THE OUTSIDER: Cheika's not the Messiah

Anybody who has seen the excellent football film The Damned United will know the story. Brian Clough was the new ‘Messiah’.

An accomplished striker in his own right, Clough was an even better manager, and proved it by taking Derby County from the second division to champions of England within four years.

The achievement of turning a small-town team into the best in the country inevitably attracted courtiers, and saw the high flying manager snapped up by Leeds United.

The Yorkshire club was, at that stage, still one of the giants of the European game, but a side verging on decline.

The pushy and sometimes outspoken Clough lasted just 44 turbulent days.

With the demands of managing a big club having proved a disaster, Clough returned to the second division, taking over Nottingham Forest, whom he revolutionised in an even more spectacular manner than Derby.

Under Clough, Forest emulated Derby in rising from the second division to champions of England, within three years.

In Europe, Forest went even further, defeating the best on the continent for two straight years to become the unlikeliest of back-to-back Cup winners.

A decade after his death, Clough is still revered for his achievements, and is widely considered as the greatest never to have managed the England team.

The reason his story at Leeds is relevant is that it represents a great example of the ‘Messiah’ complex, which manifests itself in the perception that everything will change, and for the better, because a new face (namely the ‘Messiah’) is now in charge.

Because they succeeded elsewhere, we are onto a sure thing.

Sport, and indeed life, is full of such prophecies. Many more fail than actually succeed, especially when the levels are different.

Clough’s experience proved that a big club, very much like a national side, provides a whole new set of challenges – both on and off the field – compared to the management of a lower-profile outfit.

The same can be said of the Test arena with relation to Super Rugby.

It is for this reason that a dose of realisty may not hurt as the Wallabies embark on their latest adventure, under the stewardship of Michael Cheika.

We all want to see the team do well, and the enthusiasm that accompanies new leadership with the hope of a fresh beginning is understandable, especially given the tortuous nature of the previous regime’s demise.

With Wales a key Rugby World Cup opponent next year, Sunday morning’s Test in Cardiff represents a significant moment, but it is just a starting point. And, despite what media reports might tell you, the Millennium Stadium won’t be all about the new Wallaby coach, nor will be any other games that the team plays.

There are no magic wands, no quick fixes.

Just as his predecessor found, success in Super Rugby is not a guaranteed precursor to a successful career as a Test coach, especially when you are playing two of the other three best sides in the world (New Zealand and South Africa) more than anybody else.

The intensity of the pressure Cheika now faces will quite simply be greater than any he has encountered before. How he handles it will be the making or breaking of him.

One of the reasons for the increased pressure is that there are more variables beyond the Test coach’s direct control, and more complex variables at that.

These range from a lack of direct involvement with players (well, the non-NSW players anyway) around their fitness, training and injury management during Super Rugby, to the volume of media, sponsorship and other off-field commitments that go with the job.

Then there’s staff management, both at union and team level, as well as organising the players themselves.

And all that’s before even starting to think about the coaching itself.

At the Waratahs, Cheika has full control. That’s never totally the case at Test level, although the ARU will be dummies if they don’t allow him to select his own back-room team. Just because his predecessor mucked that bit up is not a reason to go back to the ARU meddling that went before.

Put a sturdy manager in for sure, but given that the coach will ultimately be judged, make sure he has all the means around him (that being assistant coaches whom he wants especially), so he has the best chance to succeed.

The key for Cheika at the Wallabies, as it was at the Waratahs, will be in how he brings the team together, and that will hinge on how he harnesses the leadership of the senior players.

In Ireland, he worked with a strong player leadership, headed by Brian O’Driscoll. They had their own ideas, he had his, and they clashed on a few occasions before eventually settling on the right mix, which delivered Leinster the European Cup.

Significantly, with the core of the leadership retained, the team went on to win two more titles when Kiwi Joe Schmidt, the now-Irish mentor, became coach.

Given all of the hype around Cheika after the Tahs Super Rugby victory, many overlooked the calm influence and direction Dave Dennis gave the players. The straightforward and unassuming nature Dennis portrays in public is exactly how he is – and it was the perfect foil for Cheika, especially when the pressure was on.

The support of old hands like Benn Robinson, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Stephen Hoiles, and even the quieter boys like Wycliff Palu, Tatafu Polota-Nau and Rob Horne was equally important.

Those guys have all been around a long time and helped make sure that standards were high – off the field as well as on it.

Guys turning up on-time to appointments, wearing the right team attire at the appropriate times off the field, and generally adhering to the set protocols, might seem like little things, but collectively they mean a lot.

Get it right off the field and the same disciplines will become ingrained on it.

Robbie Deans made a valid comment recently that was pertinent to the Waratahs this year: “culture is what goes on when the coach/management aren’t around.”

That was perhaps best illustrated by the behaviour of Kurtley Beale. He never put a foot wrong off the field at the Tahs, where he was ‘looked out for’ by his teammates, and so provided plenty of x-factor on it.

Compare that to his troubles at the Rebels, and within this year’s Wallaby group.

Cheika was given a fair bit of credit for Beale, but the players deserve an equal share: by looking after their mate, they got their return both by the way he behaved and in how he played.

It is more complex to manage relationships in the national team set-up, with guys coming in from all over, especially when they all have expectations that they will play and not everyone does.

Because of this, I’m not sure it’s such a smart idea that Cheika coaches the Tahs next year.

While I can understand the reasoning, I can see it making life at the Wallabies a lot tougher, both because of the logistical distraction his off-field Wallaby commitments will provide during Super Rugby, and also because of the perception difficulties it may create among the non-Waratah Wallabies.

“If he’s picked him all year for the Tahs, do I really have much chance of playing against the All Blacks?” Such thoughts might sound selfish but they are also human, and not without foundation: a coach will inevitably err towards players he knows, trusts, and who have done the job for him before.

Spending time with the non-Tah players on the current tour was going to be important for the new coach anyway, but because he will be coaching against them next year, it’s arguably even more critical than the on-field results themselves.

The players know the reputation: they know he’s a hard man, they know he’s straight up.

What they need to see is that they will all get a chance, he will give them his trust, and that he won’t put himself before the team, either in public or behind the scenes.

There are times when he will need to listen. Show them all of that and they will back him, as the Waratahs did this year.

And ‘Messiah’ or not, we might just see the Wallabies get back to being the team we all want them to be!