Albeit it was probably time for a change, but EM changed NSW from a basket case into one of the more consistent sides in Super Rugby.

Spiro has differentiated himself from the likes of Peter Roebuck by being exact in what was said / emailed to him. Privacy is an extremely important part of democracy, and any democratic process.

Spiro has read the situation accurately in regard to E.M, and Stillmissit has provided a great source for contrast to the Tah’s game.

I do wonder if the Tah’s problems can be partly sourced in its sense of identity. Having lived in Queensland, it wasn’t hard to notice that Queenslanders get a large aspect of their identity from their opposition/hatred of NSW. However, NSW doesn’t have the same reference point. Also note that Brisbane, up until quiet recently, has been a ‘large town’ more than a big city. This had an advantage in terms of ‘localising’ support. An example is the one-town phenomenon of the Brisbane Broncos.

I wonder if the Waratahs need to cease to be representative of NSW start to think about a corral location around which the players can focus. West Sydney, East Sydney…whatever. I remember Tahu saying that he was surprised by the distance the RU players travelled to training. Is there any other team in the S14 with players living so far away from each other as NSW? Does this impact on the players?

Thoughts?

Greg.

‘2. Coaching personality

Decide what type of coach you want to be. Select a little from each coach on the
menu i.e. mentors you admire. Be yourself don’t pretend to be someone else.
Develop your own individual coaching personality.
Do you want to be an attacking or defensive coach?

Kevin Sheedy is a risk taker, never frightened to rotate players and experiment
“I wasn’t going to be a boring person, I don’t want a boring footy side that doesn’t win
games and wont fill stadiums. My job is to fill our 95,000 seat stadium. I have one
client, Essendon Football Club and has been for 20 years.’

I think the last sentence sums up what the job is all about – don’t you?

I thought it sounded like Nick Shehadi (or however you spell it) he gets pretty worked up at times.

Whoever he was, he stated very eloquently what many of us supporters are feeling.

We want this team to show some development contrary to Armchair’s Qld’er view of NSW. I also want to see us building a 5/8th to go with Beale not hoping that one falls out of the trees and that person should be SNK.

I think that starting the game with SNK and then bringing on Beale as an impact player at 5/8th for the last 30 mins could be very interesting. Particularly if SNK was moved say to full back, moving Turner to wing and Lote to the bench and then open up the attacking throttle.

I was baying for his blood and feel relieved that we get another chance at the mystery box that is NSW rugby. There are several here who would agree with me. The rest of you are nice guys who although stating your concerns about EM were not happy with how the ‘Move’ was handled. That’s fair enough.

Then if you feel that Ewan McKenzie, good guy and well thought of by the players and the traps should have been kept on after this season then please say so clearlty and unambiguously.

I for one would like to see us try another coach this S14.

He made a good choice of getting Elsom which Sportym pointed out, and developed into a top class back rower.

He got rid of Morgan Turinui which was a good thing.

As for Hoiles, it was a great loss. Like Ben C I have always thought that Hoiles should be given the open side flanker position. He is built like Richie Mackaw and has great passing skills to add to his speed.

Josh Holmes was a great under 21 player and was captain. All he needs is some time to come good. Based on S14 performances todate Burgess has my vote.

Cosmos forever – I believe your analysis of the coaching musical chairs could be very close to the mark. Alan Gaffney and Michael Cheika as smokies for the Tahs job.
El Capitan – unlikely to be someone from Randwick on ‘84 tour. More likely to be someone like Dave Brockhoff.
Stilmissit – your observation that not all journalists are the same is spot on. They are just as likely to have “d*ckheads amongst their number as engineers, lawyers and accountants. Well, maybe not lawyers. The range of talent and incisiveness of journalists can be huge – even at the same newspaper. Witness Phil Wilkins and Greg Growden at Fairfax.
I know every sub-editor loves a good headline, but was Ewen really “brutally axed”? His contract was up at the end of this season, and it was decided not to renew it. I believe there is a difference. If he were re-signed, wouldn’t we be just signing up for more of the same, and is that what we want?

I will grant Spiro some slack that I don’t grant to Greg Growden. At least Spiro adds information to his writing and doesn’t rely on gossip and inuendo alone.

Did you not want to hear what an un-named ex wallaby wants to say? No! then Ignore it, it’s easy. We are; at least most of us, prone to a little gossip from time to time and I for one don’t believe the official sources of information. They are the result of a round table discussion on how to put a spin on the story and little of it rings of the truth.

I still believe we will live to regret losing Josh Holmes even if Burgess becomes a good player. Hoiles was a different story he was in the ‘very fast but is he good enough’ basket as far as I was concerned. Still it continues to be the case that we dump players and they turn into great players elsewhere. This points to the NSW environment being the wrong place to develop young talent. I think we are always looking for Jesus Crist to step up and take over 5/8 and all would be well. As for the rest of the players well the opinion seems to be who cares?

The other problem is the money available. I bet if Johnathan Thurston indicated an interest in turning to rugby there would be a million on the table by the end of the week if not sooner. Therefore why do the development work, when you can just buy what you want. BTW he would most probably be another wasted investment.

There is a difference between a well known rugby journalist who has had his reputation out in the public for many years disclosing material from an unidentified source when he is known to have such contacts and one of the anonymous contributors to this site like me trying the same thing. You may assign less weight to the comments without knowing the specific source and whether he had an agenda but it isn’t inappropriate for Spiro to refer to such material. Make whatever use of it you will but there is no reason to shoot the messenger.

Hoiles was a loss to NSW. They should have tried him at openside flanker as he has the speed for it. A backrow of Hoiles, Elsom and Palu/Lyons would have been an interesting experiment, particular as Ewen seems to appreciate the a good big man is better than a good smaller man theory of selection. Holmes I thought was a loss but he hasn’t performed as well as expected in the ACT. Burgess, if he ever gets some game time, may prove to be a better long term choice. Hewat had his strengths and weaknesses but I think he should have been kept until we had a decent goal kicker in the team. I bet teams are less afraid of infringing knowing NSW does have an accurate kicker like Burke or Hewat to punish them consistently.

EM to France
Laurie Fisher to high performance role ARU
Todd Louden to Brumbies
Nucifora to remain at the Blues
NSW – up the creek but by having their hand forced hire one of the high quality club coaches they should have hired all along!

Either way, lets hope who ever replaces EM, will be courageous enough to let the players play with style and running rugby. Too many coaches follow the stats and not letting players with a natural ability take control.

As for the source of Spiro’s comments, I would think it would have been one of the greats that played for Randwick and played in the Grand slam of 84?

No wonder you New South Welshmen are stuffed!

As for your ‘don’t blame us, we’re just stating the facts’ line defending journalistic integrity – “Journalists do not invent stories like this. They come from ‘informed’ sources”, I don’t doubt that they come from informed sources, but they also come from informed sources who have agendas to push, politics to play, backs to stab etc. And you willingly play along with their airing of dirty laundry (all in order to keep your ‘most favoured journo’ status and keep the flow of insider gossip, leaks and private emails going) gives you no right to piously claim innocence or the defence of ‘just reporting the facts’ that you have raised on the roar previously.

As for the Tah’s, while the style of play this year and last has been mind numbingly boring, what was Link meant to do. Our forwards have been our only real strong point for a couple of seasons, to think that a midfield of Sheehan, Beale, Carter and Jacobs is going to do a good job of ’spinning it wide’ and playing running rugby is ludicrous in the extreme. We simply don’t have the troops to play an expansive game, although given how our forwards have played this season we barely have the troops to play 10 man rugby either.

On some of your ‘mistakes’ that Link made, I agree that letting Burke go and the obsession with the leaguies were the big ones (although it’s hardly insightful journalism to say the latter, blind freddy could see that this was a mistake). It would’v ebeen preferable to keep Holmes, but the claims that Stephen Hoiles was a big loss is nonsensical. The bloke is lucky to be 100kg dripping wet and as sportym correctly pointed out, he plays the Brumbies basketball style of rugby and was of no use in a team with a forward oriented style. Hewat was a good atacking player but a woeful defender who would not put his body on the line ever and his kicking, which had been a big plus for the Tah’s, had gone off the boil by the end of last season. The lack of a decent 5/8 is a problem, but when was the last time NSW had a decent 5/8 who could “steer them around tha park to a championship victory”, it was well before McKenzie took over. As for why was Melrose sacked, I’m sure you got plenty of tipoffs, inside goss and private emails on this, but I assume they probably don’t support your viewpoint on the matter so they’ve been kept quiet.

You sound just like all of us Waratahs supporters, a certain angst and unfullfilled dreams, the reality from my blinkered world is that Australian rugby has underperformed since Rod McQueens time.

Good managers make things happen. Lets hope that a new era is coming.

Anyway dont know what you can gripe about you have a team that is on the accendancy and is looking better each week. As I wrote in my blog ‘Those Reds are Turning my Head’. They are showing what Queensland rugby should be about and that is guts and determination and combining it with some flair.

GENERALLY – did anyone hear Eddie Jones on Foxtel last night giving the European coaches a score for their season?
He made me laugh when he stated that one coach had got his team to kick well and kept the pressure on the opposition and tried to play the game in thier half but still managed to come nowhere. No wonder we have this madness of kicking the remains of the ball back all the time, it was a national obsession under Eddie and Ewan just did the same thing.

I have no doubt this comment will attract significant wrath from the roaring crowd, but I care not.

You Waratahs fans crack me up.

I read so many comments from NSW fans that the Waratahs have been perennial underperformers – not just over the past 5 years, but over the last 20. Many fans can’t wait for the time when all the prodigious talent within NSW gets unlocked, and the tahs take their rightful place at the top of the tree.

Allow me to show you what you sound like if I were to replace your team with my team (The Reds)….

“The Reds over the past 5-6 years have not actually been a poor rugby team at all, they are in actual fact a world beating provincial team whose potential has yet to be unlocked……”

I know that this may come as a shocking concept given the NSW-centric bias in many Australian sports…but maybe the waratahs are not a team full of unrealised potential, maybe ~20 years of average results (super 14 final excluded) means they’re actually just not a very good rugby team.

You waratahs fans crack me up.

I read so many comments from NSW fans that the Waratahs have been perrenial underperformers – not just over the past 5 years, but over the last 20. Many fans can’t for the time when all the prodigious talent within NSW gets unlocked, and the tahs take their rightful place at the top of the tree.

show you what you sound like, If I were to replace your team with my team (The Reds)….

The reds over the past 5-6 years have not actually been a poor rugby team at all, they are in actual fact a world beating provincial team whose potential has yet to be unlocked……

I know that this may come as a shocking concept given the NSW-centric bias in many Australian sports…but maybe the waratahs are not a team full of unrealised potential, maybe ~20years of average results (super 14 final exluded) means they’re actually just not a very good rugby team.

Though i have to say that there is always frustration when the press quote an ‘informed” source or a rugby great etc. The way you introduced this Rugby great is fantastic…”a man of immense ‘mana’ (a Maori word meaning leadership, prestige, charisma, and intelligence) in the rugby world as a player and coach, and in the business world” Does he lack the Guts, courage and honour to be named as a source? I have little respect for people for attack others and hide behind the press as an informed source. If the press is going to use these “high pedigree sources” put a name to them…..courage is word they might want to think about.

As for EW, it was under him that the waratahs have had thier best Super 12/14 seasons. They have been the super 12 underachivers since the start of the competition, not EW’s fault. Its more of a cultural issue.

Problem with the waratahs is that they have access to too many quality players, hence the lack of a real development program. Take beale, seen as a golden saviour of NSW rugby has been given free entry into the waratahs….too soon. NSW needs a development program.

I also have an issue with blaming EW for loosing Stephen Hoiles and Josh Holmes, had these players stayed in NSW they would still be underachiving. The reason i say this, is cause hoiles does not fit the Waratahs style of play, he has excelled at the brumbies cause thier style of play being based around a mobile quick pack, look at the history of the brumbies, they have never had a big number 8, always a light fast number 8. There are few teams that hoiles would fit into, he is perfect for the brumbies. As for Josh holmes, yes he had a great couple games at the end of last year but has not fired at the brumbies this year yet, as much praise as people give him…he is yet to live upto it in the super 14. I do not think EW made any mistakes with these 2. Signing Elmson far out weighs these 2. EW’s problem is that he should bench waugh/lote, but NSWRU has invested too much in lote and Waugh has too much power at the waratahs. Good luck to whoever takes over, but hopefully they get all the power they need to make sweeping changes to the team.

what an insightful observation and so true.

Unfortunately in all walks of business life, decision making has disappeared over the last 15 years. The gutless and unimaginative are running the major and minor companies and the government has always been that way.

If you dont make a decision you cant be responsible for its results. Then they expect the coaches/managers of this world to be radical decision makers and live or die by them. No wonder Ewan McKenzie survived for 5 years in NSW, he is exactly the same as the NSW management team and its board most probably. To back up this assumption look at how E McK backed away from the Wallabies job. Couldnt have run faster backwards.

As a mate of mine says “There would be no wars if the person who started the war had to lead from the front line until the war ended”

“The Auckland Blues’ Australian coach David Nucifora has also been linked to the job, but it is understood he has not impressed the right people at the Waratahs.”

Are these the same people who left EM in charge for 5 years…God help you Waratahs!!

This emerging practice of giving the coach the first few weeks as an indicator is really just a cowards way out for administrators to say “we didn’t have the guts to sack this bloke at the end of last season so we’ll let him hang himself”.

If you give someone a contract stand by it – or wait until the end of the season and get rid of them then. I know it’s about accessing the coaching market BEFORE the end of the season but if it shows anyone’s incompetent it really highlights the administrators.

EM, Nathan Brown etc – all should have been gone last November if the administrators weren’t happy…

I agree too that Peter Hewat was a brilliant player, but with a couple of caveats on that, namely that he was too slow and couldn’t tackle. Granting Hewat a release opened up an opportunity for Lachie Turner, a better footballer at this early stage of his career than Peter Hewat ever was.

Dexter – if Burke was too strong within the NSW team then the most stupid thing you could do would be to sack him. It sends out a bad smell to the rest of the troups. Better to keep a talented player and either exert your personal strength ‘over’ him and he would settle in and produce for you or he would get the shits and leave on his own account. Anyway the team would benefit in your first year. I personally think that Matt Burke had only one more S12 season in him anyway.

Justin Harrison was a much bigger loss and something that could have made an impact on how we played the Crusaders by doing the mongrel stuff and showing the other younger forwards how to stand up to them.

The old NSW way of doing just enough to get by and then bathe in the glory of the money seems to have shown itself again. It is very ugly and for the half of the team that are trying to win it must be so frustrating. You can see it on Waugh’s face every week although he, rightly, never says anything.

The worst thing that is happening in the Waratahs is the young players ie Turner, Polatu Nou, Beale, Burgess seem totally frustrated with this conservative play and it may set a pattern that will be hard to get out of. Even a few of the older players ie Elsom, Vickerman and Palu seem in a similar situation. The only player who appears comfortable is Lote and he just goes home and counts his bank balance and has a bit of a chuckle to himself and thinks ‘how stupid are these rah rah’s mate’.

We dont need a genius coach we need a devious, passionate, winner who is prepared to make the hard decisions for the good of the team regardless of the politics from the HO.