Have you seen the movie where an isolated tribe takes an artefact and over the years creates a whole misguided religion out of it? You should have, it’s been playing in Canberra for the last 20 years.
The boning of Andy Friend this week has again brought the unique “family-like” culture of the Brumbies into the spotlight. This culture revolves around the power base in the club being with the players and the shunning of coaching or management talent from outside ex-players .
Friend found himself in a mutiny with no place to go; with plenty of time on their hands through injury, members of the leadership group (comprised of Hoiles, Elsom and Giteau) had decided he should go; the assistant coaches (recent ex-players in Larkham, Harrison and Caputo) were singing from their own hymn-sheets, and an incestuous board, with two player representatives and members like President Geoff Larkham (Stephen’s dad), decided they wouldn’t even back Friend for a transitional period.
Tony Rea, the ex-league defence coach, has had the noose dropped around his neck for the time being, but with a set-up like the one above, how many coaches would want to drink from that chalice?
Astonishingly, many aligned to the franchise see the events as some sort of positive sign. Take Rod Kafer’s (ex-Brumby and RUPA alicadoo) comments as an example:
Players have a large role in everything because they’re the most valuable asset to the organisation. It’s natural, in fact, it should be encouraged.
They’ll point to the golden years of Rod Macqueen as proof, and this is partly where their fallacy lies. The structures that Sir Rod put in place for the Brumbies and then Wallabies worked for THAT coach, with THAT playing group, at THAT point in time.
“Player power” is actually a misnomer for style of management; from traditional “command and control” (I shout, you do) to what we’ve all unfortunately come to know as “empowerment” (I give you enough airtime to think the idea was actually yours). Successful businessman Macqueen – known more as manager than coach – had the ringmaster skills to make this work, but that certainly doesn’t mean it can work universally.
From this perspective, probably one of the worst things to happen to the Brumbies in terms of their long term success was the winning of the Super title in 2004, when then-coach David Nucifora was given the arse half way through the season. The villagers prayed for rain and it rained; “you see – proof that we are right!” Forget the talent and coaching that got that team to where it was in the first place.
And look at the success rate before and after 2004.
| Season | Pos | Pld | Win | Draw | Lose | For | Against | +/- | BP | Pts | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 5th | 11 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 306 | 273 | 33 | 4 | 32 | |
| 1997 | 2nd | 11 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 406 | 291 | 115 | 9 | 41 | (lost final to Blues) |
| 1998 | 10th | 11 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 248 | 364 | -166 | 6 | 18 | |
| 1999 | 5th | 11 | 5 | 0 | 6 | 278 | 195 | 83 | 8 | 28 | |
| 2000 | 2nd | 11 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 393 | 196 | 197 | 9 | 45 | (lost final to Crusaders) |
| 2001 | 1st | 11 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 348 | 204 | 144 | 8 | 40 | (defeated Sharks in final) |
| 2002 | 2nd | 11 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 374 | 230 | 144 | 10 | 38 | (lost final to Crusaders) |
| 2003 | 4th | 11 | 6 | 0 | 5 | 358 | 313 | 45 | 7 | 31 | (lost semi-final to Blues) |
| 2004 | 1st | 11 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 408 | 269 | 139 | 8 | 40 | (defeated Crusaders in final) |
| 2005 | 5th | 11 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 260 | 266 | -6 | 7 | 29 | |
| 2006 | 6th | 13 | 8 | 1 | 4 | 326 | 269 | 57 | 4 | 38 | |
| 2007 | 5th | 13 | 9 | 0 | 4 | 234 | 173 | 61 | 4 | 40 | |
| 2008 | 9th | 13 | 6 | 0 | 7 | 277 | 317 | -40 | 6 | 30 | |
| 2009 | 7th | 13 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 311 | 305 | 6 | 6 | 38 | |
| 2010 | 6th | 13 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 358 | 291 | 67 | 5 | 37 | |
| 2011 | TBD | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 20 | 8 | 0 | 4 |
The point where the rot started is pretty clear. But rather than lump this on the coaches, think of what the Brumbies impose on their coaches with their player power / insiders only religion, in two crucial areas:
1) Talent and experience. Playing is to coaching is as driving a car is to building one. While the Tahs are recruiting assistant coaches of international calibre like Foley and Muggleton, the Brumbies have characteristically opted for fresh ex-players like Larkham and Harrison. Playing legends maybe, but these guys simply cannot offer what an experienced coach can (they’ve not done the job before!) and they are surely way too close to the senior players to be able to form the appropriate coach/player relationship. Or more importantly, work for the head coach to assure his. This would seem to have spectacularly crashed this week in Canberra.
2) The culture a coach can bring. If you wade through the Dingo Bingo, Robbie Deans’s answer to “what drove the success at the Crusaders?” is always “the right culture”. I believe it’s one of the key things he appears to be building with the Wallabies to suit what he’s trying to do. It’s quite the opposite at the Brumbies approach: “Here’s the culture, now FIFO” (Fit In or….).
It will be a massive challenge to change, but one thing is clear – if the Brumbies want to stop turning Real Madrids into West Hams, they need to take the cult out of their culture.
