny how hull never get the same stuff levelled at them though.
because the truth hurts
JOHN KEAR has described his season at Huddersfield as a ‘very unhappy time and one of the lowest periods’ in his coaching career.
When the Giants merged with Sheffield Eagles in 1999, Kear was charged with the task of making the combined club a major Super League force.
But in his newly-released book ‘Coaching is Chaos: A Life in Rugby’ (with Yorkshire Evening Post RL writer Peter Smith and produced by Scratching Shed Publishing Ltd) he has revealed it proved an almost impossible task.
It meant his stay at Huddersfield was shortlived – less than a season – but he still felt the experience helped make him a better coach.
He has also admitted he doesn’t hold anything against the club’s officials for what went on and still has total respect for everyone at Huddersfield – particularly now Kear and his current club, Co-operative Championship Batley Bulldogs, have formed an official partnership with the Giants!
“Rumours began to surface that the Eagles would be merging with Huddersfield Giants at the end of the year (1999), with the new outfit playing over in West Yorkshire,” he wrote.
“It was all done and dusted before we had the details confirmed, but I knew there was something drastically wrong when I was told we (Sheffield) had 11 players contracted for the year after and they were the only full-time players we would have.
“A Super League club couldn’t operate like that, with 11 full-timers and the rest part-time, so it was obvious things were afoot.
“When we joined forces with Huddersfield it was billed as a merger, but in reality it was a take-over. They – Huddersfield – had a benefactor in Ken Davy who was willing to bankroll them, but we didn’t have those sorts of resources.
“Huddersfield had finished bottom in 1999, for the second successive year, and the ‘merger’ meant they retained their Super League status, but they were the dominant partner in every respect, as illustrated by the name: Huddersfield-Sheffield Giants.
“They had a superb facility and a wealthy backer, but their team wasn’t good enough.
“We had the better players and confirmed Super League status.
“We were sold it as an equal partnership, with the plan being to play seven home games at Bramall Lane and a similar number in Huddersfield.
“Half the training was going to be in Sheffield and half in Huddersfield.
“When it came to it, all the training was in Huddersfield and the
plan to share games between the two venues was quickly dropped.
“In August, they played Castleford at Bramall Lane and only 2,102 fans turned up. It was announced after that there would be no more matches in Sheffield, which I am sure was the plan all along. I say ‘they’ because I had moved on by then.
“The ‘merger’ was confirmed on September 30, 1999 and I left the club on July 13 the following year. It was a very unhappy time and one of the lowest periods of my coaching career.
“I wasn’t able to appoint my own staff, both Steve Deakin and Simon Worsnop were released and I was told I had to take Huddersfield assistant Phil Veivers and their conditioner Trevor Commons.
“When the merger was announced I should have walked away. I stayed put and lived to regret it.
“The cultures at the Eagles and Giants were very different.
“Gary Hetherington is a tough task master and always very careful with his cash.
“His legacy was that players at Sheffield tended to be overworked and under-paid, whereas it was the opposite at Huddersfield.
“An example: In my first-choice team I had Darren Turner on the bench, with Johnny Lawless as my starting hooker.
“The third rake in the organisation was Danny Russell, who was retained from Giants’ previous squad. Johnny and Rocky’s payments combined were less than what Danny Russell was on.
“Johnny, who is someone I like a lot, pulled me to one side about that and made it clear he wasn’t happy. I had every sympathy for him.
“The squad was divided into a number of cliques, there were the ex-Sheffield and ex-Huddersfield players, plus an overseas group and another who travelled over together from St Helens.
“Getting everybody to mix was really difficult and the gulf in wages among some of the players only added to the problems.
“I did try to put structures and systems in place and I think that was a minor success. After I left, Tony Smith came over from Australia to take the post and he complimented me on the job I had done there.
“In League and Cup, I was in charge for 19 games and we lost all but three of them, including a run of 10 straight defeats at one stage.
“You live and learn and I think the tough experiences I had at Shuddersfield made me a better coach.
“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and I am a firm believer that reflective learning – learning from experience – is the best method of education.”
https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/ru ... ch-4936395these are not fans words they are from John Kear
