Wallabies 2023

[Rebel man]

My take is that pretty much all our players have greater deficiencies in skill areas for more critical to the game than to be shifting the focus substantially towards kicking.

I believe these skills need to be coached from the youngest levels of juniors. To make sure every player is proficient.

Also skills like kicking is a perfect skill to be worked on during the long super rugby off season

 

[Braveheart81]

I believe these skills need to be coached from the youngest levels of juniors. To make sure every player is proficient.

Did you play junior rugby?

In one or two training sessions a week it's pretty hard to work out where everyone would have spent a lot more time on kicking skills.

 

[Rebel man]

Did you play junior rugby?

In one or two training sessions a week it's pretty hard to work out where everyone would have spent a lot more time on kicking skills.

Played 8 years as a kid. Also played Aussie rules.

It’s also comes down to the depth and attitude in the sport. Rugby has to get serious about striving to be the best.

Going to a school in Melbourne. I’ll admit I am no longer young so things may have changed but all recess and lunch you are kicking the footy competing with your mates. Seeing who has better skills on their non dominant side.

Why? Because from the age 5 it is drilled into you that to get anywhere in the game you have to be able to execute all skills off both sides of your body.

 

[Braveheart81]

It’s also comes down to the depth and attitude in the sport. Rugby has to get serious about striving to be the best.

I'm fine with that but I think it comes down to telling players with any modicum of talent that if they want to really succeed then they need to be doing a lot of training in their own time.

How much kicking coaching were you ever given in junior rugby training?

 

[LeCheese]

From a physical development perspective, kicking - and particularly place kicking - with any sort of effect really only starts to become possible in the mid-to-late-teens. It's typically a very low-percentage play in juniors, with it often being actively discouraged in both general play and as a penalty / free kick option.

I think it's understandable that general skills relevant to all players and positions - passing, tackling, structures, etc. - are the greater focus, with the more specialist stuff only coming in at older ages and higher levels (with an increase in training time).

 

[Doritos Day]

There should be an emphasis in the pathways placed on this. If you play Aussie rules you are told from the age of 4-5 that if you want to make it you have to be able to execute your skills of both sides of your body.

AFL is a bad example, the wrong-footed skills of players are shocking relative to where they should be. Harley Reid is a lock to get drafted #1 and barely hits his shin with his left.

Something like EPL is a better choice, most players you couldn't tell what their main side is.

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

I'd say place kicking has imprived out of sight in a lot of junior footy. Comparing to my days I reckon it would have been 50% at best and you hope it was under the posts. Kids now at 14, 15 are regularly slotting them from the sideline. It's a big time kill activity you seem them doing.

I also know some schools do have kicking clinics 1, 2 arvos a week where they bring in kids from yr 7-12 and work on accuracy of in play kicking, box kicks etc.

 

[Rebel man]

AFL is a bad example, the wrong-footed skills of players are shocking relative to where they should be. Harley Reid is a lock to get drafted #1 and barely hits his shin with his left.

Something like EPL is a better choice, most players you couldn't tell what their main side is.

I don’t follow the under 18s anymore. If he is as bad as you say on your left and I have no reason to doubt you he will struggle to ever deliver on the hype

 

[Tomthumb]

I'm fine with that but I think it comes down to telling players with any modicum of talent that if they want to really succeed then they need to be doing a lot of training in their own time.

How much kicking coaching were you ever given in junior rugby training?

This is bang on. I'm getting a bit sick of everything around Australian rugby being blamed, except the players themselves. They are ultimately responsible for the amount of time they spend on their craft

The best performers in any sport are always self motivated to be the best

 

[Derpus]

This is bang on. I'm getting a bit sick of everything around Australian rugby being blamed, except the players themselves. They are ultimately responsible for the amount of time they spend on their craft

The best performers in any sport are always self motivated to be the best

It shifts. At the junior level it makes sense that self motivation will play a big part (or being driven on by helicopter parents).

Once they are professional the systems will have a much bigger influence on how guys progress.

 

[Rebel man]

I'm fine with that but I think it comes down to telling players with any modicum of talent that if they want to really succeed then they need to be doing a lot of training in their own time.

How much kicking coaching were you ever given in junior rugby training?

But it’s a cultural thing in the sport.

Personally I think Aussie rules takes it to far as they have kids back in pre season training come October when they won’t start playing until late March April.

But there is the culture that you have to work hard to go anywhere. Pete Daicos mentions how Nick would get him to go to the park with him every time it rained and just kick grubbers at him so he could work on being clean below his knee’s. That’s the drive we need in our athletes

 

[eastman]

A star junior player in union (or league, and remember we are competing for talent that play both) simply doesn’t need to be a fantastic kicker because it’s not rewarded or incentivized in the way the games played.

How do you motivate a thirteen year old to become a great kicker when they won’t see the pay-off until they are playing senior rugby in their 20s?

I’d argue its also not a mandatory skill unless you are a fly half of fullback. There might be a good comparison here with AFL players and their tackling- I see a lot of woeful tackling in the AFL..

 

[swingpass]

. I’ll admit I am no longer young so things may have changed but all recess and lunch you are kicking the footy competing with your mates. Seeing who has better skills on their non dominant side.

i also went to school down here, played AFL till my mid teens, but i believe it has changed. i regularly walk past two primary schools during either morning recess or lunchtime, this year NOT ONE kid playing 'kick to kick" however always several games of soccer and basketball going on. the park near me on a saturday would have about a hundred kids doing soccer clinic, no Auskick. not saying AFL is dying but definitely not the only game in town at "playtime".

 

[Rebel man]

i also went to school down here, played AFL till my mid teens, but i believe it has changed. i regularly walk past two primary schools during either morning recess or lunchtime, this year NOT ONE kid playing 'kick to kick" however always several games of soccer and basketball going on. the park near me on a saturday would have about a hundred kids doing soccer clinic, no Auskick. not saying AFL is dying but definitely not the only game in town at "playtime".

The push started when I was at school all the do gooder parents complained it was too dangerous. Rugby is completely banned from Victorian schools. You can only have a rugby program if you have a qualified rugby coach as a PE teacher

 

[shanky]

A star junior player in union (or league, and remember we are competing for talent that play both) simply doesn’t need to be a fantastic kicker because it’s not rewarded or incentivized in the way the games played.

How do you motivate a thirteen year old to become a great kicker when they won’t see the pay-off until they are playing senior rugby in their 20s?

I’d argue its also not a mandatory skill unless you are a fly half of fullback. There might be a good comparison here with AFL players and their tackling- I see a lot of woeful tackling in the AFL..

I’d personally put up a scholarship* if they could guarantee me they’d teach the fuckers how to box kick reliably




(*statement may not be true)

 

[stillmissit]

The push started when I was at school all the do gooder parents complained it was too dangerous. Rugby is completely banned from Victorian schools. You can only have a rugby program if you have a qualified rugby coach as a private equity teacher

Is this true? I have never heard this before. Why are we keeping the Rebels if school officials are destroying their future?

 

[Eyes and Ears]

Outside of Quade (Len doesn't count as he had someone flop on his shohlder), but what back had a catastrophic injury in the last 12-24 months?

All the major injuries were to the forwards from memory.

Or you know, the guys who do a toe punt at goal while waiting for the backs to get out of the locker room.

Kerevi, Perese, Banks to name a few.

 

[Rebel man]

Is this true? I have never heard this before. Why are we keeping the Rebels if school officials are destroying their future?

What relevance does it have on the rebels. When I was at school many years ago I was told someone broke their neck or something along those lines playing rugby in PE so unless you have a qualified rugby coach as a Phys Ed teacher you can’t play rugby.

Rugby is growing in public schools in Victoria as all those schools have dedicated rugby programs and trained rugby coaches

 

[eastman]

Only a rugby union forum would automate pe into private equity.

 

[noscrumnolife]

Here I have been wondering what the fuck a private equity teacher is...