Not leaving, waiting Henry on the outer in cyberspace as team Furner fills void
By Daniel Macdonald
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"A disgrace, a shambles, a nightmare, a farce, surely an April Fool's Day prank, a complete @#$%^ joke".It was 2am yesterday and scores of bleary-eyed Canberra Raiders fans blogged away scornfully at outgoing coach Neil Henry and the board and management of their beloved club that had let him slip out of his contract a year early.
By early yesterday afternoon, Raiders stalwart David Furner, the son of the club's foundation coach, Don senior, had been appointed as Henry's replacement on a three-year deal.
David's older brother Don, the club's loyal chief executive officer, wasn't so upbeat, mumbling that maybe he would have to go as well.
"Maybe I'll leave. I won't be there for that long, but we'll see," he answered when asked about the family coach-CEO venture.
Re-enter Simon Hawkins, the club's former CEO, who will now play middleman in any sensitive negotiations involving coach Furner that would normally have been dealt with by the CEO if he wasn't your older brother.
Influential Raiders chairman John McIntyre told The Canberra Times yesterday that the board had discussed the possible implications of having brothers in two of the most important and public positions at the club. "We mentioned at the board meeting that while Don was in the management position and having David coming on board as coach, which was certainly my preference, Simon [Hawkins] may need to come in again," McIntyre said. "[A family feud] is not in the nature of either of them but families being what families are, you know, there could be a volatile environment.
"There may be a lot of family pride on one side, but I'm just saying that there could be difficulties with two family members in those positions."
Hawkins was chief executive when he and then general manager Don Furner agreed on the get-out clause in Henry's contract.
McIntyre yesterday maintained that the entire board was ignorant of the clause which allowed Henry to escape the deal by providing just a matter of a few months' notice to the club.
He sent a blunt message to management and a promise to Raiders fans that the embarrassing mistake he has had to deal with over the past three days would never happen again while he was chairman. "This management will never do something like that again while this board is in place," he said.
Henry, meanwhile, maintained that he had no knowledge the get-out option was in his contract until he sought advice on terminating it.
He said yesterday that he made a commitment in writing to the Raiders that he would not join the North Queensland Cowboys until November.
The club have backed his pledge to see out the season regardless of results on the field.
Henry's promise to stay until the end of the season is likely to further anger some Raiders fans, who want his head on a plate.
Queanbeyan fan Kenrick Winchester summed up the sentiment, "We want someone in charge of the club who actually wants to be here. Henry's commitment isn't to the club, so why should ours be to him?"
Adding to the drama yesterday was the revelation that Origin back-rower Neville Costigan is likely to follow Henry out the door at the end of the season.
He was shocked when told of the club's decision to promote Henry's assistant David Furner to the senior coaching role. "I don't know about that one, I thought they would have at least gone after another NRL coach," he said. Costigan has already stated his desire to finish his career in Queensland and said yesterday that Henry's decision to leave the club could impact on where he chose to play next year.
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