from McGahan via Stathi Paxinos
Melbourne Rebels coach Tony McGahan insists that despite a ''harsh dose of reality'', three successive losses, including a 32-7 thumping by the Western Force, had not highlighted anything he did not already know about the team.
McGahan said the losses, particularly against the Crusaders and NSW, had been based on mistakes of ''our own doing''’. These included in turnovers and a lack of intensity at crucial times, issues that come with a young team, especially in the key decision-making position of five-eighth.
''They are trying to gather the experience and train and then manage their own game and their own emotions and sometimes you end up playing the scoreboard and not playing what’s in front of them,''’ McGahan said.
''That’s just the nature of it. We knew that coming into the season. It certainly has been a major focus ... but we’ve still got a lot of learning experiences to overcome. Every team has things to work on and those things have been evident since the first day [of pre-season training] in August, and we’re working really hard."
this is the perennial problem with the rebels. claiming they are a young side is disingenuous, the starting 15 are largely the team that played in the second half of last year except with a stronger front row, better centre pairing and higginbotham back. the fly half has more experience and they had an entire pre-season together.
they still make the same skill errors and soft turnovers (especially at set piece in attack) that have been the problem since day1 against NSW in 2011. they are no doubt a vastly better team this year but still can't unlock that winning formula.
my major concern is that next year the player roster will radically change again and the same excuses will be trotted out. it will become increasingly difficult to attract and more importantly hold players for long term ie 5 - 7 years or more.
