Why do we care what Phil did or didn't do after his time at the Reds?
As I said, Mooney spent those two years essentially putting together the team that Link used to win the competition. In other words, Mooney's copped the years of development while Link got to benefit from that.
I'm not saying the Reds would have won the competition under Mooney, more the fact that two years were spent under him developing the players and Link needed another year development to then turn them into the winning side. This is a similar timeframe that we're seeing with Thorn.
Mooney's last team:
15 McLinden
14 Davies
13 Fetoai
12 Cooper
11 Va'aulu
10 Barnes
9 Lucas
8 Houston
7 Shaw
6 Taylor
5 Humphreys
4 Horwill (c)
3 Weekes
2 Hardman
1 Daley
Replacements: Saia Fainga'a, Greg Holmes Adam Byrnes, Scott Higginbotham, Richard Kingi, Ant Sauer.
4 of that starting team started in the SUper Rugby GF win of 2011. Higgers, Holmes and Saia all started too.
The guys Mooney blooded at the Reds:
- Digby Ioane (back from the Force)
- Morgan Turinui
- Chris Siale
- Leroy Houston
- Danya Edwards
- Ben Lucas
- Poutasi Luafutu
- Scott Higginbotham
- Ben Daley
- Daniel Braid
- Adam Byrnes
- Saia Fainga'a
- Laurie Weekes
- Rob Simmons
- Anthony Fainga'a
- Mark McLinden
- Blair Connor
- Jack Kennedy
- Ezra Taylor
- Rodney Davies
- Brendan McKibben
- Luke Morahan
- Andrew Shaw
- Richard Kingi
- Ben Tapuai
- Ant Sauer
The Faingaas were the real key to Mooney's reign. He brought them on the back of his knowledge of the when coaching the Oz 19s team. Does anyone know who was in that team that played for the Reds of this era? Rocket? Dan Braid was a very canny signing at the time too. Of course, naming Horwill as skipper was probably his masterstroke.
Link debuted the following players in his first two years:
- James Slipper
- Will Chambers
- Jake Schatz
- James Hanson
- Radike Samo
- Lei Tomeki
- Ed Quirk
(this was his first year. Rather steady. A lot of the above Mooney men moved on though and Link made his mark with the likes of:
- Beau Robinson
- Aidan Toua
- Mike Harris
- Adam Wallace-Harrison
- Liam Gill
- Ian Prior
- Guy Shepherdson
- Dom Shipperley
- Albert Anae
-Ben Coridas
- Jono Lance
- Dallan Murphy
- Caleb Ralph