Keith Senior has not ruled out a possible move to become head coach in the future. The Rhinos legend has been training with another of his former teams, Sheffield Eagles, since 2015 and currently serves as an assistant to Eagles legend and head coach Mark Aston.
The five-time member of the Super League Dream Team had a brilliant playing career in the Super League. Since then, Senior has certainly earned the stripes from him as a coach over the last eight years and feels it might be time to step up from assistant to top job.
When asked about his coaching career, Senior said: “It’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? Never say never because when he was playing he never really wanted to coach the first team, I wanted to work in youth development and then I ended up coaching the first team and enjoying it.
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“I have dreams and aspirations and I am reaching a stage where I probably need bigger challenges, training is a very cutthroat and dangerous industry. One minute you can be training and the next minute you are never training again.
“I am comfortable right now. I guess that’s not necessarily a good thing. I know I could be a first-team head coach, I’ve been an assistant coach for a while, about eight years. I’ve had some really good coaches, some really bad coaches, I’ve experienced many levels.”
In addition to his coaching work, Senior has also been involved in many other high-profile cases during his post-game career, be it with Leeds Rugby Foundation or Rugby League Cares.
He said: “Working with Rugby League Cares has also changed my perspective on coaching, you talk about the whole issue of personal wellbeing or mental health, when I first went to Sheffield I was in the full-time, full-time, that’s not about championship rugby. The way I got there was too intense, too deep, it was too difficult, so it’s been great for me to understand the psychology a little bit.
“Also challenging myself and being more of a male coach and being more empathetic to these players. As a player it was terrible, very bad, if you have a problem, leave it at the door because we have a game, we have a game to win, whereas now I am a little more empathetic in that. Respect, so I’ve picked up a lot of good qualities over the years, which makes me very useful as a coach.
“I probably need to (become head coach) for the challenge, like I said, it could be in a year, it could be a five-year thing, I don’t know. I have the work ethic, sometimes luck comes into play. Sometimes certain managers who are really good managers have gone to the wrong club at the wrong time. It’s something I’m potentially looking into, but it would have to be the right opportunity.
“I love my job at Rugby League Cares, I enjoy Sheffield so much more because there is a future now whereas five years ago we played Wakefield, Featherstone and Doncaster, we were all over the place. In fact, there are now some huge building blocks being put in place that will be very beneficial for the club and it’s good to have that vision.”
He added: “I am not getting any younger. I am now 47 years old, I have done my evaluations, I have done my years of constant training and I have learned a lot. I’m still going to do the wrong thing, but I have a lot to offer,” he added.
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