Queensland Reds fans are getting restless. And rightly so.
Reds coach Brad Thorn this week rebuffed questions about the possibility of reintroducing Quade Cooper to the fold as their season quickly slips away from them. Thorn maintained his hard line, stating the Reds were “going in a different direction”.
But what that direction is still remains to be seen and, in truth, it looks strikingly similar to the direction the Reds have been taking for several years now.
While Thorn has to be commended for his willingness to draw a line in the sand and back his methods, the continued exclusion of Cooper remains at best confusing and at worst embarrassing for Thorn, the Reds and Rugby Australia.
The details of Cooper’s salary and his willingness to pick it up while playing club rugby (and good on him for doing so) have been well documented, but it’s the growing portfolio of examples as to why Thorn is in the wrong on this matter that – combined with his headstrong attitude – has fans frustrated.
Boldly proclaiming you are taking a team in any direction when you’re losing more often than you’re winning is an odd strategy. Or, if you are going to tow that line, it may be useful to have some sort of substance to back yourself up and lead fans to believe that better results aren’t far away.
If the line about the different direction was in reference to Cooper being 30 years of age and a hint that the Reds are perhaps looking to the future, it makes 37-year-old George Smith’s recall this weekend even more bewildering.
Even if age has nothing to do with it and Thorn is attempting to build a way of playing (or ‘culture’ – the current buzz-word in Australian sport) that will carry the Reds into 2019, it seems silly to do it with Jono Lance as your primary play-maker given that Lance is off to Worcester at season’s end.
The Reds appeared to have a long-term replacement for Cooper lined up in 20-year-old Hamish Stewart. who made four appearances for the Reds last season, but he has found himself stuck behind the soon to depart Lance and his development – from the outside – appears to have stagnated.
Why can’t Quade Cooper get a run for the Reds? (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
Thorn’s calling card during his eight wins in ten games as coach of the Queensland Country side in the National Rugby Championship was defence. The talk in pre-season around the Reds was that the focus was all fitness.
The Reds are currently second in Super Rugby on the ladder for tackles won percentage – whatever the hell that means. The issue is it isn’t working because the Reds can’t score enough points of their own because their attack is lacking in penetration.
The Reds are averaging 26 points per game against them, 36 per game over their last three losses. Combine that with the fact they sit dead last on the ladder in tries scored with 13 – the Sunwolves have scored 20 – and it’s not a recipe for success.
Lance is a solid, if somewhat unspectacular, fly-half. If you are keeping teams to 20 points per game then he might do enough to get you over the line, but if you are conceding close to 30 points per game you’re going to need someone with a greater ability to unlock defences. Someone like Cooper, perhaps.
I wrote in an article several weeks ago that you can play boring football so long as you win. Winning buys you time. If you are losing, but play an entertaining brand of football, you will get less time, but you will get some time.
If you are losing, and boring the socks off of anyone watching while doing so, you will find that you have little to no time. After three straight losses, the latest an embarrassingly bland performance in a ‘rivalry’ game against the Waratahs where the Reds managed just one try, off an intercept, Thorn’s time has run out.
The Reds host the Chiefs at Suncorp Stadium this weekend and it’s hard to even visualise anything other than another Reds loss. If that is the case, Thorn had better prepare for more Cooper questions at next week’s press conferences, as with each Reds loss, Cooper’s stock rises further.
Jacko
Guest
At least i have a pay grader Snow
Bakkies
Guest
To be fair Jack lives up on the North Coast so probably has more connection to the Reds than the Waratahs.
Bakkies
Guest
Even more ridiculous is that due to a handful of grass tournaments on an annual basis there is now a generation of players who don't develop their game on the surface. TA are only getting to the program. They neglected clay court Tennis for decades. It made sense when blokes like Rafter played as they developed serve volley games on grass as a junior and played more doubles. Even Scud with his power game was very good at the net. Pity he didn't have the body and mind of Rafter. Hewitt was probably the first to come through as pure baseline player and won Wimbledon when it started to head that way.
Bakkies
Guest
RO Queensland always have the knack of producing forwards which makes the recruitment of Dad's Army and Douglas more bizarre. What a dud recruit Douglas has turned out to be. In my lifetime the Reds have multiple teams full of talented backs but bar a couple of years have rarely looked fluent as a unit compared to various NSW and ACT/Brumbies teams. Particularly under Knuckles they made try scoring look a chore which pretty much explains why his World Cup winning Wallaby laden squad barely swung a cat at winning a Super 12 title.
Olly
Guest
Brad Thorn is good for Australia Rugby. The Wallabies do well when Qld produces the forwards. No problem with the Reds pack, just need to find the balance with the backs. To me the problem is at 15. Top teams have a true playmaker at 15 and the reds do not have this. Lance is a solid 10 but his passing game is his weakness. Need a true playmaker at 15 to unlock there attack. JOC would be an excellent 15 for them if his head is screwed on.....but Quade at 15....
Scott
Guest
Quade is 30 so hardly ancient and has much more skill than the current option. If Thorn keeps losing then he should be flicked. The coaches job is to get the best from his players, if he can't do that then he hasn't done his job. Alternatively if he decides he can't work with a player he finds a replacement, which he hasn't so again hasn't done his job.
RobC
Roar Guru
Thanks Jack Last year the Reds had: - a good starting team - an alarmingly inexperienced bench. - the wrong physical training This year they are totally different - Almost the whole team is green - Winning three games early in the tournament was a surprise - So that's different isn't it. However where it's mirroring last year's team is the fading performance in the final stanza of the match - Whereas last year's fade was from the physical training and weak bench - This year it looks like the team is overworked. Not necessarily like overworked donkeys. Rather like a race car stuck in second gear. The Reds needs to have some game management. It's also making their set piece even more erratic that it already was. So imo it's: - set piece - game management - Attack structure
Fionn
Guest
Yeah, I definitely wouldn't be blaming that loss on him. I don't remember the match super well, but I thought he had been one of the Reds' better players.
Ruckin Oaf
Guest
1) no pressure is a bit of an understatement I can remember the Reds clinging to a lead and the Crusaders chases charging down. Yeah he had a little bit of time but..... 2) that was probably his only mistake in a match where he'd been dominant.
GC Red
Roar Rookie
Thorn only had limited cash reserves left to gain replacement players this year, with K and Q out of his plans. I think Quade is calling his bluff. Do people think that if the cash was available that thorn wouldn’t try and import other talent? All those sprouting the youth card are wrong. If he had the cash he would recruit from outside the reds. This is professional sport, winning is the only thing that matters. And if Q and K crack the shits and leave what do people think Thorn will do with that cash? Still pick raw NRC players, utter rubbish. His plan to have players walk away from their deal to free up finances for a recruiting drive have backfired... now he is stuck and can’t go back. BTW, hate him or love him, QC is still statistically more successful in gold than Foley, but facts ( and if you can be bothered you can go look them up ) are inconvenient when they don’t align with your feelings.
Fionn
Guest
That's fair. I seem to remember him knocking it on when under no pressure – perhaps fielding a kick? I'm not saying his second half performance was good in that match, or anything like that.
Ruckin Oaf
Guest
Yeah but when Qld were in control it was largely because of Cooper.
Train without a station
Guest
The Brumbies shellacking 2 weeks ago wasn’t that?
Rhys Bosley
Guest
Nice one Stu.
Smacko
Guest
You missed Pk's point Jacko.You are saying every Reds player is not brilliant . You seem to be a little hard of reading and comprehension skills?
Smacko
Guest
Thorn is not doing too well with his young superstars he loves.What is wrong? The players have finally found out Brad Thorn gets his coaching tips from Wayne Bennett ?
Yella
Guest
That isn't a source.That is an assumption on your behalf. Get back to us when you understand the difference. Hey !! send us a link to any one of those coaches who said what you said and then we would believe you .But i know you wont, as you are all mouth with no facts to back up your BS.
Mzilikazi
Guest
Sure, Fionn, accept that is tough to blame Cooper alone. But IMO in that game his errors were momentum swingers....in a game Qld. were well in control of.
Rhys Bosley
Guest
There were three tough matches in the first half of last year, the Crusaders, Lions and Hurricanes, but then the Reds also had the Force, Jaguares and Kings, all of whom they should have been able to beat. Of those three they only managed to win with the Kings and even then they gave up 34 points. And they had Cooper in the Force game .... playing opposite Lance. Really the only decent win in the first half of that season was against the Sharks. I reckon this season is an improvement over that. None of the losses have been stuff ups against supposedly inferior opponents like last year and they have all been away games. I reckon there will be a few surprises in home games in the second half of this season and that Thorn will be vindicated.
Mzilikazi
Guest
"We had that won, Kerevi gave away the penalty after the full time siren to lose it. Sorry to burst your incorrect Quade hating narrative bubble." pk, I am not referring to the Kerevi penalty at all...and actually Crusaders did not have the game won....only won it with the final kick of the game......I refer to several poor kicks earlier in the game, but the worst error was one long kick down field early second half, Cooper back to collect the bouncing ball with no one near him from Crusaders, and four players to his right ready to counter..nearest was Kerevi. Cooper knocked the ball on...big momentum shift.