Gary Chambers on Warrington Wolves director of rugby role

And with his association with The Wire spanning more than three decades, Gary Chambers seemed like the perfect man for the job.

In the second and final part of his exclusive Q&A with our Warrington Wolves reporter Matt Turner, Chambers discusses what he has learnt - and continues to learn - about his role, why Burgess' impact comes as no surprise to him and the continued rumours of a return to South Sydney Rabbitohs for the head coach...

> Read the first part of the Q&A, which covers recruitment and retention plans, by clicking here

MT: You’re seven or eight months into this director of rugby role now so how are you finding it?

GC: It’s been good and I’m enjoying it.

It was a shock to the system at first and it was a bit turbulent, but it’s going the way we all want it to go.

With the staff and the players, we’re in a decent spot.

MT: You mentioned it’s been “turbulent” at times so are there things about this role that have come as a bit of a surprise?

GC: Things like contracts, dealing with agents and looking at how it fits together in terms of the long-term jigsaw.

You can’t just think short-term – we have to provide a product on the field for everyone to follow and for Sam and the staff to work with, but I’ve got to look at the bigger picture.

I’ll always have at the back of my mind that we don’t want to block any pathways for the players we’ve got coming through.

Players coming in have to offer the right value for what we need as a club in terms of fitting into the jigsaw I mentioned earlier.

We don’t want to be doubling up on players that we don’t necessarily need and conversations with agents around how that looks is certainly interesting.

It’s good fun and a good learning curve. It’s hard at times but I’m getting there with it.

MT: Like you said, there is an element of “learning on the job” for you but I guess it will always be like that?

GC: I have to learn new things all the time and that will mean mistakes are made. If I’m not making mistakes along the way, I’m doing something wrong.

I’m lucky that I’ve got Karl (Fitzpatrick, chief executive) here to bounce ideas off. He’s always there for me to pick his brains.

Sam and I must speak 20 times a day about where we need to be and what his vision is. He’s really detailed in terms of the type of player he wants to bring in, he’s focussed as well on the youth we’ve got and is conscious that we have to have a theme that runs right through our programme.

That way when lads step up, they look like Warrington Wolves players and not just rookies who are coming into the programme, so that “next man up” mentality works.

MT: How have you found working with Sam to be? He seems to have changed a lot of things in a very short space of time?

GC: He’s unique in as much as he has a switch where he can relate to the lads on a really authentic level, but then he can flip straight into business mode.

Everyone has totally and utterly bought into his vision and it’s quite impressive to watch him at work.

I knew he’d be good, but I didn’t quite realise the influence he would have. He’s a powerful character and ultimately, he’s a good person and that’s what we want right through the club.

MT: Sam’s obviously addressed this but you get the sense the links with South Sydney aren’t going to go away the longer he continues impressing people.

Are you surprised that kind of talk has started already?

GC: When it was first spoken about, I had no doubt in my mind he would do well and that during his tenure with us, this will always be spoken about.

It’s the same with players – if they do well, people are going to be attracted to them. That clearly means we’re going well as a club.

If we weren’t going well and the camp wasn’t in a good place and things like that, there wouldn’t be as much interest so it must mean we’re doing something right.

MT: Two of those players who really haven’t let anybody down are Leon Hayes and Adam Holroyd, who have made sustained first-team breakthroughs this year.

You obviously oversaw a lot of their development as head of youth, so is it a source of particular pride for you to see those guys flourishing now?

GC: There’s a lot of people who had more influence over them than me, but I’m massively proud of what they’ve done.

They’ve been fantastic for us and they were never going to let us down.

When I took the interim job for those last six games last year, there were a lot of people calling for Leon to come in but he just wasn’t ready.

That came from himself as well – I’d sit and talk to him and he’d tell me he wanted that little bit more time.

I played him in that game against St Helens and he was very sore afterwards. It’s a lot to ask of a young fella to play week in, week out.

He needed that pre-season and it’s worked perfectly for him.

I firmly believe a half-back doesn’t come into their own until they’re in their late 20s or early 30s, so we’ve got to look after him and keep him learning. He’ll be fantastic for us for many years.

With Adam, I had no doubts about what he was going to bring us. He’s tough and epitomises everything I want in a player coming through our programme.

If we can get a few more Adam Holroyd’s coming through, I’ll be happy.