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How did the Reds turn their rugby around?

Roar Pro
27th January, 2014
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Ewen McKenzie made his name at the Reds but he needs to ditch the Queensland game plan. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
Roar Pro
27th January, 2014
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3089 Reads

The Queensland Reds have in become the major success story of Australian rugby, but this success did not happen overnight. The last ten years form a narrative of a club going from the lowest lows to the highest highs.

The club and game has seen an amazing turn around in the north from a forgotten, basket case to a vital pillar and powerhouse of the game.

While the game and its franchises are undergoing dire stress, the Reds are flexing their muscle and holding up a ship that is taking on water at second tier level.

Exciting figures released recently show that for the first time Queensland has the highest rugby union participation rate in the country and an overall participation figure of 259,690 (5.3% of Queensland).

The game saw a 37 per cent increase in Queenslanders playing rugby union in 2013, according to the Australian rugby union’s (ARU) Annual Participation Census

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jQgPnWqdzwandamp;list=UUeKNkdNPa1eZbwz3uYcXFbw

The major drivers were a 62% rise in sevens participation (a little win for an earlier article I wrote) and a 6% rise in junior and senior club Rugby participation with a strong women’s contingent of 37,841.

For reference, the Queensland Rugby League reported 170,027 active participants in 2012 made up of 60,099 adult men and 1,752 women.

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The AFL claimed a participation figure in Queensland of 155,000 of which 40,000 were women.

The Reds’ success has bolstered its crowds, which regularly average over 30,000 – the largest regular season crowds in the state for the last two consecutive seasons and ranking it seventh and 10th overall across all codes.

It has built the strongest membership base which currently stands at 25,855 (Broncos 16,000 and Lions 14,591, Roar’s figures are not displayed but state 10,000 as a club goal for 2014).

Now I understand statistics are the language of the code warrior, they are often twisted and inflated to be used during battle.

These are not ABS statistics, they cover different years, memberships are deceptive due to different the size and timing of seasons, crowds are deceptive due to the Broncos TV ratings dominance etc etc.

Before you get out your virtual keyboard axe this is not a story about Queensland Rugby Union beating its chest and claiming dominance but of a struggling club that has overcome adversity and pulled itself back from the brink of oblivion.

The dark age
2007 was a dark time for the game north of the border.

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The Broncos were undoubted the top-dogs of Brisbane with fresh memories of premiership glory in 2006, the Maroons had started their mighty run of dominance capturing the imagination of the state.

The Lions, despite a massive form drop, still had lingering memories of its glory years when it threatened the Broncos’ supremacy.

The Queensland Reds were a struggling little club that was in a long, downward spiral.

The club faced its ‘annus horribilis’ on the back of a slow decline after its hay day under John Connelly.

The club began to develop a revolving door of coaches, it changed its longstanding colours from Maroon to Red, changed stadiums from Ballymore to Suncorp and saw a vast migration of its best talent to the Western Force in the newly christened Super 14.

The team was young and was searching for its identity and place.

The icing on the cake was the 2007 season, coached by Eddie Jones, which led to a catastrophic 92-3 rout against the Bulls and signified the club hitting rock bottom.

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The state which produced about 40 percent of the game’s players received its first, painful wooden spoon.

The Sunday Mail (if they ever did make the paper) showed a photo of the team getting off the plane looking like a disorganised, unprofessional rabble.

They appeared to be a team full of boys, completely out of their depth, playing against men.

A photo comes to mind of a Reds player wearing the terrible ‘white with red lipstick’ jersey being carried like a piece of furniture by a Bulls player which summed it up.

It wasn’t just that they were losing, they were embarrassingly dominated and manhandled with regularity.

I can remember going to a friend’s barbecue soon after ‘that game’ and my mate’s dad – in classic dad joke fashion – would constantly remind me, “hey you wanna hear a joke… the Queensland Reds!”

To this day, I still can’t watch highlights of that game.

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The QRU was in dire financial shape and was forced to go cap in hand to the ARU for a large loan, sponsors were fleeing the sinking ship including major longstanding sponsor the Bank of Queensland.

Crowds at their worst hit 18,000 just beating the Brumbies but well below the Force, the Waratahs, the Brisbane Lions and Broncos.

It was hard to find a Reds fan at this time, as when their team has lost its pride and prestige fans go into hibernation.

This was also the same year of the first and only Australian Rugby Championship season both Queensland teams finished first and second last, with abysmal crowds that no doubt would have been one of the nails in competition’s coffin.

It’s all well and good to look back now with recent success but there was genuine air of ‘how much worse could this get?’

Queensland rugby, lacking league’s financial infrastructure, was facing the distinct possibility of its demise and the ramifications for a state which had been a proud backbone of the game since 1883 was quite alarming.

Rugby and adversity
What always drew me to rugby growing up was its focus on character building.

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If you play rugby you realise that you can’t win them all and must learn to deal with loss.

In fact, it can be a cruel, bastard of a game when all you are continually tasting is soul-crushing and body-breaking defeat.

You face a choice whether you want to keep turning up week in, week out and put in the physical and emotional investment for little return.

Sometimes you can get in such a funk you wonder whether you will ever get to taste that sweet, victorious beer afterwards again.

As you’re clichéd, grizzled old coach will say as you slink down in change rooms “remember this feeling boys, it’s what you learn from this defeat that matters.”

Adversity as they say can sort the ‘men from the boys’ and some of the greatest bonds in life are forged in the fiery crucible of loss.

Equally, the same can be said with football clubs – adversity can test the mettle of so called ‘plastic franchises’, blow out the cobwebs and show the real state of a club.

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In these intense circumstances some people will fold, others will be galvanised into action.

The Queensland Reds faced the real possibility of their own demise and realised they had nowhere else to go.

They were forced to pick themselves up, dust themselves off and learn from their mistakes.

Seeds of rejuvenation
I wouldn’t be surprised if somewhere in the Queensland Rugby Union HQ would be a large framed scoreboard of ‘that game’ with the words engraved “Never Again”.

Without having hit the lows of 2007, I wonder whether the amazing highs of 2011 and the current success would have occurred.

The beauty of such a year is that a club is forced to think revolutionary rather than evolutionary. Targets are suddenly painted on everybody’s head.

It becomes difficult for high-payed, professional athletes to justify their price tag, backroom politics may appear irrelevant when facing the prospect of nothing to fight over and when boardroom positions become under threat.

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Queensland’s rise out of the pit of despair was nothing miraculous.

It was slow, gradual and full of hits and misses; different coaches, different, often cringe-worthy marketing angles (the Red Army, the ‘We are Red’ chant), refocusing on grass roots development, reconnecting with its base and spreading its links with the community, building a more solid team foundation to back up its razzle dazzle footy and the solid help it received from the ARU.

When they finally landed a winner with Ewen McKenzie they saw their chance and they went with it.

A fire was lit for a good coach to ‘clean house’, throw away the dead weight and humble the big egos.

The Reds’ success has been built from a combination of diligence, hard work, risk taking and plenty of luck both on and off the paddock.

Getting its act together
The club’s operation today is a shadow of its former self, from an antiquated club to one of the most seemingly sophisticated, professional and aggressively run operations in the country.

Its brand has been thoroughly restored, and revitalised.

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It works had to present a welcoming family-friendly image with strong community and multicultural roots (although needs to work harder on spreading its relevancy outside Brisbane).

The Reds have worked hard to offer a product that both kids and old fogies can get behind in equal measure.

As a team it proudly embraces its strong traditions and un-broken heritage.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv_Sl4B6X9i5ziMIylDlTg4Sj-1bWiQzD

While the same time it takes a fresh, youth-oriented marketing approach to great effect.

Now before you smash your keyboard and label this article a Queensland ‘puff piece’ or too much banana-bending self-love, I don’t work for QRU.

This article is to remind Queensland supporters not too get too cocky, and the journey the club has taken and why it would not want to go back.

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Neither am I making any assertions about Richard Graham’s success and the future, he has inherited the infrastructure and culture and will be under pressure to keep it going.

Maintain the faith
This article is a rallying cry to all the long suffering supporters and financially stressed clubs around the country.

Things can change, maintain the faith.

I tip my hat to the rusted-on fans in all codes that faithfully turn up week in, week out, with big hopes and getting little in return whether it’s the Waratahs, Western Force, Rebels, Parramatta Eels, or the Melbourne Demons (and many more).

The Reds are a symbol and a template for struggling clubs that their is hope they can restore their pride, prestige and dig themselves out of the pit they are in.

The Waratahs find themselves in a similar position, constantly offering promise yet perennially disappointing the high expectations of their frustrated fans.

Understandably Brisbane/Queensland’s market is far more open compared to the Sydney/NSW’s crowded space.

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The Waratahs find themselves drowned out by a sea of competitive teams, each trying to outplay and outmanoeuvre each other.

The Waratahs are busy trying to reclaim their base, all the while being pinned down and prevented from breaking into the growing corridors of their city.

By comparison, the Reds have been given freer rein to develop connections in growing areas.

Michael Cheika definitely brings a number of key elements very reminiscent of Ewen in his early days. One good season for the Tahs could still make a world of difference.

As for the Rebels and the Force, hard times in hindsight can become a ‘badge of honour’ in the future.

Coming through these dark times is what forges traditions and histories of young struggling clubs and cleans out the unnecessary ‘plastic.’

After all you can’t have a renaissance without a having a dark age.

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I am interested to hear Roarers more in-depth insights on the Queensland Reds and what they believe turned it around?

What are your opinions on how to turn around the current crop of long suffering, struggling clubs?

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