Prior to Ewen McKenzie, the last bloke to coach the Wallabies who was a Wallaby (and one of life’s gentlemen) was Dave Brockhoff.
I had the great pleasure to be introduced to him one night at Canberra Stadium after a Brumbies game.
He was part of the after match crowd, didn’t know me from a bar of soap but greeted me as a friend, and we had a very pleasant few minutes, exchanging comments about the game before I left him to his group. A gentleman.
I saw him around the traps at club games after that, and he always said good day. The man was absolutely passionate about rugby and you could see how that would have gone down in the sheds.
I am sure there are many more of you out there who can add your memories of ‘Brock’ and I don’t have that right, so comment away.
The point of my article is that there was a man of passion, who understood his players. He coached Australia over a few years (1974-75 and 1979), but you would think it much longer, given some of the stories that abound.
Since then, we have had some great coaches, but the only one who had played for his country was Robbie Deans, so don’t be too hard on him.
We have had Bob Templeton, Bob Dwyer, Alan Jones, Eddie Jones, and John Connolly. All good blokes, all great Australians, but none of them Wallabies.
Now we have Ewen. What is his CV?
A 1991 World Cup winner – part of the fantastic McKenzie, Phil Kearns, Tony Daly front row combo.
He played for the Brumbies early on, but seems to omit that from his CV for some reason.
Assistant Wallabies coach under Rod Macqueen, a pretty good grounding.
A professional in his private life, but probably has never used his town planning qualification. Probably understands codes, though.
He has done the baptism of fire thing. Took the poison chalice at the Waratahs, then Stade Francais, and then took over the Reds at a time when some coaches might have thought twice about it.
He inherited a team that was put together, may I say bravely, by Phil Mooney, a man of some vision in recruiting young players, and took it to the heights. Deservedly so.
But what you cannot ignore is that he is a man who puts his stamp firmly on a team. He is the bus driver.
I once coached a lowly grade team in Sydney. We either had nobody at training or a lot. On Saturday you never knew who was going to turn up.
At the end of the season, we had done okay but not made the finals, and at the presentation night my team captain (well, the bloke who was for the last two or three weeks) said, “Well, Gatesy, you didn’t get to do much coaching, but at least we always knew who was driving the bus!”
It struck me then, like a good orchestra conductor, a rugby coach is the bloke that drives the bus. He is up front, playing the conductor and being the glue.
If you are a respected Wallaby, you should be able to coach the Wallabies, with authority, and (figuratively speaking) drive the bus!
You should be able to bring a disparate bunch of blokes together and manage them, in a very short space of time. You should be able toinstilpride just by a look, or a stare, but you also have the benefit of dragging them into your office, and having a one on one chat, leaving them in no doubt which way is up. Hopefully they will listen. I think that in this new era they will, or at least will, after the first miscreant gets the sack.
Let’s remember that the blokes who play for the Wallabies, these days are not the amateurs of thirty years ago.
They were private school blokes who would go on to be doctors, dentists, lawyers, stockbrokers, and various other professions.
Now they are professional rugby players, whose only aspiration has been to play professional rugby, “damn the torpedoes”, and see what happens after that.
That is a hugely different mindset, and one that takes a lot of management by a lot of people. The head coach has a lot to manage when you think about it.
Some are prima donnas, who earn a lot of money at a young age, when they have basically not achieved anything in their young lives to date. Blokes who are paid a lot of money for their potential, not their successes. Gen Y people who see themselves as a ‘brand’.
The smartest thing that Ewen said, this week, was that they are on a week to week contract. Let’s hope that when it comes down to it, he gets the support that he needs from above to hold that line.
I am sure, from all that I have read that Robbie Deans is a very decent man, and a man of integrity, but, in the vernacular of Julius Caesar, whether you want to praise him or bury him, we have moved on. We can only wait with breathless anticipation of the man who would succeed him.
Go well, Ewen.
I wish to thank The Sheek whose article on the Roar – “Wallabies Coaches since 1962” (2011) was my source.
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