By Spiro Zavos
November 26th 2007 @ 9:08am
It might be Alan Jones, after all
When Alan Jones put his hand up to become the Wallaby coach I insisted that he wouldn’t get the job.
There were three strikes against him in my view. First, he couldn’t do the Wallaby job and continue with his radio requirements. Second, the last time he’d put his hand up, before Rod Macqueen was appointed, John O’Neill had chopped it off. And third, although his record is the second-best of all Wallaby coaches, after Macqueen, that was over 20 years ago and rugby coaching is a different game now.
Since this fearless prediction was made things have changed. Jones has announced that if he were made coach he’d give up his radio job. The rift between Jones and O’Neill seems to have been healed, although there is no hard proof of this. And something of a momentum has been generated in favour of Jones.
This momentum has been created by Jones’ own persuasiveness. He has made a compelling case for himself. I know from personal experience how persuasive he can be. I went down to the launch of a two-volume book on Australian rugby once and was talked (by Jones) into buying a $200 copy of a book I didn’t really want to read, or have ever read. So he would have been very persuasive at the meeting with the selection panel.
Jones’ mates in the media, most of them rugby league people, have been very insistent on his appointment as coach with Roy Masters and Ray Chesterton, influential old-timers, supporting Jones to the hilt.
There is a feeling in Australian rugby, too, that the plot has been lost. Jones has presented himself as something of a Moses destined to lead the rugby tribe out of the wilderness. Even Nick Farr-Jones has expressed this sort of view. I was chatting to a former Wallaby and specialist coach a day or so ago and he agreed with me that Jones’ attraction was his influence with sponsors and his pitch that he can revitalise the game.
I believe that if this is the belief then Jones should be offered the job as chairman of selectors. He would have considerable influence. He could still keep his radio job. He wouldn’t have to coach, which he can’t be expected to do 20 years on. But he would be there for the big picture.
The problem with making predictions in matters like this is that a person is inclined to predict what he believes should happen, which is not necessarily what will happen.
With my memory of Jones’ tendency to be divisive and hostile to anyone perceived as anything but an adoring supporter, l believe that giving him the Wallabies would be a bad thing for Australian rugby. I’m not sure, either, whether making him chairman of selectors is a good thing either. But it is the lesser of the two evils and brings Jones within the rugby tent rather than being outside it and dumping on it from there.
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onside said | November 26th 2007 @ 9:45am | Report comment
Keep predicting Spiro. It stimulates thought.That’s far more important than being right or wrong.
And anyway , your subtle assessment of Jones never escaped us roar readers and that is,
the reason Jones presented himself as a later day Moses , is he’s a basket case.
THE FEND said | November 26th 2007 @ 3:44pm | Report comment
I agree, he’s a basket case.
If he becomes the coach of the Wallabies, I’m moving to New Zealand.
Terry Kidd said | November 27th 2007 @ 12:28pm | Report comment
Jones as an orator, motivator and facilitator is worth listening to because he always provokes thought and comment no matter whether you agree with him or not, you will still think and talk about what he said …. notice I said nothing about coaching. I believe he was successful as a coach, way back when, because he had a core of very talented players that he was able to motivate into doing marvellous feats on the field, but where did the game plans come from?
Spiro Zavos said | November 27th 2007 @ 1:30pm | Report comment
If you believe the rugby correspondents of the time like Evan Whitton, the best of all the rugby writers in my view, the actual coaching was done by Alec Evans. But Alan Jones had two strengths as a coach they deserve noting: first, he was a good selector (except when faviouritism reared its ugly head): second, he was strong on strategy. These two elements combined – again with the proviso about the favouritism fault – enabled him to ’shape’ a winning team. For instance, Bob Dwyer had dropped Stephen Cutler because, according to Dwyer, he wasn’t mobile enough around the field. Jones reinstated Cutler and brought in Dr Campbell from Queensland in a two-lighthouse second row strategy that gave the Wallabies a dominance of the lineouts, before the era of lifting, that was fundamental to success of his sides.
He had major faults, though, as a coach. He was too willing to bawl out players who he thought were responsible for failures. His excellent selection skills were sometimes forgotten in his willingness to play favourites. His insistence on controlling every aspect of the lives of his players finally wore away at their enthusiasm. His tendency to divide-and-rule meant that in the end he split the Wallaby camp, and Australian rugby world.
Terry Kidd said | November 27th 2007 @ 1:39pm | Report comment
and thats why I enjoy reading your thoughts …. because you reinforce rugby history in a foggy mind (mine) that tends to forget quite a few facts. Yeah, Alec Evans did probably do most of the basic stuff … did Jones select him for that role? … if so, then that fact is another plus for his selection ability.
onside said | November 27th 2007 @ 3:24pm | Report comment
The whole problem with the Jones debate is, THE PAST IS PROLOGUE.
In todays environment, the good bad or simply ugly about Alan Jones ‘
contribution to rugby, matters nought. Its irrelevent . The Jones era has
been over for very very long time..GET OVER IT.The problem with the
Wallabies performing to thier max lies not with the coach but with the
ARU. The ARU directs traffic.The Wallabies performed to the absolute
best of their abilities at the recent RWC.The ARU put Connelly in as a
cautious coach ,who selected a cautious team ,that played play a very
unAustralian cautious game. Everything worked to plan. Who please
tell me was in any way surprised. Certainly not the rational unemotive
bookmakers. Jones is to todays Wallabies what steel wool is to dish
washing machines .Both were indespensable in their day.
Eric said | November 28th 2007 @ 7:40am | Report comment
I say it again. Read Jonestown, by Chris Masters, then tell me that Allan Jones would be a good coach. The bloke is a deeply unhappy, self-centred hypocrite. Go on, read it.
Bob McGregor said | December 5th 2007 @ 5:08pm | Report comment
Eric,
I’m not a defender of Alan Jones or whether he should or should not be Wallaby coach again. However, unless an obvious biography on Jones was AUTHORISED by Jones -so as to correct obvious mistakes and ommissions etc – then I wouldn’t waste my time in reading it, as I believe Chris Master’s “slant” on things would be there from start to finish.
Reminds me of the left wing media always quoting the author of one of the UNAUTHORISED biographies of John Howard to comment of this or that. It always resulted in the biased thoughts of the author being taken as gospel. Done often enough what is written “becomes fact” irrespective if it was crap or not. Why wasn’t Howard’s authorised biographer asked to comment? Because the lefties wouldn’t have got the answer they wanted!
By the way I hope Robbie Deans becomes the next Wallaby coach.
Eric said | December 5th 2007 @ 5:56pm | Report comment
Bob, Give Chris Masters some credit. If you read the book you’d go apoplectic if you heard the ARU announce Jones as coach. But, point taken.
Re Deans, I agree he is the best credentialled coach, but I still can’t come to grips with a foreign coach of our national rugby team. That’s just me. Deans has been fantastic at Crusaders, and his formula is relevant to the ongoing followup debate regarding player behaviour on this site. However, no coach will be successful without the 100% suport of the ARU admin and the provinces. Would he get it? Can you see Ewen McKenzie and NSWRU fully behind him? I wonder what the players think privately.
Bob McGregor said | December 5th 2007 @ 6:21pm | Report comment
Eric,
I was on the 44 day Wallaby tour during the RWC in France. After OZ was knocked out we met up with a few Wallabies on our tour coach and at various social functions. I asked most who they would like the new coach to be. Despite your reservations, Robbie Deans was the one most mentioned. Admittedly most were backs and given how negative our back play has become over the past few years I was not surprised to see them nominate Deans.
I really don’t care where our new coach comes from as long as he is committed to the National team and is the “best” available. After all, any professional person would want to succeed in the role delegated to them. It should be remembered the winning captain of the first RWC – NZ’s David Kirk – is now the CEO of Fairfax [Fin Review, SMH etc - Sydney's leading and oldest paper]. We always want the best to run our largest companies, irrespective of where they come from. Only at the political level do we insist the job goes to a citizen of the country.
Nick said | December 5th 2007 @ 9:52pm | Report comment
Bob,
You’re sounding like a right wing christian fundamentalist censor from the 1950s.
“I wouldn’t waste my time in reading it, as I believe Chris Master’s “slant” on things …”. How can you possibly make a judgement on a book you haven’t read.
You weren’t born south of the Mason-Dixon line were you?, You’ll probably accuse me of being some “pinko commie”, next.
Bob, seriously though, I DO care where our national coach comes from, actually I’ll rephrase that, Australia is a multi-cultural country, and I don’t care where our national coach was born, but I feel it important that our national coach has an allegiance to Australia.
As to the contenders up for selection? I not really happy with any of them. None of them are exceptional, they all seem very mediocre to me. It’s all about safety first, and the fear of losing is foremost in their minds. Why didn’t we hear of any club coaches approached for the job, after Alan Jones and Bob Dwyer both came from clubs directly to the Wallaby coach.
Bob McGregor said | December 6th 2007 @ 1:28am | Report comment
Nick,
I’m sorry for you if you really think only an Australian can coach our national team. We learn new and different things every day, irrespective of where we learn them or who is the teacher. Our forward play – especially in the scrum – was considered so poor in the 1950’s and 1960’s we sent out an SOS overseas for someone to come on down to teach us how to scrum. A Welshman – O’Shea if memory serves correctly – answered the call and finally ended up at the academy in Canberra. Thereafter, our forward play in the scrums improved markedly and led to the standard improving to such an extent, our teams have been highly competitive ever since.
We – that is the Rugby family – send “emissaries” world wide to hopefully improve the standard of Rugby in emerging countries, indeed, even to countries that are thought to be “rusted on” adherents and the backbone of the game in both hemispheres. I suppose Wales should be condemned for having Graham Henry, Scott Johnson etc to coach their National team? Numerous other ex AB’s or Enzedders have coached such National teams as Italy, Japan, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga – as well as Scotland [add an Aussie here as well]. Eddie Jones has not only coached OZ but also Japan and Sth Africa. Should he be hog tied to OZ and only OZ? Of course not. Coaching is now a PROFESSION and as such we should not be blinkered into thinking that only an Aussie can coach our National team. Gosh I could go on ad nausea if one included International cricket into this discussion as well. Usually the standard improves from the cross fertilisation of ideas, as does the reach of our great game.
Fiji was coached at the RWC by that great [Fijian] Australian Ile Tabua and what a brilliant job he did. Perhaps we could offer him the job if Deans is unavailable? If a coach with a forward background could get our backline to perform like Fiji did at the RWC then perhaps he should be enticed back to the fold.
Rather than me being “blinkered” and “right wing”, I really think it is you who should take stock and really think about what I really alluded too. If someone writes an expose on an individual – irrespective of the intent and refuses to include a cross section of supporters of that person in the book to get BALANCE, then one will always end up with a contentious, possibly jaundiced view or slant towards the subject matter. Much was written in the print media at the time – it was also discussed at length on TV as well. I followed the thrust of the debate intently. I decided then not to allocate additional time to this debate as I hopefully try to be constructive – not destructive.
We have discussed great OZ Wallaby coaches from the past on earlier occasions and I made the point then that the most successful were not Wallabies except for Dave Brockoff. At one of the forums on the recent RWC tour of France an ex Wallaby with great forward knowledge, was asked why he had no desire to coach. His answer? “It’s time to try something different”. Guess it’s the case of the old adage “those who can.. play, those who can’t.. coach” – or perhaps become referees or comment on blogs!
As for terms such as “multicultural society” to describe OZ – I’d prefer to use the term Australian as that is what we all are, irrespective of our diverse ethnic background. Mine is a mix of NZ, Canadian and Scottish on my father’s side, and OZ, English, French [Huguenot] on my mother’s side. I have very close blood relatives and relatives by marriage who could be described as being black, white or Asian and I love and embrace them all. They are Australian, except when they are citizens of another country. It’s just great to live and breathe in the best there is – even if our Wallaby team is to be coached by an “outsider”.
Eric said | December 6th 2007 @ 3:08am | Report comment
Bob, Initially I thought you wrote you were on the 1944 Wallaby Tour! Look, we all know the arguments about foreign coaches; it is just a preference thing. Would you employ a former Iraqi republican guard general to lead our troops in Iraq?You mentioned David Kirk. Well, I actually think he is a NZ agent because he employs Geg Growden to undermine Aust rugby!
I was coached by the O’Shea you mentioned, (at a low level rugby camp somewhere last century)can’t recall his first name, but I believe he was/is married to one of our great sprinters, Cuthbert maybe. I wonder if their kids can play?
Eric said | December 6th 2007 @ 3:08am | Report comment
PS BOb, Read the bloody book!!!