Reds 2018

[Troy]

In other news, listened to this pod with Big Kev over the weekend which I thought was quite good. Talks about the 2011 season, Link and his coaching team amongst other things.

https://www.talkingwithtk.com/single-post/James-Horwill

 

[RugbyReg]

So Kerevi is gone for the season. Who plays 13 now? CFS gone. What’s Perese’s status? Do we just move young Jordan in there? Does that leave us with Maranta and Nabuli on the flank? Or worse wing pairing ever?

 

[upthereds#!]

Perese would have the most time at 13 at a higher level. I'd go with Perese keeping Jordan and Nabuli on wings. Same bench with Daugunu and Toua.

 

[Sully]

So Kerevi is gone for the season.

 

[dillyboy]

Hunt's on the payroll still isn't he.....

I hear he's pretty handy in the centres

 

[USARugger]

Don't think there's too much to lose this point giving Jordan a start and seeing what happens. Meakes/English or whoever the Sunwolves trot out at center should be a good marker for his progress as a player without entirely throwing him to the wolves, like say against a Laumape/Proctor pairing.

 

[neilc]

Perese would have the most time at 13 at a higher level. I'd go with Perese keeping Jordan and Nabuli on wings. Same bench with Daugunu and Toua.

Perese had his leg in a brace on Sunday, not sure what the injury is but I would be surprised if he was able to play this weekend.

 

[SouthernX]

9. Sorovi/McDermott
10. Stewart
11. Daugunu
12. DP
13. Petaia
14. Nabuli
15. Lance

 

[Rugrat]

Can The Reds sack Cordingly Carozza McGahan and just beg and hire Mckenzie. as Director of Rugby please.

 

[Jimmy_Crouch]

I see Jim Tucker in the Sunday Mail has compared Thorn's record to Graham and Stiles' but said that the axe shouldn't be hovering over him and I am not sure why he should be exempt. He talks about the scrum dominance but Stiles had that strong scrum, he was noted for it so I don't see that this is a Thorn contribution and the dangerous tackling seems to have got worse. I'd like to see a clean out of the coaching and recruitment ranks and bring in proven coaches to do something.

Graham and Styles had more than one year to show their worth at Super level. Simple as that.

You say he should be replaced but by whom? O'Connor? He was the backs coach and he wasn't able to teach MacIntyre to run straight. In the U12s our coaches had us running passing drills running around the corner then back between the cones to ensure our first two steps were forward before we did anything else. I'm just not convinced that the candidate you are looking for is out there and is better than Thorn.

 

[Strewthcobber]

Strewthcobber's revolutionary head coach selection criteria. Queensland Reds management please feel free to steal this.

1. Recent full time head coach of a fully professional rugby team that has had success

2. No dickheads.

3. You can never go back. Previously Queensland head coaches will not be considered.

4. No relevant experience with Queensland rugby is required.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[Jimmy_Crouch]

I don't think appointing Thorn was a terribly bad decision if he had the right support around him. He's got an inexperienced AC in Sqwabba and a total failure of a coach in Tony.

If the QRU management were serious about using Thorn as the way forward, they needed to include someone with proper experience to guide and help Thorn find his feet at the next level.

Remember that structure we had in Links last year, where he was the 'Head Head Coach' and Dick was the "Head Coach"? That would have been the ideal set up for Thorn. A guy like John Connolly would have been perfect person had the QRU management not totally burned that bridge.

I went to a Reds function at the time Mackenzie was 'director of rugby's and Graham was head coach. Sean Hardman introduced Graham as assistant coach. Graham or anyone else for that matter didn't interject.

The team was on the slide in 2012 and 2013 with a failure to refresh the roster. Everyone looks at Mackenzie era with rose tinted glasses but he is very much responsible for the hiring of Graham, the roster position and gutting the coaching staff when he moved to the Wallabies.

 

[dru]

I went to a Reds function at the time Mackenzie was 'director of rugby's and Graham was head coach. Sean Hardman introduced Graham as assistant coach. Graham or anyone else for that matter didn't interject.

The team was on the slide in 2012 and 2013 with a failure to refresh the roster. Everyone looks at Mackenzie era with rose tinted glasses but he is very much responsible for the hiring of Graham, the roster position and gutting the coaching staff when he moved to the Wallabies.

JC you must know more than me on this - admittedly not difficult. However I always understood that that Graham was hoisted on Link. No doubt he could have made more noise when encouraged to give the appointment his imprimatur, but he was trying ti not rock the boat on his leaving year.

 

[kiap]

Everyone looks at Mackenzie era with rose tinted glasses but he is very much responsible for the hiring of Graham.

No. That's a stretch. Graham had some very good mates on the QRU board; Chris White being first cab off the rank.

For better or worse (let's be frank, it was worse), the Reds went large on the 'succession plan' bullshit and got Graham in on the pretext that he would serve an apprenticeship before taking over. McKenzie had made it plain he wasn't sticking around as a Super level coach at the Reds. He was shooting through.

There's no way that Link was getting to run the coaching recruitment to extend past his departure. Anyone who'd been in the same function room as Jim Carmichael's ego would know that.

Were the Reds on the slide after winning the comp? Yes, indeed. McKenzie can cop some of that. But Queensland have been uniformly poor at building a roster for a long, long time - before and after that era. You've got a guy like Cordingley treading the wheel now who is like teflon.

In hindsight, the 2011 Reds were never going to become a consistent dynasty team in the mold of the Crusaders side they beat in the final. Their stars were a mix of mercurial and old; e.g. Quade, Digby, Higgers, Samo. When you add in the off-field amateurism, the Queensland fans were lucky their team struck while the iron was hot.

 

[Strewthcobber]

JC you must know more than me on this - admittedly not difficult. However I always understood that that Graham was hoisted on Link. No doubt he could have made more noise when encouraged to give the appointment his imprimatur, but he was trying ti not rock the boat on his leaving year.

https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/ns...ern-force-ng-1417048ff9c574db529b072a6e233f94

Reds coach Ewen McKenzie also talked in-depth to Graham about how a 2013 coaching coalition might work well, before Graham's side gave McKenzie's team a 45-19 thrashing in Perth last month.
Only Queensland rugby's top triumvirate of decision-makers, Carmichael, McKenzie and chairman Rod McCall, knew of the moves.
Even Reds skipper James Horwill was clueless about Graham being poached and McKenzie shifting to a director of coaching role in 2013, until a meeting last Monday.

 

[kiap]

Only Queensland rugby's top triumvirate of decision-makers, Carmichael, McKenzie and chairman Rod McCall, knew of the moves

I call Shenanigans. Chris White, QRU board member at the time, was advising Graham on moving to the Reds.

 

[RugbyReg]

https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/ns...ern-force-ng-1417048ff9c574db529b072a6e233f94

Yeah make no mistake about it. It was JC and McAll.

JC and Link weren’t exactly getting on at this stage and Jim was keen to regain control.

With regards the Link comments he was a man of pride and had his own ego. He was never going to say “fuck me, I never saw it coming. I guess I’ll just have to accept it”.

 

[RedsHappy]

In other news, listened to this pod with Big Kev over the weekend which I thought was quite good. Talks about the 2011 season, Link and his coaching team amongst other things.

https://www.talkingwithtk.com/single-post/James-Horwill

I was intrigued to hear Kev nominate the Reds' away win vs the Stormers in 2011 as that season's turning point in the team's complete confidence that they could win the Super comp. 'We had the territory game plan to strangle them when it was supposed they'd do that to us'.

I recall vividly at 3am (or so) lying in bed and watching the scores unfolding from this match thinking 'if we win this it will be the turning point'.

No doubt, in front of a packed Newlands and given the context, that game will go down in history as one of the best the Reds have ever played.

 

[RedsHappy]

Yeah make no mistake about it. It was JC and McCAll.

JC and Link weren’t exactly getting on at this stage and Jim was keen to regain control.

With regards the Link comments he was a man of pride and had his own ego. He was never going to say “fuck me, I never saw it coming. I guess I’ll just have to accept it”.

Yes RR. Everything I heard from various insiders at the time strongly supports your assessment above.

 

[RedsHappy]

I call Shenanigans. Chris White, QRU board member at the time, was advising Graham on moving to the Reds.

Aside from the near-bankruptcy crisis period of 2009/10 that led to outsiders being brought into the QRU and Reds, this 'insider mates and the good QLD rugby fraternity past and present' has been the pervasive cultural and recruitment-driving MO of the QRU and its board.

And so it remains today in many guises. A singular contributor in its application and consequences to the disastrous recent (10-15 years) history of the franchise, bar the short outlier period when outsiders ruled in 2010-11.