Knights coy over Elliott approach
Doug MacDougall
Tuesday, 14 February 2006
The Canberra Raiders' push to re-sign coach Matt Elliott received a boost yesterday when the Newcastle Knights cancelled a scheduled meeting that was expected to determine whether the club would offer Elliott its vacant head coach position.
The Knights are on the hunt for a replacement for departing head coach Michael Hagan, who will join Parramatta in 2007. But they have remained tight-lipped on who leads the running.
Knights chief executive Ken Conway refused to comment on whether the cancelled meeting was to discuss offering Raiders coach Elliott a three-year contract, but didn't rule him out as their preferred man for the job.
"I'm not going to go into any of that, I'm trying as far as possible to run a confidential process and give our applicants some confidentiality, so we'll get through the process as quickly as we can and settle on a coach as quickly as we can," Conway said.
Conway also refused to comment on speculation Elliott had firmed as the favourite for the position, indicating other contenders for the job - believed to be Parramatta assistant coach Peter Sharp and Newcastle premier league coach David Fairleigh - were still being considered as replacements for Hagan.
Raiders chief executive Don Furner remained confident of re-signing Elliott on a two-year extension of his contract, which would see him at the helm until the end of the 2008 season.
He said the threat from the Knights meant the matter would receive urgent attention.
"All I know is they're obviously interested in him, from what I've got out of the press and Matt's sort of said that," Furner said.
"We think he'll stay with us, and the fact is normally we sit down with Matty this time of year [for contract negotiations]."
"But I guess with the chain of events that were set in course by Parramatta making their early call, it sort of forced the hand of a few clubs to move a bit quicker and more hastily."
Furner said the club's loyalty to Elliott in the past was a major reason why he believed the coach would resist moving north.
"We don't turn [coaches] over. Some clubs do and I'm pointing the finger maybe at Newcastle a bit.
"They came last last year and they didn't [retain] their coach, and we came second last and we certainly haven't looked to do the same with Matty," he said.
From:
http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/de...y_id=458684&category=General Sport&m=2&y=2006
