KEY POINTS:
The 2007 Kiwis captain Roy Asotasi is set to get his wish, with Brisbane's Wayne Bennett sure to be appointed as a mentor to coach Gary Kemble - but Asotasi's position as captain remains far less clear.
The New Zealand Rugby League board meets on Friday and will
take a hard line with Asotasi after he slammed Kemble's coaching performance leading into last year's test against Australia and the UK tour.
Asotasi's statement on Monday that "I am speaking for all of the players when I say we do not have confidence in the coaching of Gary Kemble" made his position as captain untenable, NZRL chairman Ray Haffenden said yesterday.
Haffenden was particularly disappointed that he spoke to Asotasi earlier on Monday and believed he had straightened out any problems arising out of the tour.
That makes the attack on Kemble appear a player-power dispute. It's one Asotasi won't win.
"It's not acceptable from where I sit," Haffenden said yesterday. "It compromises everyone involved with the tour, every former captain and everyone who ever pulled on the black and white jersey. We were particularly disillusioned with his comments, given the conversation I had with him. I thought I had allayed his fears about where we were heading with Gary and that we were working through things."
Was Asotasi's position untenable? "Absolutely." Would he have to apologise and pull his head in if he were to continue in the role? "Absolutely."
Kemble was appointed for two years ahead of the test against the Kangaroos in Wellington last October - a match lost 58-0 - and after a review of the England tour - which included a 44-0 loss - has since been reconfirmed as Kiwis coach for the Anzac test in May and through the World Cup.
Haffenden said the board supported Kemble and the positions of assistant and a role for Bennett would be discussed on Friday.
"He [Bennett] is keen to assist the NZRL in any way he can."
The Broncos have given their six-time NRL premiership-winner and former Kangaroos coach the okay to take up the role. "We'd never stand in the way. It's a positive for the game in a World Cup year," said Brisbane CEO Bruno Cullen.
The NZRL's director of football, Graham Lowe, said Asotasi's lack of support for Kemble during the tour was bad enough and was a pointer towards why the team failed to achieve.
"The players need to look at their own form. I don't think Gary performed any worse than them. Their hearts weren't in it."
Lowe has advised the board on a coaching structure with Bennett acting in an advisory role. He wouldn't comment on his advice on Asotasi but the tone was clear.
"No matter what any player, let alone the captain, thinks of the coach, you always have to respect the office of coach."
Neither Asotasi nor Kemble returned calls yesterday, the South Sydney prop leaving today to play Super League champions Leeds in an exhibition game in Jacksonville in the United States.
If Asotasi doesn't back down there are clear options for the captaincy. Eels captain Nathan Cayless, 29, has 30 tests behind him and is a former Kiwi skipper. Souths secondrower David Kidwell, 31, has played 24 tests. Neither is a long-term option but either could fill in for the next obvious long-term leader, the Warriors centre/secondrower Simon Mannering.
Mannering, 21, has 10 tests and three NRL seasons behind him, is a first-choice player and will be so for as long as he retains his 2007 form.
He was one of the very few to come out of the British tour with credit. He plays 80 minutes and leads by example. All he needs is maturity and the confidence in his ability to do the job.
Another option as mentor to Kemble would be 10-year Kiwis coach Frank Endacott, who took the team to the 1995 and 2000 World Cups, when Kemble was his assistant. Haffenden said he expected the board to adopt a long-term perspective. He added that the requirement that the Kiwis' coach live in New Zealand and the national body's insistence that the coach be full-time, thus ruling out Super League and NZRL coaches, would be raised at the board meeting.
"I'm sure the whole aspect will get considerable discussion. It is not on the agenda but if someone raises it, it will get considerable discussion."
He would not pre-empt board decisions on Bennett, the captaincy or other issues.
