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Brumbies vs Lions @ Canberra - 2011R13

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fatprop

George Gregan (70)
Staff member
I was surprised how bad the passing was by the Brumbies.

Valentine was horrible, which didn't help, throwing passes Burgess would have been embarrassed about - every pass was high and behind the receiver, but then it was repeated across the line.

As for the forwards meh, roll your sleeves up boys and support the ball carrier instead of setting up for your next run. (I do like the pod approach from the Lions)

Rea may spray, but his selections, if they are his, are baffling.
 

No4918

John Hipwell (52)
Brumbies have been playing poor boring rugby since they became the supposed Real Madrid of Super Rugby last season. Dropping the coach after 2 weeks this year just seemed a bandaid fix to what now appears to undoubtedly be a player problem. Too many people have been defending how great a team man Gits is for me to take it seriously. He should be told where to play, not tell the coaches and must be the only person in the country that seriously thinks he is a better 10 than 12. They have had a few injuries but they've still got guys like Gits, To'omua, AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper), Lealifano, McCabe, Moore, Alexander, Chisholm. Hardly the makings of a side that should be bottom 3 and argualbly a better backline and equivalent forward pack to the Rebels and Force. Some of the blame must go to Rea as well for not standing up to the players when he first came in. Some of the selections have been perplexing. White is going to have his hands full next season.
 

Slim 293

Stirling Mortlock (74)
Valentine?

No...

Valentine should be taken to the top of Mt Ainslie and shot out of a cannon and banished from the ACT forever...
 

Ali's Choice

Jimmy Flynn (14)
Some of the blame must go to Rea as well for not standing up to the players when he first came in.

Given the circumstances in which he was appointed head coach, I'm not sure how Rea was ever going to be able to stand up to the players. Jake White has the opportunity to become a hero in Canberra, by rescuing the Brumbies when they are at their lowest ebb.
 

RedsHappy

Tony Shaw (54)
Given the circumstances in which he was appointed head coach, I'm not sure how Rea was ever going to be able to stand up to the players. Jake White has the opportunity to become a hero in Canberra, by rescuing the Brumbies when they are at their lowest ebb.

AC: Very, very similar scenario unfolding to that of QRU/Reds when BB resigned in late 2009, and the prevailing was then that QLD was all but washed up as a force in Australian rugby.
 

Slim 293

Stirling Mortlock (74)
Given the circumstances in which he was appointed head coach, I'm not sure how Rea was ever going to be able to stand up to the players. Jake White has the opportunity to become a hero in Canberra, by rescuing the Brumbies when they are at their lowest ebb.

The problem is that he's also not really qualified, and while his spray is justified he needs to accept responsibility.

His background is rugby league, and he only came on as defence coach.

The board also need to accept responsibility for knowingly appointing an underqualified coach in charge with a team of other underqualified coaches.

Elsewhere, with the return of Giteau at flyhalf the Brumbies attack could hardly break the advantage line at times because he stands so far deep.

Combined with Valentine's laboured clearances the Lions defence easily held them off...
 

Chauncey

Peter Burge (5)
What I find most offensive about this whole player induced debacle is the fact that the biggest agitators in the removal of the coach (player power) sat on the sidelines all season, contributing zero. To rub salt into the wound, 1 of those players is highly likely to be shopping for a new club- nice! Throw your wait around like a petulant child, get your way and then leave anyway - pure class!

This player, since returning from his "sabatical" in Ireland has hardly played a single full game in 2 seasons of rugby.
 

Epi

Dave Cowper (27)
The problem is that he's also not really qualified, and while his spray is justified he needs to accept responsibility.

His background is rugby league, and he only came on as defence coach.

He could be a basketball coach and it wouldn't change things. The problem with the Brumbies is lack of ticker and no amount of tactical nous can change that.
 

Empire

Syd Malcolm (24)
Some think that the Vikings group should run the show.

They are already subsidising areas that the Brumbies should be (they are the ones paying for our coach).

There seems to be an air of nepotism and a lack of transparency that permeates around this club.

How can a club think its alright when a local club (i.e. Easts) has over 100+ players, and yet fewer than 10 have memberships? Surely that's a sign that community engagement, and grassroots rugby interaction is somewhat lacking.

I'll remain a member, you should follow through thick and thin (Carlton has taught me this)- but I really do want to see some answers and direction provided to the members. The Brumbies will not survive if they keep a closed shop and fail to re-engage with the local clubs, players, members and volunteers.
 
S

Second row

Guest
The problem with the Brumbies is lack of ticker and no amount of tactical nous can change that.

Amen to that. I am really quite disgusted with the attitude of the current playing squad. there are a few who seem to care about the jersey and the rest just want the cash and don't care where they play to get that cash. Put the academy boys on. We're stuffed anyway and they might play with a bit of pride and hunger.
 
S

slasher

Guest
The only thing I wished rea had said differently was that they had no chance of winning the last 5 games. He could have stressed the point that although everything from day 1 of pre season was unacceptable perhaps with a improved effort they would be capable of performing at the best level possible....whether that is enough for victory is really out of the brumbies hands
 

RedsHappy

Tony Shaw (54)
The problem is that he's also not really qualified, and while his spray is justified he needs to accept responsibility.....His background is rugby league, and he only came on as defence coach....The board also need to accept responsibility for knowingly appointing an underqualified coach in charge with a team of other underqualified coaches....Elsewhere, with the return of Giteau at flyhalf the Brumbies attack could hardly break the advantage line at times because he stands so far deep...

S293: So right. I was disgusted by much of the so-called spray. The macho-men whom think this is 'just deserts for those poor players' are badly misled. Blasting all the younger, non-senior Brumbies players like this was a disgrace. It's none of their fault, and never was.

The core fault, the beating heart of this nightmare of a decline of a once-great franchise/team/culture, can be readily established from the right 'system-wide' view of how a regional rugby team/business is actually managed and enhanced (or not, as the case may be):

- First, the Board of the ACTRU was utterly derelict in (a) for many years appointing sub-par coaches with inadequate support staff (support coaches in the modern game rival head coaches in importance and value) and (b) indulging 'elite' players on the utterly mythical view that fine current players make fine team advisers, informal selectors, and play-strategy analysts (where history clearly shows they generally don't) and thus should be permitted an almost equal voice to all other managers and ACTRU leaders.

- Second, as many have said for 2+ years, Friend was simply not good enough to restore sustained Brumbies excellence in the context presented to him, and, when combined with an incompetent, lilly-livered Board and excess player influence, the clear outcome was a mix of mediocrity and lack of accurate, honest self-analysis by the entire ACTRU system.

The results are there for all to see, and to think that Rea, with his odd selections and inexplicable combinations (thus highlighting his own complete lostness in the role), and now on a job search with few good prospects, is going to attribute blame where it lies (i.e. to the coaches current and recent past, and to a badly out-of-its-depth Board over indulging way-past-use-by-date senior players) is naive in the extreme. Rea is going to - you guessed it - blame the players and lay 90% of the blame for the hopelessness of it all at their feet. This is both unethical and disreputable. (BTW, as an aside, see Poidevin's view in the SMH online as to where blame for the Tahs' current travails should be laid - with the players, not!)

This toxic and fully public 'spray' tactic is nothing more than the complete, final, shrunk-wrapped manifestation of the decay of responsible leadership at the ACTRU. Listening to them all (or noting their silence more like), no one there of real seniority is actually responsible for anything - you can't even find the Board's members' names on the Brumbies' web site! - taking honest responsibility (as all good senior leaders should) might rightly imply the obvious need for mass resignations and the loss of the blazer-wearing, weekends-happy, world of old school rugby networking chatting fondly over past glories and matey business linkages. Taking meaningful responsibility (and accountability) would mean congratulating the excellent young players coming through and thanking them for trying. That's want happens in well-run businesses, but such weak forms of responsibility-neglect are the sad reality in many RUs in Australia today - the calibre of leadership of many of the RU Boards is actually well exceeded by the calibre of the many young men and women who wish to make the game their life and driven passion.
 

louie

Desmond Connor (43)
When the players got Andy Friend sacked they took on more responsibility and this is the outcome of that. They deserved what they got.
Why should Tony Rea take responsibility for their shithouse performance? I'm sure if given the choice he'd prefer to still be coaching under friend.
 
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Gagger

Nick Farr-Jones (63)
Staff member
Hang on a minute here.

I don't remember "Stinger" Rea separating either the Senior players or franchise management in any of his statement. In fact, he says stuff like "in the wood" and the "whole organization". This means EVERYBODY. I got the strong feeling that just because Gits had the microphone under his nose didn't rule him out of the spray, and Stinger actually says something like "he's still entitled to be proud of 100 caps", implying that otherwise he should be taking the wrap equally.

As for the fault falling at Stinger's feet. Try this viewpoint on for size:

The players revolt and and the board takes the soft option. There is no coach and won't be one for a while. Rea's the only one with any head coach experience in the mob, so upon request he steps up to the plate and take a big fucken gulp from the most poisonous coaching chalice in Aussie rugby, from which the guy (and I assume mate) who gave him this job has just been well and truly boned. Remember though, he's a professional man with wife, kids, a mortgage and a dog. What else is he gonna do in that time-span?

Has all the bullshit between the players, the players who are now coaches, the players on the sideline with nothing else to do, the board of people related to players and player coaches, magically stopped?

Fuck no.

It's now got absolutely no lid on it and muggins Stinger-Rea, with absolutely fuck all mandate for power - he's publicly deemed INTERIM and not invited for interview - is right in the middle of it. Do you reckon he's making all these position selections on his own with absolute authority? I very much doubt it in that zoo. Imagine each time he makes a call, how many different ways it gets questioned and he gets cut out of the process.

Can he stop this? How? His boss before him couldn't - it got him boned. The last power Stinger has left is to tell the truth to the world. And he does.

Disclaimer: I have little (a few odds and ends) inside knowledge to inform the above - it's about as much as anyone in this thread. But in my experience of a few similar lunatic organisations, it fits.
 

Epi

Dave Cowper (27)
Absolutely bang on Gagger.

BTW: Tony Rea - whilst not the most talented player ever born - was a great club captain and leader of the North Sydney Bears who I used to follow religiously. He speaks the truth and nothing but...
 

Gnostic

Mark Ella (57)
Indeed Gagger. Are you finally a convert to something a few of us have been saying for 6 months or more?

The one thing I will add about the spray, or truth telling if you prefer, is that Rae probably won't get another coaching gig after that.

One last thing, how is White going to be in any better postion if the lily livered board goes weak in the knees if one of the player poer group gets upity and goes whinging to them. Will they grow a spine finally or are they thorough believers in the self agrandising culture they led to this point. If I was a Mule fan I wouldn't be expecting a quick turn around from White and if he gets the backing of the board he deserves expect some players to be "let go".
 
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