Reds 2015

[liquor box]

I don't think I am alone in thinking that the reds are poorly conditioned for super rugby, and teams like the waratahs are going to slaughter them when the reds get tired.

I think all the Aussie sides are unfit, I cant see any of our teams matching the fitness of the Canes and Chiefs, they run at 100% for 80 minutes

 

[qwerty51]

I think all the Aussie sides are unfit, I cant see any of our teams matching the fitness of the Canes and Chiefs, they run at 100% for 80 minutes

The Tahs can.

 

[Bobby Sands]

The Tahs can.

Ive been meaning to do this for a long time. You are offically Ignored.

 

[Lindommer]

If you don't think the Tahs are an 80 minute outfit, BS, you might like to take a few lessons in watching proper rugby from a few experts. Feel free to join Pfitzy, Hawko, cyclo, Braveheart et al, and me, at the next Tahs match.

Let's take Saturday night's match for starters. The Tahs had flown from Bloemfontein to Johannesburg and on to Sydney (what, 13 hours?) to confront a local side who'd ambled down from Brisbane on Friday. Yes, the Tahs took half a game to get into their stride, but when they did they blew the Reds off the paddock from the 45 to 80 minute marks. PARTLY DUE TO THEIR SUPERIOR FITNESS! Maybe it's not a fair comparison 'cause the Reds palpably aren't fit enough. Whatever, the Tahs' fitness is one reason why they've been one of the top two Super sides the last coupla years.

I've never ignored anybody, but you're tempting me.

 

[RugbyReg]

I wouldn't use the performance against the Reds when trying to justify your ability to match the Canes and Chiefs.

 

[The Red Baron]

And here I was thinking this thread was about the Reds..

 

[RedsHappy]

If you don't think the Tahs are an 80 minute outfit, BS, you might like to take a few lessons in watching proper rugby from a few experts. Feel free to join Pfitzy, Hawko, cyclo, Braveheart et al, and me, at the next Tahs match.

Let's take Saturday night's match for starters. The Tahs had flown from Bloemfontein to Johannesburg and on to Sydney (what, 13 hours?) to confront a local side who'd ambled down from Brisbane on Friday. Yes, the Tahs took half a game to get into their stride, but when they did they blew the Reds off the paddock from the 45 to 80 minute marks. PARTLY DUE TO THEIR SUPERIOR FITNESS! Maybe it's not a fair comparison 'cause the Reds palpably aren't fit enough. Whatever, the Tahs' fitness is one reason why they've been one of the top two Super sides the last coupla years.

I've never ignored anybody, but you're tempting me.

That's entirely fair.

Any objective student of all the Reds' 2H periods this year could see the team's stamina, defensive intensity, attacking focus all gradually fading away, often badly. The team regularly looked less fit than all but the weakest of opponents, and so it was vs the Chiefs and Tahs in recent games.

This is hardly surprising: as some of us have noted for some time the Red's HPU (bar Stiles' set piece work) has been in clear disarray since early in the season, if not before and back into 2014's other horror show.

Re S&C, the Reds' in all their post-2011 hubris and distraction failed to replace D Marsh with an S&C coach of sufficient calibre, O Richardson was not that man. Then into this season RG had various fall-outs with some S&C staff, some just up and left including Richardson who departed mid-season. It's been a total mess.

Add all that up and in no way can it match the consistency and calibre of the best S15 teams' S&C capabilities. This is before we come to discuss injury management where clearly the Tahs have done well and the Reds....not so much.

Our QRU thought they could defy the laws of modern pro rugby at the highest levels and build glorious S15 seasons under mediocre and unproven coaching specialists picked by an HC that was demonstrably and from the outset out of his skills and managerial depth.

Now that we have little but the bitter ashes of two seasons of humiliating defeats, an angry grassroots and deeply disillusioned membership, perhaps 'total failure' will prove the only useful lesson-giver to those on high that thought they knew so much better and worse, arrogantly refused to change even when the data that they needed to was utterly compelling.

 

[RedsHappy]

"I sent this letter to the QRU Chairman, CEO and President on April 4th.... and have still not received a reply despite me following up on several occassions....."

https://www.facebook.com/QldReds/posts/10205407205114520

 

[Bobby Sands]

If you don't think the Tahs are an 80 minute outfit, BS, you might like to take a few lessons in watching proper rugby from a few experts. Feel free to join Pfitzy, Hawko, cyclo, Braveheart et al, and me, at the next Tahs match.

Let's take Saturday night's match for starters. The Tahs had flown from Bloemfontein to Johannesburg and on to Sydney (what, 13 hours?) to confront a local side who'd ambled down from Brisbane on Friday. Yes, the Tahs took half a game to get into their stride, but when they did they blew the Reds off the paddock from the 45 to 80 minute marks. PARTLY DUE TO THEIR SUPERIOR FITNESS! Maybe it's not a fair comparison 'cause the Reds palpably aren't fit enough. Whatever, the Tahs' fitness is one reason why they've been one of the top two Super sides the last coupla years.

I've never ignored anybody, but you're tempting me.

Go for it, I'm not sure why your decision would bother or impact me?

I find Qwerty's opinion's to be largely irrelevant to mine, and mostly unhelpful.

If you feel that same about mine, then I would encourage you to take the same steps.

All the best.

 

[Scoey]

"I sent this letter to the QRU Chairman, CEO and President on April 4th.. and have still not received a reply despite me following up on several occassions..."

https://www.facebook.com/QldReds/posts/10205407205114520

I wouldn't reply to that if it were sent to me either. It's not asking anything of the recipients and says so much in the opening sentence when it states something like, "I write to you with some thoughts....."

I'm just as upset, frustrated, disappointed etc with the Reds lately as the next guy but this sort of stuff annoys me. By all means send your letters and comments and emails etc. I actually encourage that, as they need to be told what the fans are thinking and feeling, but to get all indignant that they don't reply to what is essentially a drawn out whinge is a bit much.
If the author had asked some specific questions, then expecting a reply is possibly more justified but still not that likely.
Personally, send your feedback however you want and leave it at that. Get the message through to them and then sit back comfortable in the knowledge that your job is done. The organisation is clearly a shambles. Expecting executives to spend their time on individually writing back to what I assume is countless letters like this is not going to help improve things one bit. They have more important things to do.
/rant

 

[Hugh Jarse]

"I sent this letter to the QRU Chairman, CEO and President on April 4th.. and have still not received a reply despite me following up on several occassions..."

https://www.facebook.com/QldReds/posts/10205407205114520

What were you expecting?
My take on your letter was that you were advising them that you want to resign your Reds Membership, and in advising them of such you pointed out some of the factors behind your decision to regrettably resign.

You have communicated a fait accompli to them and at best you would get a response saying that your resignation has been accepted and here is a cheque to refund you for the unused portion of your membership benefits.

The Chairman, CEO and President of most organisations seldom deal individually with membership communications, especially those in an organisation with 40000+ members. There are unpaid interns to deal with those matters.

Now, if the unpaid interns were reporting to the Chairman, President and CEO that there had been 20000 membership resignations, then that may grab their attention.

 

[Ruggo]

What were you expecting?
My take on your letter was that you were advising them that you want to resign your Reds Membership, and in advising them of such you pointed out some of the factors behind your decision to regrettably resign.

You have communicated a fait accompli to them and at best you would get a response saying that your resignation has been accepted and here is a cheque to refund you for the unused portion of your membership benefits.

The Chairman, CEO and President of most organisations seldom deal individually with membership communications, especially those in an organisation with 40000+ members. There are unpaid interns to deal with those matters.

Now, if the unpaid interns were reporting to the Chairman, President and CEO that there had been 20000 membership resignations, then that may grab their attention.

Well I sent this email back in April and got no reply.

To Whom it may concern.

My name is Mick Taylor, I have been a Reds fan for over 30 years since I first became involved in the game of Rugby. I have been a loyal supporter through the good times and the bad. It is with much sadness I write to you to express my disgust in the preventable decay of the Reds, the arrogance of the administration and the sheer contempt it shows towards the fan base. Our side is poorly coached,we have no direction and despite some elements of bad luck at times, valuable energy is expended with a constant vomiting of excuses rather than transparent accountability in an honest search for results. What entitled Richard Graham to the job of head coach in the first place? He has no demonstrated record of success in his previous coaching assignments and his recruitment to the Reds smelt fishy when it happened. Despite that I was prepared to give the bloke a fair go and a chance to take the high performing Reds under Ewen McKenzie and place his own stamp on them moving forward. Well he has had that chance and we are now in serious decay. The fans are expressing their anger and frustration through various forums of social media, yet it appears to be presumed that like sheep we will give blind faith and continue to offer our support, both in spirit and financially. You show zero ability to accept our anger and concerns let alone address them. It has not gone unnoticed that you heavily censor your Facebook page from any critique, even maturely considered and expressed critique. This level of contempt to your fans is unsatisfactory and should not happen and the fans have every reasonable right not to tolerate it. Reds fans are good honest people with a passion for their team but just try us if you think we will not vote with our feet in protest of the shambles the Reds have become. How much match day crowd and membership needs to be sacrificed before we are taken serious and treated with the respect we deserve as the life blood of the franchise. It is time you pulled your finger out of your backsides and and start earning our faith again. We are pissed off at an out of touch board and management that continues to support a lame duck coach who it arrogantly installed in the first place.

Yours Truly
M. Taylor

 

[Hugh Jarse]

And the response you were expecting to receive from Whom it concerned was?

You seem to desire, request or demand:
Richard Graham to be sacked
No more censoring of Reds facebook pages
A copy of RG's CV and an explanation of the due diligence undertaken by Whom Concerned in reviewing the candidates that applied for the position
A description of the Reds Customer feedback process
A crowd attendance figure and membership number figure considered minimum sustainable
A commitment to extract a digit from their fundamental orifice and implement a revised customer and stakeholder engagement process.
An acknowledgement that some fans may be upset by the on field performance by the Reds

 

[gel]

I don't think it is unreasonable to expect some acknowledgement of the letter at least, if not necessarily an acknowledgement of all the contents.

That's what PR departments do all the time.

Acknowledge the situation (but not the problem itself)
Lay down variables that can give rise to the situation that are unrelated to the problem
Stress the importance of the support through these situations
Identify the individual is a key part of the organisation
Show how important they are by indicating that their letter has been personally escalated to the highest levels within the organisation
Refer to them by name continuously throughout.

There is probably a standard form available online where only the names have to be filled out using a field entry or something.

Oh and if the fan persists with foul language, make the issue now about the foul language and how offended you are about this and don't back down until they apologise for it which then guarantees an actual conclusion to at least one problem

 

[Gnostic]

That's entirely fair.

Any objective student of all the Reds' 2H periods this year could see the team's stamina, defensive intensity, attacking focus all gradually fading away, often badly. The team regularly looked less fit than all but the weakest of opponents, and so it was vs the Chiefs and Tahs in recent games.

This is hardly surprising: as some of us have noted for some time the Red's HPU (bar Stiles' set piece work) has been in clear disarray since early in the season, if not before and back into 2014's other horror show.

Re S&C, the Reds' in all their post-2011 hubris and distraction failed to replace D Marsh with an S&C coach of sufficient calibre, O Richardson was not that man. Then into this season RG had various fall-outs with some S&C staff, some just up and left including Richardson who departed mid-season. It's been a total mess.

Add all that up and in no way can it match the consistency and calibre of the best S15 teams' S&C capabilities. This is before we come to discuss injury management where clearly the Tahs have done well and the Reds..not so much.

The Reds as so far under condition from the performances we have seen in Super Rugby, one would have to have some concerns regarding there fitness for test match rugby. The failure of the Reds is not just a failure of the team in that competition but in this aspect it can and does feed into the players ability to perform at the next level, especially when considering the increased speed at which Chieka was seeking to play on last year's EOYT.

 

[Braveheart81]

If the Reds was Q&A, the response to those letters would surely be:

 

[RedsHappy]

And the response you were expecting to receive from Whom it concerned was?

You seem to desire, request or demand:
Richard Graham to be sacked
No more censoring of Reds facebook pages
A copy of RG's CV and an explanation of the due diligence undertaken by Whom Concerned in reviewing the candidates that applied for the position
A description of the Reds Customer feedback process
A crowd attendance figure and membership number figure considered minimum sustainable
A commitment to extract a digit from their fundamental orifice and implement a revised customer and stakeholder engagement process.
An acknowledgement that some fans may be upset by the on field performance by the Reds

Umm, that was not me composing that letter, just btw.

I posted this Facebook entry not necessarily to elicit assessments of the QRU's means of dealing with its _paying customers_ grave concerns, but in part to give some additional flavour here as to what many Reds fans I encounter actually feel about what's taken place at the Reds and QRU.

We are a rather small and self-selecting bunch here on GAGR, perhaps occasionally it's worth repeating the thoughts of a much wider Reds supporting audience.

 

[TOCC]

We are a rather small and self-selecting bunch here on GAGR, perhaps occasionally it's worth repeating the thoughts of a much wider Reds supporting audience.

Indeed the thoughts of the wider Reds supporting audience should be considered

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[RedsHappy]

I wouldn't reply to that if it were sent to me either. It's not asking anything of the recipients and says so much in the opening sentence when it states something like, "I write to you with some thoughts..."

I'm just as upset, frustrated, disappointed etc with the Reds lately as the next guy but this sort of stuff annoys me. By all means send your letters and comments and emails etc. I actually encourage that, as they need to be told what the fans are thinking and feeling, but to get all indignant that they don't reply to what is essentially a drawn out whinge is a bit much.
If the author had asked some specific questions, then expecting a reply is possibly more justified but still not that likely.
Personally, send your feedback however you want and leave it at that. Get the message through to them and then sit back comfortable in the knowledge that your job is done. The organisation is clearly a shambles. Expecting executives to spend their time on individually writing back to what I assume is countless letters like this is not going to help improve things one bit. They have more important things to do.
/rant

I profoundly disagree - these complainants are the QRU's PAYING CUSTOMERS - along with the sponsors, ARU grants (which come largely from general rugby fan viewership or attendance), it is we the paying members that fund the Reds.

It takes very little for an organisation to arrange a process of promptly answering paying customers' complaints and concerns courteously and systematically.

The replies don't necessarily have to be highly individualised, but they can give the sender the sense that their presence and opinions are at the very least noticed and respected as such especially given that the sender has at some time responded to the Reds' request to pay good money to see Reds' matches and thus part fund their very existence.

 

[Gnostic]

@Scoey, any business that doesn't have a customer service/engagement system is not going to have customers for very long. It should also be said that that service/system must be genuine and not just a lip service type thing and that is where a reply by a PERSON is essential. Even if the answer is no the customer needs to be contacted otherwise the issue is likely to fester and get bigger than it was in the start. Also if good feedback isn't acknowledged in a similar manner it will also alienate the customer base.

I have to say that the Reds Facebook and email contact systems appear from the evidence posted here to be just that, a lip service nod to good management practice in having the systems in place, actually using them and engaging with the customer (fan) base is not part of the system. Even worse on the Facebook post it shows a Reds response which promises follow-up. It would be very bad if that follow-up was not made. Indeed a good customer service system would be proactive and chase down the customer from their Facebook and membership details and initiate the contact instead of throwing it back on the customer. Proactive service anticipating and trying to meet their expectations, even when the ultimate response is a negative will get a far better outcome than what is being reported.