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Can Michael Cheika turn it around?

Roar Rookie
29th August, 2016
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Is Michael Cheika on his last legs as Wallabies coach? (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
Roar Rookie
29th August, 2016
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1745 Reads

Reading Spiro’s piece on the attributes of Michael Cheika, I couldn’t help but agree with at least one of the sentiments that Mr Cheika ends to tone down the rhetoric on refereeing.

The Wallabies were thumped in the first Bledisloe by six tries to nil and in the second by four tries to nil. Nothing to do with the ref there.

And thanks to Spiro for writing the piece. There is no one more likely to be heeded my said Mr Cheika than the doyen of rugby journalism in Australia. Whether he reads the article, ponders on it and modifies behaviour is up to him. Worth the effort though.

But what of recent Wallaby coaching? My personal view is that Robbie Deans was the best of the last three. He seemed to be able to win fairly regularly against any opposition other than the All Blacks and occasionally hit one out of the park there too.

Ewen McKenzie was well schooled by long apprenticeships with Rod Macqueen and Eddie Jones and as the longest-serving Waratahs coach. He learned the trade well and his record with the Wallabies stands pretty proudly. From memory his team beat the All Blacks once or twice and the final game came down to a one-point differential.

A great pity about the demises of both these men. I guess it was arguable that we needed an Austrlian coach to succeed Robbie and it should be remembered that Ewen resigned rather than was pushed.

Michael Cheika was catapulted into the job with much less tuition than either of his predecessors. For mine, his great attribute has been in recruitment. With the Waratahs he sourced Kurtley Beale and Israel Folau. Without those signings the Waratahs would not have won their title.

He also recruited Mario Ledesma to fix the perennially ailing scrums, retained a handy defence coach in Nathan Grey and opened his arms to rival Stephen Larkham.

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So here we come to the test of Michael Cheika. Can he overcome his aggressive nature when talking about the fault of everyone else and can he develop players?

Player nurturing will be the way forward for the Wallabies whoever the coach is. To find the talent and then to school them into a formidable unit will take some time.

Others have commented on the need to rotate players and whether that is done in a timely manner will be self evident. Irrespective though is the need to lead a squad of fifty or so up the incline to the pinnacle of the game’s competitions.

In a way, the failures against the All Blacks are akin to the failures of New South Wales against the Maroons in State of Origin. The lopsidedness has become entrenched but we know it will level out at some point.

So Michael, please heed Spiro’s words. His intentions are honourable. And please build as much strength as you can to cover each field position for the next generation of Wallabies.

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