A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article titled ‘Australian needs a champion team not a team of champions‘.
In this article, I suggested that instead of cutting an Australian Super Rugby franchise in the hope of saving some money to develop grassroots rugby, the ARU should be limiting salaries for ‘star’ players to no more than a set amount, say $500,000 a year, with the savings being directed to improving coaching through recruitment and training of coaches.
This was based on observations that despite their ‘star’ playing stock, the Wallabies are now on par with teams like Scotland, with the only thing that has changed being that the Scots have recruited a better coach.
Well, we have just witnessed a Super Rugby final which irrefutably demonstrates my point, as it was played between two teams with very recent head coaching appointments and rosters heavily featuring players few had previously heard of.
First was the Lions, who hadn’t made a finals series since 2001 under the guise of the Cats, hadn’t been at the top half of the table between 2001 and 2015 either and were relegated for coming last for the 2013 season. Then, in 2016, when new coach Johan Ackerman arrived, the Lions roster of no-names stormed the competition with an exciting brand of rugby that got them into two finals.
(AAP Image/Julian Smith)
The second it the Crusaders, the previous dominant team in Super Rugby with seven series wins until 2008 when five-time winner Robbie Deans left the franchise. That is more than three times the number of wins achieved by any other team in the competition, with the coaching appointment of Todd Blackadder leading to nine years without a title and the team dropping to seventh on the competition table in 2015 and 2016.
Given that their roster at the time included the All Black captain and a sizeable chunk of their starting squad, this represented a distinctly substandard period for the Crusaders. Yet in 2017, with their new coach Scott Robertson and many of the big-name All Blacks gone, the Crusaders have just won the Super Rugby title for the eighth time.
Seriously, how much more evidence does Australian rugby need that good coaches are far important to winning in professional rugby than star players are? The experience of the Lions surely shows that better coaching will resolve the supposed depth problem that having five Super Rugby teams creates for Australia, with good coaches turning former nobodies into good players.
We know the benefit of being able to dig deep for talent, the hooker injury crisis of 2014 when Ewen McKenzie successfully used previous unknowns Nathan Charles and Josh Mann-Rea being evidence of that.
I understand thanks to feedback on the last article that the player’s collective bargaining agreement stipulates that players are entitled to 29 per cent of gross player revenue.
However, the agreement is due for renegotiation at the end of the year and I don’t see why reducing the share of gross player revenue, while stipulating that salaries will only be reduced at the very top end, is an insurmountable obstacle.
With players as good as Sean McMahon reportedly being offered packages of around $350,000 a year, it is clear that vast majority of professional rugby players in Australia are being paid nothing close to half a million.
Therefore, it would be in the interests of the majority to vote for a limitation of that nature if it meant keeping a team and their jobs.
On this issue and others, the Aussie franchises need to stop persisting with a failed, celebrity player based approach to rugby, when there are obvious solutions being demonstrated overseas.
Spending money that would otherwise be spent on big name players on coaching all our players to success is one of the biggest lessons we can learn, so just do it already!
DavSA
Guest
Oubaas Markotter , Izak van Heerden , Bob Dwyer .. Markotter devised the 3/4/1 scrum formation still used today as well as the swing pass. Van Heerden probably more responsible than any other individual for the elevation of Argentinian rugby to top a top tier power.
superba
Guest
Hannes has it been reported that Akkers has " been disqualified as Bok coach " because he did not reach transformation targets ? Is that really so ? Or just the opinion of some ?
superba
Guest
As if to emphasize what is being written about the importance of the coach , one season of Jake White made a big difference to the Brumbies .The forward play in particular improved immeasurably .
Rhys Bosley
Guest
LOL, sorry Mate, I forgot the Blues. As a former Aucklander who left in 1988 my enduring memories of Auckland rugby was of it dominating Ranfurly Shield crashes, the Blues really dropped off the radar once I came here. Yeah, somebody else pointed out about Ackerman but he has progressively improved the team over the course of his tenure, so I think is shows how a good coach can get unknown talent to perform.
Rugby Tragic
Roar Rookie
riddler ... mate, " i just want to win.." ... that's a pretty noble ambition ... we all want that ... but I'd question if White was not yesterdays man now ... unless he alters his approach the Jake White way might not be as successful as it was in 2007 which was the year he reached his Everest
DavSA
Guest
Yes RT , Not just a pity but .... apologies ....a tragedy...Cheers
Sage
Guest
"Link believed that he deserved the Wallaby coaching role after the Reds won the Superugby trophy" - perhaps he did Hannes, I don't know but how do you know this as fact?
Fionn
Guest
Hannes, Deans got 6 years. He had free reign for the first 4 and went away from the successful 2010-early 2011 tactics and used rubbish tactics that led to a terrible World Cup campaign (despite coming 3rd), and continued his horrendous tactics through 2012-13. Deans had a fair chance, I supported him from 2008-2011 WC, but then he messed up. He got 1.5 years longer than he should, as he shouldn't have had his contract extended after the RWC.
Rugby Tragic
Roar Rookie
Hannes, reading an interview some time back, Akermann pays a lot of credit for his coaching triumphs to both John Mitchell and Laurie Main, neither of whom I had a lot of time for...shows you what sort of judge I am ... LOL
Hannes
Guest
Deans did not have a power base in Australia, he is not from NSW nor QLD so was always a sitting duck. Link believed that he deservef the Wallaby coaching role after the Reds won the Superugby trophy. He leaked sensitive information that was discussed between Deans and Link to the papers e.g. why Quade's was dropped. His hands were not clean when he got the job and it was not a surprise when he lost the support of the playing group and the CEO.
Rugby Tragic
Roar Rookie
Thanks for that DavSA ... a great insight. I as aware from reading several of those points but not all ... A pity the colour of his skin might prevent him ever coaching the Springboks as I understand it...
Sage
Guest
We're on the same page with this Fionn and I think we've paid a price. Rugby Karma.
bigbaz
Roar Guru
I reckon there are 2 types of coaches , the weekly grind coach who sends out a side with a fairly ridged game plan, well prepared but a tunnel focus and a gameday coach who sees and senses changes within the game and acts accordingly. The most successfull are a combination of the 2, a rare animal.
Bakkies
Guest
Kids unless they have dispensation should not be coaching. As all coaches are Garda vetted in Ireland you have to be 18 or over to coach children. As for the 40 year old fathers they are very common as clubs have had to recruit dads and mums to help out with coaching as they haven't got enough coaches to handle the demand. They often do well with structured coaching in the forwards but it's the backs they struggle with. Maybe these dads could do a swap with the ARU and they can coach forward play in Australia and the IRFU take some backs coaches. The ARU have Rugby Ready which you have to renew annually but I don't know if it gets followed through with so coaches are doing it.
Bakkies
Guest
Started in the juniors in the early 90s when minis were new in a lot of clubs but the coaches back then were coaching from the manual that Marks and Robilliard implemented.
Rugby Tragic
Roar Rookie
Rhys, thanks for your article, just a couple of 'minor issues' ... " .... That is more than three times the number of wins achieved by any other team in the competition ... " ... Umm not quite correct. The Blues won the title in 1996, 1997 and 2003, three times and lost in 1998 in the final to the Crusaders. In addition, the Blues qualified for the playoffs two other times losing in the semi-finals in 2007 and 2011. It's hard enough following the Blues already, please don't handicap us further .. :) Johan Ackermann took over in 2013 for the promotion/relegation series after John Mitchell's time (Akermann credit's a good deal of his success due to being mentored by the former AB Coach and a Laurie Mains). But since 2013 he had his chance to mould his squad and the way the Lions have played. 2016 though was the year which demanded of the rugby fans other than Lion's die-hards to "look at us", and I think most will agree they play a great and entertaining game. I guess we will see what happens with the Lions from 2018 onward as the imposed quota system becomes more strictly enforced in SA.
Fionn
Guest
Haha no worries, mate, I think wine and sleep sounds much better than the Link saga! I don't see how he could have stayed when he had his name dragged through the papers and had poisonous salacious rumours spread about him while his captain refused to back him and the ARU protected the man found guilty of sexual harassment and misconduct. Link had a family, I don't see how it could have been fair for him to leave them subjected to what was being said (with no evidence, mind). All we know is that he denied an affair was taking place, but that the papers spread the rumours anyway, and that his captain backed Beale. Regardless, we can agree to disagree, but the whole sorry affair left a very sour taste in my mouth, and it seems to me that Australian rugby is yet to get over the wounds from the episode.
riddler
Guest
bakkies i dip my hat to you.. dick marks it was.. a good qld lad.. warren robilliard i have never heard of.. bakkies did you play in qld in the 80's/90's? you seem to know a bit.. maybe you ran over the top of me or stepped round me.. both equally possible and plausible..
Bakkies
Guest
There is a pathway but other unions seem to be ahead of the grove. The IRFU has introduced a Rugby curriculum in clubs so they can create their own to suit their needs. The one you are referring to was implemented in the 80s by Marks and Warren Robilliard. John O'Neill canned it in his second reign of terror.
riddler
Guest
fionn.. am still awake.. so apologies in advance.. how did the paper's make link's job untenable? it is the paper, not the public.. the crowds were still in force.. we had had a very good eoyt.. and almost beaten those supreme rugby gods from across the ditch.. he quit.. he hadn't lost the dressing room.. otherwise why would we have just run them so close.. try greg smith vs boks circa 1996 to see what losing a dressing room is like.. and he in the end had a valid excuse.. link pulled the pin and has not been seen of since.. why, only he knows.. only we can speculate and shout loud enough if we type it enough ie hooper etc.