My Assessment!
It is amazing to look at the divergence of opinions and/or views when teams do not perform up to expectations. Unless you have studied some form of sport psychology you probably are not aware that such people are engaging in that timeless behaviour that has been aptly named by psychologists as ‘CAUSAL ATTRIBUTION’. Therefore to wake up this morning (with this sore and wounded body of mine … some of which was self inflicted and the rest which I will attribute to Perisher Valley … lmao) I am amazed to see the explanations and/or reason given for a team’s success, or as the case has also been, its demise!
The reality of Regional football is this Gentlemen; Regional Coaches (with the exception of country who are actually worse off) are expected to pull together a team of lads, and within approximately 6 training sessions they are expected to gel these boys together to form a single unit; ‘A TEAM’; one that will play and function as the same! As proven this weekend the task is not insurmountable and taking into account the parental and individual influences that can adversely affect the cohesiveness of such teams, a coaches task is made somewhat easier if proper preparation and experience is existent! Let me explain and give two examples from this year’s Regional (and notwithstanding my absence from the last day I did have a colleague present who was able to give me feed-back on the lads and teams we were looking at).
I have noticed that a few in these pages have taken a swipe at the team coaches for their respective team’s failure (or lack of success) and in response let me just say that coaches are human too, and just like the rest us they learn (or should) from their mistakes. Furthermore it is my understanding that at the U/16 Regional level coaches are also ‘VOLUNTEERS’; they are not ‘PAID PROFESSIONALS’! In other words these coaches usually have a club team which they look after, meaning that they do not have the luxury of attending weekly games in the lead up to State and Regional Championships in order to identify talented players that back-up week-in-week-out! Nope, coaches ‘GENERALLY’ only get to see a team, from which they will identify players to select, for 100 minutes (two games). 100 minutes do I hear someone saying, surely you are wrong Newbie? Doesn’t each team play a minimum of three games at State which equates to 150 minutes? What about finals etc etc Newbie? As stated above I said ‘GENERALLY’, for if you actually look at the format of the State Championship half the teams receive a ’BYE’ and therefore only play two games of rugby (100 minutes)!
As most will know in this room I made a claim that the ‘Barbarians’ would have great success and the that the ‘MSZ’ team would be the whipping boys; and I am going to engage in some egotistical behaviour … which is most unlike me … lmao … and suggest that I wasn’t far off the mark! However my assertions back then, before Regional commenced, were not based upon ‘SHOTS IN DARK’ they were premised upon my assessment of players within each team and the respective coaching staff that had selected them, and was going to take them into the Regional!
Barbarians
The BB’s had a great player list which included players from last year’s U/15 SJRU and NSWJRU teams. Mixed in with these players were rugby players with dual backgrounds in league. Notably some of the players had also been selected to play in the Harold Matthews Competition this year (a very strong junior league competition). In particular there is one player I will exemplify here, and he is now on the lips of many in this room, and some are now touting him for a spot in the SJRU team! His name is Robert Taufa. You might recall that I noted him for his success in the Sydney Uni team for his strong running and for how he was instrumental in shutting down the strong Parra team where he made several try saving tackles (one of which was on Moeroa and another on Jamo Clark). To my utter disbelief I could not understand why MSZ did not pick him. Taufa as I noted earlier played for the St George HM team this year. He played in the ‘Centres’. I only got to see him play once this year in the HMC and that was against Parramatta. He didn’t stand out as star as he wasn’t particularly fast (and his fitness left a lot to be desired). Nevertheless he did have the ability to break tackles and defend well; in fact in this game (which STG lost) he contained Moeroa fairly well, and as stated above (and in earlier posts) he did the same at State. His spectacular try against Harry Jones (ala Jonah Lomu v Mike Catt World Cup 1995) was the best highlight for me at this year’s Regional, however I was told he scored a spectacular hat-trick against the team that didn’t want him, MSZ! Ironic is it not? What is the term most use, “PAY-BACKS ARE A BITCH”.
Ultimately, much of the success of the Barbarians has to be attributed to their coaches; Neale Richardson and Sy Lagaaia. You will note that Richardson was the coach of the Parramatta U/16 team at State, and is also the same for the powerhouse Hills JRU U/16’S (who are presently 2nd on the ladder). Lagaaia on the other hand is the coach of the Canterbury JRU U/16’s (who are presently coming 3rd behind Hills). Both have had great success as coaches and the performance of this year’s BB’s team can only enhance their profiles as junior coaches. Well done to both! Now let us look at MSZ!
MSZ
At #804 MOTH quoted me, and then referred to a certain club coach being reprimanded over allegedly telling his club lads to decline selection in the MSZ team and come over to the BB’s where he was coaching (you guess which one). With all due respect to MOTH I don’t know how this could have been the case, for the same was in complete contrast with the rules of Zone team selection. As it stood each Zone had to select their starting 15 and those unselected were then fair game for the BB’s. Secondly no player could refuse selection if they were named in a respective Zone’s starting 15; if they did they were ineligible for selection in the BB’s (effectively ruling them out of Regional altogether). Nevertheless MOTH’s post at #804 does have some credibility and it has a lot to do with selection of last year’s U/15 MSZ team and its coach from last year. Last year the coach MOTH has referred to at #804 was bitterly disappointed (and so was his club I am led to believe) when only a few of his lads were selected in the U/15 MSZ team last year. He was later incensed when the same lads spent most of the time on the bench. These same lads were players who came from a club that had to leave the U/15 MSZ competition last year for the much stronger MWZ Competition (which BTW they won!), because they were slaughtering the other teams within the MSZ competition (for example consider the Southern Barbarians team that came into the revamped SJRU ‘ZONE-LESS’ U/16 competition this year. They were quickly relegated to the B Division because they were being comprehensively put to the sword each week!).
This year the coach from last year’s U/15’s MSZ team was again selected (i.e. the U/16’s MSZ team). When this occurred it is my understanding that the coach MOTH was referring to (i.e. the BB’s U/16 coach this year) expressed reservations to SJRU that his lads were again going to be overlooked. For mine he was correct, and one of those lads was Robert Taufa (the lad who scored the hat-trick against MSZ). I bet he was cheering when MSZ discarded Taufa. Then again I bet the whole BB’s coaching staff was celebrating at some of the discarded players they were able to secure! Nevertheless to highlight my point Taufa stood out like proverbial ‘DOGS B@LLS’ at State and should never have been overlooked by MSZ, and the same is true of some of his other team mates at State! For mine Malcy summarised it succinctly in his post at #420 when he stated the following:
“You could run all sorts of conspiracy theories if you wanted... How all but 3 of the Barbarians side are from the two coaches' Western and Southern Zones... How there are 14 B grade club players compared to 9 A grade club players in Met South...”
Nevertheless, credit where credit is due, and MSZ should be congratulated for some of the close competition they gave the other teams. I am told it is because they utilised some of their A Grade boys a lot better than they did last year. I also know that their very good centre combination of Kagiassis and Morgan were respectively injured and ill! Essentially you can’t help bad luck and every coach has to go through it at some-time!
In conclusion I put this to all and sundry. Leaving bad luck aside for injuries and the like (however that is what the selection of reserves is for), the results from this weekend’s U/16 Regional was ultimately a reflection of each respective team’s ‘Coaching Staff’ and the experience they brought to their roles! Full stop! Ultimately fortune favours the brave and for mine the CJRU and BB’s coaching staff opitimised this! In the face of adversity and obvious hurdles they prevailed! My hat goes off to them!
Hazzah … hazzah … hazzah!!
Regards,
Newbie
) did stand up! Well done to the Boys!
