All right skills are the same some examples:-
1) With the Old leather ball players could before the change of the rule kick the ball dead from their own 10 metre line, 60+ metres. Now with heaps of time on their hands we rarely see an Australian back clear the halfway line a distance of 28M. That's about half I reckon.
2) Name me two centres in both 12 and 13 who can pass the ball from both hands accurately while moving at more than walking pace AND show me in game proof of it. I can post lots of proof that they can't, even while static passing to a static receiver.
3) Not picking on Quade Cooper but his is the most current example - why after 6 years as a professional player is his defence still an issue with base technique? To assuage the QC (Quade Cooper) defence team I would point to AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) who showed last year he has not developed an effective pass (though I can remember him executing once in all his tests (in the last RWC).
Every single game that moron Tim Horan, aided and abetted by the rest of the Foxsports commentators, commentates he begins before the game has started with excuses about how it is "dewy" or humid and there will be sweat on the ball. The NZ teams played in a downpour the other week and dropped less pill.
My rose coloured glasses do make my memories of games past and achievements greater, but when I watch basic techniques like holding the ball to pass, positioning to execute a kick the older guys at the top of the game were just much better than the current guys.
Why is this so, I have postulated that they just do not spend enough time in junior ranks and then through young adulthood building these skills in depth. They don't play enough games at a lower level and so when that pressure comes on the technique just falls apart.
How many modern "professionals" take the approach of Jonny Wilkinson with his place kicking, how many hone their hand eye co-ordination like Bradman with the stump and ball against the water tank?
I've seen it in many other fields that have been "professionalised" with pseudo training and ridiculous KPIs and massive commensurate salaries when these are met, but performance, actual performance declines and individuals have in the organisations I have been involved in have taken the "professional" view of ticking the boxes and doing what is required and when it all turns to shit they just cannot understand why as they have met their KPIs and done what was required every step of the way.
YOUR LAST THREE PARAGRAPHS ARE GOLD!. Its not the players fault.
The modern player....Taken straight from school into some "pathway" program, then a few games of 20s and then a Super contract. Never had to train in the rain let alone play in the mud. Never had a 30 yr old ex first grader belt them late and then buy them a beer in the clubhouse later. Most importantly never had to dig deep inside and see what they're made of, just listen to all the sycophants telling them they're the next big thing. Never had to find a way to win, to devise their own Plan B; and when things fall apart just keep your head down and hope next week's better.
Many are just minding the spot for the next "big thing", before being either let go or deciding to go elsewhere looking for "greatness"( think Jones, Fakosilea, Gale, Sorovi, Greene, Mason, et al.) and others are thrust in the deep end and allowed to sink think Placid (he's sunk), Mcintyre (he's sinking), Jack Tuttle (apparently drowned) etc.
"Good enough is old enough" only works with freaks like Horan and Sterlo. I wonder how they would have turned out if they'd come through today?
PS. just saw Hamish Stewart named at #22 for the Reds this weekend vs Hurricanes. The Prosecution rests Your Honour!
