Michael Foley

[BDA]

Why he is not still coaching the wallabies forwards is beyond me. They have gone backwards since he left.

 

[I like to watch]

That's the point though FP, he should have been coming off the bench at least 1/2 dozen times. That's how young players should come through. They have instead preferred to use the journeyman Anesi. The safe option.
Had they given him the chance, coming into next year he would have been considered a strong chance of starting. How else do you develop depth? (apart from just signing BB etc)

 

[Lee Grant]

Very droll Bruce - I meant a line of players, including piggies.

 

[Skippy]

Personally I like M Foley. But he has always struck me as a dedicated forwards coach... a set piece expert. I do not know if he would have the broader management skills, whole team (including backs) tactical nous to produce game plans/tactics/patterns of play etc or if he has the ability to take control of a whole team.
I don't doubt for a second he is the best in Australia at getting a scrum to perform or developing a strong lineout but something I've always thought about Foley is that he coaches the 'basics' very well. And this delivers results.
But can he coach players, can he introduce short passing plays off the sides of rucks, improve players ability in contact to offload.... introduce and develop new patterns of play that are a little more complex and interesting?

I'm sure Foley can host the most rivetting sessions on the basics of rucking or mauling and get his team producing that to a 100% level (or near 100%) and get continuity in the teams posession. This is a throw back to Macqueens days when Foley as a player succeeded. But the game needs more than continuity to succeed. You need creativity, flair, new ideas - as defences are so strong nowadays.

From what I've seen of the Waratahs this season... there is not a lot of problems with their 'basic' forward play. Lineout is pretty competitive (except hooker throwing), scrum is solid and the team is more than capable of stringing a lot of faces together off the back of rucks. And this is clearly a result of Foley's input and players are producing the 'basics' in these areas pertty well.

BUT..... this is about the extent of it. The Waratahs are predictable. There is limited off loading, limited interplay off the sides of rucks, not a lot of offloading in contact, and very limited set piece moves off the sides of rucks etc. The team seems completely incapable of playing off the cuff rugby, or playing what's in front of them.... they see to me to just move from 'set piece' to 'set piece' and by set piece I don't mean jsut lineouts and scrums... but the Tah's see every ruck as a set piece and they lumber into position for the next 'play'... Burgess stands and waits and all in all... I think they are an easy team to defend against and don't put you under much pressure.

I think Foley needs to take some responsibility for this. But he is maybe following Hickey's team tactics.

You must remember Foley played under Knuckles and was at Bath with him. The Reds during that period played 10 man rugby. So did Bath in the UK conditions.

Foley for me is a great set piece coach but I fear that's the extent of his ability. And that's not a negative... be good at what your good at and stick to it.

At the end of the day... you could get the greatest coach in the world at the Tahs - but success won't follow till off field problems are resolved. And I think that's the biggest problem at the club.

Finally... If Matt Williams even gets an interview I will never attend, watch or cheers for the Tahs ever again.

 

[Gnostic]

Whereas I didn't agree with the sacking of Link, for he had taken the team forward in many areas, I wouldn't mind a change of coach at the Tahs this time.

The Tahs are in a bit of adversity at the moment with some strike players out but regardless: the backs are lacking basic skills. We could list a few things but the most obviously one is passing the ball. Let's forget the scrummie , a known pie chucker, for the moment: the other backs can't throw a decent pill in front of the man. In just about every back line move you see at least one of the receivers doing a bunny hop up to catch the ball - and it will likely be at him or even behind him as well. Once, against the Rebels, I saw three consecutive bunny hops.

Then there is the running to touch when Horne isn't playing, which is almost always, and the reluctance to do standard things like loop passes, which we know Aussie kids learn at school. Instead we see things like 8 people choking a back line and the ball passed to all of them.

Hickey is not responsible for hands on coaching of the backs but he is responsible for someone fixing up passing problems. IIRR it was Bob Dwyer who wrote recently that passing and catching should be practised at every session, without exception, so it becomes second nature. You can see that the Tahs don't do this. Some of the club backlines pass better and the Reds certainly do. They probably practice it.

Watch for bunny hops on Saturday night.

True, the forwards have been ball watching a bit this year, as they did in that infamous Invercargill game in 2010, the benchmark of ball watching. That is Foley's area but the forwards perform better than the backs do.

Hire Foley and get a Randwick man in charge of the backs. Alan Gaffney is well into his 60s and it's time he came home and had a stint here before he puts on his slippers.

Spot on LG. I would be happy to see some decent skills execution. No radical changes in game plan are needed. In fact there shouldn't be with the current squad as the game plan is exectly what it should be with minor adjustments to suit opposition and conditions. IMO what has been lacking for years is the basic skills execution and commitment to take that next step. As an example think on what Kafe said on the Rugby Club this week (or last) and Bob Dwyer has said many times in the past, the Tahs do not have any player touch the ball twice in a movement. It is very rarely that a player puts in the effort to loop or get back into position quick enough to get a second touch even if they didn't pass it behind/above the support player in the first instance.

I would be happy with Lane or Gaffney as backs coach, both creative coaches who require a very high level of skills execution.

 

[Scarfman]

Question: up until a couple of weeks ago, the Tahs has Beale, Mitchell and Turner in the back 3. What were they doing to facilitate a counter-attack style of game plan?

 

[cyclopath]

Question: up until a couple of weeks ago, the Tahs has Beale, Mitchell and Turner in the back 3. What were they doing to facilitate a counter-attack style of game plan?

Kicking it away.
Oh, I see, you mean a counter-attacking style from the Waratahs!