Tim Sheens has refused to rule out a return to club coaching but insists that his only focus at the moment is his new role as the director of rugby at Salford.
The 64-year-old, who is the current Australia coach, has not worked at club level since 2012 but has joined the Red Devils until the end of the season to help try and transform the club’s fortunes, a deal which is likely to be extended for another two years if both parties are happy.
But with the club understood to be in discussions over a severance deal for the current coach Iestyn Harris after another season of struggle, Sheens says his job is to help establish Salford as a force in Super League as their director of rugby as opposed to the head coach, and he will not get involved with the coaching setup any more than he is asked to.
“At the moment I’ve been given a role as director of rugby and we’ve got to see how far that goes,” Sheens said. “I’m not looking at coaching or that type of thing here; I’m here to assist the current staff and work with them to improve the club. We’ve worked on things already and the coaches have allowed me to give them some input on the training field. I definitely won’t jump over the top of them in that regard.
“You never say never in this game about coaching; just as players get to a certain stage in their careers, so do coaches. You never know what will happen, all you do is work hard in the role you’re in and it’s funny how the phone can sometimes ring. I’ve been in the game long enough to not worry about my future – I’m here to do a job with Salford as director of rugby, and that’s my focus.”
He added: “My role is just to support the coaching staff; it’s a role which includes recruitment and the overall planning for the club – everything from staffing to recruitment of players right through to how it is run and managed.
“As I understand things, we are still drafting up what the role will be completely, it will grow as it goes along. Director of rugby is not a common thing in rugby league, and it’s a role that will expand as we go along.”
Sheens added that his future as the coach of Australia, whom he led to World Cup success in 2013, is currently undecided and may not become clear for some time. “That position still hasn’t been sorted out; the way it works in Australia is it’s an invited position by the NRL on a one-year contract basis.
“I’ve had seven one-year contracts, but the way it’s done in the future may change, and they may go with a contracted role and have someone full-time. However, those kinds of decisions don’t get made until around November, especially with Australia not having any fixtures to compete in at the end of the year.”
Sheens spent a month with the Red Devils working in an advisory role earlier this year but has returned in a permanent capacity following a spell back in Australia, and he revealed he has used that time to try and examine potential recruits for Salford for 2016 and beyond.
“As soon as we agreed for me to come back over I was into all the agents in Sydney and got the official list of players out of contract,” he said. “There’s an unofficial list, too; there’s players who clubs may release before the end of their contract – but that doesn’t mean they’ll come and play in England.
“We’ve got to look at the salary cap and then there’s the marquee player card, which you may or may not want to play –you’ve got to be sure. There’s lots of things to be looked at for us.”
