Raiders group general manager Simon Hawkins says there had been discussions over the sacking of David Furner for some time.
Hawkins denied Furner’s sacking had been triggered by a group of Raiders players recently approaching board members.
“Board members communicate on a fairly regular and informal basis with players anyway, so they have a fairly good feeling on how things are going,” Hawkins said.
Hawkins said they had discussed the get-out clause in Blake Ferguson’s contract at the meeting.
The clause enables Ferguson to leave the Raiders if Furner is no longer coach.
Hawkins said the club felt they had to include the clause at the time to get Ferguson across the line.
“He hasn’t asked to exercise that clause in his contract so I have no further comment on that,” Hawkins said.
Hawkins said Furner would be paid out for the entirety of his contract, which was due to finish at the end of the 2014 NRL season.
He said the board’s unanimous decision to sack Furner three weeks out from the end of the regular NRL season was to ensure it was done cleanly.
“Things accumulated and a decision was made. We didn’t want to have this vague period where Dave was not sure if he was coming or going,” Hawkins said.
“He understands where it is now, the club does, and supporters do.”
Hawkins denied there was too much player power at the club.
“I don’t see it that way at all. They have free communications to the board and they’re allowed, and they do exercise those,” he said.
“The board takes that information on board, along with other information as time goes on.”
He said while there wouldn’t be a clean out of the current playing roster, the club would review managerial positions at season’s end, as per usual.
“At the end of the year, everything is analysed. There is no particular plan to make any changes but all employees always have the possibility,” Hawkins said.
Assistant coach Andrew Dunemann will finish the year as the Raiders’ interim head coach, beginning on Sunday when the team faces Manly at home.
However Hawkins said there were no current candidates in line to replace Furner as head coach at the club for 2014.
“We haven’t started anything, the first decision was regarding David,” he said.
“The board will form a committee now which will take its time and investigate what the options are and there is no time frame around that.”