Rugby League: Warriors to explore Australian talent scout

Dean Bell's replacement at the Warriors could be based across the ditch. Photo / Michael Craig

With Dean Bell’s exit, the Warriors look to install an agent across the Tasman.

The Warriors are set to explore new recruitment avenues after Dean Bell's decision to stand down as general manager of football and may install an Australian-based representative to ensure the club has the best access to any emerging foreign talent.

Bell's contract was not due to expire until the end of 2016 but after eight years in various management, recruitment and development positions he felt the time was right to exit the club, citing a desire to explore new challenges.

Former football operations manager Dan Floyd will take over the player retention and development responsibilities and work together with Duane Mann overseeing the club's pathways and academy programmes.

Chief executive Jim Doyle, with coach Andrew McFadden and his assistants, Tony Iro and Andrew Webster, will continue to handle any overseas recruitment.

Doyle says the club's primary focus will remain on developing local talent but where required they will continue to target other players from the NRL and occasionally the UK Super League. To do that most effectively might require an Australian-based recruitment officer.

"That's something that we've been talking about for a little while and we'll look at that," Doyle said. "If we're going to do recruitment out of Australia and occasionally the UK potentially we might be better to have a recruitment person in Australia."

Doyle denied talk that Bell had paid the price for a string of failed recruitment attempts by the club.

In recent years, Bell tried unsuccessfully to lure several big name Australian-based players including Steve Matai, Kieran Foran and Trent Merrin, and was a frequent target for frustrated fans and media critical of the club's recruitment strategies.

"No, it wouldn't be fair to say that," he said.

"Dean and I have been talking, like I talk to all the managers in the organisation, as to how we can do things better. We had some really good discussions over the last few months around how we can do that and Dean also said that he was considering life after football.

"My only comment is that every single person who works at the Warriors is under pressure. We work in a high-profile organisation and one of the key things I want to do is continually raise our standards."

The recent signing of Roger Tuivasa-Sheck had been controlled largely by Doyle and McFadden rather than Bell, but Doyle insisted that was because he had an existing relationship with the Sydney Roosters fullback.

"I knew Roger first and foremost from when he played in the secondary schools and Junior Kiwis and Kiwis and then when I was in Sydney I spent a reasonable amount of time with him.

"Therefore like anything in life, if you know someone then you have a better connection then to send someone with no or little connections.

"From a marquee player point of view, they want to talk to the coach because they want to know their style of play and how he sees them fitting in and generally they want to talk to the CEO and see what direction the club is going in. That's what we did with Roger and also Jason Taumalolo."