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Reds 2019

SouthernX

Peter Johnson (47)
I am scratching my head over signing of Wilson .

Why?

Did you watch much club rugby by any chance?

Harry Wilson was one of the standouts in the comp. he also has featured for u20 setup.

I’m amazed someone would be perplex by the signing. 2 things coaches can’t teach & that is height & speed. Harry has height.

His not going to see much game time behind our starting locks & our bench options in Hockings/Blyth

Let him continue to develop in club rugby but let’s pump the breaks on expectations cause we shouldn’t expect to much while he continues to develop his skills and grow into that frame of his.
 

SouthernX

Peter Johnson (47)
How do they justify that? Gavin hasn't played many games (if any) in the past 18 months since QLD 20s in 2017. He did not feature all this year throughout club and NRC. Surely Richie Asiata is ahead of him in the pecking order?

Really impressed seeing Asata play a bit of hooker this year for country.

Which brings me to the point... does anybody know of any super rugby or international players who can play hooker/prop.

Can’t recall any in my time but I know it does happen in clubland.
 

Strewthcobber

Mark Ella (57)
Really impressed seeing Asata play a bit of hooker this year for country.

Which brings me to the point. does anybody know of any super rugby or international players who can play hooker/prop.

Can’t recall any in my time but I know it does happen in clubland.
John Smit going back a little.
 

RugbyReg

Rocky Elsom (76)
Staff member
TPN started as a No 8 or backrower. Not sure if he had a go at prop.

The Argies used to be famous for having props play hooker but I'm not sure if they ever actually hooked a ball.
 

Rebels3

Jim Lenehan (48)
Didn't Tatafu Polota-Nau start out as a prop? I have been wrong before

I remember David Flatman telling a story about when he came over here to play a mid week Australia A fixture a number of years back. Australia suffered a number of injuries to prop, ref was going to call uncontested scrums but TPN stepped up and played prop. Claims hes did the job as well as any full time prop could of done, immense strength.

As Reg said, pretty sure he started as a backrower
 

RugbyReg

Rocky Elsom (76)
Staff member
Look, far be it for me to be too overly positive about things at the QRU. I know many think that's my default setting. But I feel there have been some encouraging signs out of Ballymore this last three months. Looking back:

- 10 Aug we had the announcement that the Premier Rugby Final would be broadcast on Fox Sports.
- 6 Sept we had the launch of QLD Premier Rugby 7s
- 27 Sept we had Jimmy McKay back at Ballymore
- 3 Oct we had the maroon kit announced for next year
- 11 Oct we had Peter Ryan announced as D coach (and a promising QLD Academy structure)
- 2 Nov we have this announcement - Pat Richards appointed as QR Director of Coaching, with support of the likes of Dick Marks, Alec Evans and Gaven Head.

Forgive me but I think they are half a dozen pretty dam significant announcements in a three month span. I reckon more than the previous CEO came up with in his time.

We've also had record numbers at the All Schools 7s at Ballymore and the inaugural Moreton Bay Super 6, so heaps of 'non-traditional schools' getting a taste for rugby.

We've also had three new exciting board announcements, bringing some interesting diversity and background to the room.

In the same period we announced the re-signings of Scott-Young, Timu, Sorovi, Rodda, JP Smith, Daugunu, Toua, CFS, Mafi, Kerevi, Korczyk, Mafi, Wilson and Eadie. From an admin/ finance perspective the deals around Quade and Slipper are positive ones as well.

I've mentioned in passing that Thorn / the Reds are clearly believers in Ben Darwins / Gain Line Analytics theories around the importance of cohesion, skill and culture on team performance (obviously a strong Crusaders / Canterbury belief too). While the Rebels continue to bring in new players, the theory is their lack of cohesion will inhibit their performance. New players take a few years to build that, acknowledging highly skilled players can counter this a little (which the Rebels have).

QLD are building a squad, as Bobby Sands points out, that has played together for a number years. Whether it be junior teams, NRC and now the Reds.

While we aren't signing big names (we just don't have the money to do so) I'm feeling increasingly hopeful about what is happening out of HQ of late.
 

Dark Shark

Alex Ross (28)
Why?

Did you watch much club rugby by any chance?

Harry Wilson was one of the standouts in the comp. he also has featured for u20 setup.

I’m amazed someone would be perplex by the signing. 2 things coaches can’t teach & that is height & speed. Harry has height.

Yes, I saw many of the club games that Harry played this year both First Grade and then Colts 1 in the Finals. He is a developing talent, but I think has a long way to go before even near Reds standard.

I thought this year his mistake rate (particularly unforced passes going wildly to ground) was very high for a club player and this really came to my attention in the evening Sunnybank game at Sunnybank when I thought a lot of his mistakes allowed Sunnybank back into the match when they were around 20 points down. From then the unforced error rate became very noticeable to me during the rest of the club season.

A couple of weeks later in the Wests or GPS games they did not throw once to him in lineouts in one game and only once or twice in the other game. So even Brothers were not using his height.

Wilson does not go anywhere near the rucks to help secure ball, but even if he is closest supporter, His default is to go to first or second receiver off the ruck and wait for the ball to come to him. When he does go into the ruck my thoughts were that he was never direct or effective to protect or attack the ball and was always falling over.

He was nowhere near dominant in the Colts finals. U19 players that he played with and against like McReight and Lucas were dominant in the Finals series. And Wilson was never involved in u20 setup until now.

In the NRC during the home and away games the stats I saw were that he had 40 carries of the ball and made only 34 metres in total or 0.85 metres per carry. The worst of any Qld City or Country backrower. By comparison McReight had 36 carries for 142 metres or 3.94 metres per carry and Kibble 37 carries for 66 metres or 1.78 metres per carry.

That is the basis of why I am scratching my head.
 

dru

Tim Horan (67)
@ Reg I’m with you. Generally anyway. They were slow at first in the signings but at this point match other Franchises. Some promising stuff for sure.

I’ll park my reservations on CEO, control and Puritanism for now. Resolution of Quade and Slipper is a big step. Hunt is somewhat harder but things in the right direction.

From recollection the 2011 squad was built from a batch of youngsters. Let see where it goes.
 

Ignoto

John Thornett (49)
. But I feel there have been some encouraging signs out of Ballymore this last three months.


I agree 100% with everything you've said here Reg. On paper, everything is looking positive and should point towards us going upwards.

From a personal perspective, I'm still absolutely filthy on how we got here. We all saw it and knew exactly what was going to happen with the introduction of Graham and then again with Tony. When it comes to the handling of Nick Stiles, we saw that he was lumped with two AC's that couldn't cut the mustard, but he wasn't afforded the same luxury as Thorn with more experienced and successful AC's being brought in.

From an outsiders perspective, the servants to Queensland rugby under this administration have been treated poorly, that includes the likes of Slipper, Quade, Stiles and also Knuckles. So it's frustrating to see the failures of the management team go unpunished.
 

RugbyReg

Rocky Elsom (76)
Staff member
I agree 100% with everything you've said here Reg. On paper, everything is looking positive and should point towards us going upwards.

From a personal perspective, I'm still absolutely filthy on how we got here. We all saw it and knew exactly what was going to happen with the introduction of Graham and then again with Tony. When it comes to the handling of Nick Stiles, we saw that he was lumped with two AC's that couldn't cut the mustard, but he wasn't afforded the same luxury as Thorn with more experienced and successful AC's being brought in.

From an outsiders perspective, the servants to Queensland rugby under this administration have been treated poorly, that includes the likes of Slipper, Quade, Stiles and also Knuckles. So it's frustrating to see the failures of the management team go unpunished.

perhaps not completely unpunished. You don't see that former CEO popping up anywhere else in Sports Admin do you?
 

dru

Tim Horan (67)
I predict that the Karmichael Hunt situation will resolve itself in about 12 months.

Not exactly easing any burden though is it?

No doubt this and the residual cost issues around Quade and Slipper disappear in 12 months too. It will be interesting to watch how the Reds use this little extra freedom at this time next year.
 
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