https://qld.rugby/news/2021/07/02/queensland-premier-rugby-covid-update
Moving to Sunday but only four grades.
Moving to Sunday but only four grades.
QLD Premier Rugby 2021
- Thread starter Jets
- Start date
The Nomad
Bob Davidson (42)
Easts v UQ game should be a cracker tomorrow, defending premiers against top of the table. Battle of the forward packs should be a highlight, somewhat diminished by the absence of Rhys Van Nek . Think UQ have a slight ascendency with him out and definitely more fire power out wide.
The back rows are both stacked with Wight, Milosovic and Uru against ASY (Angus Scott-Young), Wallis and Halalolo .
Also noted in the Sunnybank v GPS game CFS matching up against Chris Kuridrani . Sunnybank have Dave Feou and Feou Fotuiaka named on the bench.
Previously mentioned the team Brothers are running out this round .
All up some pretty exciting rugby tomorrow.
The back rows are both stacked with Wight, Milosovic and Uru against ASY (Angus Scott-Young), Wallis and Halalolo .
Also noted in the Sunnybank v GPS game CFS matching up against Chris Kuridrani . Sunnybank have Dave Feou and Feou Fotuiaka named on the bench.
Previously mentioned the team Brothers are running out this round .
All up some pretty exciting rugby tomorrow.
new recruit_ brisbane
Bill Watson (15)
Is he in qld bubble with the wallabies??
The Nomad
Bob Davidson (42)
Easts v UQ game very physical game with the forward packs having a red hot crack. The Easts’ back row of Milosovic , Wright and Uru along with Eli Pilz at 9 kept Easts in the fight, but the UQ outside backs had just a bit too much ball to be contained, really showed their class.
Easts won’t play finals now , but have Wests and Brothers in the next two weeks , so will have an impact on who does. If they can repeat yesterday’s effort they will be hard to beat for both teams.
Both Uru and Pilz limped off late in the game and would be big losses if injured. Uru was a real handful , had a much higher work rate than last time I saw him play QPR.
Easts won’t play finals now , but have Wests and Brothers in the next two weeks , so will have an impact on who does. If they can repeat yesterday’s effort they will be hard to beat for both teams.
Both Uru and Pilz limped off late in the game and would be big losses if injured. Uru was a real handful , had a much higher work rate than last time I saw him play QPR.
PhilClinton
Mark Loane (55)
I have to admit, I wasn't sure whether GPS would make a fair crack at the Premiership this year, but they've proved me wrong.
I thought Shane Arnold might need another year or so to get the team how the wanted it, maybe have a few newbies come into the side. But for what is largely a similar team to the last two years, GPS are really looking good as we approach the back end of the comp.
Patty Nicholson has stepped up big time at fullback which is making a massive difference
I thought Shane Arnold might need another year or so to get the team how the wanted it, maybe have a few newbies come into the side. But for what is largely a similar team to the last two years, GPS are really looking good as we approach the back end of the comp.
Patty Nicholson has stepped up big time at fullback which is making a massive difference
Cancelled Account
Desmond Connor (43)
Agree. Give them a few more training sessions together and they will work it out. All field are looking scrappy, even before the rain. Too much going out and not enough for a greens keeper.
Dean Moriarty
Billy Sheehan (19)
Shane Arnold is the goods
Bulldog
Nev Cottrell (35)
Is he really?
After he coached a very impressive GPS side circa 2012-13 that were run away minor premiers in 2013 they didn’t get the job done in the 2013 finals, he then got a rails run into jobs at Reds & Aust U20 where there weren’t too many wraps coming his way. He’s then been out of sight as far as Qld rugby scene is concerned was he overseas? Now come back to a side which you say has been together for a few years now - so in the first year of a new coach I usually think that a side is still melding old coach & new coach philosophies.
Shane may well be a good coach but let’s see how GPS go in the finals before we make a judgement. One swallow doesn’t make a summer, mind you the bloke who was going to be involved at GPS this season - Adrian Thompson has made a career out of one premiership for Easts in 1999 when he essentially took Grant Barry’s 1995-98 Easts side to the 1999 premiership playing Batty ball.
It is really amazing study the idea of what makes a good coach - how much the coach and how much the players?
Dean Moriarty
Billy Sheehan (19)
One swallow would make my Summer just fine but yeah I get what you are saying.
Let’s watch the space.
PhilClinton
Mark Loane (55)
No doubt the proof for Shane will be the finals, but for me, it's the difference he's made to the backline. The GPS backs have been the weak link in the side for a number of years, and I'd argue on paper this years backs aren't as good as the last few, as you say though they've been together for a few years so that always helps. He's really got the guys firing and complementing the good work that we know the forwards do.
I'm honestly not sure if Shane has even been coaching. I think he has a fairly successful financial planning company. I believe after his less than spectacular Reds outing, he went back to work fulltime doing that.
Your point about players v coach making a good team is a brilliant talking point. You look at arguably the greatest sporting team in recent Australian history, the 8 in a row QLD Maroons, and Mal Meninga was widely known as a figurehead and not so much a coach, but the cattle he had were generational.
At clubland I don't know whether you can get away with a figurehead coach, too much chopping and changing each year with players and the good ones never stay for long before being snapped up. I'd argue though that Mick Heenan was evolved into that type of role. Players go to UQ to play for him, he's a very smart coach, but he's got that special aura as well.
The Nomad
Bob Davidson (42)
Maybe Arnold has just them using their backs more? Or given his backs the confidence/ empowered them to have more of a say come match day.
The GPS game plan in recent years has been pretty one dimensional and game plan rarely challenged. The previous head coach was pretty good at handing out a spray to those who didn’t follow orders. Mind you, he wouldn’t be alone there.
With regard to Mick Heenan he is no doubt a terrific and clever coach, but one of his biggest assets is how much the players respect him and buy in. That obviously has to be earned , definitely not a one hit wonder.
The GPS game plan in recent years has been pretty one dimensional and game plan rarely challenged. The previous head coach was pretty good at handing out a spray to those who didn’t follow orders. Mind you, he wouldn’t be alone there.
With regard to Mick Heenan he is no doubt a terrific and clever coach, but one of his biggest assets is how much the players respect him and buy in. That obviously has to be earned , definitely not a one hit wonder.
Dean Moriarty
Billy Sheehan (19)
100% Phil.
Its a fascinating discussion piece and not just in Rugby but all Sports.
The best Australian guy I have ever seen in Pro Sports ,as a Coach, is John Buchanan. He was outstanding. Wayne Bennett is up there.
What makes guys like this who they are at the level they are at is they are top drawer Man Managers. They know exactly how to facilitate and motivate individually and then bring it all together in shared identity.
In American Sport it was Phil Jackson* and Coach K in Basketball, Al Davis, (and is) Bill Bellichick (The NFL's Wayne Bennett) in the NFL and Joe Torre in Baseball.
*"Players don't win Championships......Organisations do" - Jerry Krause GM of the Chicago Bulls through their 2 x 3 peats in the 1990's. This statement being most closely linked to the finality of Jordan's Bulls
Back to Rugby.....I always thought Bob Templeton was one of the greats and had such charisma and ability to bring people together. Graham Henry was at the front of the re-building of the All Blacks legend and was an outstanding Man Manager.
Then you have guys like Eddie Jones , who admittedly has done some great things, but conversely, is ,for me,most closely associated with the decline of Rugby over the last 20 or so years. And he was from the same "Galloping Greens" stable as the Ellas - Mark Ella is still the best Australian No 10 I have ever seen.
But guys like Eddie Jones are the tacticians that have built their own Science in and around the rules of the game where "their Science" is very prescriptive. And you could argue that in the evolution of Professionalism in Rugby over the last 25 years, this one man's tactician type of Coach .......where their Science is the Holy Bible , robs players of their intuition which little by little has killed X factor and true skill development in what was the running game of Rugby.
This has been, and is, the biggest problem that inhibits the growth and the wider appeal of the game. Personalities, Influencers that don't actually play the physical game , but play their game in management or coaching, which is about them and their Leadership, their Vision , their Science....whatever you want to call it. And it casts too bigger shadow over the game for it to truly grow. But that is also true for players where their own individual shit is more important than anyone else. Think Israel Folau.
The game is bigger than that and deserves more than that. At least it should.
So I'm in the camp of the Facilitators and the Motivators that are there to stand behind the guys that play the game. Not stand in front of them and be the main story.
And that's not to say you don't require game planning and anything goes. Not at all. But you need to allow intuition and vision to develop , but mentor these choices in context of a responsibility a player has to his 14 other team mates that come to play and are committed to achieving something together.
Mug Punter
Ted Fahey (11)
Amazes me that Rebels have signed 8 x their U18 Academy players on Super Rugby contracts (love that they're local, ? on the age they're being signed) and the likes of Gicquel and Morrey couldn't get a look in down there when they trialed.
SouthernX
John Thornett (49)
This is a bit of a apples to oranges comparison
Nobody in Victoria is rushing out to buy tickets to the game because Pat Morrey/Matt Giquel are in rebels polo but not in the matchday 23
Those 8 young victorians who won’t play a minute of super rugby in 2022 are going to have a positive effect getting the local rugby community interested in the rebels.
These signings have nothing to do with talent & everything to do with development/marketing.