Reds 2015

[RugbyReg]

James has the absolute undying man-love of his teammates;

not just his team mates....

 

[Scrubber2050]

Reg, TWAS, en_force_er, ME

- agree wholeheartedly with all comments hereinpostedabove

 

[hammertimethere]

Kev's family is among QLD's most wealthy and has a plastics operation worth well into the hundreds of millions overall. He doesn't play footy for the money primarily. I'd suggest that he's on what you'd consider a middling contract for a long-term captain (I.e earns less than Quade and Genia and no more than several others, enough to live comfortable and pay his mortgage)

James isn't at his best, but I have faith he will get there again.

I believe

 

[Ironingman]

Mate, is Tony Shaw still on the Brothers roster - absolute champion player and bloke

He is still on the BBQ roster at Brothers, does a great burger old Shawry.
Still looks fit enough to play and the crazy eyes can come out if you are not careful.

 

[Scrubber2050]

He is still on the BBQ roster at Brothers, does a great burger old Shawry.
Still looks fit enough to play and the crazy eyes can come out if you are not careful.

I wouldn't be the one to tell him I found a hair in his burger - although it wouldn't have come from Tony's melon

 

[tranquility]

It seems that any objective comments re James Horwill cop a lot of criticism. Too hard to go against the rip-tide.

Therefore, my new thoughts which I will surely get heaps and heaps of "likes":

James is in his best career form, being the best line out exponent, scrummager, pilferer, runner, defence.

James should be the first lock picked for the Wallabies, certainly over Simmons, Carter, Skelton, Jones or Fardy;

James is a fantastic leader of men and Hooper dumped from captaincy and James re-installed;

James has the absolute undying man-love of his teammates;

James to remain signed by the Reds on a long-term contract until he is say, 56 with a clause that performance and/or age is just not applicable to him

Non performances are now off my agenda, everyone's fantastic, awesome and all the Reds should be in Wallabies: GO THE REDS

Just a Note
Players at this level need fine tuning in skills. Motivation should not be a problem but if it is then surely that is one of the major roles of the coach. Someone said to me that playing at the top level of any sport is about 80% mental and 20% physical (all players are skilled, fit, motivated to win etc etc - but who wants to win the most)

Love you all

Edit: This comment was not acceptable. Sully

We get he is not in form. Who do you suggest we swap him with?

No-one you say?

Right, well I guess we better back him.

 

[Braveheart81]

rules are rules, laws are laws - doesn't matter how you were brought up. Doesn't happen in courts

I'd say it absolutely does happen in court with both positives and negatives for people at either end of the socio-economic spectrum.

 

[Scoey]

I find it amazing, completely amazing, that someone thinks they can pick one player out of a tight five and rate how well they can push.

Every bloody prop I ever packed behind used to do this well. Funnily enough if we got shunted it was because I didn't give enough weight but if we got a tight head it was all their doing. Bastards.


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[Sully]

That's the last time I clean up childish name calling from forum members. Anyone who abuses another member from now on gets points!

DON'T SAY YOU WEREN'T WARNED!

 

[RugbyReg]

 

[Scoey]

Yeh your right of course it does happen.

Just grinds me the wrong way that they both were so similar - yet one was met with sympathy and support whilst the other was made to walk the plank.

It had less (read: almost nothing) to do with their upbringing and almost everything to do with the fact that Beale was contrite, sought help and worked hard to change and JOC (James O'Connor) caught the first plane out of here and flipped the bird to AUS Rugby and hasn't made any appreciable effort to even acknowledge a problem let alone take positive steps to change.
Nothing similar about the two.


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[tranquility]

It had less (read: almost nothing) to do with their upbringing and almost everything to do with the fact that Beale was contrite, sought help and worked hard to change and JOC (James O'Connor) caught the first plane out of here and flipped the bird to AUS Rugby and hasn't made any appreciable effort to even acknowledge a problem let alone take positive steps to change.
Nothing similar about the two.


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Unfortunately based on his instagram, and from others whispers closer to the horses mouth - I don't think a lot has changed. If anything he is only going to be closer to the 'NC' brotherhood. Hope he pulls his head in.

 

[Scotty]

sorry but you are GROSSLY undervaluing the contribution of Kev to the QRU. On-field alone I maintain it is in the top 5 plaeyers, even in current form. Off-field he's #1. Quade's great with kids, as is Will. But Kev is the king of all. He's on the board, mingles easily with corporates, is engaged in the organisation.

And is still one of our best players.

Getting rid of him would be ludicrous.

Good reasons to see Gill as the heir apparent over players like Cooper.

 

[fatprop]

Watching the rugby club last night Graham seemed to be suggesting the players leaving was essentially a cleanout

Thoughts?

 

[RugbyReg]

Watching the rugby club last night Graham seemed to be suggesting the players leaving was essentially a cleanout

Thoughts?

It's exactly what it is. It was said mid-season. Time to move on from 2011. They were either not part of the reds plans or worth more than the reds thought they were.

There was a long term belief that the reds (of the link onwards) era never lost someone they wanted to keep except for Higgers (and me of course). Would be interesting to see if this is still the case.

Like the old maxim about the quality of kicking and chasing, the decision to not sign a player is only as good as the player chosen to replace them.

 

[Scoey]

I didn't get to watch it but I have recorded it to watch later.
The clean out theory has been one of the most popular and I'll say this.
1. The admin clearly have faith in RG.
2. RG will be the coach for 2015 and is being given a go with his own roster.
3. It's all well and good having a clean out but only if it better players or players better suited to a winning program are gained in the process.
4. If RG doesn't get quick results with his own roster then we will be in a very tricky situation organisationally.

The biggest concern for me is that we lose all of these players and end up with either a player who is a bit of an unknown (Hunt?) or a player who destabilises the group and then fucks off again (JOC (James O'Connor)) or both. And then there's no plan B.

Of course if it works the guy is a genius but the results to date and the lack of transparency with regard to recruitment make it hard to keep the faith.


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[Train Without a Station]

I'm not copping it.

Whilst I'm certain that's his intentions, I cannot see any way which that is an excuse for a coach to perform so poorly.

What part of a clean out includes letting go your best performer for the season in Mike Harris? Now I'm happy for anybody to say he isn't going to be the best performer in a great team, or even more than a bench player. But isn't he the exact type of player you need in those teams? The type that slots in all over the place and never has a bad game?

What's Graham trying to build? A provincial version of Deans Wallabies? Let's get a bunch of scrappers to grind out games and then one or two miracle workers to just create something out of nothing due to his tactical deficiencies? Worked so fucking for the Wallabies didn't it?

This year we've lost a number of good players and Graham can't claim they don't fit into what they need because they were able to adapt to all different game plans under Link.

Anae was progressing well and now he's plateaued under Graham and is gone.
Harris goes from strength to strength with us. He only lacks pace but he seems to be able to find holes anyway.
Davies has been great when given an opportunity this year. Hands could use more work though.
Shipperly is a big quick unit, surely he is useful.
Placid is an exciting young prospect.

Who else have we managed to lose?

Maybe I'll eat my words, but surely if he had an attacking game planned Davies and Shipperly would have been worth keeping. Tuilagi's debut season has been about as successful as Davies international debut so you can't say there's any reason to believe he has a higher ceiling.

Also I can't see any pattern in the players. If he wanted to play a dour game limited by his own ability rather than the players, wouldn't he have wanted to keep Harris and Anae possibly?

 

[Scrubber2050]

Actually thought RG confirmed nothing but that is to be expected. He maintains things are looking good and nwe will all be excited about how we move forward in 2015 . Fantastic.

Suppose we'll see if performance is reconciled with loyalty. Certainly the Reds are letting plenty of players move from Ballymore. Most would say that those players have not been playing the house down. Their actions simply support many of my other posts.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Let's assume that RG has Karmichael Hunt and Justin James O'Connor next year. It is certainly shaping up that way despite the obfuscating answers from him last night on Rugby Club. Where does he intend to play them and what would his first choice Reds backline look like?

9. Genia
10. Quade
11. CFS
12. Tapuai
13. Hunt
14. Turner
15. O'Connor


It just seems to be lacking a bit of balance.

 

[Train Without a Station]

Completely.

JOC (James O'Connor) is the worst recruitment we could make. Not that he is a bad player, but he brings mostly the same qualities that Quade already does, but in an outside back.

We don't need X-Factor. We need players that can execute well, follow a game plan and run a line off Quade. JOC (James O'Connor) will be busy running 30m side ways to step 5 people and go 10m forward and lose the pill because he's run away from support.