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Yes, the Reds’ loss last night to the Force was a particularly disappointing one for Queensland coaches, players and fans.
The Reds had the better team on paper, the home ground advantage and a season of exciting attacking play, yet they managed to throw the game away to a Force team that was better drilled in the basics. In particular the Reds displayed poor discipline, an ongoing theme this season.
Yet what was more disappointing for me was the reaction of head coach, Nick Stiles, at the post match press conference. Not for the first time this season he lashed out at his team and singled out individual players who made mistakes during the game.
After the game he bemoaned a “lack of effort”, particularly in the first half, and related how he had “given them a spray” which improved their performance in the second until yellow cards by halfback Nick Frisby and winger Eto Nabuli kicked the Red’s resurgence off the rails.
Listening to Stiles at the press conference, bemoaning Frisby’s poor decision to attempt to kick the ball from the opposition halfback’s hands as he touched down for a try, was telling. “He did the same thing last year” and “how do you coach that?” were Stiles’ observations.
It seemed that he was completely oblivious to the possibility that Frisby simply does not currently have the decision-making ability to do the job well, something that many have observed over the course of this season. It has me scratching my head why, in this critical fixture, Stiles left James Tuttle out. Tuttle has been performing well on the bench and played the out of form Frisby.
That one is on you Mr Stiles – 100 per cent.
As for Nabuli, it appear to me that his motor skills let him down to create what was one of the most uncoordinated movements I have seen on a rugby field in living memory. Nabuli jumped in the air, I think thinking that he was going to contest the high ball, realised that the player was already on the ground and tried to change the movement into a tackle, while forgetting that he was six foot five and airborne.
The result was that he hit the player in the head with his big mitt. Nabuli has given up three cards this season but his saving grace, which Frisby does not have, is that he has scored eight tries and the Reds would never have been within spitting distance of winning the conference without him.
Furthermore, Nabuli’s ill discipline, not present last year when he gave up no cards, appears to be symptomatic of a wider problem. The Reds seem to have widely adopted a tackling style of hitting their opponents in the head. It has cost them multiple penalties, cards and has resulting in unnecessary losses.
(AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
If they purged that one systematic problem they would most likely be topping the Aussie conference and heading towards the finals. And the buck for solving systematic problems falls back on the head coach, “giving the players a spray” and asking defeatist questions like “how do you coach that” doesn’t cut it.
The fact that some teams exercise discipline better than others indicates that coaching does influence tackling style and discipline. Stiles is responsible for working out how to solve the problem, be it through self-directed study, talking to other coaching experts who have succeeded or experimentation.
Accepting that it is his problem to solve, rather than blaming his players when things go wrong, is the first and necessary step.
What might help focus the coaching team on this matter is a management theory called ‘The Theory of Constraints’. This theory holds that an organisation maximises performance when management identifies its biggest constraint to achieving it, then exclusively focusses resources on addressing the constraint until it is fixed.
It then moves onto the next problem, so on and so on. In the case of the Reds, Stiles is able to solve the biggest problem relatively easily, select his in-form halfback. Then he should focus on working out how to get his team to keep their tackles legal, that should be his homework for the June Test season break.
A final word, both Stiles and Kerevi mentioned pre-game leadership by Higgenbotham in the press conference. I think Higgers should be captain of the team, mentoring Kerevi as vice-captain, as Kerevi’s own game is suffering under the burden of being captain too soon. Kerevi is a mature enough young man to take the long-term view and accept that this would be for the best, while Higgenbotham seems to thrive on leadership responsibility and is clearly respected by the group.
The change should be made this week.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.