I think this is true.
We seem to be able to create talented players, but seem to have a pretty long history in either not recognising it or not developing it further.
QRU (and Auckland Blues for that matter) are pretty ordinary organisations it would seem.
Right. And this is the heart of the matter. As numerous of the above posts rightly note, excellence in elite rugby coaching begets excellence in talent identification, skills development and overall player capability. There can be no disputing this, the evidence is overwhelming.
Take 2007-2016 in assessing the QRU's Super Rugby performance. 9 very important years in the history of QLD rugby as the second core base (of just two) of all Australian rugby.
Look at the Super coaches chosen by the QRU in this period, and the ladder positions reached each year:
2007 Jones
14th
2008-9 Mooney
12th and 13th
2010-13 Mckenzie
5th and 1st and 5th
2014-15 Graham
13th and 13th
And just for record, in the period 2004-6 the Reds' Super ladder positions attained were
10th and 10th and 12th, and all such were in the Super 12 era.
So we can assess a 12 year period if 9 is deemed too short.
What does this tell us? It tells us that the QRU is, typically, very poor to extremely poor in choosing coaches that could design and build a team to even Super Finals standard, let alone a consistently Finals standard. McKenzie was indisputably an aberration, an outlier, before historical track record and form were restored to trend.
Why is this? Well, it's:
(a) because the institutional and governance frameworks over-sighting the whole code here are bankrupt - not as to money per se - but of appropriate competence and skill and genuine professionalism and
(b), more particularly, as was best shown in the truly scandalous case of the rise of R Graham, the QRU itself is based not upon a well-rooted professionalism but rather a complex form of insular tribal nepotism, local introverted rugby cliques and a near-corrupt version of 'mateship' that preferences immediately known and comfortable social compliance attributes over objective skill and managerial quality.