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Bernard Foley and lessons from 'A Beautiful Mind'

Roar Guru
27th August, 2017
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A more winning Wallabies? It's as easy as kicking goals. (AAP Image/Richard Wainwright)
Roar Guru
27th August, 2017
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1775 Reads

An early scene in A Beautiful Mind, the story of economist John Nash who was portrayed in the movie by Russell Crowe, describes insight that inspired the work that won him the Nobel Prize for Economics.

Nash observed that when he and his mates were in the pub and trying to pick up women, they were blocking each other by all chasing the prettiest one, consequently scaring her off, ignoring her friends and leaving everybody without a date.

Nash surmised that this competitive behaviour, which had previously been regarded in classical economics as a primary motivator for people to achieve the best economic outcomes, could result in these sub-optimal outcomes.

Consequently he developed Game Theory, which is used to predict the outcomes of what is described as “strategic behaviour”, competing and achieving a sub-optimal outcome, while proposing solutions such as trust building measures to encourage cooperation where this is likely to create a better outcomes. I think it may give us some insights into Bernard Foley’s disappointing kicking performance in Bledisloe 2 in Dunedin last Saturday night.

Having observed Foley over the last four years, he has proven to be a player who has made up for not have the natural array of skills that peers like Quade Cooper and Kurtley Beale have through sheer tenacity.

Foley fought his way into the starting ten position for the Wallabies by being supremely fit, aggressively competitive, being willing to take his chances in the big moments and by doing what he is good at right. And what he is good at he is very good at, in particular his running and support play are world class, and until problems set in last year so was his goal kicking.

Bernard Foley Wallabies Australia Rugby Union Test Championship 2016

(AAP Image/Richard Wainwright)

Foley has also proven willing to extend himself, with evidence that he works hard to take on new skills when he is lacking. At the beginning of the last World Cup I had never seen him throw a cutout pass when opportunity deemed one necessary, but during the England pool match he attempted one to Rob Horne on the left wing.

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It was off the mark and I remember the look of frustration on Foley’s face at the time, but he by the end of the World Cup he was making the same pass to good effect.

To me this is evidence that Foley needs time to bed down each new skill before it becomes a core part of his game. And it is my observation that when he tries to apply too wide a range of skills too quickly that his entire kicking game, from the tee and the hand, falls apart.

Aside from the misses at goal, last year he missed the sideline with penalty touch finders with monotonous regularity. This year has taken to not attempting to get the distance to make the most of the opportunity, a poor outcome for the team.

This is where Game Theory comes in. Foley has stated that his fierce competition with Quade Cooper for the ten jersey has made him a better player and the range of skills that he has acquired over the last couple of years is evidence of that.

However, there is also evidence that Foley’s aggressive pursuit of that jersey is leading to some sub-optimal behaviour, in particular insisting on conducting all the kicking duties when there are other players who could help out. As we have seen it may be leading to instances where none of the kicking gets done well and the game is lost.

Perhaps Foley needs to be assured that if he, for example, hands over the penalty touch finder kicks to Kurtley Beale or Dane Haylett-Petty that it will not reflect poorly on him? Similarly, perhaps he needs to know that if he is out of sorts on the first couple of goal kicks of a game, that his jersey will be safe if he asks Beale to take over for him for the rest of the game?

It should be apparent to anybody who has closely observed the way Bernard Foley conducts himself as a Wallaby, that he does not have a lazy bone in his body. The absolutely gutted look on his face while he was being interviewed about recent suggestions that there was a lack of commitment on his part, should reinforce that view.

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To me he has been doing the job long enough now for the coach to know what he is capable of and barring a calamitously extended drop in form, he should be assured of his position while looking at ways of using the people around him to manage his mental load.

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