Reds 2014

[Ash]

Impressive turnaround from Graham:
2010 - 2nd Australian team, 5th overall
2011 - 1st Australian team, 1st overall
2012 - 1st Australian team, 3rd overall (thanks to conference system, really 6th), eliminated first week of finals
2013 - 2nd Australian team, 5th overall, eliminated first week of finals

Midway through 2014:
2014 - 5th Australian team, 13th overall

Less injury issues in 2014 than some of those other years as well.

What gets me is watching the Rebels, whose attack is shitting all over the Reds right now, as is their defence and break down work.

The injury smashed and backwards tactics Bulls are ahead of us. The no-name Lions are ahead of us. If the Cheetahs beat the injury ravaged and travel weary Bulls, we will go to 14th.

Impressive fall without major injuries.

Can't see where our next win will be, either.

Ah well, I'll still be watching them. Didn't stop all through the miserable 2000 years. Just hoping we aren't heading back there.

 

[USARugger]

A bit chuffed I got up early to watch that pile of shit.

Not looking fwd to watching the game again to count line outs, etc.

Defensive pattern is a fucking joke right now.

 

[gel]

The reds haven't lost 4 in a row since 2009. But we have now.

The reds haven't lost 5 in a row since 2007. Next weekend is a massive game for this team.

I am unsure what the record for home losses in a row would be, but I would imagine we are probably pretty close to that as well.

There's not a lot of ways to positively spin what has been otherwise a complete disaster of a season.

The reds are utterly directionless and I fear that, rightly or wrongly, many axes need to fall in order to rewrite the culture throughout the place (not just the coaches but the players as well).

Please employ Les Kiss or someone of that ilk. Someone who has been at a level that massive egos will respond to and not pointedly omit from thank you speeches on YouTube videos.

 

[Penguin]

All those wasted banjo lessons?

Nah his brass monkey's balls will freeze off & his nights will be filled with boredom.

 

[Parse]

RG must be happy as his team sits 1 championship point away from his first major Super Rugby title.

Unfortunately that title is the wooden spoon though. At least it matches his nickname.

 

[tranquility]

http://www.news.com.au/sport/rugby/...ders-in-round-13/story-fndpu22x-1226904938068

 

[gel]

That article has just given Richard Graham his next positive spin quote: "we are now in a position where we can afford to experiment with new players and trial new things" is something I can imagine him saying in the next YouTube.

Note to Richard: being in a position where you can afford to do that a little way over half way through the season is never a good thing. It means you have fucked things up so royally that random ideas are now considered better ones than your previous ideas.

He can't blame injuries, because he was in charge of hiring and he selected players who are notorious for missing more games than they play.

He can't blame lack of quality because he has the remainder if the team stacked with players who have performed at higher levels for three or four seasons.

He can't blame the administration or organisation because they orchestrated a change over period the likes of which any coach would wet himself over and have shown incredible support for him.

It is his responsibility to get the players playing to their peak levels and he has failed to do this. He has them playing at such a low level that he will have cost several of them wallaby honours and therefore wallaby match fees. Bet that is gonna hurt him when he tries to sign them on for next year and further.

I agree it is not advisable to sack him now and expect things to turn around.

It is possible to publicly say that he is having his contract terminated at the end of this season and that we are now looking at several candidates as replacements. He continues as coach for the remainder of the season.

This is not ridiculous, because this always happens in the rugby league, and the players who are unhappy with the existing coach almost always miraculously turn their performances around and start winning for the remainder of the season. (This generally makes the fans exclaim "why didn't they just play that way before hand?", to which the answer is that the players didn't want that coach and they weren't interested in making him look good)

 

[RedsHappy]

Posters here may recall my prediction that, in direct parallel with RG's credibility decline and the QRU's defensive anxiety and self-protection levels, we'd start to see journos friendly to the QRU elite compose pieces that were effectively far more critical of 'under performing Reds' players' than 'grossly under performing Reds' coaches".

Well here we have a beauty from the otherwise respectable Wayne Smith. He's concluded the central problem today is the utter failure of the Reds' leadership group of JH, WG and QC (Quade Cooper) to lead and guide the team properly. Apparently, they try hard but don't lead well enough. And, too, they've accordingly now disqualified themselves from any form of Wallaby leadership role.

The article and its title:

Queensland’s season of woe proves there’s no Wallabies captains at the Reds

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...ains-at-the-reds/story-e6frg7v6-1226905229444

Gee, I'm so pleased to know all that. Sack them (some or all) or send them to rugby leadership school and the Reds will be pretty much fixed up. These comparatively young players were good enough to lead the Reds to a rare Aus S15 title quite recently, but they've lost it now. Simple really.

And this pearl, straight from Ballymore no doubt:

"As for Graham, it would appear the QRU has decided the Reds’ shortcomings already had become apparent on Ewen McKenzie’s watch and the new coach is not to be blamed for a host of players under performing."

Predicting the ways of Aus rugby elites when they need to take responsibility and they need to show real leadership vs PR management and subtly or otherwise blaming others, is, sadly, like shooting fish in a barrel.

 

[No4918]

Some good points Gel.

Graham must go. Unfortunately the reality is that he will very likely be the coach again next season. I am not at all confident he will be replaced before then. He is the only union coach I can recall sacked part way through a season and it just does not seem probable that it will occur again. If by some miracle it does happen then leaving him in charge for the rest of the year would be disastrous.

 

[RedsHappy]

Just a btw: it's likely that many Wallaby Reds and/or potential Reds Wallabies will enter the imminent Wallaby season with their playing confidence badly shot.

Unless this factor can be compensated for by equal or better and confidence-filled replacements from our other S15 sources, this situation does not bode well for Wallaby results vs the ABs or potentially 2014 Wallaby performance in general.

I guess balancing that is the fact that undoubtedly many Reds Wallabies enjoy and are motivated playing for Link so maybe - indeed hopefully - I am overstating the potential issue.

 

[Ash]

Wayne Smith also had the following paragraph at the end, after the paragraph about Graham:

That may be so, but the Reds have looked clueless for much of this season and in the past two matches especially, mostly in defence. The Rebels and Brumbies might also have lost on the weekend but they never lost their shape, never lost their spirit. It wasn't just that the Reds didn't fire a shot — it looked like they had no idea how to load the gun.

If the shortcomings were known in 2013, and Graham was in charge of recruitment from 2013, then he can still share blame for not looking at getting it fixed. If, for instance, a bruising backrower is seem as a shortcoming and Graham doesn't even play the up and coming Browning in the matchday 23, what can you do? Or the shortage of a real fullback apart from Toua, when his time injured has been much greater than his time fit, yet allowing Morahan to depart.

 

[Train Without a Station]

I'm more concerned beyond recruitment. You can only recruit who is on the market. Link had a few wins due to good players being available and going cheap then getting the best out of them.

What concerns me is the use of what he has. The season has slowly slipped away and he has been very reluctant to deviate from what is a failing formula. With the exception of injury enforced changes, and players returning from injury, the only places he has looked to make any real change is in the back 3, or the front row.

The back row is severely struggling and he isn't looking to change anything at all. Beau Robinson was the only one of the 3 that could really say he had any sort of decent positive impact on the games when he played, yet he was the casualty to bring Gill back. Browning is the only one that has really looked like bending the line, yet he continues to persist with Shatz.

Looking in the backs, Harris is the only player that has consistently really challenged the line. CFS has really made the most of the opportunities presented and Davies has been the only player that seems to consistently provide a target for Quade, yet he has been in and out.

No coach no matter how good is going to always make the right call. But there's no point watching the season just slip away because you don't have the balls to look at real changes.

 

[gel]

I find it a bit odd that just about the only centre pairing he has NOT tried is Taps at 12 and CFS at 13. He's tried just about every other permutation and now that CFS is injured (and probably out for the rest of the season), he can't try that one at all

 

[Ruski2003]

Hi Guys,

long time reader, first time poster so please go easy on me .

I've heard a dirty rumour through a associate of who happens to work inside NSW Rugby. He's told me that his mail is that the tahs are trying to pinch Horwill as with Kane Douglas going overseas they are looking for a tough lock who is uncompromising and has leadership skills. I'm aware Horwill is contracted to the Reds & ARU until the end of 2015, but contracts are hardly worth the paper they are written on these days. He said that Horwill is on the outer at the reds - He doesn't see eye to eye with Richard Graham over tactics and game plans and he does not get on at all with Quade which is causing major issues. He said that apart from Richard Graham being a shit coach that this is one of the issues that the reds are playing so badly as they are no longer playing for each other.

Normally I would dismiss this as just petty skull duggery, however my source predicted that barnes would depart the reds for the tahs in 2009, McKibbin to the tahs in 2009 & Lance to the tahs in 2013 all well before they happened. Has anyone here got any mail on this? I dearly hope that it is nothing more than BS because Horwill is the heart and soul of the Reds.

I've also posted this 2015 thread to see if anyone can shed some light on this.

 

[TOCC]

Shit rumour ruski

 

[Gnostic]

That article has just given Richard Graham his next positive spin quote: "we are now in a position where we can afford to experiment with new players and trial new things" is something I can imagine him saying in the next YouTube.

Note to Richard: being in a position where you can afford to do that a little way over half way through the season is never a good thing. It means you have fucked things up so royally that random ideas are now considered better ones than your previous ideas.

He can't blame injuries, because he was in charge of hiring and he selected players who are notorious for missing more games than they play.

He can't blame lack of quality because he has the remainder if the team stacked with players who have performed at higher levels for three or four seasons.

He can't blame the administration or organisation because they orchestrated a change over period the likes of which any coach would wet himself over and have shown incredible support for him.

It is his responsibility to get the players playing to their peak levels and he has failed to do this. He has them playing at such a low level that he will have cost several of them wallaby honours and therefore wallaby match fees. Bet that is gonna hurt him when he tries to sign them on for next year and further.

I agree it is not advisable to sack him now and expect things to turn around.

It is possible to publicly say that he is having his contract terminated at the end of this season and that we are now looking at several candidates as replacements. He continues as coach for the remainder of the season.

This is not ridiculous, because this always happens in the rugby league, and the players who are unhappy with the existing coach almost always miraculously turn their performances around and start winning for the remainder of the season. (This generally makes the fans exclaim "why didn't they just play that way before hand?", to which the answer is that the players didn't want that coach and they weren't interested in making him look good)

Unfortunately this situation is allowed to fester because as in many other aspects of Australian life we have lost the respect for true critique and the place that thoughtful searching journalism has in that process.

Wayne Smith was a shining light in that regard in the Deans era, I hope that he has not forgotten this in this ill thought out article with little supporting evidence.

 

[Gnostic]

I find it a bit odd that just about the only centre pairing he has NOT tried is Taps at 12 and CFS at 13. He's tried just about every other permutation and now that CFS is injured (and probably out for the rest of the season), he can't try that one at all

As my long time Reds fan mates will know I was calling for that centre pairing in week two.

Can I also remind a few senior posters that even from the casual neutrally interested observer I identified the issues regarding the Reds defence in the pre-season. I wouldn't make a coach's chewed off fingernail and even I could see that was a big issue. At no stage during this season has that looked to be improved, the same holes are present in every game.

These are two indicators for me of poor coaching. Forgetting for a minute the issues surrounding forward and succession planning which can be thrown into disarray by injury and resolving poor form. Lets just look at those easily observable issues and ask the question why so many weeks into the competition those problems remain the key weakness and distinguishing factor for mine between this year and previous.

 

[Ruski2003]

Shit rumour ruski

Be that as it may, Its not a troll - it's what i've heard from a bloke who has been right in the past & as a paid up ruby reds member i'd like to investigate whether it has any base or not.

 

[Braveheart81]

Maybe Horwill is betting on the fact that if he makes rumblings about leaving, Richard Graham will end up being the person who leaves.

 

[I like to watch]

You think Quade is his career counsellor?