McGahan joins Reds as assistant coach

Rhys, I think that if you're employed then Perth offers the best quality of life. Most beautiful, relaxing, best beaches, laid back people, near to Margaret River and places like that, and really good weather without the humidity of Brisbane. I really like Brissy, but I think I would take Perth. It is pretty rough if you're unemployed. Actually, unfortunately, you're right, Brisbane now offers the best quality of life now that the Force is gone..

No, Jock, they're not in as bad a spot as your Waratahs. I'd call the Waratahs horrendous, but with the players that they had 'pathetic' sums up their 2017 season better. That last match against the Force was a joke, I've rarely seen a team phone it is so badly. Hopefully they pick it up next year, because given they are still making up a majority of the Wallabies, if we want the Wallabies to do well then the Waratahs need to improve mightily.

I agree. He's a good coach who made progress with Rebels when he came on board. 2017 was a horrid year because of injury and the departure of Jones, Neville, Higginbotham, Fuglistaller, and most of all Tamati Ellison. Injury and suspension cost us McMahon and Timani for a lot of the season. Our starting side was full of basically grade level players but the one win we managed was against the Brumbies. McGahan was well thought of by players, members and officials. After a horror year he did the honourable thing and resigned. A quaint gesture in the eyes of the national coach I'm sure. McGahan is an honourable and thoughtful coach who will bring benefits to the Reds and if he doesn't, he'll move on without a fuss. He's a class act and the Reds are lucky to have him.

The Force used 2 players outside of their originally named squad. Only one of them made the starting team, for 2 games and in those 2 games, an originally named squad member was on the bench behind him. In total these 2 players were named 11 times between them (7 for Carmichael and 4 for Short). Neither of these 2 players were locals. Lewis Carmichael was from Scotland and Mitch Short from Randwick. In addition only 3 players did not play a game. The Rebels used 8 players outside their squad and 7 players did not play a game due to injury. That's an injury toll. In addition these players featured 38 times in total across the year. The Rebels did promote local players like Fereti Sa'aga and Murray Douglas as well as bring back interstate based Rebels 20s like Esei Haanga and Harrison Goddard. The whole premise of what you are saying is wrong. The Force used 2 players outside their original squad. Neither were locals promoted - all their locals were fully contracted in late 2016/early 2017 before injuries. The Rebels did promote locals where possible, but also due to injuries to other locals outside the official squad like Ikapote Tupai they then had to bring in outside players like Will Miller.

The Force had a bad injury toll too but had a back up plan as they had developed players locally who were prepared to step up rather than rely on short term contracts from Sydney.

McGahan will feel right at home with this appointment.

Interesting move by the Reds. To promote more youth coming through, Josef Kony has been appointed head of recruitment and Stuart Diver is on as a consultant for getting back to the top

May have preferred it if McGahan had said something along the lines of..."don't care if Bris is a dump...I am here to coach the team and get results..." instead of him saying he has returned to QLD for the lifestyle and family... Still think the Reds already had too many coaches (4 before McGahan got signed...)...

I think he's not a bad appointment. Despite his 2017 season, he's still achieved better results in 2015 and 2016 than any coach did in Australia this year. 2017 can easily be excused on the basis of a horrid injury toll that exceeds all other teams. If the Reds are planning for him to be a future Head Coach I think he's a bad appointment, but an assistant that has been involved in high level environments (Munster & the Wallabies), while also showing he was able to improve the Rebels and bring through a lot of young players in 2015 and 2016. He's well qualified for a role as an Assistant Coach. The Reds biggest weaknesses was the complete lack of experience in all their assistant coaches in 2017. My only concern is the lack of detail about his role.

Although I wish him all the best, I must say its hard as a Reds fan to turn cartwheels and raise much enthusiasm about this. Another individual whose primary motivation is coming back to the great town of Brisbane to raise the family. Thats completely understandable. Good luck to him and the Reds anyway.

No amount of bad luck justifies 18th spot behind the Sunwolves. A large part of the Head Coach's role was recruitment and development, he had five years but ultimately took the team backwards. There have to be better candidates available it is a pathetic decision.

That's okay Rhys, I like Queenslanders and have spent enough time in rugby circles to drink Bundy without grimacing but I'm not a Queenslander. You and a few guys here have skin in this particular game. Is McGahan really a bad coach or was he just unlucky with injury and playing list at the Rebels? That Qld playing list is pretty good for a super rugby team. Surely someone can do something with it.

Ps Mitcho, that was a general comment which I accidentally posted in response to your post.

Its hard to see how this can be moving forward. If the idea is that performance and results dont matter, then I guess almost anyone will do (include Nathan Gray in this category). It just seems that people get in to the coaching slot and just keep going round'n'round.

Seriously? Brisbane has one of the best quality of life of any of the Super Rugby cities, and they can't find some dead keen young Kiwi or South African coach, instead giving the job to an unemployed wooden spoon winning mate who wants to return to his roots? Unbelievable.

Be fair gentlemen. At least Tony McGahan was outside the car park when they found him. In a bold move I'd like Cheika to take over the Qld coaching job.

Reds are in a worst state than nsw. Spoon for reds & rebels get 17th as they now have Genia to save them from the spoon. The Sunwolves 10th. Force can play with themselves as Twiggy will put $50 million in a wa comp. Maybe they should join Georgia and Russia comps . The ARU are weaving magic , according to TWAS and Brett all is going fantastic for Oz rugby. At least we have the NRC so the force can feel included.

In other news, The Monkeys have signed Milli Vanilli to sing backup ...

In the finest Reds tradition of hiring rubbish coaches who've failed at other franchises

ARGH!!!!! its the Richard Graham debacle round 2.