Thorn strikes me as still connecting with players as a senior player rather than as a coach. Almost as a non playing captain. Yes he has made some big calls re Quade and others but that doesn’t make them right or that they were commercialy sensible. Making tough calls is a coaches job for sure but making the right calls is more important. I don’t want to call for his head and we need stability in the coaching roll for a few years.
I do kind of agree, I think Thorn is a good mix of an outsider who is still from 'Queensland'. And for the moment I think he's what we need for the next few seasons anyway, he's going to have the players fit and motivated to put in the best performance they can week in week out. I'm not sure of his technical ability, but I suspect that's more what McGahan is there for anyway.
Regarding his 'big calls' I think they are kind of what he needed for 'his team'. It would be hard for the Reds to be seen as anything other than Quade and Genia's team had they both been in Red this season and I think Thorn is pulling in a different direction it being his team. If that's the best choice for the team I think comes down to if we are paying our really young guys --Stewart, Daugunu, Perese, Korczyk, ASY (Angus Scott-Young), Wright, Timu, Hockings, Blyth. I think with those kinds of guys the question needs to be 'Why can't I get him on?', we need to be looking for minutes for our young guys, we need to be finding ways to get them on the bench. Because that's how they get better, that's how we get better as a team. We don't have the money to go out and sign star players, we have to grow our own.
Rodda and Tui are brilliant examples of this, you don't really know what a player is capable of until you test them at Super level. Last year they were both brought into the side due to poor form and/or injuries next thing you know they are playing for the Wallabies! We could have easily not started them and never known how good they were, now I think those two are guys you write in on the team sheet in ink.
I think you are spot on when you say we need stability, we need Thorn (because he's the coach we have right now) to be our coach for the next 2 maybe 3 years. It's as simple as that. If when our young guns are 24-30 we aren't winning then we sack our coach and go looking for another. And if nothing else the QRU just can't afford it.
I don’t think this team has the ability to fire though for a few years and most teams only have a few years if that together. Most clubs will have many years between championships and ours is no different. If they play well with character and win a few surprises along the way great. My main concern is though that I doubt we have the cattle to do even that at the moment. Let’s face it, is this team any better than previous years?
I think the window on this team is firmly shut this season, I think the absolute best we can hope for is to just miss out on finals, but that's unlikely. Our focus should be on developing our young players. You are right, we don't have enough talent to win now if we tried.
