Waratahs 2013

[qwerty51]

I wonder if he is at fault for Stade Francais' dreadful away record..

 

[ChargerWA]

Great news for the Tahs for two reasons.

The primordial ooze that is the Tah's hierachy appears well short of genetic diversity, they need some fresh blood in that gene pool. Topped with the double bonus of Cheika being a take no prisoners kind of guy, he may actually have the strength of charachter and will to enable him to implement his own plans.

It appears from the outside that the Tahs wanted him more than he wanted them, so he is coming into this with the whip hand. Great stuff for Aussie Rugby.

 

[fatprop]

I wonder if he is at fault for Stade Francais' dreadful away record..

Didn't Stade have some horrendous money issues through his time?

yeah

Stade Francais facing bankruptcy claims Guazzini
25/06/2011 10:54 am
Stade Francais face bankruptcy unless they find several million euros before they appear in front of the financial committee of the National Rugby League (LNR) next Monday claims their president Max Guazzini.
The French rugby giants financial woes appeared to be over when a virtually unheard of Canadian Foundation FACEM said they would invest €12million euros in the club.
Now Bernard Laporte and Guazzini are suing FACEM for fraud after the deal fell apart on Tuesday. A source close to the investigation told AFP that a Cameroon national had been arrested in Paris on Tuesday over his alleged involvement in the affair with another two people charged on Friday.
Stade have accumulated debts of €5million, mostly because of the failure of the advertising company Sportys, though Guazzini says ideally they need €6.6million to be solvent.
'If we don't find the money, then we are finished,' said Guazzini.
'We will be relegated to Federale 1,' commented Guazzini, who added that in such a scenario the club would be obliged to file for bankruptcy.
Guazzini, a qualified lawyer who advised senior Socialist politicians and then made his fortune from NRJ radio station, earlier told radio station France Info it didn't matter who came forward with the money as their situation was so desperate.
'Everyone can come to Stade Français,' said the 63-year-old. “Either to make a donation or to take majority control of the club. The situation today, is that it is a battle to save a magnificent club, a world rugby mark, a very popular club.
'Me, I will leave, I will give way to someone who really wants the job. There are people in this country who love sport and rugby and who have enough money to save the club.'
Guazzini said that there was some hope.
'There are negotiations going on, that is all I can say at this stage.”

It wouldn't have been easy

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Georgie is has been Crowden's offsider for a while. Nice lady; good writer.
.

Then she deserves better than to be his offsider!

 

[waratahjesus]

It appears from the outside that the Tahs wanted him more than he wanted them, so he is coming into this with the whip hand. Great stuff for Aussie Rugby.

Was just a poker play, chieka pulled out of the force job to get this job, Tahs problem was they played their hand early allowing chieka to sit back and make them sweat. More money, longer contract, Cheika won the negotiations by a mile. Hopefully he is as good at coaching as negotiating.

 

[BPC]

Then she deserves better than to be his offsider!

As Growden is being shown the door, the correct term is heir apparent. She will have to work on her pie-eating prowess to be assured of GG's level of successnotoriety.

 

[Swat]

As Growden is being shown the door, the correct term is heir apparent. She will have to work on her pie-eating prowess to be assured of GG's level of successnotoriety.

Word is she's already got an informant of her own, known as Internet, for their ability to be inaccurate.

 

[#1 Tah]

Word is she's already got an informant of her own, known as Internet, for their ability to be inaccurate.

I can't tell if you are being serious or have a really subtle sense of humour. If it's the former, then it wont matter as she wont print anything said informant says. If the latter, then well done indeed, good sir.

 

[Swat]

I thought it was self-referentially ironic, but I'll take subtle.

 

[fatprop]

Couple of thoughts

Cheika comes in without input to the squad - dunno how that is going to pan out, but there may be tears at the end of year one.

The Tahs still lack a clear 10 to take them forward. If Foley is the one, then he he better step up. I would be loading up the EPS with a few 10s just in case.

Is Barnes role as 15 or 12?

Do AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) & Horne role out in in the centres?

 

[Bowside]

I'd play barnes at 15 and AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) at 13.

Shmoo and Turner on the wings, with kingston covering when one of them gets injured.

Horne could be tried at 12 and ride the pine if it doesn't work out.

 

[Bowside]

Also when you have a coach change like this, just because a player is in the EPS doesnt rule them out being a starting team player. Mogg at the brumbies was in the EPS but he started pretty much the whole season.

Which could mean that if Sam Lane or Rohan Saifoloi (I'd sign him before Volavola) are showing some form one of them might crack the team at 10.

 

[fatprop]

I can make a difference, says Cheika

Georgina Robinson
Michael Cheika talks to Georgina Robinson after the announcement he will coach the NSW Waratahs for the next three years.

Georgina Robinson: Why did you take the job?
Michael Cheika: I think I really looked closely at the potential. I'm not doing coaching as a job, I'm doing it as something that I really love to do and I'm lucky enough to be able to do it. I liked the potential of creating something here at the Waratahs, in NSW, that I think will last longer than just the few years we've got now. There's so much potential in the playing stock, not just in the squad now but also around Sydney rugby and country rugby ... not all clubs, whether they be here in Australia or in Europe, have that potential and that was very important in my selection decision.
GR: What's the first thing you will do to start turning around what was a really bad season for the Waratahs last year?
MC: I think I've got to balance between making a few immediate decisions around structure, a timetable of when we're going to do certain things in terms of preparation for the coming season and be really clear with the expectation of what I'm expecting as far as the whole lifestyle. Not just how I expect you to train but the whole way of life that leads to being well-prepared, not getting injured, that sort of way of life. And then seeing how guys buy into that, and listening a little bit as well because there's obviously a lot to hear. But the key issue for people to know in the organisation will be about what the expectations are about how we're going to be judged. We spoke about it in the meeting so it's very coherent to guys and they understand what they have to do to be successful for everyone, whether it's staff or player.
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GR: Who will your assistant coaches be?
MC: I'm going to talk to the lads now over these next few days. So at the moment we've got Alan [Gaffney] and Scott [Bowen] and Greg [Mumm] so I've got to talk to them, see what they're about, see what they want to do, how they saw it went last year and then make some calls based off that about how we're going to set ourselves up. Because it's really important that the playing group understand the role of each and every person who is going to be coaching or giving gear - there's no grey areas - I know that he's doing this. He can have an opinion on other things but this is what I'm going to get from that guy, he's going to give me skills coaching or defensive coaching or back line coaching. Let's get that really clearly defined and see how those guys feel about it. Because I feel a little bit for them because they've been living in the unknown a little bit.
GR: They've had two backs coaches [Gaffney and Bowen]..
MC: Yeah and that's not possible to run two backs coaches, so it's about defining the roles so that when I'm talking about back line play, that guy's doing it, he's my go-to.
GR: Have you had thoughts about naming a captain?
MC: No, not yet, obviously they started with Rocky [Elsom] as captain and finished with Benn [Robinson] ... I think I need to know the players's characters a bit more before I start thinking about who's going to be the captain. But obviously I'll be in close contact with the current people who are in those positions to understand how they feel about it first before going anywhere.
GR: Is there space for Rocky Elsom in the new set-up?
MC: No ... Obviously it's been written about that he might come back and play but I think the key thing for Rocky is that he has to get himself physically right, get back on the field again and start performing as we know he can, because he's a great player. But no, it's not on the table.
GR: What about winning a title, can you win one with the Waratahs?
MC: That remains to be seen, I can't predict the future, but what I can tell you is that I want to identify the things that we need to do to win the competition and I think that we need to be hard, we need to be able to score tries and get points - because in the big games you need those, you can't beat the big teams without scoring tries to get yourself ahead ... and we need to be really clear with our identity, about what we're about.
GR: You also mentioned [the importance of the side having] "a bit of dog" about it. Has that been lacking?
MC: I couldn't tell you that because I'm not in the team. But when we talk about dog, for me it's a sort of ruthlessness that I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to get this job done. And that's not in everyone's psyche - if everyone was like that it'd be chaos - but you need a few personnel in your team who are prepared to infect the others with that and that make you turn around and say 'I like the fact that he's on my team' and I think that's important. It balances out the flair. It's almost like you've got the flair but you've also got a knife between your teeth. You've got to have the balance. It can't be all flair, sometimes you've got to dog it out. Sometimes you play bad, you try and attack and it doesn't go any good and you've got to have something to back it up and that's where you've got to just hang in there and get out of it and that's a bit of your insurance I suppose.
GR: Rugby is struggling in Sydney and NSW to win its share of ticket sales, eyeballs and hearts and minds. Is it part of your brief to change that?
MC: Definitely. I don't know where it's at in detail, right. But what I know is that as an essential part of winning and being a successful team, you need to have a crowd that scares the opposition, that lifts your team up, it's a massive part of this game. When there's that type of connection between the crowd and the team, that's when it becomes really enjoyable because you love stepping out on your home turf.
GR: There are some weary fans here though ...
MC: Yeah well it's up to us to energise them and give them something to be proud of. I can't tell anyone to do anything, all I can do is show by example, work hard, be honest and when it doesn't go right, no excuses, because that's my nature too. I think it's about them respecting the type of play and identity we're going to have and them buying into it and being a big part of it. I really believe that's really essential if you're going to go anywhere. In Leinster we went from 1800 or 2000 season tickets to 13,000 by the time we left. And when you've got 80,000 in a stadium cheering for you, or half of them are cheering for you, it makes a massive difference to your team's performance.

​

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union-news/i-can-make-a-difference-says-cheika-20120918-26489.html#ixzz26ntzqc2v​

 

[It is what it is]

We currently have 28 people contracted for next season with the EPS still to be confirmed (although it would appear that Matt Lucas and Sam Lane make up two spots of it).

The player cleanout has already happened. Everyone else is either a new signing or on an existing contract.

That's not a Cheika player clean out though.

 

[Braveheart81]

That's not a Cheika player clean out though.

That's true, but most observers would say that we got rid of the players we really needed to get rid of.

Many more changes at this point would be difficult mostly due to the lack of availability of decent options.

I'd be surprised if there were more than one or two players that Cheika really didn't want in the franchise who are expensive enough or senior enough to worry about. By that I mean if he didn't want Matt Lucas for example, big deal. He's in the EPS and at this point is unlikely to get on the field.

 

[Bowside]

So now that the tahs have signed up a champion coach and poached queenslands 3rd choice halves combo, can we start taking bets on how much they are going to win the comp by in 2013?

 

[qwerty51]

Champion coach?

 

[Hawko]

Couple of thoughts

Cheika comes in without input to the squad - dunno how that is going to pan out, but there may be tears at the end of year one.

The Tahs still lack a clear 10 to take them forward. If Foley is the one, then he he better step up. I would be loading up the EPS with a few 10s just in case.

Is Barnes role as 15 or 12?

Do AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) & Horne role out in in the centres?

That's a good thought. If Lane is coming then I thought that Saifoloi had missed the boat, but if someone at the Tahs has the same thought as you then both could get a gig.

Congratulations to Bruce Ross, who half way through the Super comp, with everything just starting to go downhill, suggested that Barnes best position was 15 and that he should be moved there urgently. Given that Foley/Barnes at 10/12 was not a wild success right now I would say 15 is his best slot.

That does raise a whole can of worms on the rest of the backs but better to leave that to Cheika and Gaffney for now.

 

[Hawko]

So now that the tahs have signed up a champion coach and poached queenslands 3rd choice halves combo, can we start taking bets on how much they are going to win the comp by in 2013?

Comments like this just reinforce the stereotype that the Tahs only have to turn up to win. Maybe the journo's at SMH think this way (and that's why Growden gets so snarky about round five) but I don't know of any supporter of the Tahs who regularly post on this site have that attitude. We've been burnt too often before to be that silly. Even WJ, who has to be the most optimistic bloke I've never met, does not think like this. So please, give it a rest.

 

[Rob42]

... better to leave that to Cheika and Gaffney for now.

Sorry Hawko, but I'm pretty sure the primary role of this forum is to tell Cheika how to do his job, particularly retrospectively...