Rebels 2013

[Inside Shoulder]

I just knew there was absolutely no way that after an entire night of drinking Vuna just stood there and did nothing after the sucker punch, it made no sense.

I reckon he did the honourable thing.
From what i am hearing, from a different source, there is a division in the club between the superstars and the rest. This was more the cause of Phipps signing with the Tahs than anything else.

 

[Sir Arthur Higgins]

ya. good on vuna. the picture is beginning to be painted of KB (Kurtley Beale) being a real problem.
i don't think the ARU should tear up his contract, but he needs to be sorted out via therapy etc and then probably slotted back into the NSW org to get some guidance closer to family and friends who care about him. but he's got to take some responsibility......with that revelation about missing a team event with kids (community involvement being part of the reason he wanted to come down here...) gives weight to claims the jacuzzi incident was a problem - or the day after it.
he must have missed an event organised by a key sponsor hence rumours they are looking to pull out.
he comes across as a bit of a pr1ck when you put a string of incidents together, so hopefully he sorts it out.
but happy to see him leave. the way i see it, we have to resign JOC (James O'Connor) and i anticipate that will come with him demanding a new coach and that we get a couple better backs around him.
burgess, zack, inman, and vuna are all good. need to see some more of woodward. we need a guy like morahan or another of the reds' quality players. that they have on the bench!
lachie turner would be a great pick up. put him and vuna on the wings, JOC (James O'Connor) at 10, get morahan to 15 with inman and mitchell in the centres. the backline suddenly looks good.
delve is looking old so this must be his last run around in super 15 giving us a backline of higgers, jones and reid - which i like a lot.

tough first half of the year. let's turn it around in perth.

 

[Pfitzy]

Higginbotham and Phipps make the perfect 8-9 combination... Of awfulness and overrated-ness

 

[Sir Arthur Higgins]

prefer higgers to phipps. phipps was terrible today. bad decisions, bad kicks, bad passes, bad hands. should start giving zacker more games.

we need to do a fair bit of recruiting for next year as it is and playing as we are won't be much of a drawcard.

bring is link or vern cotter or schmidt or wheover doesnt get the ireland job, or deans, or fischer. hill not getting player respect clearly.

 

[Highlander35]

Ideal world is that we can shift some of the money around when/if Delve and Beale go, maybe to some Loosehead props, or Tighthead locks, or even a bloody 12*.

*Nothing against Mitchell, just think if we can get someone who plays like Tapaui, or Lealifano, we'd have a much better backline.

 

[Sir Arthur Higgins]

very true. we will free up probably 3/4 of a million on those guys and could buy 3 quality players at 250k a pop.
what, in hindsight, baffles me is why in the world we brought in mcqueen to coach if he was only going to coach for a year.

 

[RoffsChoice]

very true. we will free up probably 3/4 of a million on those guys and could buy 3 quality players at 250k a pop.
what, in hindsight, baffles me is why in the world we brought in mcqueen to coach if he was only going to coach for a year.

In the Brumbies, you have players like Mogg, Sio, Kuridrani, Siliva and others for about 150k each, 3/4 of a million and you could get five players like them.

 

[swingpass]

what, in hindsight, baffles me is why in the world we brought in mcqueen to coach if he was only going to coach for a year.

He was supposed to be a talisman and proven guru with start ups,
was only ever going to be for one year. I think the real problem was getting fucked over by the ARU at the outset, stopping the rebels from contracting australian players till the end of the S14 season which severely limited their options especially with the few Victorian bred players that were available. At least ,that's my memory of it.

 

[Sir Arthur Higgins]

yes i do recall that. that really did some damage.
we are really going to need to go back to back against the force and kings. in the absence of wins there, we will be lucky to get another one this year or it will come from an unlikely spot.
replacements for hill??

 

[Bruce Ross]

replacements for hill??

Todd Louden
.

 

[swingpass]

replacements for hill??

someone suggested phil mooney earlier. is he available

 

[Bowside]

someone suggested phil mooney earlier. is he available

Just signed to coach a Japanese Club.

 

[swingpass]

Just signed to coach a Japanese Club.

bugger

 

[Bowside]

The rebels recruited poorly in their first year and have largely continued to recruit poorly since. I expect cordingly to get the sack along with the coach.

The biggest problem they have for next year is that they have a heap of average players signed on 2 year deals, so they either have to buy them out or stick with a somewhat weak squad and hope there are no injuries.

Delve and Phipps are gone for next season and I expect the following players to leave as well:

Henderson
Robinson
Horie
King
Davidson
Mitchell
Sidey
Kingi
Beale

Burgess and Sexton are already signed and I'd replace the others with:
Saia Fainga'a
Colby Fainga'a
Jarrod Butler/Nigel Ah-Wong
Sam Lane
Jono Lance
Ant Fainga'a
Lachie Turner

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Todd Louden
.

An inspired nomination, and someone who would be good for both the Rebels and Victorian Rugby in general.

 

[swingpass]

The rebels recruited poorly in their first year and have largely continued to recruit poorly since. I expect cordingly to get the sack along with the coach.

The biggest problem they have for next year is that they have a heap of average players signed on 2 year deals, so they either have to buy them out or stick with a somewhat weak squad and hope there are no injuries.

Delve and Phipps are gone for next season and I expect the following players to leave as well:

Henderson
Robinson
Horie
King
Davidson
Mitchell
Sidey
Kingi
Beale

Burgess and Sexton are already signed and I'd replace the others with:
Saia Fainga'a
Colby Fainga'a
Jarrod Butler/Nigel Ah-Wong
Sam Lane
Jono Lance
Ant Fainga'a
Lachie Turner

have been discussing this over on the rebels v cheetahs forum

Sir Arthur Higgins said: ↑​

i've seen nothing to suggest we should target faainga.​

we have the kiwi, saffy and reid who have all showed they are capable at 7.​

we need props, and another playmaking back and wings.​

i'd like to see a backline of​

9 burgess​

10 JOC (James O'Connor)​

11 Vuna​

12 Mitchell​

13 Inman​

14 Lachie Turner (he is 25, wallaby capped and stuck behind great wings in NSW)​

15 Woodward​

​

Zacker, English, Roberts​

still not a fan of JOC (James O'Connor) at fly half. think that roberts and/or hegarty are the longterm prospects. need a playmaking IC to set up inman, but can't see any on the horizon except godwin at the force. could hegarty fill that role?

so if JOC (James O'Connor) stays see him at FB or on the wing where he belongs. is sitauti any good i cant recall him getting too much game time at the brumbies​

really need a loosehead (come back p manu our doctor was wrong) or two and neville to stand up at tighthead lock. jones, higginbotham and reid/fuglistaller in the backrow. ​

​

those leaving​

​

delve, robinson, davidson, king, henderson, kingi, phipps, beale, horie, all gone next year​

​

? pyle, inman, saffy, o'connor as well​

​

perhaps rokobaro, just not big enough​

​

thats virtually everyone who came in 2011: jones, mitchell, weekes, vuna, the only survivors of the original team. doesn"t leave much hand me down "corporate memory", perhaps thats a good thing ​

 

[Bowside]

have been discussing this over on the rebels v cheetahs forum

Sir Arthur Higgins said: ↑​

​

i've seen nothing to suggest we should target faainga.​

we have the kiwi, saffy and reid who have all showed they are capable at 7.​

we need props, and another playmaking back and wings.​

i'd like to see a backline of​

9 burgess​

10 JOC (James O'Connor)​

11 Vuna​

12 Mitchell​

13 Inman​

14 Lachie Turner (he is 25, wallaby capped and stuck behind great wings in NSW)​

15 Woodward​

​

Zacker, English, Roberts​

still not a fan of JOC (James O'Connor) at fly half. think that roberts and/or hegarty are the longterm prospects. need a playmaking IC to set up inman, but can't see any on the horizon except godwin at the force. could hegarty fill that role?

so if JOC (James O'Connor) stays see him at FB or on the wing where he belongs. is sitauti any good i cant recall him getting too much game time at the brumbies​

really need a loosehead (come back p manu our doctor was wrong) or two and neville to stand up at tighthead lock. jones, higginbotham and reid/fuglistaller in the backrow. ​

​

those leaving​

​

delve, robinson, henderson, kingi, phipps, beale, horie, all gone next year​

​

? pyle, inman, saffy, o'connor as well​

​

perhaps rokobaro, just not big enough​

​

thats virtually everyone who came in 2011: jones, mitchell, weekes, vuna, the only survivors of the original team. doesn"t leave much hand me down "corporate memory", perhaps thats a good thing ​

The rebels are not going to come close to winning the competition with Saffy, Fuglistaller or Reid in the starting team. There is a reason these blokes are not being chased by other teams...

Fainga'a is no Gill or Hooper but he did captain the Aus U20 a few years ago. I think he is worth a one year contract at least.

Ant Fainga'a can play 12, so can Lance. Both are far better players than anyone the rebels currently have in that position. O'Connor is also natural centre, he made his name playing centre at school and then at the force. I think long term he could end up playing a similar role to O'Driscoll or Conrad Smith at 13.

Sitauti is a good player but he's been very injury plagued so he might never get back to where he was a couple of seasons ago.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

If the bloody Whitelocks can get all 4 Boys playing for the one Supe team, then why not have a lash at getting all 3 Fingers together in the Rebels?

There are weaknesses at 12, 2 and loose forwards that the Fingers would slot well into.

 

[USARugger]

I reckon he did the honourable thing.
From what i am hearing, from a different source, there is a division in the club between the superstars and the rest. This was more the cause of Phipps signing with the Tahs than anything else.

He did what pretty much any other guy would have done after getting sucker punched at the end of a night on the piss. Especially when the guy punching you is that much smaller than you are

Not surprised though, it sort of shows in the way they play. Hill seems to have pretty much completely lost the plot in controlling his team. Maybe he just didn't have any experience dealing with egos of this magnitude before? I guess there aren't really any Shute Shield or Sydney Uni guys making 'Kurtley Beale' money or who have a truly Three Amigos-sized ego.

In the Brumbies, you have players like Mogg, Sio, Kuridrani, Siliva and others for about 150k each, 3/4 of a million and you could get five players like them.

Yeah, maybe before this season started. They would all have to crash and burn pretty badly for the remainder of the season for that to remain the case.

 

[swingpass]

just hav memories of JOC (James O'Connor) at centre last year. some defensive frailties, but i will concede he had cipriani inside him, making significant uncertainty. he didnt get to play with beale inside him. i posted earlier it would be good to see stirzaker, roberts and JOC (James O'Connor) at 9/10/12 sometime this season just to see what might happen.
it is by no means certain he will stay in melbourne though i don't know where he would easily go to and fit inside the salary cap.