The ongoing tragedy of Matt Giteau’s lost form
Columnist By Garth Hamilton, 9 Apr 2011 Garth Hamilton is a Roar Expert
- Tagged:
- Brumbies, Matt Giteau, Rugby Union, Super Rugby, wallabies
“It’s certainly a phenomenon in all walks of life … at one time, you’ve got it, and then you lose it and its gone forever” – Sick Boy, Trainspotting. Matt Giteau divides us it seems.
There are those who point to the good times, peaking somewhere around 2004, when he was part of a remarkable backline combination that began at the feet of George Gregan, ghosted toward the opposition in Stephen Larkham’s hands and barged ever forwards in the arms of Stirling Mortlock.
Back then he was part of something bigger than all of them; his talent not curtailed by his team-mates but exaggerated by them.
Then there are those who point to the later years and the problem he has presented to Australian rugby.
Obviously highly skilled, but no longer so obviously part of the team, he seemed to belong in the Australian jersey but he never seemed to belong in any one position.
Not a nine, not a ten. Not a twelve anymore and never a thirteen. Could he have bloomed in the back three? Would he even get a run there now?
Both views of the man are right though for, as clearly as he did have it, he has since clearly lost it.
There were reports, usually sourceless, usually Growden, that painted him as an egomaniac, jealous of the number 10 and holding the team’s development to ransom.
They were easy to believe given his status as Australia’s highest paid domestic footballer in an underperforming team.
The thing is that with sportsmen it is harder to remember their good times. Musicians, artists, film-makers, writers; they all get to leave something tangible that can be taken in again and again. A performance that will always be the peak of their work.
Most sportsmen have only their last game. Beyond that the haze settles and other things get in the way.
Sentimentality favours those who have stood up on the grand occasions.
Sometimes its for the better: Jonny Wilkinson threw far too many genuinely terrible passes in his career to be put in the same class as Dan Carter or Larkham but his kicking and tackling drown out the doubters.
More often its for the worse: Ronan O’Gara’s rugby career will be looked back on with disappointment by many Lions supporters, Paul Briggs’ brilliant boxing career won’t be reflected on with admiration by the masses and Tiger Woods is spending millions on image consultants to make people forget his personal life.
The shame is that Giteau’s apparent arrogance will cloud our memories of a very good rugby player. That he isn’t the player he once was, if the opening quote is right, is nothing to be ashamed of. It happens to all of us.
My enduring memory of him involves me standing in a deep Edinburgh chill, warded off only slightly by the contents of my friend’s hipflask, shaking my head as the touch judges shook their flags at his missed kick at goal.
If I think hard there was a wonderful no-look inside flick pass to James Horwill a couple of years back that was as good as any I’ve seen but … for whatever reason that isn’t the Giteau that I choose to remember.
He has half a season of Super Rugby and potentially a World Cup with which to draw a close to this chapter of his rugby career. It would be great for him to leave a memory worthy of his talent.
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- Brumbies, Matt Giteau, Rugby Union, Super Rugby, wallabies
April 9th 2011 @ 5:55am
Sherry said | April 9th 2011 @ 5:55am | Report comment
Tragedy is way too strong. He’s healthy, he’s getting paid top dollar, he’s got a contract in France – disappointment is more apt. His career probably reached its nadir when he was tackled by Lawes in the England game. Second rowers aren’t supposed to get speedy little inside backs at all let alone around the legs. Matt might have been better off to stay at halfback, where he did a good enough job, but the scribes hailed him as the new Tim Horan and everybody believed it. Everybody except Tim Horan.
And the reason why Wilko can’t be mentioned in the same breath as Larkham is because he never ran the gap very well. Never controlled a game the way Carter does. But he’s still in the team and might figure largely, once again, at the RWC.
Gits will make the squad but will probably be used only in the pool games against Russia and the Eagles.
April 9th 2011 @ 8:08am
Wingersliketowatch said | April 9th 2011 @ 8:08am | Report comment
If he was remarkable a few years ago he could be so again. I don’t know him. I don’t know how much truth is in the negative press about him – but if he can find form before the Tri Nations we cannot afford to throw away that level of talent and experience.
I can see him coming off the bench in a crucial WC match and creating the winning play. Similar for Mortlock. We cannot afford to have apprentices on the bench in WC year. We may need Giteau and Mortlock in the mix.
April 9th 2011 @ 8:20am
peeeko said | April 9th 2011 @ 8:20am | Report comment
could you also say that Matt Giteau is the rugby version of Michael Clarke in that he is the Gen Y poster boy “despised” by older generations?
April 9th 2011 @ 10:50am
LeftArmSpinner said | April 9th 2011 @ 10:50am | Report comment
Peeeko, Your comparison caught my attention. There is a superficial comparison of Giteau and Clarke. Both have a long term fatal flaw in their technique.
But, after just a second or two of thought, nope, they are cut from very different cloth. If they were to use the same Julio dress sense, the mental toughness and individuals appear to be very different. Giteau does the yards. Clarke is an underperformer that has had too easy a run. when it is hard runs, Clarke is invisible. Giteau, this season, after just one win and five consecutive losses, is topping the stats for the team in all departments.
April 18th 2011 @ 3:17pm
RebelRanger said | April 18th 2011 @ 3:17pm | Report comment
I daresay he is despised by the younger generation as well.
April 9th 2011 @ 9:03am
AJ said | April 9th 2011 @ 9:03am | Report comment
he could find it again,I think what is annoying is that he wasn’t shuffled along to 12 or the bench when it became obvious he wasn’t cutting it.That’s where there’s similarity to the cricket team-we simply aren’t good enough to carry passengers,particularly when theyre behind the wheel.
April 9th 2011 @ 9:14am
taya said | April 9th 2011 @ 9:14am | Report comment
some very good comments and regardless of the good plays, the bad plays and the ugly ones Gits is the master of his destiny and it seems there are times where he just does not care !! so perhaps the quesion may be does he care enough to support the team mates, the sport he ‘loves’? and fans that encourgaed his talent?
what really upsets me and what i willi remember is the look on his face over the past few years when he missed all those penalty shots that would have won Australia and his team mates the game – the grin, the smile, the lack of care, the ‘oh well i missed’ but i am still being paid !!!
IMO he cares more about himself than his team mates ..
April 9th 2011 @ 9:17am
taya said | April 9th 2011 @ 9:17am | Report comment
sorry and ps to the Gen Y comment – nothing to do with age my friend – this is purely about maturity, respect and care !! of which he and Clarke do not seem to show..
April 9th 2011 @ 10:05am
John Rogers said | April 9th 2011 @ 10:05am | Report comment
Dallas says: Giteau’s great failing is that he has never been able to straighten & draw a tackler, and then ‘time a pass’ to create a gap – like Mark Ella did and now Cipriani. He simply shovels the ball on, forcing the backline to go sideways – or has a run, so is essentially an individualist – a brilliant one early, but these days can’t make the gap. The solution for the Wallabies is to play him as a halfback – remember that World Cup match as Gregan’s understudy? How good would he be off the bench and how much better will his presence force Genia to play.
April 9th 2011 @ 10:08am
taya said | April 9th 2011 @ 10:08am | Report comment
i do not think he should be selected – he is not playing well so select on merit not history – is this not always our failing with ‘past’ talent?
April 9th 2011 @ 10:45am
LeftArmSpinner said | April 9th 2011 @ 10:45am | Report comment
Garth, matt Giteau has never been one of my favourite players. I realise that he is very talented. he has survived the Jones era of being thrown in to test rugby as pivot without a super 14 start. He has played in mediocre teams and under mediocre coaches.
To his credit, and with money as a partial motivator, he was part, a central part of the Force’s arrival. Australian Rugby benefit every day from their presence. Sharpe and Mitchell ditto!
Interestingly, Gits’s stats this year and in past years have always been indication of a consistent and committed performance. He has the breadth of involvement that makes Dan Carter the worlds most valuable player. They kick goals, make tackles, line breaks etc and make few errors in doing so. Giteau has not become Carter, not even remotely. the difference is that Carter knows how to play rugby as a team sport. Not a commentary on their respective team ethos, rather an observation of their ability to make the backline hum!!!
Here is the “But”!!
Giteau has never mastered this skill. even with Deans at his side and now, Larkham, Giteau continues to run cross field and not “set” the defence as they slide. Just ask loyal Brumbie Kafe. Last week in his hugely intelligent and informative chalkboard, Kafe explained the problem.
His frustration at missing the VC in 2009 was embarrassing.
I read the comments above and they are saying the same thing.
But, he seems to be very able at the humorous sledge of teammates and so I expect that he is fun to be around.
Lets hope that he finds that final piece of the pie. remember he is only 27-28!
April 9th 2011 @ 10:47am
stu said | April 9th 2011 @ 10:47am | Report comment
Love the sick boy quote!
Giteau was a very good player – but the media built him into a ‘great’ – i still recall articles matching him up against Carter – which was always ridiculous, akin to comparing chess and checkers
In the end the issue is pure darwinism. The problem is that ‘kid dynamite’ never grew up to be Mr Dynamite – He’s still trying to play the same game as he always has based on snippy accelaration and a clever step. His development peaked in 2005 and since then he has been plateauing and slowly declining.
He never invested into making himself a better player, because he was continually told that he was our best. Giteau’s disease is that he has a sense of entitlement, not self improvement.
He should have been dropped a few time, but until recently there was noone to replace him. Now he’s probably part of the RWC 30 – but not the match day 22.
Contrast him with Mitchell – Mitchell has been forced to develop, through competition – he has become a better player.
Giteau still has the opportunity to reinvent himself, maybe he will….
April 9th 2011 @ 10:53am
LeftArmSpinner said | April 9th 2011 @ 10:53am | Report comment
But Mitchell got dropped twice before he got the message. Not dropping Giteau, or should I say, not treating him like any other player has possibly resulted in his development stagnating. Tough love.
April 9th 2011 @ 11:13am
stu said | April 9th 2011 @ 11:13am | Report comment
agreed – LAS – competition was meant to imply – you are not good enough you don’t make the team!
April 10th 2011 @ 1:10am
Mick Gold Coast QLD said | April 10th 2011 @ 1:10am | Report comment
“but the media built him into a ‘great’ ”
A bloke named Georg Lichtenberg said a couple of hundred years back “The journalists have constructed for themselves a little wooden chapel, which they also call the Temple of Fame, in which they put up and take down portraits all day long and make such a hammering you can’t hear yourself speak.”
Just tonight I endured the Australian rugby media and near turned my back on both games, wishing for a Jim Maxwell type radio feed, Cricinfo or even Roy and HG’s satirical call.
Players’ Union 24 hour representative Kafer only has to spot one of his several favourites lacing his boots or taking the field to declare him “brilliant”. If they miss a tackle he contracts momentary mute. Glorious Giteau or O’Connor could score an own try and we’d never know from Kafer.
“Right from the start we could tell you are a natural leader of men” he said to Giteau’s face before another Self Coached and leaderless loss a couple of weeks back. I’m surprised Giteau didn’t respond “I know, I know.” I’ll warrant Giteau has only ever been told he’s “special.”
On Fox Brendan Cannon now puts Kafer like questions-longer-than-answers. On the Rugby Club to Pocock this week: “Do you have any comment on Nathan Sharp, arguably the greatest captain wot ever lived-ed who leads his men better than Douglas Macarthur and who has played 78 games for the Western Force of whom I was the inaugural and most famous hooker, David?” What’s Pocock going to say to that? “Nathan’s an unbearable plick of a man and I hate his guts”?
He was at it again tonight with a simply lovely, thoughtful politically correct “… such a distressing sight” as they replayed Shepherd tumbling high over another’s back and landing on his face. As occassionally happens in rugby. (My son told me of one of his young workers who is “afraid” of playing front row. I’m not surprised when they hear such a description from the likes of Cannon.)
Gordon Bray, as educated an authority on rugby as you’ll find, met obscurity years ago after he turned into a virtual media promotions manager on behalf of all that is Australian rugby. Before that he enjoyed high regard as a truly objective observer of the game on ABC coverage of Sydney Club games. Papworth became on ABC what he used be (but he’s a Mighty Woods man, so that’s to be expected
).
Melanie Robinson, Ian Jones and even Justin Marshall, recently, leave this lot for dead in the ITM Cup coverage – comprehensive comment, interviews of people other than each other, objective critiques. Even NZ Fox’ commentator Tony Jones, especially with Mexted, offers a two sided account of the game. What’s our Fox anchor Greg Clarke focus on? Tonight it was “Nathan Sharp’s 139th game.” Last week he announced, breathlessly, his 138th. Listen next week for news of “Nathan Sharp’s 140th game.”
April 9th 2011 @ 12:21pm
mattamkII said | April 9th 2011 @ 12:21pm | Report comment
Just got back from Sri Lanka and, in between being torn to pieces by Spiros fans in another post for questioning the great mans ideas to further confuse the scrum rules, I caught up with all the rugby I recorded while away.
First game was Red V Brumbies.
Gits played exactly like some mentioned above and how he has for years….BS shovel passes to a flat back line and or runs my granny could shut down.
The two or three solid pieces he played was when he took the ball as 2nd receiver. No shock there.
The worry about Gits now is that in the past you could argue that he made the Wallabies because of his good Super 14 form. Now, he doesn’t even have that.
April 9th 2011 @ 12:59pm
Who Needs Melon said | April 9th 2011 @ 12:59pm | Report comment
Here’s the thing. Both Mortlock and Giteau are in their waning years. There’s no denying that. For both of them this will be their last shot.
For me, if I were given the choice between a young up-and-comer and Mortlock and they were both playing at about the same standard I would pick Mortlock. Why? Because he seems to be a leader who can get the most out of those around him and he has a history of making big plays when it counts.
Conversely I would not pick Giteau given a similar choice. I don’t think his experience inspires positivity in those around him like Mortlock does. In fact I think I think he may even be a negative influence. In his case I would rather have someone who is hungry and out to prove himself and establish himself and who had no ‘baggage’ and wasn’t mentally halfway to the other side of the world.
April 9th 2011 @ 1:57pm
Blinky Bill of Bellingen said | April 9th 2011 @ 1:57pm | Report comment
Look I know I’m going to get shot down here for this but here goes……….
I work a lot with youth and this idea of Lots of Rights and No Responsibility thing has been around for so long now that those kids now have children of their own and guess what? Yep you guessed it, the clueless child breeds children who are believe it or not even more clueless than they were. And society keeps on accepting it by accomodating them and their deficiencies.
So what’s the point? Simply this these kids and young men needed to be sorted out from the very beginning, sat on their arse and told to work on themselves before expecting anything.
In the old days it was a case of start a new job and you get handed a broom to sweep the floor. Learn a bit of humilty, demonstrate a bit of work ethic and then the boss introduces you to the next rung on the ladder.
All those that went before you also swept the floor and went through the same system. What system do these young fellas know?
For them it’s too often straight out of school as a good schoolboy level footballer, into the media beat-up of ‘the next star is born’ and they start believing the hype, and the damage is starting.
I blame the system. hang on a minute ………is there one?
Sorry guys but that’s how I’m seeing it.