Salford dealing with club issues together - Rowley

Paul Rowley will step down from his position as Salford Red Devils head coach at the end of this season to become the club's director of rugby from 2026

Salford Red Devils boss Paul Rowley says his squad and backroom team have dealt with the club's off-field issues together rather than looking to the rugby league community for support.

A takeover of the financially beleaguered club went through on the eve of the season, but the Red Devils are still subject to a sustainability cap.

Rowley fielded a side made up mostly of reserve players for Saturday's chastening season-opening 82-0 loss to St Helens, something the Rugby Football League is now investigating.

"Who's got the experience of handling it? I don't think anybody has been through this situation," Rowley told BBC Radio Manchester.

"We've handled it as we've handled it for months - as a group.

"We discuss things as a group and we use the information that we've got which has been blurred and inaccurate at times and there's a lot of different reasons why. We just lean on each other."

Saturday's heavy defeat by Saints was the largest winning margin in Super League history and going into Saturday's visit of Leeds Rhinos, Rowley is still unsure what side he will be able to field.

Because the reserves are part-time, Rowley said they would "unfortunately not" be able to train before that game.

Asked by BBC Radio Manchester what the message had been from the new owners, Rowley said: "I'm just waiting. The only message I need is when the cap has been lifted."

Rowley, who will step down from his position as head coach at the end of the campaign in order to take up the role of director of rugby, steered Salford to a record fourth-placed finish in Super League last season and a place in the play-offs.

With the outlook less optimistic at the beginning of 2025 as it was at the tail-end of last term, he said he would like to knuckle down for the season ahead despite a tumultuous off-season drifting into his final campaign in post.

"I'd rather just power on and we'll see where we get," he said.

"There's definitely accountability among a lot of quarters."