Wallabies stuff

[Bruce Ross]

wouldn't it be great if Links words came from the mouth of our national coach?

Do you mean ventriloquial style, with Link's arm up Robbie's rear end?

It would be standing room only at that presser.

 

[Torn Hammy]

Deans often gets criticised for not using his bench but I would like to add a perspective to this policy.

As a long-time coach I hated to replace players towards the end of a game unless we were winning or losing by an unbeatable score or someone was very distressed. The likelihood of a negative momentum swing was always too great as the replacements always struggle to get into the game and always overplay their roles. In fact I instructed my players to attack the opponent's replacements and more often than not we forced a lot of errors.

Deans gets a lot of criticism for not replacing Genia in the dying stages of the game. I have always thought that this is the time he is most valuable as the tiring opposition forwards in front of him offer an opportunity for his trademark darting runs.

The argument that you rest a player for the last ten minutes to give him a rest doesn't convince me either. If you play either 70 or 80 minutes against the All Blacks or the Saffers I think your pain and recovery time will be pretty much the same. Also if you continue to take a player off, his match fitness will suffer for the game you need him there for the full eighty.

 

[suckerforred]

Interesting. I supose we are all in the same boat then. Would have been pissed if the others had got the 3 weeks off. Will be interesting to see how they handle the players when the time comes.

 

[suckerforred]

Deans often gets criticised for not using his bench but I would like to add a perspective to this policy.

As a long-time coach I hated to replace players towards the end of a game unless we were winning or losing by an unbeatable score or someone was very distressed. The likelihood of a negative momentum swing was always too great as the replacements always struggle to get into the game and always overplay their roles. In fact I instructed my players to attack the opponent's replacements and more often than not we forced a lot of errors.

Deans gets a lot of criticism for not replacing Genia in the dying stages of the game. I have always thought that this is the time he is most valuable as the tiring opposition forwards in front of him offer an opportunity for his trademark darting runs.

The argument that you rest a player for the last ten minutes to give him a rest doesn't convince me either. If you play either 70 or 80 minutes against the All Blacks or the Saffers I think your pain and recovery time will be pretty much the same. Also if you continue to take a player off, his match fitness will suffer for the game you need him there for the full eighty.

I can see your side of the arguement. I think that the problem that most of us have with Deans's replacement policy is that there are times when there are players that are obviously having a bad day, fucking tired, or distressed (not only in terms of injury but also in terms mental performance), and have not been replaced. I have also seen one of the purposes of replacing players is to give the reserves some patch practice. Vitally important if, in the first 5 mins next weeks game, your first stringer is injured horibly.