Reds 2023

[sunnyboys]

Brendan Moon scored 16 in 1978, but I assume you meant in the professional age.

Tate scored 9 in 2020 though

yes i did mean pro era. reds wiki page has the cancelled 2020 Super Rugby separate to that same years SRAu. thats how i missed the Tate performance. thanks for the clarification.

 

[liquor box]

Petaia's best performance also coincided with the Reds largest points tally ever. Everyone looked great that game.

I thought he was a significant step down against the brumbies. the pressure was greater and so was the error count.

Jock isnt flashy but you just dont get the error count from him. Jock at 15, Petaia on a wing for me (or 13 if required).

The errors are what makes the decision for me, it seems that people are happy to overlook deficiencies in a players skill set if they are scoring tries or setting them up.

Most of us remember Paisami putting in great kicks to set up a couple of great tries under pressure and then we conveniently forget how many poor kicks he actually makes.
Petaia is the same, It is an absolute joy to witness his absolute brilliance in scoring fantastic tries, but if we are realistic in our assessment we have to balance that with his errors.

I would stick with Jock at 15, he can be relied upon to have consistent performances.

 

[PhilClinton]

This start of the year schedule hasn’t exactly helped the Reds build fan momentum.

First real home game this weekend and it’s a Sunday, good for families but won’t draw the regular crowd.

Hopefully they get a good win this weekend and then down in Melbourne the following week to get some traction before the back to back Friday night home games which will be the real supporter tests.

 

[The Nomad]

In terms of picking a backline, surely some thought has to go into who you are playing against?

Playing Lynagh and JOC (James O'Connor) at 10/12 would create a defensive coach’s nightmare against the Dura.

If Paisami and Henry are not available, I’d still play Flook and Petaia in the centres. Even though he’s not a natural 12, would have more faith in Flook there defensively than Annan. Taj not ready to handle the 12 channel against the Fijians.

For me , if Paisami and Henry are out it would look like this :

9 : McDermott
10: JOC (James O'Connor)
11: Daugunu
12: Flook
13: Petaia
14: Vunivalu
15: Campbell

If Hunter is good to go, he gets the 12 jersey, Flook and Petaia move out one with Vunivalu to the bench.

You need balance, Mick Heenan made an art out of picking a team to better the opposition at UQ. Hopefully that at least gets some airtime at the Reds. JOC (James O'Connor)/Flook/ Campbell provide steadiness, Petaia/Daugunu/Vunivalu provide the rest.

 

[Fireworks]

Flook is a good defender in the wider channels with his turn of pace (and seems to be a solid tackler overall) but is he a big enough body to play 12 defensively?

 

[Adam84]

McReight re-signs for 2 more years

 

[The Nomad]

Flook is a good defender in the wider channels with his turn of pace (and seems to be a solid tackler overall) but is he a big enough body to play 12 defensively?

Ideally you would want a bigger in the 12 channel, but he reads the play well and technically is a good defender. Just think he is the best option of who are remaining if Paisami, Henry and Creighton are all out for this weekend.

 

[TSR]

Interesting looking at some of the stats from last week.

One thing I notice is Dane Zander made 9 tackles with none missed. I don’t check the stats religiously, but I do often have a quick scan. Last year my impression was that Zander and Fotuaika would regular finish games with minimal runs and low tackles numbers.

Most have commented that we need more output from our tight 5 - something I definitely agree with. My impression has been that Zander, Faessler and Nonggorr have improved their contribution in terms of work rate (although hard to compare Nonggorr to last year given his lack of game time).

Not for a second am I saying they still don’t have a long way to go - not least in terms of their scrummaging (and lineout throwing in Faessler’s case). But whilst I would love them to really kick on at the very least if they can continue to improve then that will be a huge thing as everywhere else I feel like we have some genuine promise.

Really hope Blyth and/or Jones are back soon though to add quality to our bench in the row.

 

[The Phoenix]

I will probably be proven wrong and maybe I'm biased because he played juniors for my old club, but I thought apart from one missed throw when in attack, Faessler's line out work was good against the Brumbies, especially when you consider we were playing a backrower in the second row against Frost and Neville.

 

[liquor box]

Interesting looking at some of the stats from last week.

One thing I notice is Dane Zander made 9 tackles with none missed. I don’t check the stats religiously, but I do often have a quick scan. Last year my impression was that Zander and Fotuaika would regular finish games with minimal runs and low tackles numbers.

Most have commented that we need more output from our tight 5 - something I definitely agree with. My impression has been that Zander, Faessler and Nonggorr have improved their contribution in terms of work rate (although hard to compare Nonggorr to last year given his lack of game time).

Not for a second am I saying they still don’t have a long way to go - not least in terms of their scrummaging (and lineout throwing in Faessler’s case). But whilst I would love them to really kick on at the very least if they can continue to improve then that will be a huge thing as everywhere else I feel like we have some genuine promise.

Really hope Blyth and/or Jones are back soon though to add quality to our bench in the row.

I think Zander may become a player like Ben Daley, never a superstar who performs amazing feats, but someone who does their job and allows the team to have other high profile players do their job. He still has room to improve bit by bit for a long time.

 

[Sully]

And Nongoor seems to be slowly improving too.

 

[TSR]

And Nongoor seems to be slowly improving too.

I’ve been pretty impressed with Nonggorr. He probably got overextended a few times last week but he’s far from the only THP guilty of that. He looks to have lots of promise.

 

[Wilson]

Good to see Ryan Smith back with the Socks Up podcast this week - sounds like it'll be before every home game which makes sense.

 

[SouthernX]

Love seeing all the reds players going out to the junior rugby clubs around town. Sunday it’s free entry for the kids so let’s hope it gets the turnstiles turning over.

 

[Adam84]

QRU release 2023 Annual Report

Changes to the board with Paralympics CEO Catherine Clark elected as a director and Toutai Kefu elected to position of vice president alongside Libby Nankivell.

• $722,459 operating profit in 2022 (excluding Government funding relating to redevelopment of Ballymore)
• Fourth straight annual operating profit
• Cleared $9 million of legacy debt from its peak in early 2016
• $2.5 million raised in philanthropic pledges by QRU Foundation
• 8.6% growth of Total Rugby participation
• 24.6% growth of Schools participation
• 19% growth of Women’s participation
• Commenced construction of $30 million National Rugby Training Centre as part of Ballymore redevelopment
• Queensland Reds secured third-straight Super Rugby finals appearance Secured Westpac as principal partner

I posted this graph in Rugby Australia thread the other day, but shows the financial improvement of the QRU, debt is mostly cleared and equity in Ballymore significantly increased.

 

[LeCheese]

QRU release 2023 Annual Report

Changes to the board with Paralympics CEO Catherine Clark elected as a director and Toutai Kefu elected to position of vice president alongside Libby Nankivell.

• $722,459 operating profit in 2022 (excluding Government funding relating to redevelopment of Ballymore)
• Fourth straight annual operating profit
• Cleared $9 million of legacy debt from its peak in early 2016
• $2.5 million raised in philanthropic pledges by QRU Foundation
• 8.6% growth of Total Rugby participation
• 24.6% growth of Schools participation
• 19% growth of Women’s participation
• Commenced construction of $30 million National Rugby Training Centre as part of Ballymore redevelopment
• Queensland Reds secured third-straight Super Rugby finals appearance Secured Westpac as principal partner

I posted this graph in Rugby Australia thread the other day, but shows the financial improvement of the QRU, debt is mostly cleared and equity in Ballymore significantly increased.

Solid numbers all around, particularly the growth in Schools and Women - good to see.

Minor thing, but I don't love that the AGM was held at Terrace - doesn't really do wonders for 'private school elite' view of the game.

 

[Adam84]

Damian Barker was also elected as an honorary life member, I had the pleasure of being coached by Damian many years back; he was one of the nicest guys and best coaches I'd ever played under and an asset to the game with the amount of work he has done for community rugby.

 

[Wilson]

Pretty good result overall for the annual report, a lot of work to be done but really good footing to start from given the opportunity in the game over the next ~5 years.

As an aside it's a bit of a pity they didn't report merchandise revenue as a seperate category, I have a feeling the Canterbury partnership and good work they've been doing is going to lead to a bump there, so it would've been nice to have a baseline.

 

[RugbyReg]

Solid numbers all around, particularly the growth in Schools and Women - good to see.

Minor thing, but I don't love that the AGM was held at Terrace - doesn't really do wonders for 'private school elite' view of the game.

Ballymore doesn't have a board room at the moment, or space for such a meeting. This is purely the work place of one of the Board Members (Mick Carroll)

 

[LeCheese]

Ballymore doesn't have a board room at the moment, or space for such a meeting. This is purely the work place of one of the Board Members (Mick Carroll)

Sure, but you’d think a ‘neutral’ venue could’ve been chosen. Hell, take it to the regions.

Again, it’s a minor thing that I’m definitely putting too much emphasis on, but optics are very important at the moment and I don’t think this is beneficial.