Reds 2013

[Penguin]

I will just offer up a question that might have some speculative relevance one future day.

Assuming the Genia (and maybe other Reds players) defection discussions have been active with the Force for some time, the question may arise as to the degree to which RG was a participant in them with a Force hat on. If in this scenario RG suddenly changed from Perth advocate to turncoat, was thus announced as the new Reds' coach, his credibility as such with the Reds players he was perhaps once seducing to the Force would be worse than zero.

Richard Graham is a ready made scapegoat for everything according to you mate.
You need a new stylus for your record player, it's playing the same old tune over & over.

 

[Penguin]

Ioane is off contract this year isn't he? I think the Reds dynasty team went ass up the minute changes started in the coaching/management group. Don't forget the early indications that the Faingaas were looking elsewhere also. Could be some significant holes to fill not just in the starting 15 by across the whole squad.

Pretty certain he resigned for a couple of seasons last year after reneging on a Japanese deal. All players "look" elsewhere when making a deal these days, and they signed way before the coaching thing.
Fuck me the tin foil hat thread has morphed!

 

[Slim 293]

Richard Graham is a ready made scapegoat for everything according to you mate.
You need a new stylus for your record player, it's playing the same old tune over & over.

Even if his stylus was in need of replacing, it's only going to keep playing the same old tune if you don't change records...

 

[Penguin]

Meh, you know what I meant.

 

[TheBigDog]

A few people seem to be worrying about who will play halfback but i'd say in terms of skilled/established players in that position the Reds are pretty well stocked. Ben Lucas is an obvious choice and so is Nick Frisby. Matt Lucas was also part of the Reds Academy before it was cut back to the 5 man system they have now. I don't think there needs to be panic buttons hit and asking when Prior, McKibbin etc are off contract. These blokes were allowed to leave the Reds for a reason. We have enough players here in QLD to get the job done.

 

[tigerland12]

People seem to be scared of bringing through inexperienced players and instead buying average toilers to fill positions. I am happy having Frisby and Lucas share the duties next year, with most likely Matt Lucas coming into an EPS spot.

Every year there are players who get given a chance and prosper (Barrett, A.Smith, Potgieter, Goosen, Kerr-Barlow,Shipperely, McKibbin ect), so why should this be any different? I'm not having any issues with keeping the 2 half backs we have and bringing in an Academy/Premier Rugby player like Matt Lucas.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

I am aware that Spiro Zavos is persona non grata around here but there are some troubling issues raised in this article:

On Friday morning, before the Reds’ crucial match at Auckland against the Blues, The Australian published a rugby story with the headline: Reds lose their ‘brilliant mind’.
The story was written by the newspaper’s main rugby writer Brett Harris. It was one of those stories that did not have a great deal of relevance (or seem to have relevance) to ordinary readers, but that means a lot to those insiders who are part of the political game within the game.
The story led with the main facts: “Queensland Reds coach Ewen McKenzie has lost one of his strongest support pillars with the sudden departure from Ballymore of Phillip ‘Chook’ Fowler.”
“In the Super Rugby media guide, Fowler is listed as the Reds’ strategy coach, but he has also acted as their psychologist and kicking coach… It is understood Fowler, known for his frankness, left after a difference of opinion over a player review.
“A brilliant rugby mind, Fowler was instrumental in devising the game plans that helped the Reds to their maiden title last year.”
Harris then went on to quote the Reds CEO, Jim Carmichael, as saying that Fowler was not on the coaching staff but on a 30-day clause in his contract, “and we exercised it.”
Harris made the point that while Fowler was “not technically” part of the Reds coaching staff, “he was arguably the most important member of McKenzie’s support staff.”
Now the question arises, why should a “difference of opinion over a player review” lead to the sacking of a crucial member of the Reds coaching staff? And what does the sacking tell us about the present condition of the Reds’ management?
First, a declaration of interest. I know Phillip Fowler. I taught him decades ago at secondary school in New Zealand. He was a lively and intelligent student (in my history and English classes) and a brilliant member of the First XV and First XI. I once absent-mindedly put a $20 note, as a marker, in a history book which I wanted him to read as preparation for an exam. He returned the $20, and mastered the content of the book.
In all my dealings with him, as a student and subsequently as a rugby guru with the Wallabies, the Waratahs and the Reds, I would vouch for his absolute integrity, honesty, intelligence and loyalty to his team and its players.
The back story relating to his dismissal involves more than a dispute over a player review.
The way the matter has been handled, with Fowler being punished with the loss of his livelihood, does not reflect well on a player in the Reds squad, coach McKenzie or for that matter CEO Carmichael.
Fowler, as Harris points out, was the brains behind the Reds’ success last season. He worked with Eddie Jones in masterminding the Wallabies’ attempt to win the 2003 RWC. The Wallabies, who had been thrashed by the All Blacks at Sydney only months before, came within 26 seconds of forcing England into a kick-off for the World Cup.
After 2003 he became the strategy guru for McKenzie at the Waratahs, Stade Francais and the Reds. He designed the tactics that saw the Reds win all their matches in South Africa last season, and indeed defeat all the South African sides, a unique achievement.
He devised the tactics for the Reds up to week four of this year’s tournament. The Reds won their first three games and were leading the Sharks at Durban 17-3 when the team disintegrated with a yellow card and multiple injuries which necessitated Will Genia playing number 10 and having to take (and miss) critical kicks at goal.
Fowler was also the kicking coach who turned Mike Harris from a 74 percent kicker in New Zealand into a 100 percenter for the Reds this season. Without Fowler’s advice in the last couple of weeks, Harris returned to his old kicking statistics against the Blues.
While the Fowler matter is being played out behind the scenes, the Reds in the last week or so also engaged in a very public and matching display of administrative ineptitude that revealed a similar lack of understanding of proper process.
Reds management claim that the decision to appoint the former Western Force coach Richard Graham as the Reds coach in 2013 has been in the pipeline for some months. They were asked by the ARU to keep the matter under wraps until the end of the season. This was not done.
The Force players took matters into their own hands and effectively sacked Graham.
Were Reds players told of the switch before it was announced? It seems from the reaction of the Reds captain, James Horwill, this was not the case. And if this is so, why weren’t the senior players consulted?
Will Genia’s defection to the Force was certainly focused around the significantly larger payment he is going to get next season. But is it a coincidence that it was announced only days after the Graham switch?
Whatever the motivation, it can be read, in part at least, as a vote of no confidence in the new coaching regime being established at the Reds.
There is, also, a disturbing element of conflict of interest in the Graham appointment. Graham’s manager, Chris White, is also a member of the Reds board.
John Eales, who writes an interesting rugby column in the Australian Financial Review (which is also run online on RugbyHeaven) justified the Graham appointment and its circumstances by pointing out that “from both a playing and coaching perspective, loyalty is more fluid than fixed… One’s loyalty is first to one’s self then to one’s team or organisation.”
He argued that Graham never pushed for the switch and has “not erred contractually as he had a six-month termination clause, which he triggered.”
It was McKenzie “who designed the change… Together, they could make a compelling duo.”
The crux of the Eales argument supporting what had happened is this: “People invariably fear change, particularly when it is foisted on them… In my experience, however, most people will go with the noise, positive or negative. So to control change, you must control the noise.”
I think this means that the Force players should forget the fact that Graham was hostile to players leaving the franchise or talking about leaving the franchise last season.
The Eales argument also disregards the issue of whether McKenzie moving out of a coaching role and into a Director of Coaching role next year is actually a good thing for the Reds franchise and the players in the squad.
McKenzie’s real value to the Reds franchise is as a coach. The Director of Coaching or Rugby (in 2014) is an organisational job that does not need someone who is a highly regarded coach. This model was tried at Bath with Sir Ian McGeechan. The model failed and Sir Ian is leaving the club after an unsuccessful two-year stint.
There is one other matter, too, that needs to be raised about the Eales article. The footnote to what follows is that my admiration for John Eales as a person is strong. He is one of the great men of Australian rugby. But I do not believe he should be writing about the Graham switch, particularly with an ‘all’s well that ends well’ line.
The reason for this is that he has shares in the business International Quarterback. This business employs White, who manages Graham. This relationship needed to be revealed to readers of the article. Indeed, he should also reveal in his AFR columns that he is a member of the ARU’s board.
I wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday that, aside from Graham, the real ‘winner’ of all of this is Ewen McKenzie. His ambition, or some say obsession, is to coach the Wallabies. Fair enough. This system of him moving out of direct coaching next season seems to be part of the plan to achieve this goal.
When or if the Wallaby coaching job comes up at the end of 2013 (someone should tell the Sun Herald’sMcKenzie-spruiker Danny Weidler this), McKenzie’s record will be last year’s Reds triumph and what he can scramble by way of performances this season. If 2013 turns out poorly, he can claim that this is Graham’s fault.
Alternatively, if the Reds do well he can claim the credit.
I know this is an extremely cynical reading of events. But this is what many people informed about rugby politics are saying.
Otherwise there is no sense in the Graham appointment. As Phil Kearns asked so memorably on The Rugby Club when the news of it broke, “What has Graham done as a coach?”
Ewen McKenzie, albeit with the now unavailable help of his guru Phillip Fowler, is one of three Australian coaches to win a Super Rugby title.
How can it be good for the Reds team that he is replaced as coach by someone who has no record of success at the Super Rugby level?
There is a strong case in all of this for asserting that personal agendas are fracturing the Reds franchise at a time when it was poised to establish a Super Rugby dynasty.

 

[Sully]

Yes Chook's departure is worrying.

 

[tigerland12]

With Genia set to re-sign, whats the bet Benny Lucas is thinking "Oh shit may of signed too early"

 

[Sully]

Lucas is 5/8 now and Fullback when Cooper is back. What does he have to worry about?

 

[TheBigDog]

Haha i'm thinking Benny Lucas will be thinking 'geez they're paying me this much to sit on the bench?, sweet'

 

[Bowside]

I wonder if the player review was over will genia's box kicking?

 

[Penguin]

I believe Lucas was a reluctant halfback from the outset so I doubt it would have influenced his decision one way or another.

 

[Bowside]

I believe Lucas was a reluctant halfback from the outset so I doubt it would have influenced his decision one way or another.

He has never been a half back and it is no surprise to many that his career has flourished since moving to 5/8 and fullback.

 

[en_force_er]

I believe Lucas was a reluctant halfback from the outset so I doubt it would have influenced his decision one way or another.

exactly, let's remember lucas has only played 2-3 seasons as a halfback in his entire rugby career.

 

[Penguin]

exactly, let's remember lucas has only played 2-3 seasons as a halfback in his entire rugby career.

And we could probably whittle that down to just a handful of his 50 odd games for Qld. He went well there but flyhalf is his natural position and like a lot of 10's he makes a good fist at fullback to. He's a very underrated player by some & has a great attitude, it seems.

 

[Ignoto]

Lucas is 5/8 now and Fullback when Cooper is back. What does he have to worry about?

This - when Quade does come back. Benny will be shifted to 15 and Morahan dropped. Harris will be kept at 12 because of Taps' collarbone being KIA and hopefully A Finger will be starting at 13 in two weeks time.

I wonder if we can expect Aidan to make a return against the Chiefs? That's another month for his Hammy to get right or is it more of another year on the sideline for him?

 

[tigerland12]

This - when Quade does come back. Benny will be shifted to 15 and Morahan dropped. Harris will be kept at 12 because of Taps' collarbone being KIA and hopefully A Finger will be starting at 13 in two weeks time.

I wonder if we can expect Aidan to make a return against the Chiefs? That's another month for his Hammy to get right or is it more of another year on the sideline for him?

Was walking around freely at Easts on Saturday, but I guess that just means his hasn't completely screwed it.

 

[TheBigDog]

I don't know Genia on a personal level so won't speculate too much about his persona and am glad it looks like he's returned to the Reds. But all this chopping and changing doesn't bode well for his character development and from my knowledge of the Brisbane Club scene he has sent similar ripples through in previous years. I believe he's been associated (I won't say played for because he's not there on a regular basis) GPS, Wests and Norths since making his Reds debut. His loyalties seem to change quite often. I know signing a professional contract and playing club rugby are worlds apart but I do find it all very interesting.

Moving forward for the Reds I hope he will remain loyal and convince QC (Quade Cooper) to stick around now.

 

[Ignoto]

Was walking around freely at Easts on Saturday, but I guess that just means his hasn't completely screwed it.

Good to hear! Hopefully he's back running!

I believe he's been associated (I won't say played for because he's not there on a regular basis) GPS, Wests and Norths since making his Reds debut.

From memory, Will's been at GPS (during colts) due to school's rugby coaches being affiliated with GPS then moved to Norths and stayed there.

I don't think he's ever been associated with Wests (other than Nigel playing there?). Actually, maybe during school he played a couple games down there?[/quote]