The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

SPIRO: Greg Martin sees red in the Deans-Cooper controversy

12th April, 2013
Advertisement
Robbie Deans' stats suggest he was actually a pretty damn good Wallaby coach. (AAP Image/Patrick Hamilton)
Expert
12th April, 2013
265
4934 Reads

Greg Martin is a decent chap, a strong Wallaby fullback in his day, and a passionate Reds and Wallabies supporter.

But his comments about Robbie Deans being part of a New Zealand conspiracy to destroy Australian rugby is the most inflammatory and stupid comment I’ve heard from a professional sports commentator about a rugby issue.

There was a sort of get out in his comments, I think, when Martin partly qualified his comments about Deans “sabotaging Australian rugby” by saying that “it is almost getting to the stage that if he doesn’t pick Quade Cooper, then it is true.”

However, the basic thrust of what Martin said was that Deans has been a Trojan Horse or a double agent, pick your metaphor.

This is a terrible defamation of a professional coach, no matter what his nationality is.

It is wrong, as Martin should know if he has had any contact with Deans, as you’d think he would as a leading commentator for Fox Sports.

Deans could have got huge amounts of money coaching in France.

His record with the Crusaders has virtually guaranteed him plum coaching jobs for the rest of his coaching career.

Advertisement

Why would he take on the job of coaching the Wallabies with the game plan to ‘sabotage’ the national side and put at risk decades of highly-paid coaching jobs all around the world?

Anyone who knows the history of the fractious and bitter relationship between the powerful CEO of the NZRU, Steve Tew, and Deans, from the time they worked together at the Crusaders to the time Tew shafted Deans over the All Blacks coaching job in 2008 knows that there is no way Deans is a stooge for Tew or the NZRU.

How is the ‘sabotaging’ supposed to work? Who is paying for it?

And now, if Martin is to be believed, the British and Irish Lions are in on the ‘sabotaging’ scam.

What does Martin believe the Lions are offering Deans to transfer the alleged ‘sabotaging’ from Tests against the All Blacks to the coming Tests against the Lions?

And how does it help Deans’ career as a coach to lose a series to the Lions?

It is all madness on the part of Greg Martin. He has succumbed, unfortunately, to his passion and obsession with Queensland rugby and his beloved Reds.

Advertisement

You only have to listen to his commentaries to see that his Red bias prejudices everything he says and sees. And this Reds bias has somehow compelled him to make an idiot of himself with his disparaging comments on Deans.

I have, from time to time, pointed out on The Roar that it is unacceptable for a commentator to be so biased when his voice is going to South Africa and New Zealand, and where it is expected that he gives an impartial and informed analysis of what is going on in the play.

After one of these articles, Martin rang me at home.

I told him that I stood by my comment and he had to understand that he is interpreting the play for viewers who are not rabid Reds supporters. He owed them a certain impartiality, which he was not providing.

Martin left me with the impression that he couldn’t help himself in curbing his Reds passion.

Who knows why Deans has not included Cooper in his initial 25 man squad. I can offer any number of reasons, though, why he did this.

First: it was only late last year that Cooper talked about the ‘toxic environment’ of the Wallaby camp under Deans and how he wanted no part of it. It is no secret that many of his fellow Wallabies were appalled by his comments and were pleased to see the back of him.

Advertisement

Second: James O’Connor played splendidly in the last Test of the season against Wales at Cardiff in 2011, leading the Wallabies to an exciting victory.

The measure of this victory can be gauged when England played Wales at Cardiff in the last match of the 2013 Six Nations. Wales monstered the favoured England 30-3 and won the tournament in the process.

O’Connor is probably the starting number 10 for the Wallabies-Lions series, as a consequence.

Matt Toomua and Christian Lealiifano also have their advocates for the number 10 jersey of the Wallabies. Some experts are even putting Bernard Foley forward as a possibility.

Three: Eddie Jones, who has coached Queensland and Australia, stated recently that there is no way that Deans should play the ‘three amigos’ – Cooper, O’Connor and Beale – in the same Wallaby side.

To my mind, O’Connor and Beale (provided he can get back on the field) are much better value in every respect for the Wallabies, especially on the field, than Cooper.

Four: team culture is an important aspect of the Wallaby squad Deans is developing for the Lions series. Cooper has smashed that culture before and could easily smash it again.

Advertisement

Five: Deans went public before the season started and stated that Cooper had to play in the line on attack AND defence if he wanted to be reinstated in the Wallabies.

As Paul Cully pointed out a day or ago on Rugby Heaven, Cooper has not been doing this for the Reds. He is missing tackles and he has a high turnover rate.

He is brilliant but this brilliance is seen more often in Super Rugby than in Test rugby.

Rugby Tests are more often lost on mistakes than they are won by individual brilliance.

There is always the possibility, anyway, that Cooper will be picked for the Wallabies. But Martin’s outrageous rant has not helped Cooper’s cause nor done very much for Martin’s reputation as a lucid analyst of rugby matters.

close