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Just as happened last year with the Melbourne Storm’s little salary cap boo-boo, another writing break of mine has been brought to a grinding halt due to a sporting team’s off-field explosion. This time though it’s a little closer to home, and a team close to my heart.
While Andy Friend’s sacking from the Brumbies yesterday wasn’t much of a surprise – 2011 already felt like a case of Friend having to “show cause” for his contract to be renewed – that it came just two weeks into the Super Rugby season certainly made the last few barely warm mouthfuls of my late-morning coffee difficult to swallow.
I mean, if the players were so concerned about Friend as head coach, or even if Friend had issues with the appointment of favourite son Stephen Larkham as backs coach as he supposedly did, then why wasn’t this change made before even the pre-season commenced?
Sure, it’s probably better it happened just two rounds in, rather than midway through the season (hello, David Nucifora), but what might have been if the Brumbies started 2011 in red-hot form like the Waratahs?
Would Brumbies fans again have seen a coach given a “thanks, but no thanks” to contract renewal requests, despite the team’s performance?
What prompted the bloodless coup may never been known.
Already, there’s been tales of the players asking Friend to allow the assistant coaches to have more direct input into proceedings, but then this conflicts with other tales that suggest the players were complaining of the mixed messages coming from the coaching staff.
My rough guess is that the messages probably became mixed when it wasn’t clear who they were coming from. And the players seemingly brought that upon themselves.
So what’s the expectations and goals for the season from within the team now that they have “got their man”? After two rounds, an only-just win over the Chiefs, and a disappointing last-minute loss to the Rebels in Melbourne last Friday, they currently sit second in the Australian conference, and sixth in the overall standings.
Would this be acceptable come seasons end, or is 2011 effectively a write-off already?
In my mind, the Brumbies playing ranks have made their bed and now must sleep in it like they’ve never slept before. Anything less than a finals appearance should put any post-season review focus firmly on the playing group, and particularly any players thought to be ringleaders in this circus.
There cannot be any more ill disciplined displays such as those couple of howlers that allowed the Rebels back into the game last week.
The line must now be drawn in the sand – by the players themselves – that dominant possession and ruck-and-maul numbers cannot go unrewarded and uncompleted.
Any time the Brumbies get out to two-try-plus leads – as has been the case in both games so far this year – the opposition needs to be put away properly. Bonus point tries now have to become the norm, not the exception.
And the combination required to do that needs to be established now. Whether that’s decided by player demarcation or by a coach authorised to make a decision, I don’t really care. I would suggest that some thought is given to the future though, and that players that this team can be rebuilt around this year and beyond are played where they should play.
And what of new coach Tony Rea? How long before it’s known if he is the best option long-term, or whether he is just keeping the chair warm while Larkham finishes his work-experience program, as has been suggested?
Rea is apparently a good mate of Friend’s, and the pair worked together at the joint Harlequins/Broncos club in London. It can’t be easy on Rea to have been thrust into the position he has, replacing a mate while at the same time having to win back the players Friend lost. And can we presume the players signed off on his appointment?
The Brumbies board cannot escape scrutiny over this matter either, and should another mid-table finish result in 2011, then they must be held to the same account as the players involved.
It’s one thing to have let player power derail a coach, but it’s a whole other thing to see no problem with that at the time and allow history to repeat itself seven years later.
To Friend’s credit, he told ABC Canberra’s Tim Gavel yesterday that he did have a suspicion the end might have been near when rumblings first surfaced a fortnight ago, and that he was willing to work with the changes made to address those rumblings.
“But the one thing that I didn’t think I’d ever back down on was being able to deliver the truthful message, so my message has always been really simple to the players, ‘if you do something really well, I’m going to tell you. If you do something really poorly, I’m going to tell you.’
“That’s the way I’ve coached for the last 18 years, I’ve continued to do that, and continued to do it up until yesterday [Monday]. That obviously didn’t sit well with people, and hence the reason we’re currently where we are.”
They say in football that there’s two kinds of coaches: those that have been sacked and those that are about to be.
The Brumbies players have again seen a coach go from the latter to the former. Now it’s up to them to prove to that the right decision has been made. They can be assured, too, that more eyes than ever will be on them as they take on Queensland in Canberra on Saturday night.
More’s the point, only one result will be acceptable.