Interesting you quote that RedsHappy
Have a listen to Eddie's interview on Ruggamatrix and what he says about coaching vs player depth in Australian rugby
http://ruggamatrix.heavensgame.com/main/archives/1170
Thanks Gagger, much appreciated. (I had already listened to half of it, and you have helped me go through the lot!).
The contents of that mp3 throws up (some of) the big issues.
Let me respond to a few themes:
1. EJ (Eddie Jones) annoys me somewhat as a commentator 'getting ever more successful at predicting the past'. I mean, for example only, that he (and Ella this week) start talking now about Giteau's issues is both highly amusing and highly intellectually lazy. It's been obvious for at least a year+ that Giteau needed a major break from either Deans or the game (my preference for him) or both, and continuing to play him every game as 'the icon we just must have' was and is irresponsible to G and to the team and to the fans. And EJ (Eddie Jones)'s comments re development and depth issues in the Oz game - this was probably his largest failure in his extended tenure as elite coach.
2. EJ (Eddie Jones)'s notion that 'a top coach has no responsibility for player depth, he just takes on who's handed to to him' is grossly irresponsible and would apply in virtually no other major sport where a coach has, say, a 3 yr plus contract. We can be quite sure that if, say, the Head Coach of Swimming Australia or Sir Alex Ferguson at MU said such things (they never would) they would in the former case be sacked and in the latter be considered as having a very off day. Elite rugby coaches (many very well paid) have and should have a large co-responsibility for commencing active engagement with their national codes to get the underlying player feedstock development programs optimised for the game's medium-term's needs. This is manifestly in their interests, let alone the code's, say 2+ years into their contracts. It's also an ethical responsibility to the game IMO, as it's the fans TV viewing and gate $s that ultimately, in the end, pay these blokes' salaries.
Blind Freddy knows that player depth in _any_ top sport is critical to its sustained success (we in introverted Oz rugby tend to think this is major new insight/problem). If a top coach cannot devote time and useful experience to the design of the right form of elite player development and feedstock programs (typically with 2-4 year horizons), and then help those programs work every single year, then he/she is not adequately qualified or does not have the right job spec. Let's also recall: a Wallaby coach is only active for the period June-December every year, he has at least 4-5 months in observer mode for active advisory and feedstock work within the code.
The clue here of course is that EJ (Eddie Jones) clearly did NOT perform this role to any useful degree or see it as one of his core responsibilities - that is more a reflection upon his inadequacies and ARU negligence/laziness than of the correct approach to this issue in the strategic interests of our game.
(A related observation: Deans' recent public statement 'you can only work with what you're given' was one of the most dispiriting and irresponsible declamations I have ever heard any top coach make. Whatever his private views, can you imagine what it must feel like as a Wallaby in the squad to hear that from your coach after another poor game? [This highlights my gravest fear re Deans: that he is not developing what I will loosely call the 'Wallabies team mind and culture' in the right way.] These players do not all enjoy Giteau's or Elsom's 'protected icon' status in the team. It was just like Jones' recent get-out in support of the International Union of Half-Failed Coaches: 'we can't help all the poor cattle we get served up from the shallow Oz player base'. The integrity of these statements is of a low, and game-demeaning standard...and to my oft-made point, it shows how little we have come to expect of these men in their national positions.)
3. I have posted some weeks back that I absolutely agree with EJ (Eddie Jones)'s latest warmed-over view that there are serious under investments and deficiencies in the Australian elite player feedstock and development system. I certainly do not ascribe all of the Wallabies current problems to Deans (just a chunk of them ;-) ).
My main focus area in this zone of comment has been on forwards as that is where I believe our biggest developmental problems lie (in terms of all of raw numbers, raw talent, and in-depth skill development). I have actually advanced in these fora the specific idea of a dedicated, fully staffed
Australian Forwards Academy, and set forth what IMO it should be doing and how it should be staffed. (On GAGR, these inputs received about as much interest as the possibility of Kevin Rudd now joining Masterchef. Though one young forward wrote a good note highlighting why he thought the idea had real merit.) One of my motives for starting this thread was to focus upon the _underlying_ reasons why we have problems with the modern Wallabies and S14 teams, and what needs to be done about that at a _systemic_ not merely game-tactical-selection level.
When a Wallaby 22 is presented for a game, it's a precise reflection of its history and the underlying system (and the system's values) that created and formed it. Except for the rare playing genius, that 22 will never be better than that system is good at creating it. Improving that system (and its core values) and making it world-class is the key to everything, long-term.
4. Finally, let me turn to a favourite topic of the 'mood of Australian rugby commentary in 2010'. I believe that a very great deal of Australian rugby thinking has turned away from appropriately high, and rightly demanding, expectations of the ARU and its elite (and its elite coaches) to a wondrous journey towards eloquent blame-gaming in such matters as 'thin player base', 'small player population', 'AFL and diveball killing us', 'sadly can't be like NZ', and such like. We are today building an excuses-factory for under-performance of a productivity and 24/7 continuity that will soon rival the best of BMW's.
I don't buy a lot of this, and, worse, I fear the buying of will take this code into further dangers and deterioration.
How, I ask, is it possible for our great county to get into the top 5 olympic nations year-in, year-out? 22m people, yeah? How is it possible that, with a player base a fraction of India's and smaller than England's we remain at or very near the top of the global cricketing nations? How is possible that with a population under 10% of the USA's, we remain highly competitive with them in global swimming? How do our national hockey and netball and womens' basketball teams stay at or near the top of their sports globally with player bases here a fraction of many of their competitor nations/teams? My simple, no-brainer point is this: if 'small player base relative to others' etc was the utterly determining factor is an Australian sport's ability to thrive and dominate, this country's elite sports success would barely exist, or would have been wiped out 20 + years ago.
I'll have a guess why Australia' relatively small player bases have done so damn well: two reasons. One, we have the right toughness, spirit, aggression (good sort), resilience and general mental fortitude and and cultural motivation to make a huge difference to any teams' capacity for victory. We have the right 'team mind' that comes from our culture, mostly. Two, we have developed a virtuous circle whereby factor one, linked to a generally excellent educational system, has led in many cases to world class sports science and training infrastructure, of which the AIS is just one shining example.
How does this relate to Australian elite rugby today? My view: with the exception of a few capable people (JO'N I do respect), Australian elite rugby has slowly but palpably detached itself from the above two factors. Today, 2010, overall it is no longer led by a coaching or (mostly) player elite that is absolutely obsessed by excellence and winning and 'hard mind' and, most critically, we are not taking the Alan Borders or Steve Waugh's as our mental model for absolute resolve and fortitude, we are pampering ourselves with excuses and psycho-babble and soft thinking coupled with the dangerous elixir of lowered expectations. Next, we have not and are not sustaining the world-class training, coaching and player development systems and infrastructure essential for building a base of player feedstock that can fuel world-beating teams (which is today essential in any top sport btw).
When we get back to the right form of Australian mindset and team culture, and materially improve our underlying developmental infrastructure, we will rediscover glory in Australian rugby. And yes, of course it can be done.
