Rhodie leaves Storrington player-manager role

John Rhodie in action at Midhurst & Easebourne on Saturday. Picture by Kate Shemilt KS180185-8

Rhodie revealed his decision to leave the role in the wake of Swans’ 2-1 defeat at Midhurst & Easebourne.

The now former player-manager has been with Swans for 13 years. Most of that time has been spent as a player, however, he took over from former head coach Pete Matthews two seasons ago and cited a constant struggle for consistency as a major reason behind his departure.

Rhodie said: “It wasn’t a particularly successful season for us. We struggled quite a lot to get results and that was disappointing from my perspective - in terms of my own performance really as a manager with a group of players I felt could achieve more.

“We had a lot disruption with ground grading and what was going to happen and we didn’t know what league we were going to play in so that makes it difficult to get set up and hindered us a little bit.

“Otherwise there were similar problems with not having a budget and asking players to contribute with membership and relying on sponsorship, so it’s hard to attract certain standards of players. It’s a really close club, the support I’ve had from key individuals, from the players and the coaching staff around me, has been absolutely fantastic. I never got put under pressure or questioned anything I wanted I just had to ask.”

Rhodie believes his career as a player may have affected his ability to manage the players he once shared the field with and said: “Another big part of it was I stepped up from being a player two years ago - and we’re quite a close bunch - we did lose quite a few players but it turned into me managing a group of friends that you had been used to being in the changing rooms as a players.

“From that aspect it was trickier for me, getting the players commitment levels in terms of attitude and attendance in training made it hard to achieve what we wanted. One hundred per cent I want to go back to playing, the back of the last season I played some games for us and I got myself back fit , which I want to keep doing.”

Rhodie is to meet with club officials to discuss how he can support Storrington next season.