NATHAN Brown may not be taking the coaching reins until the off season but he is already plotting Saints’ future.

Mike Rush, the acting coach who will lead the club through the remainder of the year, has revealed he is in regular discussions with the Australian.

Rush will revert back to managerial duties in the close season and is balancing his task of running the team with planning ahead to 2013.

Such forward-thinking includes in-depth talks with Brown – who left Huddersfield earlier than anticipated last month – about their vision for the club.

Rush said: “I speak to Nathan nearly every other day on matters not just about coaching, but planning for next season and pre-season.

“My old role used to see me doing all the work for the football administration, so hopefully that will continue (next season).

“I was going down the role of being a general manger – my ambitions are off the field not on it – so we’ve had discussions about club philosophies and utilising the players on and off the field.

“Sometimes it is just ‘hello, how are you and the kids?’ Other times it is football related.”

Rush suggested he would have had no complaints about stepping aside had Brown’s arrival been hastened, however, chairman Eamonn McManus, who has praised the job being undertaken by the St Helens-born coach and Knowsley Road legend Keiron Cunningham, says that was never an option.

Writing in Sunday’s matchday programme, McManus said: “We never considered changing our coaching plans for this season, which are well embedded and working well. “Nathan will take over at the end of the season when he can impress himself on the squad during the close season in readiness for his tenure as head coach.

“A good break and a holiday with his family will refresh and re-invigorate him after nine continuous seasons of coaching at the top level.”