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The hornets are out of the nest in Queensland rugby with the appointment of Richard Graham to the coaching staff. And they are buzzing.
In the last 48 hours there have been many and varied reactions to the appointment – some praiseworthy, some cool, others vicious.
Ignore the title terminology. Ewen McKenzie will be in coaching control of the Reds next season, have no doubt about that, while Graham learns the “Link” way.
In 2014, Graham will be in control on his own, while McKenzie moves into the newly-created role as director of Queensland rugby.
Only he’ll never start. He’ll be the new Wallaby coach.
Next year has been locked in as transitional year. John O’Neill’s contract as Australian Rugby Union boss runs out at the end of 2013. Wallaby coach Robbie Deans’ extended two-year contract runs out at the end of 2013. Effectively, McKenzie’s Queensland coaching contract runs out at the end of 2013.
Across the ditch, Steve Hansen’s initial All Black coaching contract, replacing the retired Sir Graham Henry, also runs out at the end of 2013.
Coincidental? No, carefully planned. There will be no contractual hassles when major changes are made.
O’Neill has made it quite clear McKenzie will be the next Wallaby coach. O’Neill has also made it quite clear he wants to leave Australian rugby in a better position than when he left in 2004 to CEO Australian football until 2007.
By the end of next year, O’Neill will have been ARU boss for 15 of the last 18 years. Throw in being boss of the NSW State Bank before that, and the 60-year-old O’Neill has been in the big decision-making chair for 25 successive years.
He’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but he is mine. He can be bristly, but his genuine passion for rugby cannot be denied.
If I have one criticism of O’Neill it was his decision to allow club rugby to go professional. It should have remained amateur, with every player paying subscriptions to play, just as it did for over a century before the code went pro. The majority of clubs have hit the financial wall as a result, they simply cannot sustain player payments with so little media exposure.
The only professionals should be the five Australian Super Rugby franchises, and the flow-on to the Wallabies.
O’Neill won’t have enough time left to correct his only mistake. Hopefully his successor will, and will return club rugby to amateur status once current contracts run out, or we won’t be left with any grassroots rugby, the lifeblood of the Super teams.
O’Neill’s swansong will involve installing the 46-year-old McKenzie to coach the Wallabies from 2014 through to the Rugby World Cup in 2015 and beyond.
Deans will return to New Zealand where he will always be a favoured son, and rightfully so with his unmatched record of five Super titles with the Crusaders.
The 52-year-old Deans will be in the mix to coach the All Blacks from 2014. If the All Blacks hierarchy was convinced Steve Hansen, 53 next month, was the best long-term coach of the men in black after Sir Graham he would have been given a longer initial term than just two years.
So the All Blacks job will be up for grabs if Hansen falters.
The 48-year-old Kiwi Warren Gatland has often been mentioned as a future All Black coach, and it will happen. But not until after 2015 at the earliest when his contract with Wales expires.
Gatland is the hottest international coach at the moment, having taken Wales to Six Nations Grand Slam status in 2007 and in 2012, as well as to the recent Rugby World Cup semis, and he’s odds-on to coach the British and Irish Lions to Australia next year.
That is the highest coaching honour a non-Brit or Irishman can be awarded. Only Sir Graham has been recognised as such for a team that has been an historical rugby benchmark since 1888.
So nothing much will happen until the end of 2013. Then all hell will break loose.