League: Any post considered as NRL sounded out

Brian McClennan is coming home. Photo / Getty Images

Brian McClennan would be happy coaching the Hibiscus Coast under-11s if he was asked.

He eventually wants a job in the NRL but the former Kiwis coach knows he can't be picky. There are bound to be offers when he returns to Auckland this year and if the best is the chance to help with the local under-11s, he would oblige.

"I'm OK with that," he says in his distinctive Kiwi drawl. "I will pop down and help out with some drills."

Most expected him to be doing that at Leeds again next season. McClennan surprised most people last week when he announced his resignation as Rhinos coach a year earlier than anticipated.

He was contracted through to the end of the 2011 UK Super League season, when his assistant Brian McDermott would take over, but brought plans forward 12 months.

There have been plenty of conspiracy theories swirling about McClennan's departure. Most centre on the belief Leeds boss Gary Hetherington was unhappy with Leeds' results and was keen to accelerate plans to promote McDermott.

Hetherington is a strong and ambitious club chief executive who isn't scared of making difficult decisions.

Another theory suggested McClennan could see the Leeds light was fading and got out before it tarnished his reputation too much.

"Nah," McClennan says, "that's not how it happened. Gary and I worked together on this the whole way.

"Halfway through this year, I signed a contract for another season and Brian McDermott was brought in as my assistant with the idea to get him ready to take over as head coach. Even when I was signing the new deal, I was having big thoughts about coming home."

Most of those centred around his children. During a family holiday to Spain a fortnight ago when his his kids were playing in the ocean he realised it was time to return to New Zealand.

"The timing is right to come back and do something different," he says. "The longer you stay somewhere, the more the children get ingrained there and the harder it is to come back. From a family perspective, it feels really great we're coming home. The McClennan family is feeling pretty good.

"We had three wonderful years in Leeds. It's been one hell of an experience. The selfish thing to do would be to stay, but I would rather do it the right way and do the right thing. The team could do with a new voice and Brian is ready. He's been a head coach before [ he coached Harlequins]. I'm heading into uncharted waters but I'm OK with that. I've done it before."

It's what he did when he took over at Leeds in 2008. He had coached the Kiwis for three years, highlighted by the 2005 Tri Nations title when they thrashed Australia 24-0 in the final, but hadn't coached a professional club side before.

Some doubted he could transfer his methods which, among other things, incorporated motivation themes (some included kaizen, slay the dragon, scaling Everest) and enjoy weekly success.

He perhaps exceeded expectations. Leeds were already a successful side, having won the 2007 Super League title, but McClennan guided them to the 2008 title as well as the World Club Challenge - the first English side to win both.

In 2009, Leeds became the first club to win three consecutive Super League titles which, as McClennan says, is "pretty massive in the salary cap era".

This year proved more trying as injuries took their toll. Leeds failed to pick up any silverware, although they made the Challenge Cup final - they were easily beaten by Warrington 30-6 - and fell one game short of the grand final. Leeds are used to success and fell short of expectations.

McClennan admits the club will need a transition period as younger players come through to replace an ageing squad but believes the present group have the potential to pick up another couple of titles. He will have to watch from afar, in just the same way he did with the NRL over the past three years.

"I will need to do a fair bit of research into the NRL because I haven't really seen much of it over the last three years," he admits. "I downloaded a few things in that time but there are some young players I don't really know.

"If things work out [and I get a job in the NRL] I want to make sure I'm spot on and could do a great job for a club. Hopefully one day someone might say, 'we will take a punt on that guy'."

He doesn't have anything lined up, wouldn't say if he had been approached ("I would never do that," he says, "because you have to have integrity in this business") and says he would never make advances to a club.

After packing up in Leeds and a family holiday in Los Angeles, McClennan plans to get back into the consultancy he operated when Kiwis coach - as well as talking to organisations about the parallels between sport and business. He also plans to travel to Sydney to catch up with a couple of coaches he knows there.

Whatever happens, he will be involved in rugby league. It's what McClennan has done since he started playing as a four-year-old.

He lives, breathes and sleeps the game - even if that means coaching a junior side.