I am more than willing to highlight the flaws in the coaching. But is it potentially possible that the Reds management have looked, and there is nobody suitable available?
Surely this isn't just some devious plot by the management to force Richard Graham onto the fans. What do they get out of this?
If there is no viable replacement, what action can they take going forward? I read somebody post an off the cuff remark that they should just let Quade coach. At the time I thought, "hey, can't do any worse and probably will work better". But then I thought further. Who's going to management the squad and the recruitment for 2016? That's the issue. Say what you want about Graham, but he recruited very well.
Coming into the season where was the big question mark?
It wasn't at 10. We all knew we had Quade, with Duncan, JOC (James O'Connor), Hunt and McIntyre all as injury back ups. For a player who is only going to miss games if injured, and is your out and out starting player you cannot allocate huge funds to a back up who isn't a starter somewhere else.
The questions marks were over the front row in fact. How have we gone there? I think excluding 2 games (Brumbies and Tahs at Suncorp) we've fucking dominated there. Are scrum has only improved from 2013 and we have 2 great young THP prospects coming through.
It was an astutely put together squad. Potentially deficiencies - but so does every squad. We could poke flaws in Cheika's 2014 Tahs squad, but luck went his way, depths in weak positions wasn't tested, only strong positions.
So now the questions becomes what's best? Surely moving Graham on can only improve 2015. It's not working, he's had ample opportunity. Surely even management can see that.
The problem because if Graham leaves, nobody is looking at the squad for 2016. None of the assistants are ready to step up, based on what they've managed to get out of fringe players they've got a long way to go. What if they boot Graham, can't find a replacement and as a result they lose players and struggle to actively chase recruits? Where are we then? 2016 is over before it's even started.
This has been an interesting case. I have always thought that football clubs of all codes had been far to quick to sack coaches. Players know they can ride out any coach they don't like if a team isn't performing, and that completely undermines the coaches authority.
The Reds have strongly backed their coach, basically saying they won't be held to ransom by the players. I actually somewhat respect this course of action, unless they are completely ignoring the issues.
