Michael Cheika: Turn the simple things right up to 11

The secret to Michael Cheika’s coaching success is making things simpler, then turning the speed and intensity right up to 11.

Given Cheika is now one of Australia’s more successful provincial rugby coaches it’s worth taking a look at how the man operates and what sort of rugby culture he builds.

After the Super Rugby final last year 7.30 host Sarah Ferguson asked Cheika, “how did you pull it off?”

“Oh, it’s pretty hard to sort of summarise it all in the space of a few minutes,” Cheika said, before summarising his strengths and, by extension, the strength of his Waratahs team in less than a few minutes.

He said the entire squad went about trying to earn the respect of one another – a critical change in the culture of the squad to years previous – indicating sweating and bleeding together was a strong way to do that.

He concluded by saying, “And I think that’s the simple things that start it.”

In previous years the Waratahs were a talented team that demanded the respect of others. Under Cheika the Waratahs are still a loaded team, but they finally started seeking to earn the respect of each other and then the public.

In a highly competitive tournament such as Super Rugby when you’re looking for success, it’s the simple things that start it.

Before the Waratahs loss to the Force in round one, Cheika knew the team wasn’t quite ready. He didn’t come straight out and say they wouldn’t win, but he expressed concern the side was slightly underdone leading into the game. His men didn’t play all that differently, except they weren’t able to excel at the simple things – holding the ball, running straight and belting blokes – and turn it up to 11, so they lost.

Against the Rebels, who are playing with a similar ferocity that would bring a smile to Cheika’s face if he was an unaffected third party, the Waratahs were back to the simple style, and cranked it right back up to 11.

They won, despite the side taking on the look of a well-worn, bloodied UFC mat with all the brutality going on.

In 2013, during an early assessment of Cheika’s Waratahs rebuild I said:

“Another theme that leaps out of Cheika is the need for fitter players with mongrel. This is obvious in his previous coaching stints, his playing days and from what he says in the media.”

Absolutely nothing has changed. A slightly underdone side cannot carry out the simple rugby actions right up to 11 with no let-off for the full 80 minutes. If Dave Dennis, returning from a huge injury, is able to play a full 80 minute game at Cheika-speed before the end of March it will prove him a remarkable athlete.

Many deep-dives on “Michael Chieka-the man” dwell extensively on Cheika’s time in fashion, working with Collette Dinnigan. While there are certainly things he would have taken from his time managing a fashion business (and I’ll get to one of them later) I think many of those profiles gloss over aspect of Cheika that might also show his flaws.

In one of those profiles that spent a fair bit of time considering Cheika’s upbringing, childhood and fashion industry experience, Bret Harris of The Australian opens with the most important line and then doesn’t linger there enough to follow it through.

According to Harris the story went that when the Waratahs were considering bringing Cheika in, Simon Poidevin told a NSW official he would “tear his throat out” if they didn’t pick Cheika.

Within three lines Harris moved on from the most important insight he would offer. When asked whether the tale was true, Poidevin apparently gave a Frank Underwood-esque response – “you might very well thing that; I couldn’t possibly comment” – but the point was made.

In Cheika, Poidevin obviously saw some of the same stuff that propelled him to becoming a long-time Wallaby and noted hardman. He knew Cheika would tear someone’s throat out to get the team to the level they needed to be in if it would help. Not everyone would. Chris Hickey and Michael Foley certainly weren’t about to.

Many Cheika profiles have people commenting on variations of Cheika’s ability to see what he wants and get it, work hard toward achieving a goal and the like. Occasionally that will manifest itself in the wrong ways. Ask that SuperSport cameraman.

Cheika was doing this thing and wanted something to happen, the cameraman was between Cheika and that ending – smash cut to a six months suspended sentence.

What do I fear most for Cheika-as-rugby-coach?

These days I fear a coaching and playing style that’s so reliant on competitiveness and drive right up to and through the margins isn’t a sustainable long-term.

The Cheika Waratahs are set up to win like they did against the Rebels on Friday night and always have been. Sure, they throw the ball around, Israel Folau creates space for others, Foley snipes around, Skelton throws one-handed offloads and Beale shows off his skills, but really it comes down to the almost reckless way they throw themselves into the opposition over and over again.

They simply aim to play with a speed and intensity the opposition can’t and aren’t willing to match.

Last year that relentlessness almost caught up to them with one game remaining in the season. Against stiff opposition, or no, the Tahs were in the red on the rev limiter against the Crusaders. Even when Chieka was successful in Leinster it was just three years. Get in. Win. Get out.

I wonder if his current model can last continuously in the 21st Century, with highly paid players and so many other distractions, with longer seasons, with more players coming and going. There are football coaches and NBA coaches that are known for turning a team round and getting out in a few years because they eventually lose the team. Sometimes the same message, though correct, just doesn’t get through anymore.

Eventually a player won’t buy in quite as much as that man’s-man Jacques Potgeiter does, and Cheika will let him know about it. Not everyone will respond as well to the brutal hot and cold as well as Benn Robinson has.

Winning a title last year was ahead of the schedule, and it also changes the dynamic in the group, making it more likely players will leave – which they are – and more likely others will hold back, just a fraction.

Building a fashion business should have taught him people and expectation management. He is going to need all of that experience and a couple of intuitive moments to navigate the rough political waters of being Wallabies coach, let alone adding a Super Rugby franchise on top of that.

He is going to need all that personnel management nous to make sure everyone is rowing in the same direction off the field in a world cup year.

On the field, he has really drawn the short straw. Taking over a team so close to a World Cup gives very little time for a coach to try new players, adjust tactics, build an ethos and spend time scouting the opposition. But if there’s any coach who can get a Wallabies team ready to have a crack at a title in such a short time it’s Cheika. We already know what he’s going to do – he’ll get the simple things right and then turn it up to 11.

What is more worrying is what comes after the World Cup. Ideally a coach given such a short amount of time to pull things together would get a full cycle to prove their worth if they weren’t successful the first time.

But, as I said above, it’s far from clear whether Cheika is a dynastic coach. It would take some significant adjustments in style for him to keep the player buy-in where it needs to be over another four years.

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