Training as usual for coach

Press, 21 July 1982, Page 42

Training as usual for coach

It was training as usual for Frank Endacott, the suspended coach of the Addington premier rugby league team, as he gives advice in a scrum, at Addington Park last evening. Behind him is the half-back, Bill Parker. Mr Endacott said that he would continue coaching until he had received official advice of his suspension. Then he would be appealing on the grounds that the punishment was excessive and that the team should not suffer for his actions. Mr Endacott took his extreme action — of calling Addington off with four minutes remaining in its game against Linwood last Saturday — because, he said, of the 22-2 penalty count against it, and of feeling running high within his side. “I know I called them off, but a team without a coach is like a ship without a captain. And I am more wild that nothing has been said about the referee and refereeing in general.”

Noting that his club was “100 per cent” behind him, Mr Endacott said that should his appeal fail, the guidance of the team would rest, until his return, with the captain, John Tapiata, and the manager, Mr Stan Barton. "But what about my other work for the game?" asked Mr Endacott. “I coach an 11-year-old team for another club (Hornby), and put in more than 20 hours a week for the game. I want to know what’s happening about them, as a lot of people could suffer because of this decision.”

The ruling “made me squirm about my future,” said Mr Endacott, “but I determined to try and get something done about this situation. I’ll be a contender for the Addington job again next season.” He then took the unusual step of praising the referee in protest at whom he had taken his team from the field. But he made clear that

there were "no bad feelings whatsoever” between him and his old front-row opponent, Rod Mackenzie. “There never have been, there never will be,” said Mr Endacott. “I have seen Rod Mackenzie referee some excellent games. One performance, when we lost, 1-5, to Eastern Suburbs last season, was the best refereeing I have seen in years in New Zealand, perhaps even the best.

“I consider myself the best loser in the game,” said Mr Endacott. “I am the first in to shake hands when we lose, because it is not losing that counts.

“But this performance I considered the worst I have seen from a referee in my 16 years of premier football — hence the action I took.” Mr Endacott said it was the first complaint he had ever made against a referee. “Every team gets three or four bad decisions a game; that is acceptable. This was not.”