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The JOC (James O'Connor) Saga

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Joe Blow

Joe Blow

Peter Sullivan (51)
It is more than a little presumptuous to include franchise recruiting policy adjustments in your contract conditions.
JOC (James O'Connor) is an amazing talent on the rugby pitch but he should not place himself too high on a pedestal and assume he knows how to run the Western Force better than those who currently do so. He is just a kid.
The body language between him and the other Force players on the field last week indicated that he was not really 'one of the boys'. His interactions with his team mates were guarded and stand offish at times.
Has he already place himself above the team? Maybe.
Woody doesn't seem to be upset and is confident of replacing him.

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/s...t-oconnor-wanted-too-much-20110615-1g3x1.html
 
Slim 293

Slim 293

Stirling Mortlock (74)
Wait a second...

Have JOC (James O'Connor) and Giteau swapped roles in the mindset of Australian rugby fans?
 
No4918

No4918

John Hipwell (52)
James seems genuinely surprised by the decision to can cancel negotiations and it will hopefully be a humbling experience for him rather than him getting resentful. As much as i think he is probably worth more than any other player in the country, i'm also glad this has happened as it might send a wake up call to a few other young guys that think they can get whatever they like, yes thats right Quade et al, clubs will get sick of jumping through hoops for you.

It's especially a shame to see this when 2 of the greats in Carter and McCaw have just signed for 4 years with the NZRU on deals surely worth less than could have recieved overseas. Maybe O'Connor and Cooper should be sent over to meet with these true greats of the game to discuss a few things about whats really important and how to conduct yourself. In fact it's even more of a shame there are no senior players in Australia who could take on this role who have the same sort of respect as the 2 AB greats.
 
fatprop

fatprop

George Gregan (70)
Staff member
Beale and O'Connor better practice ducking and weaving to be effective behind that pile of shit known as the Rebels forwards, they have been slow and unable to tackle for most of the season
 
Riptide

Riptide

Dave Cowper (27)
This whole "will he/ won't he" courtship has left an unsavory taste in my mouth. While I believe it would have been best for Australian rugby if JOC (James O'Connor) had stayed in Perth and played before such a great fan base, and I firmly believe that JOC (James O'Connor) has played superbly for the Force and owes them nothing, there was something very undignified about the manner that JOC (James O'Connor) and his reps drew this thing out ad nauseam. In the end, I'm glad that the Western Force did not succumb to his demands, and withdrew their offer.

I'm interested to see if similar contract demands and KPIs are presented to the Rebels, but I strongly doubt it. Cipriani will be gone for sure, but there could have be some game breaking talent with Cips, JOC (James O'Connor) and Beale running about, but as Fatprop just said, they'll need more than the puddle of custard they now have upfront to provide quality ball.
 
Bruce Ross

Bruce Ross

Ken Catchpole (46)
fatprop said:
Beale and O'Connor better practice ducking and weaving to be effective behind that pile of shit known as the Rebels forwards, they have been slow and unable to tackle for most of the season
Click to expand...

You are really showing your front row bias, fp. What exactly do the Rebels backs have to do to get recognition from you? They have been absolutely outstanding in defence all season and you ignore them.

According to the Foxtel Fantasy rankings the Rebels backs have virtually locked down the top defensive rankings even though there is still a round to go. Across the whole Super 15 they have secured Best-in-class in Missed Tackles for each positional category used by Foxtel Fantasy:

Nick Phipps (Rebels) First Place among Scrum Halves with 42 missed tackles

Cooper Vuna (Rebels) First Place among Inside Backs with 38 missed tackles

Julian Huxley (Rebels) First Place among Outside Backs with 32 missed tackles

Put your hands together, ladies and gentlemen, for an absolute clean sweep of the awards for Southern Hemisphere backs.

There were a couple of Merit awards for the Rebels forwards:

Alister Campbell (Rebels) Sixth Place among Locks with 20 missed tackles

Michael Lipman (Rebels) Sixth Place among Backrows with 28 missed tackles

However it is in Tackle Efficiency that the Rebels' twinkle-toes really show their superiority over the boofy-heads.

Focussing only on those Rebels who made the Top 25 in missed tackles for their positional categories, we have the following Percentages of Missed Tackles:

Props: Somerville 11.5

Hookers: Robinson 6.0

Locks: Campbell 15.7

Backrows: Lipman 14.8

Scrum Halves: Phipps 19.3
Kingi 32.2

Inside Backs Mortlock 17.0
Mitchell 25.0
Cipriani 29.8
Vuna 43.2

Outside Backs Gerrard 24.7
Taumoepeau 32.0
Huxley 38.1
Betham 50.0

As you can see, fp, all of these backs outperformed the forwards in Tackle Efficiency.
 
Moses

Moses

Simon Poidevin (60)
Staff member
Something wrong with FoxSports Fantasy, they're crediting Cooper Vuna with just 2 try assists, but he's missed the last tackle in heaps of tries this season
 
Moses

Moses

Simon Poidevin (60)
Staff member
Riptide said:
This whole "will he/ won't he" courtship has left an unsavory taste in my mouth. While I believe it would have been best for Australian rugby if JOC (James O'Connor) had stayed in Perth and played before such a great fan base, and I firmly believe that JOC (James O'Connor) has played superbly for the Force and owes them nothing, there was something very undignified about the manner that JOC (James O'Connor) and his reps drew this thing out ad nauseam. In the end, I'm glad that the Western Force did not succumb to his demands, and withdrew their offer.

I'm interested to see if similar contract demands and KPIs are presented to the Rebels, but I strongly doubt it. Cipriani will be gone for sure, but there could have be some game breaking talent with Cips, JOC (James O'Connor) and Beale running about, but as Fatprop just said, they'll need more than the puddle of custard they now have upfront to provide quality ball.
Click to expand...
I feel sorry for the players here - there's no doubt in my mind that these negotiations have gone on for years, it's just that now every step of the process is reported in the papers. The players end up looking like they're trying to milk it, but in reality it's their manager trying to apply pressure through the press who are more than happy to fill a few inches.
 
Cutter

Cutter

Nicholas Shehadie (39)
Moses said:
I feel sorry for the players here - there's no doubt in my mind that these negotiations have gone on for years, it's just that now every step of the process is reported in the papers. The players end up looking like they're trying to milk it, but in reality it's their manager trying to apply pressure through the press who are more than happy to fill a few inches.
Click to expand...

And yet you don't hear much about David Pocock's renegotiations. It's a Player's Agent not an Agent's Player. Tell them to pipe down and not to talk to the media.
 
R

redmo

Guest
Rod Macqueen doesn't seem convinced those individual stats reflect a good defence, judging by what he said after the loss to the Brumbies:

''They will be spending a lot of time on that in the off-season and we couldn't go into another season with that sort of defence,'' Macqueen said. ''I'll put my hand up and say as coach we missed the defence. It hasn't been good enough all year, we thought we could fix it but we haven't.''
 
Jets

Jets

Paul McLean (56)
Staff member
I think it is a bit harsh to blame the lawyer in this case. Even Vern Reid sad that it was his understanding that the lawyer was presenting the facts to JOC (James O'Connor) and his people and then reporting back to Rugby WA. He made it quite clear that the lawyer was not behind the problems at all. I think JOC (James O'Connor) has an inflated opinion of himself or someone close to him does (really hope it's the latter).
 
Godfrey

Godfrey

Phil Hardcastle (33)
This sort of stuff is rubbish if the person isn't here to defend themselves. If you're going to muckrake at least provide a source.
 
Scotty

Scotty

David Codey (61)
I remember Deans' quote when JOC (James O'Connor) came into the wallabies, something like 'He doesn't have any problem with confidence'.
 
tigerland12

tigerland12

John Thornett (49)
Well to move away from that. He hasn't put pen to paper yet with the Rebels has he? Or is he still working out the ARU deal
 
Riptide

Riptide

Dave Cowper (27)
Well, in support of Tigerland12 and Qwerty's opinion that JOC (James O'Connor) is more than a little confident but a somewhat self-indulgent, egotistical lad we have this fabulous comment

"I guess I want what's best for myself and building my rugby brand," O'Connor told Channel 9.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sport/a/-/union/9650108/oconnor-asked-too-much/

I sighed quite deeply and shook my head when I read that, but then upon reflection feel that the Force are so much better without him building their own brand without having to compete with JOC (James O'Connor)'s narcissism.
 
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