Gradual Unfurling of New Wallaby Coaches

[RedsHappy]

rt, that is a good pickup you have just made re: yet again, no clearly defined backs/attack coach. This looks to me suspiciously like a Deans-led replay of the obtuse world as it was of RG as 'skills coach' 2009-10 where, for inexplicable reasons, we could not have what every other elite national coaching group has in terms of clear backs/attack coaching focus, but what seemed to happen was that RD himself directly drove the backs work, with RG as some kind of undefined assistant in that cause working more on (never defined) 'skills'. The results so attained in that odd setup need no recounting.

The absence of a full-time kicking coach is remarkable. Note the very high standards of our 2012 S15 kicking from hand, from both actual Wallabies and aspiring ones. We obviously need no development in this already confirmed excellence. Kicking is just a 'secondary' skill that can be principally handled by the magic of the internet from Bram in the RSA. No matter that it wins (or loses), by itself, more games than not.

Blake notably gone. The only one 2010-11 Wallaby support coach that achieved anything demonstrably positive.

One assumes TT will handle defence?

 

[Bowside]

How you can have a coaching team without an attack, defence and kicking coach is beyond me.

 

[fatprop]

How you can have a coaching team without an attack, defence and kicking coach is beyond me.

My guess is Deans will do attack and McGahan will do defense.

Kicking? depends which to me, place kicking would be ad-hock and the rest is attack anyway

 

[The Red Baron]

I think that it would be easier for us all if we just assume that TT will take care of anything that the press statement missed. Just because the release doesn't name an attack, defence or kicking coach doesn't mean we don't have one. It just means that TT will be doing it. Any holes that need to be plugged, TT will plug them. One of the boys misses out on the team launch? Don't worry, TT will dress up as said player and take his place. Bram's internet is down? don't worry, TT will show the boys how to kick, while fixing Bram's connection issues.

With TT on board, our coaching setup is as watertight as the Titanic.

 

[fatprop]

I struggle with the concept of the Wobs needing a skills coach. A far as I care you shouldn't need one at that level, they should already have the skills by the time they get their jersey.

 

[redstragic]

With so few coaches, how will the 2012 Review Committee attribute blame and take action? This structure one would guess is a result of the 2011 Review Committee's findings? If I am being really cynical it looks as though this few will be answerable for the totality of the 2012 Wallabies? heh heh totality.

Where is Nuci in all of this? Rugby Heaven was reporting him and Deans were integral members of the "Pecking Order Committee" this year and working out the Wallabies pays only 2 weeks ago?

 

[RedsHappy]

Just note from the media release that Scrivener and Blades already have quite close links to Nuci.

 

[rugbyisfun]

The whole thing is a mess, I look forward to seeing Link in the hot seat for the 2013 Lions Tour.

 

[waratahjesus]

With so few coaches, how will the 2012 Review Committee attribute blame and take action? This structure one would guess is a result of the 2011 Review Committee's findings? If I am being really cynical it looks as though this few will be answerable for the totality of the 2012 Wallabies? heh heh totality.

Where is Nuci in all of this? Rugby Heaven was reporting him and Deans were integral members of the "Pecking Order Committee" this year and working out the Wallabies pays only 2 weeks ago?

I'm not sure we will see a 2012 review, with deans signed til 2013 I think only a personality clash will see anything in the coaching ranks change. The only possibility For any significant change is if we lose pretty much every game and deans is sacked.

 

[Scarfman]

Nuci is positioning himself nicely. I suspect the next review he conducts will show the urgent need for him as head coach.

 

[redstragic]

I'm not sure we will see a 2012 review, with deans signed til 2013 I think only a personality clash will see anything in the coaching ranks change. The only possibility For any significant change is if we lose pretty much every game and deans is sacked.

My concern is that "cleaning house" left us with these couple of guys. If we have a bad year and need to clean again before the Lions get here, our preparation will be pretty shit because we'd be getting rid of a really integral coach to the wallaby setup with only 3 (4 if you include the assistant).

Then again maybe the assistant is the fall guy to protect the other 3 in 2013. I am sick of our constant rebuilding phases, let's just get on with it and start winning.

 

[ChargerWA]

Arrgghh, this is a really frustrating subject for me. I fully believe in giving a coach a long enough tenure to have the chance to put a winning team together. But I also believe it has to be the right coach to warrant the faith in him.

This shuffling of the deck around a lame duck is just papering over the cracks (I apologise for this metaphor). RD doesn't have the ability to get the best mentally out of the young Wallaby squad. At the Crusaders he had the best players and they knew it, that's not the case and all we are lacking is the mental toughness and an executable game plan. But we have invested this much time in his tenure now, we might as well give him a couple of years and see if he can pull something together.

 

[RedsHappy]

We need to set the context here: what has just happened with the ARU driving the wholesale sackings of a national coach's support team on the obvious (though unstated) basis of years of disappointing results, retaining only the national coach who appointed the just-sacked lot, then wholesale replacing the old lot with a new lot guided by the ARU itself, is almost unprecedented. In fact, perhaps it is unprecedented.

When you see it cast in this light, the extraordinariness of it all blasts at you like a fog horn.

I just cannot for the life of me think of one parallel in major organisations for the above 'purge all but the leader' program. It's certainly unheard of in the business world for a board of directors to say: 'Mr CEO, we've had 4 years of very poor profits, we've never met budget, however we have decided that the core problem is the management team under you that you hand picked, and not you, but now we'll pick a new team for you that you can call your own, (as you clearly need the help), and we'll all keep trying to do better next time.'

I'd welcome posters sending in cases where this highly unusual 'change model' has been applied. Btw, the Harvard Business School would be interested as well.

 

[Gnostic]

My concern is that "cleaning house" left us with these couple of guys. If we have a bad year and need to clean again before the Lions get here, our preparation will be pretty shit because we'd be getting rid of a really integral coach to the wallaby setup with only 3 (4 if you include the assistant).

Then again maybe the assistant is the fall guy to protect the other 3 in 2013. I am sick of our constant rebuilding phases, let's just get on with it and start winning.

Would that be like Richard Graham deciding to become an assistant at the Force just before the RWC? An event that is for most the crowning achievement no matter what capacity they are involved in yet "he" decided to leave.

 

[RedsHappy]

I have new news from Totality Tony, and it's a beauty, especially to those of us that were uplifted by the 'long game' strategy of Robbie D, apparently stated in 2009, that had us 'developing the Wallabies for the real goal - namely the 2011 RWC.' This masterful play did not end well, but as great poets and others have noted: "The journey's the thing", and I guess we can all be satisfied that, yes, we went on a journey, and it felt like one.

Well, fellow posters and patient followers of the Wallabies and subtle, gradual approaches to their next path to greatness, I am delighted to reveal (as per the quote highlighted below) that TT has today just announced:

"We are now working towards the next World Cup in England in 2015..."

Can we enjoy another journey, all over again?

Warwick Wallaby
Warwick Daily News
Gerard Walsh | 9th May 2012 10:00 AM

Head coach of Munster and former Warwick player Tony McGahan has taken on the coaching co- ordinator gig for the Wallabies.

TONY McGahan won't forget about Warwick when he takes his place in the Wallabies coaching box a month from tonight at Suncorp Stadium.

Last month, McGahan was appointed Wallabies coaching co-ordinator. The Wallabies' first Test of the season is against Scotland in Newcastle on June 5. They play Wales at Suncorp Stadium on June 9 and then in Melbourne and Sydney on the following two Saturdays.

He gives a lot of credit to Bill McVeigh and Greg Carey at Collegians juniors, Peter Nolan and David Abood at the Cowboys for a successful career as a player and coach.

"They really helped me with my footy in Warwick," McGahan said.

In 1990, he was halfback and captain of the Warwick Cowboys under-18 side which won the Toowoomba Rugby League premiership under the coaching of Abood. Now, 22 years later, McGahan will soon take on a role with the Wallabies in rugby union where he is understudy to head coach Robbie Deans.

McGahan said the support from his mother Marion was the sole reason he had achieved so much.

"She has shown us that we can achieve anything with strength and perseverance. Mum continues to be an inspiration," he said.

"It was a tough time, absolutely, after the death of my dad (John) when I was 13, the oldest of four."

After leaving school and playing rugby league for the Broncos under-21 side for two years and a bit of reserve-grade, McGahan worked in physical education as a teacher, and his career as a coach evolved at Nudgee College, Churchie and with Easts rugby club in Brisbane.

McGahan said his role with the Wallabies was to add value to the program.

"We are now working towards the next World Cup in England in 2015," he said.

Depending on the progress of Munster in the finals, McGahan could be home as early as May 18.

It was an Ireland victory against the Wallabies which put Deans and his team in a finals battle against the All Blacks last year and elimination from the cup.

"In the top-four, there is not a lot of room for error," McGahan said.

"You have to empower the players to be successful."

In eight years at Munster in Ireland, McGahan was assistant coach for Heineken Cup wins in 2005-2006 and 2007-2008, and head coach for Magners League wins in 2008-2009 and 2010-2011.

"I had a wonderful time in Ireland and received fantastic support at Munster," McGahan said.

"I am looking forward to going home to Australia."

 

[cyclopath]

TT has a fine grasp of vectors. At least he was not working backwards towards the 2007 one...

 

[redstragic]

I have new news from Totality Tony, and it's a beauty, especially to those of us that were uplifted by the 'long game' strategy of Robbie D, apparently stated in 2009, that had us 'developing the Wallabies for the real goal - namely the 2011 RWC.' This masterful play did not end well, but as great poets and others have noted: "The journey's the thing", and I guess we can all be satisfied that, yes, we went on a journey, and it felt like one.

Well, fellow posters and patient followers of the Wallabies and subtle, gradual approaches to their next path to greatness, I am delighted to reveal (as per the quote highlighted below) that TT has today just announced:

"We are now working towards the next World Cup in England in 2015..."

Can we enjoy another journey, all over again?

I do agree with you that it is the journey that is important, that defines us. It is what we do along the way and not what we did at journey's end that is what we will be judged on.

It is important that our journey has a strong narrative that we can all believe in. That this period of rebuilding that started in 2009 and will culminate sometime in 2015 to 2035 will give us the self actualisation we all need to complete us. Please God, let me not draw my final breadth before it is done.

Lets not judge our success by the earthly pleasure of collecting trophies, these victories are fleeting. It is the moral victories, those victories that the scoreboard cannot reflect we must take our greatest satisfaction from..................

.....................or some such shit. Anything to get me through another year of this.

 

[cyclopath]

It's about the road less travelled. You know, the road that leads to trophies...

 

[redstragic]

It's about the road less travelled. You know, the road that leads to trophies...

I think JON is a lot deeper than that. He is not into the hollow materialism of acquiring trinkets like trophies. The sooner the rest of the organization realizes this the better.

 

[Gnostic]

Maybe JON has become Budhist and has determined that winning will cause "harm" to other nations and their inhabitants so he is ensuring that no harm is done.