Where to for quality Rugby journalism???

[The Red Baron]

Our man Scoop is really putting in long hours piecing together his weekly column - long hours with scissors and paste, that is. This week he pads out his contribution with almost 200 words lifted from Richard Loe's newspaper column, then 120+ words from a program interview with Quade Cooper. He hardly has room for his own "viscous rants" when he has to fit in all his guest contributors.

"Viscous rants" - I think he might have just given himself a new nickname.
.

I like it, but let's dress it up a little more. Throw a 'Sid' in front of it and you will have me converted. Although to be fair it was Johnny who did most of the ranting - maybe that could be the new nickname for Growden's next imaginary friend!

 

[JSRF10]

I just noticed this at the bottom of Growdens article:

Do you have any news or rumours to share? Contact Greg Growden on Twitter @GregGrowden using the hashtag #RucknMaul.

He really needs to change the name of this column to Rumours, Lies and Half Truths.

It also led me to thinking should we have a competition to see who can get the most outrageous rumour published?

 

[Pfitzy]

He really needs to change the name of this column to Rumours, Lies and Half Truths.

Fixed.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

If he meant viscous rants then I'm hurt.
I'm giving myself 10/10 for achieving my aim, assuming of course that Grumbles is correct when he says "the rugby underworld, including some very irritated heavy hitters". I am a bit pissed off that it took so long.
Frankly, revealing all will be something of an anti climax - anyone who cares has worked out what my real name is.

You're hurt. What about the rest of us?

Bruce Ross has been annointed by Iain Paynton.
You are loved by the irritated heavy hitters of the rugby underworld, and have become a source of inspiration for the Head Party Pie Scoffer.

WTF do I get? I'm ignored by heavy hitters of the rugby underworld, Woman's Weekly rugby supplement gossip columnists on ESPN, and Award winning sports journalists at the Terrorgraph.

What do I need to do to get noticed?

Best I've managed is to get quoted a couple of times in the Gaggerland Podslam. Some consolation prize that is!!!

 

[Hugh Jarse]

http://www.espnscrum.com/australia/rugby/story/194717.html

Congrats Inside Shoulder on the mention. Although I never would've described your posts as having a thick, sticky consistency.

"There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." - Oscar Wilde

Well done on your notoriety Inside Shoulder.

Poor form by Grumbles to not name Green and Gold Rugby as the "well read rugby website".

Inside Shoulder gets "Talked about", and Gaggerland gets "not talked about".

Boo Hiss to you too Grumbles.

Edit: Ummm Who actually reads or believes Grumbles random nonsense anyway? If it is not mentioned as being semi interesting on here, I will never go anywhere his columns.

 

[boyo]

"Viscous" as in viscosity e.g. viscosity of molasses?

 

[Inside Shoulder]

"Viscous" as in viscosity e.g. viscosity of molasses?

Sweet?

 

[The Red Baron]

I just noticed this at the bottom of Growdens article:



He really needs to change the name of this column to Rumours, Lies and Half Truths.

It also led me to thinking should we have a competition to see who can get the most outrageous rumour published?

 

[GTPIH]

Does Growdens article mean that Cheika is just going back to Europe to see some old mates and will be signing an indefinite contract extension at the Tahs on his return?

Oh and Inside Shoulder congrats on the fame! Did you run over that blokes dog or something?

Or Cheika has a twin, as I saw him at the SFS café earlier in the week in what looked like a planning meeting for next season

 

[Gagger]

Someone's finally written it up, and pretty damned well too

With amigos like these ...

SOMEONE had to say something.
It is August last year, and the scene of the crime is Eden Park. It often is.
The All Blacks have just smoked the Wallabies 22-0, and Sonny Bill Williams held the flame-thrower.

​

Nose for trouble: O'Connor and Quade Cooper. Photo: Lawrence Smith​

It is the first time in 50 years that Australia has failed to score a point against New Zealand. It is their 14th straight loss to them. It is the 10th time in as many years that they have failed to get a fingernail on the Bledisloe Cup.

Within the confines of the away dressing room, the mood is predictably bleak. In such times, coach Robbie Deans barely talks. He will have no choice in the next half-hour when he fronts a news conference to explain - again - why he should not be sacked.


''It's not about me,'' Deans will say. ''It's about the team and what we do.''

​

O'Connor (right) with Lance Franklin and Ruby Rose.Photo: Supplied​

But right now, the coach is in a dark place and will not be delivering any spirited oratory about where to from here. Someone prods ARU chief executive John O'Neill. Gen-Y, assume the position …

''Twenty per cent of you are letting down the other 80 per cent,'' O'Neill says, according to witnesses in the room that night. ''That 20 per cent are the same 20 per cent who have their mobile phone in their hands right now. The same 20 per cent are the ones on the grog midweek instead of complying with the rules.

''So put your f---ing mobiles away. In fact, don't even bring them with you on match day. I'm your employer. I'm not your mate. You're getting paid for the privilege of wearing the gold jersey and representing your country. And you are letting us down.'


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union-news/with-amigos-like-these--20130816-2s24k.html#ixzz2cAfxCeG6

 

[Langthorne]

Words attribuuted to John O'Neill in that article put him in a very positive light. Well said. Of course, his part in the hiring and retention of Robbie Deans, and in the various contract negotiations with "Amigos" would tend to undermine his work in my mind.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Good summary of JO'N's input Langthorne. He appears to have been astute enough to realise where the issue lay, yet he appears to have done little about it (publicly at least).

That article in the SMH sort of summarises about 5000 posts here on Gaggerland across a variety of threads rather succinctly.

 

[Langthorne]

The article does summarise the Wallaby Amigo problems raised on the boards here, but not the depth of anger and frustration so many of us (pretty much all Wallaby supporters I'd guess) felt watching it unfold.

It still makes me sick to read things like 'we can't win without player X or Y' - WRONG! We can't win if we don't all work together as a team. For all the talk of the New Zealanders having better talent, coaches, systems etc, we rarely note the way they (mostly) put the team first, and play for and trust eachother.

 

[cyclopath]

The article does summarise the Wallaby Amigo problems raised on the boards here, but not the depth of anger and frustration so many of us (pretty much all Wallaby supporters I'd guess) felt watching it unfold.

It still makes me sick to read things like 'we can't win without player X or Y' - WRONG! We can't win if we don't all work together as a team. For all the talk of the New Zealanders having better talent, coaches, systems etc, we rarely note the way they (mostly) put the team first, and play for and trust eachother.

David Kirk pretty much said this at the Rugby Club last Monday night ( Gagger , Badger and I were there). To paraphrase, the competition through so many levels to ever get near an AB jersey meant that the over-riding thoughts, once there, were firstly to trust your team and just execute (and you would probably win), and secondly to just never let the team down. The two obviously are entwined. He implied that team culture, in his day, was almost all from the players, and very little of it was instilled by the coaches. Coaches selected, drilled the players and came up with game plans and tactics (who'd have thought?).
My gut feeling is that players like Cooper and Beale can be very good team players, with the right guidance and management, but I will always doubt JOC (James O'Connor)'s ability to bend to the team's will so easily. Here's hoping McKenzie and Pulver can do that.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Yep, Rugby Players in NZ really take the Black Jumper and the honour and traditions associated with it pretty seriously.

It is never owned by anyone, just loaned to a player on a very temporary basis.

Too much entitlement in Australia, founded by a fear that player X will be off overseas or will sign with Mungo.

Let them go I say. Plenty of other young'uns who will bleed Gold to take their place.

 

[cyclopath]

Hugh Jarse I get what you say, but if we can find a way to keep 'em it would be better.
But no more molly-coddling. They need to learn the opprobrium of the team for being dickheads, if they are again, and suffer some tough love.
I'm actually surprised O'Neill, for all his discussed faults (perceived or otherwise) did not bring the hammer harder.
As many have said, from both sides of the Tasman, Deans was never a great man-manager, and probably should not have been the one to do it. JON or a hard-case team manager maybe should have been the ones, plus some senior players. I guess the senior players felt less inclined to get in the middle, with some having doubts about what Deans would do with them anyway.

 

[Sully]

It's easy for us to sit in our homes and say 'their too entitled' but frankly we have absolutely no idea what any of them are thinking or what they went through to get there. Anyone who does say they know what's going on in their heads is bullshitting.

 

[Bruce Ross]

It's easy for us to sit in our homes and say 'their too entitled' but frankly we have absolutely no idea what any of them are thinking or what they went through to get there. Anyone who does say they know what's going on in their heads is bullshitting.

I agree, Sully. A couple of points.

There are real difficulties for young athletes being the subject of intense public scrutiny all the time. I don't think I would have looked too flash if what my mates and I got up to at that age had been written up in newspapers. And I think the same would apply to rugby stars from a previous generation. And what about the mantra, "What goes on tour stays on tour"?

There used to be an unwritten code that journos wouldn't delve into embarrassing issues about sportsmen, at least in this country.

The other point I'd make is that the three players concerned were fast tracked into professional franchises rather than coming up through the club system. No wonder they haven't got their feet on the ground.

My first thoughts on reading what is admittedly a well written article is that I'd rather it hadn't been published, and I also had a sneaking suspicion that perhaps John O'Neill had been interviewed for it. He's certainly front and centre in it with someone's quite detailed recollection of what he said.
.

 

[Rob42]

Interesting that this article doesn't come from one of the regular rugby writers at the SMH. Am I too cynical in thinking that the rugby journos didn't want to poison some important relationships?

 

[Rob42]

Also well spotted on the JON influence Bruce - he's obviously still careful how he gets portrayed in the rugby press, even with Grumbles now elsewhere.