WHARFEDALE'S chairman of rugby Michael Harrison has paid tribute to head coach Tom McGee, who has again been replaced by Jon Feeley.

McGee, who is 36, ended his second spell at The Avenue earlier this month to become operations manager at a seafood company in Wick.

McGee initially took over at The Avenue in 2010 and was there until 2013 before becoming forwards' coach, and later interim head coach, at Leeds Carnegie.

Feeley replaced him as the Dalesmen's head coach before having to stand down due to a promotion at work last summer, whereupon McGee returned.

Harrison said: "Over the period that he was with us over his two spells, Tom brought a professionalism.

"He is a better coach for the experience he had at Leeds and he never came down to training without being prepared in terms of addressing what we had done wrong the previous week and what we needed to do about it, and always got that message to the other coaches.

"Even when he was at Leeds, he kept coming up, and Tommy coped with the obvious disadvantages that we have as a club in terms of finances and was always positive.

"He is a Scotsman but he understood what Wharfedale is all about as a club!"

Harrison added: "It has been a seamless transition in terms of Jon coming back, and he also watched us while Tom was coach, and Jon's dad Steve is on our committee.

"Although Jon will still have the extra work in terms of his job in education, the time is right for Andy Hodgson and Hedley Verity to take on the additional rugby responsibility.

"Hodg has that nine months of experience as backs coach while Tommy was here, and so is that much further down the road, while Hedley has cut his teeth with the forwards, and there is also John Lawn available to do the odd forwards' session."

While acknowledging the quality of Rosslyn Park's Scott Sneddon, Harrison has called Wharfedale's 27-15 home defeat last Saturday "a bit of a disappointment".

The Greens are fourth from bottom on 35 points from 23 matches but have played more matches than Blaydon (34 from 21), who are immediately below them.

Wharfedale have no game this weekend, and Harrison said: "The home matches against Loughborough Students (March 5) and Hull Ionians (April 16) will be particularly important but we need to be picking up points from all our matches."