Eamonn McManus on Saints rising to challenges in 2022

Instead, his eyes are fixed firmly on the challenges ahead; from the one facing the slowly transitioning champion team seeking an unprecedented four titles in a row to the club’s business in overcoming the impact of two years of Covid and thirdly, the plans for British rugby league’s future.

Under his stewardship Saints have landed a silverware haul of six Super League titles, five Challenge Cups and a World Club Challenge, and even more significantly midway through his tenure McManus was the driving force behind the move from their 120-year-old Knowsley Road home to the near 18,000-capacity Langtree Park.

Having supported the club since first passing through the Knowsley Road turnstiles in 1963, McManus has witnessed highs and lows from boy to man, supporter to chairman.

And with the men’s team winning the double and the women polishing off the treble in 2021, the club have spent the off-season looking down from a lofty perch – presenting a big target for the chasing pack to aim for.

McManus said: “There is a different feel at the end of each year, and I would say this year is one of the biggest challenges in the history of the club playing wise.

“To continue success at this level for a prolonged period becomes more difficult because you are a bigger target. 

"We say it every year, but other teams have strengthened, undoubtedly, and this year it really is the case.

“For our players and staff to re-energise and re-motivate it does present a different challenge.

“Over the last few years we have had the right balance of players, and that balance is also in terms of age and maturity. That balance does not last forever when players start to retire and move on.

“But we have been able to keep it for this season.”

With Lachlan Coote, Kevin Naiqama, Theo Fages and James Bentley moving on, Saints have filled the holes with a combination of recruitment and the elevation of young starlets into starting 13 jerseys.

The proof of the pudding will be in its eating as the new-look Saints get the 2022 campaign under way, but they can do so with a degree of confidence.

“It is an unknown, but all you can do is do your best in identifying players in terms of ability and in terms of chemistry.

“Chemistry is as important as ability, but Woolfy is very astute,” McManus said.

“On the recruitment side he has been very good for us and knows the people behind the player so it is less of a gamble.

“One of the very good attributes of Woolfy is his knowledge of players in Australia he very much focuses on is the person as well as the player and reads personality very well.”

Woolf had a tough act to follow when the hugely popular Justin Holbrook moved on after Saints 2019 title success at Old Trafford.

And to make those hurdles even tougher to scale, within weeks of the season starting Covid swept the world and the lockdown ensued.

McManus paid tribute to Woolf’s man-management and the way he dealt with those significant challenges – to go on and deliver two more Super League titles.

“He has done a phenomenal job in difficult circumstances.

“He is tough, but people buy into him because he is very straightforward. He does not play mind games – he just tells the truth, he knows what he wants from the players and he expects them to deliver it.

“And certainly, the squad has bought into that, as have the Tongan national team. Everywhere he has gone has been the same, not just us.

“It is always tough for overseas players, bringing your families here in the middle of an English winter, but coming here during lockdown, where you don’t know anybody and were stuck in the house for weeks on end was a very difficult experience.

“I pay real tribute to our overseas players and our overseas coach during that period because there has not been one complaint.

“They have just got on with it and that has been reflected in the results.”

But with Saints academy supplying a remarkable eight of last year’s Super League Grand Final starting 13, plus Jack Welsby off the bench, that praise is also directed closely to home.

McManus hailed the work of Derek Traynor and Neil Kilshaw in spotting the talent, even when casting their net further afield, and then putting them on the pathway to the first team.

“The Academy set-up provide the building blocks in the pyramid, and while I have been here that has always been the policy of the club,” McManus said.

“You have always got good players coming through, but when you look at potential elite players like Lewis Dodd and Jack Welsby it underlines that we are going through a pretty fortunate phase in this point in time because they are great players in key positions.”

All this playing success, and the way the youth system have continued to drop players on to the conveyer belt to the first team, have continued in the face of the challenges the club has faced as a result of the pandemic.

The fans did their bit at the outset of the outbreak, when the game was shut down in March 2020 and when it returned it was behind closed doors, with many not claiming back the cost of their season tickets.

The lockdown affected clubs like Saints, who had made a big investment in a seven-days a week facility, much greater than others.

Even more so given that it was not simply the rugby crowds that were absent, but the conferencing, weddings and hospitality sector was also closed down shutting down further revenue streams.

“I think ourselves and Leeds were probably the hardest hit because we were the two clubs in the game who made the biggest investment,” McManus said.

“A good portion of our revenue model was based on non-rugby revenue.

“That went 100 per cent, and then rugby without crowds means the knock on effects of sponsors and the like, so it has been an exceptionally difficult couple of years.

“Our strength prior to Covid was that we had a brand new stadium and on the balance sheet we were not one penny in debt.

“It is open that we have taken on Government loans and have a ten-year period to pay it back, but it is not an insignificant amount and we have got to do that.

“This is where our business model now comes in useful because once we do get back to normal we will be able to generate revenues pay that down comfortably.

“Now, on the sponsorship side we are doing pretty well at every level. The corporate boxes are back to normal, season tickets are very healthy if a little bit down on pre-Covid levels, but you would expect that because there are still people who are uncertain about whether they want to come,” he said.

He is looking for a big gate for the Super League opener against Catalans Dragons on Thursday – and the club are putting on a big show for that to mark the occasion.

McManus believes the decision, in the face of significant revenue cuts, to keep on spending on maintaining quality on the field has been vindicated, pressing ahead when voices elsewhere in the game were talking of cutting their cloth to match the financial loss.

“At the beginning of Covid there was thoughts that this was the end of the world, we are going to halve salary cap and cut players.

“I said that is absolutely the worst thing you can do.

“My view was if we can get through this when other sports are also weak it would allow us to grasp a good opportunity. Rugby union had to reduce their salary cap and there was a move in RL to do the same but I was dead against it.

“My view was ‘Keep our nerve and be ambitious let’s not just fold’.

“It is easiest thing in the world to cut costs but let’s have a wider view on this. Keep standards high and when we get through it, we will be well positioned.

“The new TV deal was coming up, if you start cutting costs then standards drop and we may not have got a new TV deal. Yes, it was reduced but we may have got nothing.”

McManus is currently dedicating significant portion of his time as one of half a dozen members of a joint Super League Europe and the RFL working group seeking to identify a strategic partner to help grow the game.

“A lot of work is going on, and I am heavily personally involved in that, as part of a strategic working group looking every way of improving.

“The weaknesses of the game historically have always been profile, marketing and recognition which then feeds into crowds, subscribers and media valuation,” McManus said.

“What we have to do is be honest about where we are weak and where we have been consistently weak for as long as I can remember.

“We are not going to turn that around by employing a few more people we have got to bring in a strategic partner that is strong in the areas where we are weak.

“That is something we are looking at very seriously at this point in time.”