The one and only Wallaby Coach thread

[shanky]

FWIW, I don’t expect (or want) the Wallaby coach to ‘fix’ Australian rugby, or even be responsible for it.
I just want a coach who will:
a) get the best out of the available, pickable talent
b) help us win the games we should win without expecting to get us a No.1 ranking (I’d
like to be consistently Top 5)
c) have tactics that are appropriate to the game to be played that day (rather than a ‘style’) and communicate those to his captain
d) make selections that make sense most of the time
e) not blame the ref for the losses
f) not say ‘mate’ all the time like some bogan fuckwit

simples…

 

[The Great Dissenter]

Hammer has it sorted. The players will select and 'coach' themselves. Dispute resolution will be a key requirement of the platform.

 

[Drew]

Seems appropriate to kick off the thread with

Haha. He went from goose to Nostradamus

 

[Tomthumb]

Its really not all that astounding. They chased out an actual real life senior executive administrator with relevant qualifications and experience in Raelene for a bunch of old boys who havn't got a fucking clue. In that context the only surprising thing is they haven't made even more mistakes.

I get your point, but holding Raelene up as some beacon of competence is quite funny considering her complete mismanagement of the Bulldogs

 

[Tomthumb]

Larkham has to be top of the pile. Experienced coach both in Aus and abroad and is one of the best and most popular Wallabies ever so would be a good bit of PR on top

 

[Derpus]

I get your point, but holding Raelene up as some beacon of competence is quite funny considering her complete mismanagement of the Bulldogs

I didn't. I said she had relevant skills and experience.

 

[dru]

We are a little my way, now, from consistent top 5.

 

[The Great Dissenter]

We are a little my way, now, from consistent top 5.

We are in the top 10 globally. So we're still within the top 5%. Not too shabby.

 

[Agent]

Don't pay him out. Fire him.

Ummmm…. Remember Israel Folau. You can’t just fire people without a good reason.

 

[duckbill]

If Eddie does walk away with a handful of cash then he will have been true to his word when he talked about a smash and grab...

What a farce

 

[The Great Dissenter]

Based on his comments regarding selection approach, I'd give it a red-hot shot around breach of the confidentiality provisions of his Contract. But I appreciate stated concerns about another employment contract saga and the likely impact this will have on being able to close the distressed debt deal, to enable private equity to ultimately own RA through a debt-to-equity play in the next few years.

 

[Ignoto]

Bit hard to say no to a Rugby World Cup winning coach though?

Even after a WC cycle, I'm not too sure who's left to pick from? So it could be Aussie Robbie, or Aussie Ian who picks up the the schmoozle Eddie has left us in?

 

[KOB1987]

Bit hard to say no to a Rugby World Cup winning coach though?

Even after a WC cycle, I'm not too sure who's left to pick from? So it could be Aussie Robbie, or Aussie Ian who picks up the the schmoozle Eddie has left us in?

I think it’s:

Deans
Cheika
Foster

from the current available options. Outside them it’s picking up a provincial coach. Larkham is the most obvious of those. However there are probably some NH candidates. It’s likely to be the least worst option. That could be Robbie Deans.

 

[Slim 293]

Ummmm…. Remember Israel Folau. You can’t just fire people without a good reason.

And at least with Folau, they had a very good reason…

 

[KOB1987]

And at least with Folau, they had a very good reason…

Must have been a good one to justify the $8m payout he got for it. We all know the ethics behind it, but contractually it clearly seemed to be not a very good reason at all. I don't know the numbers behind the QANTAS sponsorship at the time, but I doubt that the position taken by Castle and Joyce, in contradiction to the rehabilitation plan for Folau that the rest of the board and Cheika had agreed on, financially justified the decision, especially considering the damage it did to the Wallabies brand in the aftermath, and their performance on the field. The far better approach would have been to adopt the plan accepted by the board and then not selected him until he warranted it. The point being that in any decision like this the contractual obligations and repercussions need to be examined with a fine tooth comb.

 

[Goosestep]

Yeah for a bloke who ‘loves Australian rugby’ and wanted to ‘take Australian rugby back to where it should be’, blowing the whole thing up, guiding the team to our lowest ever ranking and our worst ever WC performance, and then trying to exit stage left with a no doubt significant payout seems a very strange way of demonstrating that.

…..Eddie’s playing 4D chess

 

[rodha]

I have been consulting the most intellectual rugby person in Australia to support my selection or contest them. I can’t tell you his name because I’d be breaking his confidence. You’ve played with him. He’s the brightest rugby brain in Australia. I’ve had more meetings with him than with a nominated selector, and they’re the people you want helping you, so I don’t buy into that at all.

It's definitely link...

The town planner who can fix Australian rugby: Wallabies great who RA, Eddie must hope will take key role

“Rugby is no different from you building your own home,” the former grand slam-winning Wallabies coach Alan Jones wrote in 2017. “Now, if you…

www.theroar.com.au

Three decades ago, Eddie Jones and McKenzie would slog it out in the gym together and, after sweating it out in the suburbs surrounding Randwick, would talk endlessly about the tactics of rugby.

Although they had other careers in mind, their deep-thinking nature would see them head down the path of coaching.

“From a strategy side, I played with Eddie Jones and, at the time he was the vice-principal of the International Grammar School, I remember talking to him, we used to go and do gym work together and ring each other up and we’d talk tactics and stuff like that,” McKenzie reflected last year during a rare interview with former Randwick teammate Simon Poidevin, as the former World Cup winner was inducted into the club’s hall of fame.

“Rugby affords the opportunity to have a very strategic perspective on the game and that’s the bit I probably enjoyed the most, the many different ways you could win a game.

“I learned that playing the game with skill. When you played at Randwick, you played with skill and used skills. When you play other teams, it is about brawn and so getting a mix with between that. I always enjoyed as a coach working out a strategy to win.”

 

[Slim 293]

Must have been a good one to justify the unknown amount he got for it.

It was…

And I doubt it was responsible for harming the Wallabies’ brand in the eyes of most people.

But that’s another story…

 

[Derpus]

Bit hard to say no to a Rugby World Cup winning coach though?

Even after a WC cycle, I'm not too sure who's left to pick from? So it could be Aussie Robbie, or Aussie Ian who picks up the the schmoozle Eddie has left us in?

Jamie Joseph? Not of the proper pedigree though. Doubt he even lives in Mosman.

 

[A mutterer]

Jamie Joseph? Not of the proper pedigree though. Doubt he even lives in Mosman.

you forgot that it would be far too sensible an appointment ...