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In the lead-up to their match against the Brumbies on the weekend, Western Force coach Michael Foley had some really interesting thoughts on the attitude adjustments he and his staff had to undertake after two less-than-ideal performances.
Asked whether ‘attitude’ and the mental side of the game had been a major focus coming into Friday night’s game, Foley’s response was as honest as it was thoughtfully explained.
“Attitude is often misunderstood in sport, because people always associate attitude with aggression. And while aggression is part of attitude, attitude is just how you view and prioritise things.”
“Our attitude at the breakdown has to be better; it has to be more important. We have to be more urgent about it.
“There’s two parts to it: it’s early in the season, and you know that there are things you can build into and you should be able to play better and you have to be totally committed to that. On the other side of the coin, you have to be candid about those performances.
“I think, particularly the Hurricanes game, on that point of attitude, we were ‘off’ and that’s the thing that cuts the most as a football team. If you go out there and play well and get beaten, that’s hard and it stings. But when you go out and you feel like there are elements of the game that you could’ve done better that would’ve made a difference to the outcome, and you just didn’t do that, that’s what gets up your nose.
“For us, we can’t rest on the Waratahs game, but it is a good reference point. Just two weeks ago, our attitude was unbelievable. We had to be good against those guys. There’s been a lot of discussion about how badly they played, but there were things that we anticipated they would do if we did certain things first. So some of the mistake they made, we felt that we drove. And again, you’re just saying simply to the players, ‘we had our priorities and our attitude right for that game’.
“Certainly against the Hurricanes we were off, and against the Brumbies, you’ve got to be right; you’ve got to be spot on.”
Contrast this with all the noise that emanated from north of the border last week, ahead for the Reds age-old clash with the Waratahs.
While former Wallabies Captain, George Gregan, famously once suggested “passion is overrated,” Queensland rugby types lined up to explain how passion was the key to the Reds pulling off the upset, in the oldest derby in Australian rugby.
Former coach Eddie Jones had his say, describing flanker Liam Gill as “a terrific player but far too nice to play Test rugby,” in his Courier Mail column on Saturday. Gill, Jones insisted, needed “an injection of Tony Shaw mongrel to become more ruthless in taking on skateboard kid Michael Hooper tonight.”
Shaw, a legendary Queensland captain himself, appeared in a stirring, clenched-fist-over-the-heart inducing photo in his old Reds jersey behind Tim Horan in his late-90s jersey, and current skipper James Slipper, in the 2015 playing kit. ‘History and passion will get us home’, was the underlying message.
Our own Chris Roche went even further on Saturday, telling us this Reds side had “courage,” if only one thing over their New South Wales counterparts, and demanded a straightforward game plan.
“Richard Graham’s game plan needs to be simply this – put the toughest 15 players out on the field on Saturday night and belt NSW into submission.”
To me, this felt like Queensland setting themselves up for failure, and it prompted me to pose the question.
“It’s an interesting plan Chris – my only question or concern would be that Queensland trying to play the physical game might actually play into the Waratahs’ counter-attacking game?”
I’m not going to sit here as say, ‘I told you so’, but, well…
The way the game played out on Saturday night looked to me a classic case of the Reds confusing attitude for aggression, and trying the out-belt the Waratahs at their own game. And all with a pack already weakened by significant injuries, further hampered by the matchday withdrawal of James Horwill.
I commend Liam Gill for thinking he was a two-metre, 130kg hulking behemoth as he charged into Waratah defender after Waratah defender, but eight metres gained from ten runs tells you his 184cm, 96kg frame was knocked back behind the gain line every time. And he certainly wasn’t alone on that front.
The Reds are playing like a team with all the wrong priorities. Where desperation to add one to the ‘win’ column will solve everything, and the manner with which they get that win is unimportant. The result is no evident direction, no shape, one-out runners not making the advantage line, and a backline standing so deep you were excused for thinking the wingers was dropping back for the counter attack.
There are multiple and valid excuses why the Reds are in this current predicament, but their attitude and priorities going into games at the moment is terrible.
Make no mistake, the Waratahs were far from perfect on Saturday night. If they played even half as well as they were by the end of 2014, they’d have put 50 on the Reds. Not taking a bonus point win away from Brisbane against that Reds side should be infuriating the ‘Tahs like sand down your Speedos.
Though they still didn’t get the result, I thought the Force were much improved in their performance against the Brumbies. Their execution let them down regularly, but they never shied away from the contest, and showed good patience in attacking the Brumbies line for the last half hour of the match.
“We didn’t get the result, we need to be better, but this was a very important game for us because of our disappointment last week. It was very important we responded,” Foley said post-match.
“If you don’t win then clearly you’ll walk away disappointed but the players showed what it means to play for each other and what it means to play in the jersey. That’s an absolute imperative. If you don’t have that you’ve got nothing.
“It got to a point where the game could have slipped away, but we remained composed and built back into the game. Our second half was quite good,” he said.
And he’s right. They didn’t get the result, but the Force are already better equipped to host the Rebels this Friday night because of the way they played the game out last Friday.
The Reds, on the other hand, with the Brumbies arriving on a roll, are still trying to work out their priorities.