Andy Friend Sacked!

[#1 Tah]

Someone on the forum said this a few months ago, cant remember who. So stand up and make yourself known if I am quoting you.

Never underestimate the potential of a rugby organisation to self-destruct.

 

[MrMouse]

Did it not occur to you, MM, that the players he was filthy on may have been those who were leaking details of the plot? Around that joint it would be a good idea to wear a bullet-proof vest - back to front.

Bruce, I'd like to say it's my fresh-faced youth and naivety but that really hadn't occurred to me. However, thanks for adding your years of wisdom and cynicism to come up with a plausible, if depressing scenario.

...Especially those that are currently injured......

BJ I assume you refer to Elsom. Gut feel or rumour mill (or actual fact)? I feel sure the double ellipsis must have relevance......

 

[BrumbiesPolynesian]

Sad state of affairs when PLayers have the power to sack a coach because they dont agree with him.
This wouldnt happen anywhere else...probably the reason why the Brumbies have been on the decline since Nucifora left....

 

[cyclopath]

You can have the pedant title for a day, pedallist, but you'll have to put in a more Peripatetic performance to knock me off my plinth.

Ah, my venal vintner, verily I will vow to vex your vulnerable vestibular system enough to veer from the vertex, and venture vertically to various vile valleys.

 

[Cutter]

Given we're mostly in the dark, there is a lot of finger pointing going on. The Brumbies performances have been rubbish for the last few years. That is due, partly, to the coach. Until he was sacked, the comments on this site hadn't been particularly complimentary towards Friend. Should the players have silently accepted it if their coach didn't know how to get the best out of the players or wasn't adopting the right strategy, game plans and selections for the province? Should they all just have left the Brumbies as AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) is seriously considering?

I know no more (and probably less) than most on here about the circumstances surrounding this, but given this lacuna (that's for you Cyclo), I'm surprised we're all jumping to such conclusions. Sometimes there can be a parting of the ways simply because two parties don't mesh. No one is suggesting Friend can't coach and isn't reasonable. Just that he doesn't suit the Brumbies.

Whilst Giteau does seem to be a festering sore wherever he goes (sorry Gits), this is the first time AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper), Moore, Hoiles and Elsom have been involved in something like this. Is it too much to give them the benefit of the doubt? Is it really possible that, whilst he doesn't show it on the field, Gits is such a powerful leader, the other senior players are like puppets to him?

There is a bit of hysteria on here about all of this. The "mob" jumping to conclusions and reacting to rumour, hearsay and speculation. There is no doubt that change was needed at the Brumbies. Whether this is the right change remains to be seen. However its easier to get rid of the coach and hope that change works than get rid of half a dozen of your senior players who are likely to also be some of your better performers.

 

[Canon76]

The players responsible should be shown the door. However more importantly what role does Andrew Fagan have here! this is not the first coach under his reign that has been shown the door. Surely the head of this organisation should shoulder a lot of the responsibility. Also the board had a meeting where the coach was not even given the opportunity to address the board. I hope this weekend that the supporters of the brumbies stay away from the reds game. It is due that ACT rugby and the brumbies have a massive overhaul.

 

[cyclopath]

Good post, Cutter.
It is the nature of this beast (the Internet) that we all assume greater insight than perhaps we deserve.
It does trouble me that the Brumbies have assassinated 2 coaches in similar fashion, although slightly different circumstances.
It troubles me when players, whether senior or not, in some way claim to have better coaching insight, and it does beg the question as to whether they were implementing the game plan as he wanted, or a version of it that they thought more appropriate? Who knows. The nature of the coup leaves a bitter taste any which way we look at it.

 

[Paradox]

Been lurking for a while but this thread sucked me in

What do the holier than thou Tah supporters have to say with regard to the demise of one Ewen McKenzie at Tah land? By all accounts (and given that speculation is taken as gospel on this site), McKenzie was taken down by a group of players led by Phil Waugh despite taking the Tahs to the final. It is has been suggested Waugh is not selected by Robbie Deans because he is a trouble maker who undermines the coach. Interesting heh? I'd call it bullshit but then again I'm not dumb enough to believe in speculation.

Back to the Brumbies, the whole ugly affair is becoming an opportunity for the Sydney press and certain Tah supporters to launch a get rid of the Brumbies campaign and to cast further aspersions on Giteau. Now Stephen Larkham's reputation is becoming destroyed. All of this without a shred of evidence. It sickens me.

Facts
- Friend has delivered very little in his 3rd season despite have a good crop of players. He was the attack coach for most of his time with the Brumbies and the Brumbies can't score 4 tries a game.
- Friend has been on the outer for some time. He wasn't even coaching this season and was in a director-type role.
- Friend has the lost support of his fellow coaches.
- Larkham joining the Brumbies has nothing to do with Friend received the sack. Friend had been put of notice prior to Larkham's arrival.
- Friend is a good bloke. That doesn't mean anything in professional sport.

 

[Bradley]

I have read every article on this affair and I still come to the same conclusion that player-power is the root cause of the problem at the Brumbies. As for Andrew Fagan's comments it's all spin isn't it? "I made the decision", he said. But the players were the ones that whinged to him. A spinmeister of the highest degree!

 

[Paradox]

I have read every article on this affair and I still come to the same conclusion that player-power is the root cause of the problem at the Brumbies. As for Andrew Fagan's comments it's all spin isn't it? "I made the decision", he said. But the players were the ones that whinged to him. A spinmeister of the highest degree!

He's a CEO I still say Friend didn't get enough results with the players he had.

 

[cyclopath]

Been lurking for a while but this thread sucked me in

What do the holier than thou Tah supporters have to say with regard to the demise of one Ewen McKenzie at Tah land? By all accounts (and given that speculation is taken as gospel on this site), McKenzie was taken down by a group of players led by Phil Waugh despite taking the Tahs to the final. It is has been suggested Waugh is not selected by Robbie Deans because he is a trouble maker who undermines the coach. Interesting heh? I'd call it bullshit but then again I'm not dumb enough to believe in speculation.

Back to the Brumbies, the whole ugly affair is becoming an opportunity for the Sydney press and certain Tah supporters to launch a get rid of the Brumbies campaign and to cast further aspersions on Giteau. Now Stephen Larkham's reputation is becoming destroyed. All of this without a shred of evidence. It sickens me.

Facts
- Friend has delivered very little in his 3rd season despite have a good crop of players. He was the attack coach for most of his time with the Brumbies and the Brumbies can't score 4 tries a game.
- Friend has been on the outer for some time. He wasn't even coaching this season and was in a director-type role.
- Friend has the lost support of his fellow coaches.
- Larkham joining the Brumbies has nothing to do with Friend received the sack. Friend had been put of notice prior to Larkham's arrival.
- Friend is a good bloke. That doesn't mean anything in professional sport.

You are drawing a very long bow to concoct the theory that this all being whipped along as a plot by the Sydney press and Tahs supporters.
Poor old Larkham being tarred with a bad brush, and yet you are happy to do the same to Waugh. One sickens you, and yet the other...
Friend lost the support of his fellow (read junior) coaches. Some of whom had been in the job for 5 minutes.
Oh, and Link was not ditched mid-season, he completed the season. As have many coaches been when teams consistently under-perform. As he had with the Tahs.
Dress it up any way you like, but this whole scenario stinks.

 

[Larno]

Kafe's gone and given his two cents on player power:

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,16024_6788749,00.html

 

[Scotty]

To be fair to Paradox, I think he was just trying to make a point, and did note 'I'm not dumb enough to believe in speculation'.

I'm surprised you got so defensive, cyclo!

If I wanted to speculate, the character traits of one R Elsom would lead me to speculate in his direction first.

 

[fatprop]

I am not surprised that Friend was sacked, just the timing and lack of planning of a replacement.

The Brumbies have been average for a while, and not just under Friend.

 

[cyclopath]

To be fair to Paradox, I think he was just trying to make a point, and did note 'I'm not dumb enough to believe in speculation'.

I'm surprised you got so defensive, cyclo!

If I wanted to speculate, the character traits of one R Elsom would lead me to speculate in his direction first.

Hardly defensive, Scotty. I never thought Link should have been chucked anyway. But the 2 situations are not analagous.
I had some issue with his post, and set them out pretty clearly I thought.
When someone posts they are not dumb enough to believe in speculation, then chucks some around, it is poor trolling, or hypocrisy.

 

[louie]

I think the anger coming from the public over this is not that andy was sacked by more the way the club has gone about it:

- The timing of this couldn't have been worse. Two games in hardly given someone a chance to prove themselves. If they wanted to sacked him last year they should have done it
- They've done this before and it fucked everything up. Hopefully this time it'll be different
- The club think of itself as bigger then fans
- fans don't want player power when the players are underperforming types like Gits.

For the record:

- friend win rate was 17 out of 28. If the comp was run on wins alone they would have made the finals.
- Bill Young and Owen Finnegan where sacked by Andrew Fagan not Andrew Friend. That was the first signs of trouble.

my question is if andy friend wasn't coaching the team anymore, what on earth happened on against the rebels and chiefs?

 

[Bruce Ross]

Kafe's gone and given his two cents on player power:

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,16024_6788749,00.html

The wisdom of Kafer:

"What you need to remember in 15 years of professional rugby, there has only been one Australian team to win the title, that's the ACT Brumbies. Perhaps it's an opportunity for other organisations that if they wish to be successful, maybe they should look to their players a bit more. Maybe that's the lesson."

A truly heroic leap of inductive logic.

 

[Brumby Jack]

Kafer is a man with fingers in many pies, and also works for RUPA...

 

[kiap]

The wisdom of Kafer:

"What you need to remember in 15 years of professional rugby, there has only been one Australian team to win the title, that's the ACT Brumbies. Perhaps it's an opportunity for other organisations that if they wish to be successful, maybe they should look to their players a bit more. Maybe that's the lesson."

A truly heroic leap of inductive logic.

Can we take anything from the Crusaders?

 

[Groucho]

Can we take anything from the Crusaders?

Five points on the weekend.