QLD Reds 2010

[Scotty]

If they sign an interim coach, they would have to just about sign the next years one straight away, otherwise they would lose even more players.

 

[Sully]

Mooney only had another year! They could have simple let him know he wouldn't get renewed and let him start looking while they lined up someone else to fill his role. No fuss no drama. After he was sacked you have to go with option 1

 

[cheezel]

They wouldn't have piffed Mooney if they wanted someone in a years time. Mooney for another year is better than any interim coach they bring in.

Any news on who any of the twenty applicants were (other than the obvious of course)?

 

[Scotty]

The only reason to get an interim would be if he was part of the longer term plans such as Connolly moving into a high performance or director of coaching role, when Foley comes in a years time.

But they would pretty much have to announce this and have the next guy signed up at the same time.

 

[Lindommer]

Spoke to Michael Cheika's cousin today (he's a fellow rugby tragic who manages a restaurant). He told me Michael hasn't mentioned returning here for a job interview of any sorts. Cheika doesn't look like leaving Leinster for a while.

 

[spectator]

Mooney was unlucky, and so might the next guy be. Sack the Board, that's the real solution!

 

[fatprop]

So apparently the board are now tossing up two options, before appointing a coach.

1) Appoint whoever is best available now for a multi-year contract. Starting ASAP. This basically means Link McKenzie now I assue. Not sure what Todd Louden's contract story is.

2) Appoint an interim coach for 2010 and chase some off-contract coaches next year. This means, basically, appointing Knuckles for next year only and then chasing Chieka or Foley for 2011 and beyond

Sorry but option 2 stinks as far as I am concerned. If it happens I will boycot the Reds next year. It is such a defeatist attitude in my books.

Just sign Link and stop blaming the coach. This QRU board is soft as shit.

And people really wonder why the Reds are so screwed up. The QRU board and management are just a waste of space.

They have been decisive, not make a decision and create a winning atmosphere

 

[louie]

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,26156325-5002381,00.html

 

[Newb]

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,26156325-5002381,00.html

looks like option A, sans Link. i fear more player leakage with this short-term vision and the birth of the 2011 melbourne club (assuming that happens).

and apparently neither Link nor Louden were formally interviewed? WTF does that mean? someone from QRU sent them a tweet? pretty disappointing if you ask me. they should have at least talked to them even if they were thinking short term all along. dumb dumb dumb.

 

[Sully]

Just read it Loue.

Now I am a huge fan of Knuckles and I firmly believe his sacking was the biggest mistake the QRU have ever made. All you have to do is look at what Queensland Rugby has become since he left! But I also believe bringing him back would be a mistake. It leaves Queensland Rugby in limbo for a year. Basically another wasted year with players coming off contract with no firm management structure to guide them into renewing and the inability to attract players from other franchises for the same reason.

If Queensland have another bottom 3 year it would spell disaster for sponsorship and ticket sales! If McCall had sat on his hands and held his Shot he would have had 12 months to find a replacement for Mooney and would not have found himself and by association us Devoted fans in this embarrassing situation.

Having said all that it appears to simple be speculation as Knuckles hasn't interview yet. Still those season tickets are losing there gloss. :'(

 

[RugbyReg]

:banghead

 

[RugbyReg]

Link as at the QRU yesterday apparently. Article in the Oz today alleged as much.

 

[RugbyReg]

THREE words were all it took to raise the morale of the British fleet at the start of World War II. Winston is back!

Those three words, the famous alert sent out late in 1939 that Winston Churchill was back in his old job as First Lord of the Admiralty, were all it took for the Royal Navy to get up a full head of steam.

Now, one wonders, is it possible that an announcement that "Knuckles is back" could have quite the same stirring, uplifting effect on those poor, misguided fools who stagger through life supporting the Queensland Reds?

It's not a widely known fact, but John "Knuckles" Connolly shares much in common with Churchill. There is, for starters, a certain similarity in builds. And Connolly also has been heard to proclaim he would fight on the beaches and on the landing grounds and in the fields, streets and hills too, although admittedly that was during his bareknuckle playing days as a bouncer.

Like Churchill, he too has endured years in the wilderness, most recently since his Wallabies side was eliminated by England at the quarter-final stage of the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

But at no time does Connolly look more Churchillian than when he puts on his British bulldog face and growls that he will never give up, never give up on Queensland.

Aside from Bob Templeton, no man has coached the Queensland rugby team longer or more successfully. Of course, apart from Templeton, that's not saying much. The two defining characteristics of all the other Queensland rugby coaches is that they don't last very long and they aren't very successful.

All of which explains why Connolly found himself yesterday talking to the QRU's professional rugby board of Rod McCall, Brett Robinson, Dan Crowley, Daniel Herbert and Tim Horan - all former Wallabies he once dropped - about the possibility of returning at the almost-Churchillian age of 58 as caretaker coach of the Reds.

Now Australian rugby is replete with examples of failed comebacks, and not just of players and coaches, but it is just possible that Connolly is precisely the man the Reds need.

For starters, it wouldn't be ego driving him if he was to coach the Reds next year. He's not looking to build a new career. He's looking to hold the fort for one season only until the coach that Queensland apparently wants for the long haul, Connolly's former Wallabies assistant, Michael Foley, comes off contract with the Waratahs after next year's Super 14.

Connolly is a man of fairly strong opinions but even as Australia coach, he didn't impose them on others. Indeed, his determination not to repeat the mistake his predecessor Eddie Jones had made of micro-managing the Australian team and its coaching staff, caused him to be criticised for being too hands-off.

Even he admits there was an element of truth to that criticism. In making certain he did not undermine the authority of his coaching assistants, Foley, Scott Johnson and John Muggleton, he probably undermined his own.

As Reds coach, he wouldn't do anything fancy and, heaven knows, that's precisely the sort of coach the team needs right now. Phil Mooney's greatest asset and worst liability over the past two seasons was that he had a vision of the Reds leading a magnificent revival of running rugby. The trouble was that he had them running before they had learned to walk.

Connolly, no offence intended, would be more pedestrian. First he would get them fit. Then he would teach them to defend. Then he would teach them the value of field position. And only then would he unleash them.

Indeed, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that he might even invite Mooney to come back as the side's attack coach. Admittedly, that might cause the deposed head coach a moment or two of awkwardness, even of embarrassment but a season working with Connolly might just be the re-making of him as a top-line coach.

The Reds have to stop the bleeding and Knuckles might be just the tourniquet they need. His players respect him and he is prepared to fight for them - often to his own detriment.

Queensland has 23 players coming off contract at the end of next season and while Foley would be the major selling point in the Reds' retention campaign, Connolly is like one of those old cowboys who sings to the cattle and stops them from stampeding.

The trouble is that he doesn't just have friends in high places, but enemies too and it remains to be seen whether they will be given rein to interfere in Queensland's affairs.

Hopefully not. The Reds have finished in the bottom three for the last six years of Super rugby. This is their battle and outsiders should remain just that, outsiders.

For the record, Ewen McKenzie followed him into the interview room yesterday.

 

[Sully]

Obviously that's the Half full version. And it could work out!

 

[Biffo]

Obviously that's the Half full version. And it could work out!

I'd say the Reds' glass is 15/16 empty ... and leaking

 

[Sully]

That's nasty I'm hurt

 

[fatprop]

Former Wallabies coach John Connolly set to coach Queensland Reds


October 03, 2009

Former Australia coach John Connolly is tipped to be named Queensland Reds coach for 2010 - 21 years after his first appointment in the role.

In a strange twist following Phil Mooney's sacking, Connolly is close to agreeing to a one-year deal in which he will act as an interim coach until other candidates become available for 2011.

But the move could be a big gamble by Queensland, with long-term targets currently on contract such as New South Wales assistant Michael Foley and Leinster's Michael Cheika highly unlikely to commit to anything so far down the track.

Connolly's one-year deal will surprise many given that new QRU chairman Rod McCall recently indicated the 2006-07 Test coach would be "near the bottom" of a list of candidates and the fact that Phil Mooney was axed and paid out for a contract with one year left to run.

Names such as Ewen McKenzie and Todd Louden were also linked to the Queensland job but neither were formally interviewed. McKenzie and Cheika are both frontrunners for roles with a new Melbourne franchise.

Connolly - who first coached Queensland in 1989 - said he was yet to speak with the QRU but admitted he would "have discussions over the weekend".

Brothers coach Paul Healy is believed to be in line for the job of Reds backs coach.

 

[Biffo]

That's nasty I'm hurt

I didn't drink from the glass. Direct your anger at those who did and do.

 

[Ash]

What a fucking joke.

 

[rugbywhisperer]

pretty soon they will have to reintroduce the border gates at Coolangatta tostop the haemorrhage of players. certainly all the other franchises will have a constant flow of Qld talent with which to fill their teams for the foreseeable future.