Richard Agar helped refocus Leeds Rhinos’ mindset, admits Brad Dwyer

Brad Dwyer says Leeds Rhinos head coach Richard Agar has paused amid all the mayhem to help remind the squad about what they are fighting for.
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The livewire hooker scored the decisive late try to help fight back and win 20-18 at Wakefield Trinity on Sunday, maintaining the club’s faint hopes of reaching the Super League top-four play-offs.

Being a fourth game in just 10 days, on the back of their Challenge Cup success at Wembley and with so many players missing for various reasons, it would have been easy for Leeds to slip out of contention.

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However, Dwyer revealed: “We sat down before the game and spoke about what this meant to us.

Leeds Rhinos' Brad Dwyer. Picture: Bruce Rollinson.Leeds Rhinos' Brad Dwyer. Picture: Bruce Rollinson.
Leeds Rhinos' Brad Dwyer. Picture: Bruce Rollinson.

“It’s easy to get lost when playing games every two days.

“You can sit there and laugh about how mad it is what we’re doing.

“But Rich sat us down and made us all focus on what our reasons are. He made us focus on what our mindset was before the crazy congested period and what it meant to us and I think we showed that.

“We weren’t perfect but we dug it out together at Wakefield.”

Ash Handley after scoring a try against Wakefield. Picture: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com.Ash Handley after scoring a try against Wakefield. Picture: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com.
Ash Handley after scoring a try against Wakefield. Picture: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com.
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Agar revealed afterwards that Dwyer – who along with Bodene Thompson and Mikolaj Oledzki played in all four games – had been given the option of not playing having struggled to bend over to his tie his bootlaces in their final training session.

The ex-Warrington Wolves star, 27, admitted; “Before training I was trying to limber up and he came over to me and said ‘there’s no need for heroes today.’

“He said if I’m no good I can pull out but being around the boys gave me a bit of a lift.

“I was struggling up to that point but being around them gave me that lift and I was just excited to play.”

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Dwyer added: “If we’d lost we knew it was us more or less us done.

“There was no way I was going to miss it.

“It was a massive win for us. It keeps alive our hopes of the top-four.

“It was tough going and it’s not ideal the situation we are in.

“But it keeps us alive until next week. We’re not playing Cas now but we know it’ll be the same against Wigan.”

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