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Too bad there isn’t another Test match scheduled for next weekend. It would be fascinating to see how Australia responded to what happened against New Zealand at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday.
I couldn’t imagine a different result, no matter what the Aussies did with their team. The Kiwis have gone past the Kangaroos and it’s going to be hard to turn that back around – certainly in the short term, at least.
There were no excuses for the 26-12 loss. Australia had plenty of the players back that they missed in last year’s Four Nations tournament.
New Zealand comprehensively out-defended and out-attacked Australia. It was a tremendous display.
Perhaps the most surprising thing was how the Kiwis looked like they had been preparing for a month and the Aussies looked like they had met up the night before the game.
Australian coach Tim Sheens is one of the most experienced coaches we’ve had in club football. He won three premierships with Canberra and another with Wests Tigers. New Zealand coach Stephen Kearney was forced to resign from the only club team he has coached – Parramatta – because of a pathetic winning percentage.
So work that one out.
Surely the result will cost Sheens his job. That is three losses in a row for Australia against New Zealand now. There are no more Tests between the two countries this season and Sheens is only contracted until the end of the year.
There is no sense in reappointing him unless the appointment goes through until at least the end of the next World Cup in 2017, giving Sheens the chance to plan for that event, so it would seem more likely that he won’t get any extension at all.
Best to seek an alternative now, while we’re midway through the four years between the World Cups.
Craig Bellamy has been mentioned as a possible next Australian coach.
He is contracted to Melbourne until the end of next year and has said that will be it for him in coaching, but whether that just means coaching in the NRL remains to be seen.
Coaching the Test team is vastly different to coaching a club side in terms of time commitments. Perhaps Bellamy could be swayed into doubling up as a club and Test coach next year, when there will only be one Test – the Anzac clash – played during the actual season. The four Nations will return at the end of it.
Anyway, if another coach is sought we’ll probably find out soon enough if Bellamy is available.
There was much discussion in the period leading up to Sunday’s Test about the ageing nature of the Australian team. In the wake of the loss there were immediate calls for a number of the older players to be moved on, but it should be noted that among Australia’s best players were Corey Parker, who turns 33 on Tuesday, and Sam Thaiday, who turns 30 next month.
Based on performances in Sunday’s game, Greg Bird, who is 31, and Nate Myles, who turns 30 next month, would appear to be among those under the pump when it comes to the older players. But most of the Aussies were either below par or average at best.
Then you’ve got the fact a very experienced centre in Justin Hodges was left out of the team and Josh Dugan was played out of position on the wing. Both of those decisions proved to be negatives.
But when you take everything into consideration, the truth is New Zealand has gone past Australia. The Kiwis won the Four Nations and have now parlayed that into a rare win in the Anzac Test.
New Zealand has a terrific spine – fullback Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, 21, five-eighth Kieran Foran, 24, halfback Shaun Johnson, 24, and hooker Issac Luke, 27 – that is capable of serving for many years to come.
Australia’s spine players, if you factor Billy Slater back in at fullback after he missed Sunday’s Test with injury, are all in their 30s.
Sunday’s loss will speed up the regeneration of the Australian team and that will be a good thing. No-one wanted to go the whole hog while the Aussies were still winning, but now it is necessary. By the time Australia plays its next Test, it won’t have won a game for two years.
It is both a challenge for the Aussies and an exciting time for the international game as a whole.
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