Wallabies 2023

[Adam84]

Nor will we be able to again reap the rewards of getting a jump on many other nations when moving towards a professional setup.

It’s the one time that co-habitation with the NRL/AFL has benefited rugby union in Australia. Both those codes adopted professionalism earlier then union, and rugby in Australia benefited through osmosis.

 

[sunnyboys]

The question I never thought we would be asking ourselves is :- Was McQueen's time a one-off in our history or one to be repeated?

if you go back and look at the history of the wallabies you realise we have had three anomalies in regards to results - The 84 Grand Slam, the 91 RWC and the 99RWC-2001.

beyond that we are performing only a little under our historical norm.

 

[Alex Sharpe]

Its well covered terrain in this thread, but gee the wallabies S&C doesn’t fill me with confidence.

The Wallabies socials have posts at the moment of the lads squatting huge weight wearing foamy asics running shoes. Not proper S&C practice at all. Get the boys some lifting shoes for god sake!

 

[LeCheese]

Its well covered terrain in this thread, but gee the wallabies S&C doesn’t fill me with confidence.

The Wallabies socials have posts at the moment of the lads squatting huge weight wearing foamy asics running shoes. Not proper S&C practice at all. Get the boys some lifting shoes for god sake!

Yeah noticed this as well - seems to be personal choice, as Porecki (and I think Slipper in the background of one of the stories) had lifting shoes, while Nonggorr was barefoot. Not really best practice

 

[stillmissit]

if you go back and look at the history of the wallabies you realise we have had three anomalies in regards to results - The 84 Grand Slam, the 91 RWC and the 99RWC-2001.

beyond that we are performing only a little under our historical norm.

From Memory, 84 Alan Jones, 91 Bob Dwyer and 99 McQueen. Having lived through them all I believe the McQueen era was the one I am hopeful that we repeat. Jones had a good team with Ella at his peak and he scored in every test, Bob Dwyer took an average team and rebuilt it with young talent and some old heads. McQueen took the job that nobody wanted and the ARU didn't want him, regardless of the great presentation he did to the board. Then proved all of them wrong with a slightly radical approach he had adopted at the Brumbies, assisted by a great NRL defence coach Mulligan?

 

[RugbyReg]

86 Bledisloe win in NZL was pretty special too.

 

[qwerty51]

Its well covered terrain in this thread, but gee the wallabies S&C doesn’t fill me with confidence.

The Wallabies socials have posts at the moment of the lads squatting huge weight wearing foamy asics running shoes. Not proper S&C practice at all. Get the boys some lifting shoes for god sake!

Suggest you look at how deep they’re squatting

 

[fatprop]

The clip I watched had them using a safety bar squat, doing partials squats mimicking the hit

They seemed to be looking for explosiveness over a few inches, which made sense

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

From Memory, 84 Alan Jones, 91 Bob Dwyer and 99 McQueen. Having lived through them all I believe the McQueen era was the one I am hopeful that we repeat. Jones had a good team with Ella at his peak and he scored in every test, Bob Dwyer took an average team and rebuilt it with young talent and some old heads. McQueen took the job that nobody wanted and the ARU didn't want him, regardless of the great presentation he did to the board. Then proved all of them wrong with a slightly radical approach he had adopted at the Brumbies, assisted by a great NRL defence coach Mulligan?

John Muggleton. We had incredible defence back then.

 

[Yoda]

From Memory, 84 Alan Jones, 91 Bob Dwyer and 99 McQueen. Having lived through them all I believe the McQueen era was the one I am hopeful that we repeat. Jones had a good team with Ella at his peak and he scored in every test, Bob Dwyer took an average team and rebuilt it with young talent and some old heads. McQueen took the job that nobody wanted and the ARU didn't want him, regardless of the great presentation he did to the board. Then proved all of them wrong with a slightly radical approach he had adopted at the Brumbies, assisted by a great NRL defence coach Mulligan?

Muggleton.

 

[D'Lite Full]

if you go back and look at the history of the wallabies you realise we have had three anomalies in regards to results - The 84 Grand Slam, the 91 RWC and the 99RWC-2001.

beyond that we are performing only a little under our historical norm.

2000 - beat Argentina twice, South Africa three times, NZ 1-1, beat Scotland, France and lost to England by 3 points
2001 - won Lions series 2-1, a loss and a draw to South Africa, beat NZ twice, flogged Spain, lost to England, lost to France and beat Scotland
2002 - beat France twice, 1-1 NZ, 1-1 South Africa, beat Argentina, lost to England, lost to Ireland, beat Italy
2003 - beat Ireland, beat Wales, lost to England, 1-1 with South Africa, 0-2 with NZ, beat Ireland, Scotland, NZ in RWC and then lost to England in RWC final

 

[LeCheese]

New training kit goes alright. Not sure if it's only recently been released, but I've only just seen it both online and in the recent training photos. Might try pick a couple of bits up when they inevitably go on sale at the end of the season.

 

[sunnyboys]

2000 - beat Argentina twice, South Africa three times, NZ 1-1, beat Scotland, France and lost to England by 3 points
2001 - won Lions series 2-1, a loss and a draw to South Africa, beat NZ twice, flogged Spain, lost to England, lost to France and beat Scotland
2002 - beat France twice, 1-1 NZ, 1-1 South Africa, beat Argentina, lost to England, lost to Ireland, beat Italy
2003 - beat Ireland, beat Wales, lost to England, 1-1 with South Africa, 0-2 with NZ, beat Ireland, Scotland, NZ in RWC and then lost to England in RWC final

I thought about using 2003 as the cut off. And could quite easily have done so and still made the same point.

we just haven’t cracked the code of consistency. And to be honest, it was fair enough back in the amateur era.

but we’ve hung on to those same structures for the pro era. The only true change came as a result of media moguls looking like they’d buy the game and next thing you know super rugby is created.

We work on a ‘cult of personality’ basis with coaches. We have never had the patience to build the systems.

and when you look at those peak years, it’s easy to see why. It was jones, and Dwyer, and Macqueen. It wasn’t any development system we had built. So we expect that it’s just a matter of changing coaches until we find the next one that is the messiah…

 

[qwerty51]

Wallabies Ref/TMO appointments

vs Georgia | Pearce & MacNeice
vs Fiji | Brace & MacNeice
vs Wales | Barnes & Foley
vs Portugal | Amashukeli & Neville

MacNeice, Neville and Brace all Irish.
Pearce, Barnes and Foley English.

We got the death squad for Portugal, lucky it's only Portugal and not Wales

 

[Dan54]

2000 - beat Argentina twice, South Africa three times, NZ 1-1, beat Scotland, France and lost to England by 3 points
2001 - won Lions series 2-1, a loss and a draw to South Africa, beat NZ twice, flogged Spain, lost to England, lost to France and beat Scotland
2002 - beat France twice, 1-1 NZ, 1-1 South Africa, beat Argentina, lost to England, lost to Ireland, beat Italy
2003 - beat Ireland, beat Wales, lost to England, 1-1 with South Africa, 0-2 with NZ, beat Ireland, Scotland, NZ in RWC and then lost to England in RWC final

As a long time rugby man from NZ, I will say that although there were goodish Wallaby teams at time up to the mid 90s, and then very good teams for 10 years or so. I just trying to explaun how it looked from over here. Wallaby teams were never considered anything but almost 2nd tier , then 80s came along, and Wallabies had players like Mark Ella (and in NZ most rugby people thought of him as probably best 10 seen up until then) Campo, who many kiwis loved to hate, because he such an enigma, could make a cock up but then destroy your defence all in 10 mniute interval. Trouble was in those days they were an ordinary team with a couple of stars? Then late 80s Wallabie were on upward curve and seemed to have a lot better balance of players all the way through . and I still believe that the fella from Qld reds (can't remember his name now) who said that it came about because NZ teams were coming over and playing provincial games that was a huge factor.
In the 90s most NZ fans had a respect for Wallabies and no longer thought of them as a team that would fluke a win every now and then, and that's when rivallary started. By late 90s early 2000s I thought were as good as any team in world (gee and I moved to Aus in 96 so am I reponsible? ) , chock full of very very good players, with a few greats of the game. Were a joy to watch and when or if the ABs tipped them over was really a thing to celebrate. I think perhaps after 2006-7 or so it lost it's way a little and hasn't quite recovered .
Sorry for rambling post, but seeing people posting when they thought Wallabies were great, I thought perhaps being a slightly older AB man who has kind of followed rugby in some way or others since late 50s , I would try and explain how it looked from here.

 

[Doritos Day]

Wallabies Ref/TMO appointments

vs Georgia | Pearce & MacNeice
vs Fiji | Brace & MacNeice
vs Wales | Barnes & Foley
vs Portugal | Amashukeli & Neville

MacNeice, Neville and Brace all Irish.
Pearce, Barnes and Foley English.

We got the death squad for Portugal, lucky it's only Portugal and not Wales

Ideally there is a major balls up by Neville in this game that means we don’t see her again. She is by far the worst official in the world and Australia will definitely be picked apart by her pedantic and overpowering style.

If Amashukeli is the death squad what is O’Keeffe…

 

[hawko07]

No, it's just an extreme example of little brother syndrome.

100%. my in-laws are kiwis. I'd almost call it small man syndrome. Heaps of anti-Aus sentiment in NZ, I don't think they realise that over here (in Aus) we dont have the same anti-NZ sentiment.

 

[Dctarget]

I quite like Amashukeli. Agreed on Neville, she's unnecessarily tough. I'll be at that game so will be blissfully unaware of her interventions.

 

[stillmissit]

I thought about using 2003 as the cut off. And could quite easily have done so and still made the same point.

we just haven’t cracked the code of consistency. And to be honest, it was fair enough back in the amateur era.

but we’ve hung on to those same structures for the pro era. The only true change came as a result of media moguls looking like they’d buy the game and next thing you know super rugby is created.

We work on a ‘cult of personality’ basis with coaches. We have never had the patience to build the systems.

and when you look at those peak years, it’s easy to see why. It was jones, and Dwyer, and Macqueen. It wasn’t any development system we had built. So we expect that it’s just a matter of changing coaches until we find the next one that is the messiah…

This is what I always referred to as the 'Jesus' hope. Companies who were struggling were hoping the 'Jesus' manager would turn up and fix everything.
I fully agree with your statement about building structures BUT we need a decent coach to hold the line until those structures are in place. I am assuming you are talking about all levels of rugby, from grassroots to Wallabies including coaches, trainers, referees and administration?

 

[Dctarget]

100%. my in-laws are kiwis. I'd almost call it small man syndrome. Heaps of anti-Aus sentiment in NZ, I don't think they realise that over here (in Aus) we dont have the same anti-NZ sentiment.

I hold it.