Black and Whites assistant coach, 42, will leave at the end of the season and the club legend has discussed the emotions he felt being told he was no longer wanted
07:11, 12 Sep 2023Updated 09:01, 12 Sep 2023
Having excelled throughout his rugby league career, being told he wasn’t wanted by Hull boss Tony Smith floored Gareth Ellis.
The assistant coach, who’d earned legendary status for the Black and Whites as the first captain to lead them to Wembley glory, wasn’t sure how to take the news. And the ex-Great Britain star - rated the world’s best second-row in his heyday - certainly didn’t know what to do next. Or what his next career step would be.
But, in an exclusive interview after it was announced the 42 year-old would leave at the end of the season, Ellis admits he feels at ease at last. He said: “It is a weird one. Initially, when Tony pulled me to one side and said he was looking at not going around with me again I felt: ‘S***, what am I going to do?’
“I wasn’t thinking my coaching career is over as such but what next? But after a month to reflect, I’ve realised that’s the question I’ve not been asking ever since I retired. I think I’ve been clinging onto rugby league for a long time since retirement. I’ve gone into coaching, came out of retirement in 2019, back into coaching and not had to answer ‘what next?’
“Tony made his decision and he wants to go in a different direction. But that knot of anxiety I’ve been carrying around for three years has now gone.”
Ellis won Super League as a player under Smith at Leeds in 2007 and also had him as his international coach before eventually taking the NRL by storm with Wests Tigers and then returning to Super League at Hull. Smith took over as Airlie Birds chief ahead of this season after Brett Hodgson was sacked but it has been another difficult year for the under-performing East Yorkshire club. With just two games remaining - Saturday’s visit of Huddersfield before a trip to champions St Helens - they sit tenth, having missed out on the play-offs again.
Ellis, who launches his autobiography Never The Easy Option this weekend, will then spend time to decide on what he does next away from the daily grind of the sport that’s been his life. He said: “I was a bit miffed at the start. “It was unusual: as a player, I’d never really been dropped on performance, never been a player who’s had to go searching for a new club and always had a steady rise ever since starting out at Wakefield. I’d always been in control but the rug was suddenly taken from under my feet.
“I wasn’t thinking about my coaching career, though. Maybe that’s a sign. It was more how am I going to pay the bills, tell the wife and my dad. There was a bit of a sense of failure in there. And embarrassment even. But I do feel it’s a blessing in disguise. I managed to get away on holiday and when I told Isaac, my eldest who’s 13, that I was coming for the week he said: “You’re not are you? That’s brilliant.”
“I loved his reaction. I don’t want to be that dad who gets to 50 and has never been on those holidays. You make sacrifices as a player. That was one of them and it was worth it. But as a coach I didn’t feel it was worth it as much.”
Never The Easy Option: The Gareth Ellis Story is available from Saturday from Scratching Shed Publishing £13.99