Last night while I sat down in my armchair with a bottle of my finest ‘Glen’, I thought to myself, my word those Wallabies should be arriving in Dublin by now.
As I downed my fourth or fifth glass I thought to myself, I do hope those Wallabies don’t think for a minute that drinking any alcohol midweek should be at all tolerated.
For Dublin is a crazy place where if you are not careful you could be sucked into the cesspool of high spirited locals that genuinely love a good yarn, a Guinness or two and the proverbial craic without ever really going too far.
Yes Dublin is the most outrageous, dangerous, and perverted place in the world and you’d be crazy to want to get out and about among those dregs of society.
I hope Mr Cheika tucks each and everyone of those boys in to bed this week, reads them a good night story (that scares them to sleep like Ewen Mckenzie’s autobiography: ‘I came I saw, I contacted the Media’) and locks them in their rooms by no later than 8:30pm.
I suppose if they’ve been good little Wallabies we could let them stay up until 9pm. We don’t wish to appear too patronisingly strict. After all they are grown men.
I got to thinking and if you remember back to 2013, some of the Wallabies stayed out after midnight the night before a day off midweek.
I recall that when I learned of this, from the outrageous stories circulating in the newspapers that morning with headlines such as ‘Young Aussies Go Out For a Night Out and Have a Good Time Causing No Real Dramas’, I remember thinking at the time it was obvious Ewen McKenzie needed to wield the biggest stick of all.
And he did.
He had no other choice but to contact the media and sell them all down the river.
You may say that going out after a late European dinner, and shooting a bit of pool with your mates and having a few drinks bonds players together. You may argue that this in turn allows them to play in a more united way for the benefits of all.
But the truth is nothing binds a group of professional athletes together more than creating a culture of rewarding players that dob on other players, before airing your dirty laundry out the window for all to see.
Well played Mckenzie. He earned their respect that day because consuming a bit of alcohol with your mates, a few days before a match while on a long tour after a long season, causes you to play very badly.
We only beat Ireland by 17 points that weekend after all.
I’m not sure whatever happened to Ewen McKenzie in the next 12 months but I’m sure he accounted for himself very well.
Frank Frank
Roar Pro
no not all
RedandBlack
Guest
May we counter Trump with Churchill - ' The English sentence is a noble thing. I would not beat boys for not knowing Greek or Latin - but I would beat them for not knowing English, and I would beat them hard for that!'. I guess most of us are in trouble.
Frank Frank
Roar Pro
firstly, the insider revealed those facts right here on the roar, secondly, he absolutely deserved this, as a former player, I can't abide coaches that treat players like boys on a y9 camp and 3rd they won by 17 points that weekend, so tell me how having a few drinks 4 days before a match, once on tour, hinders performance? No one is saying they should all have gone out, but those players that chose to do it, chose to do it on their day off after-all. oh and 4th, it was not a pornographic image of a senior staff member. it was a picture of fat lady that was not that said staff member. (are we calling nude paintings pornography now? is it the dark ages?, and are we calling the office lady - come psych-analysist a 'senior' staff member? Really. we all now know who she really was. Mckenzies 1st mate! Or did you ignore those revelations? Yes there was a reference to her. Yes in bad taste but in the grand scheme of things having a joke between team members is as normal as the day is long, and if you want to get on your high horse tell me it was not as bad as say Julien Savea (it is white ribbon day today after all) or even Aaron Smith's behaviour, who had no real anger aimed at them in comparison curiously, for doing far more genuinely bad deeds. My point is Mckenzie used the media against his own players, because they had brought some concerns to him prior to the dublin event, and he used a benign incident, involving good nature activity on the players day off, to assert his lack of authority over them, and paid the price. All teams have issues but they should be in house. lesson learned. and 5th, if Cheika ever behaved liked Mckenzie absolutely they should stand up to him.
Peter
Guest
Frank Frank, I laughed at your first article, but not this one, which is a gratuitous attack on someone who does not deserve it. For a start, are you claiming that you know what advice/directions/whatever McKenzie gave his team? If so, how, since no-one else seems to? Or are you going with the vibe of the thing? Secondly, there is no doubt that alcohol does affect physical and mental performance. It takes much longer than most people think to leave the system. Kelvin Thomas, the great fitness coordinator for the Brisbane Broncos, wanted to ban alcohol competely during the season, on the basis of scientific research. Didn't happen - Wayne Bennett knew that booze is such an integral part of Australian football that there would have been a riot. However, the U.K. Olympic team was impressed enough to headhunt him to implement his approach. You speak lightly of "the three amigos". No, they were not just naughty boys, although that's how they started out. You say that one of them had culture-based intolerance for alcohol. Now's your chance to name names. Is it O'Connor, with his Irish background? I suspect you meant the Indigenous Australian Kurtley Beale, but weren't prepared to say so. Well, now you can, and can provide some hard scientific data to back up your statement. And you say McKenzie got "what he deserved". Do you mean resigning in disgust over Beale's behaviour in concocting a pornographic image of a female senior manager and sharing it with his team-mates? Bloody hilarious, mate! And so grown-up! I couldn't care less if neither of them ever plays for or in Australia again. On to team-members revolting against coaches. Were Gregan and Larkham's leading a rebellion against David Nucifora at the Brumbies acceptable? If you think it was, is it now acceptable for Wallaby team members to revolt against Larkham and Cheika? If not, why not? The Wallabies will need every ounce of physical skill and every brain-cell functioning to overcome Ireland this weekend. It won't be 17 points. They will be lucky if it's 6. Here's hoping they can scrape in.
Frank Frank
Roar Pro
anything that slows the game down and benefits the home unions.. i'm sure world rugby will be all for it!
Frank Frank
Roar Pro
thanks man
Frank Frank
Roar Pro
not weelwy
Johnny Giant
Guest
Is it tough to type with your arms folded and bottom lip in the way of the keyboard?
RugbyNovice
Guest
Loving the article and especially the title, Frank.
Frank Frank
Roar Pro
well played sir
Frank Frank
Roar Pro
the only wrong doing was the ambiguity of the coaches instructions and then the trial by media that he led. and i 'll add his and a couple of the dibber robber players.. 'ahemmowen..ahem' and their self righteous carry on. They could have and should have just spent the niht in their room with a bottle of scotch perhaps? No-one would've known... they had a day off the next day... what business is it of a coach to tell a grown man how to live his life, essentially on his day off. If they don't perform then thats different, but they won by 17 points. Mckenzie essentially deserved what he got 12 months later, and the australian fans need to address their self righteous attitudes toward players. See how english footballers carry on and then we can talk.
Frank Frank
Roar Pro
yes they let them down by only winning by 17 points that weekend. As the BIL did earlier that year when they spent the last week of their tour chasing the lingerie NFL side on a queensland beach with some that chose to do so, drinking themselves into oblivion, and coming out and only annihilating the Wallabies by 41 to 16. difference was their media didn't carry on because they had a bonding session. on both of these occasions they let everybody down?
Redbull
Guest
Well, Cheika has already been labeled as one "ever", so McKenzie would have to be a least one more?
aussikiwi
Guest
Well spotted Chook, there is ocker Aussie and sophisticated aussi, the French one. Nah had to use different devices and typed my name in haste ?
Frank Frank
Roar Pro
yes when Usain Bolt confessed that all he ate in the olympic village in beijing was chicken mcnuggets he clearly was not telling the truth for some reason, or he has discovered that the single most disgusting thing you can put in your body is actually great for performance. should our culture change?.. judging by the ongoing issues the Wallabies have had with controversy after controversy of drunk and disorderly behaviour, which i can not even begin to count, they have all seemed to have not happened and been blended into one controversy two years ago where nobody misbehaved and the wallaby won by 17 points that weekendnd... yes it simply needs to change. You don't sound self righteous at all btw
Dwards
Roar Rookie
To my shame it took me a second read. Nicely done.
Dwards
Roar Rookie
Dare I say Machooka that I am not counting my chickens .......
soapit
Guest
dont confuse this with a moral issue. no one cared that they went for a drink. just that they it at a wrong time. purely a criticism of their professionalism. i have empathy for them. just not to the point where i think there should never be any consequence for wrongdoing.
zenn
Guest
Nobody was too young in the dormitories of Kings.
soapit
Guest
frank use as much sarcasm as you like but they broke the rules in in a way that would affect their performance in a highly paid job. they did the wrong thing and were punished. they didnt wrong us as fans really but they let down the people that pay them (maybe that does include fans a little)