Reports: Michael O'Connor to be named Wallabies selector

A discussion remotely is not as good as a discussion in person

He was at UQ doing Human Movements around 80/81. Chris Roche wasn't at UQ I don't think (Tony Darcy and maybe a year or so later Michael Lynagh also were doing that course, with other sporting notables). O'Connor played in the lunch time touch footy comp from time to time - to say he transcended that competition understates it badly.

What about Ben Darwin - Forwards coach, experienced at SR and WB lebvel, albeit a while back, and now providing great technical insight into individual and team dynamics?

I only question his lack of 15s coaching experience and ideally would probably like a forward. Otherwise he is exactly the type of person we want from what we could expect.

Cassandra He was and is close mates with Chris Roche from the famous 1977 schoolboys team and joined Rochey at Teachers (not sure if they were also studying to be teachers?). We are still waiting for the same glory days as the late 70svearly 80s at Norths unfortunately ???? The rest is history Qld , Wallabies etc. I would say that no matter where his local allegiance lies, he is a winner and will be 100% for the best Australian team to win every game.

The thing is, if picking on merit (according to Cheika and you) is how they go in training, they should have won every game last year because all the team leaders were saying how well they did at training last year. According to Hooper they were awesome at training.

Gotta say I disagree. Technology is amazing these days and working remotely is certainly not out of the question, especially for this kind of work. I’ve just recently moved my job to ‘remote’.... video conferencing is great and surely you will just be referencing footage which can also be streamed... in theory your selector could work anywhere in the world and still be quite effective

Thanks for that AJ. I did not know that he'd moved to Queensland. I saw him play for the ACT in 1980 against Queensland and in a side that was utterly thrashed he was still a standout. According to Wikipedia he was at Teachers Norths in 1981 and 82. Did he play for Queensland during those years?

Well the roarers seem happy then so am i. Dont know much about him (post wallabies).

I honestly don't think O'Connor is am amazing choice. But reality is going to limit the choices. It's got to be almost certainly a part time role, that would be a bit of a love job in the way of remuneration. Basically it's a good job for a former coach who is retired, or semi-retired. Nobody is going to pass up a full time coaching gig for it. But the problem is you can't have somebody who has been out of pro rugby too long. Their thoughts and selections may not be current. O'Connor ticks these boxes. As we've noted below, ideally his experience would be as a former forwards coach, not a former 7s coach though. The next issue is that the selector probably has to be east coast based. And ideally Sydney based. They need to be meeting and discussing with Cheika and Johnson who will both be in Sydney. And being a part time role, you can't really be flying them around too much when they are only working a day or two a week in their role. That probably rules out Michael Foley, just from a practical perspective. For him to come to Sydney you lose half a day already.

"independent selectors for honest challenging of status quo.." I guess if Foley and Quade (as at least the backup 10) don't both make the World Cup Wallaby 23, we'll know there's nothing 'independent' about this new policy. Unless there's a third world-class 10 kicking around that no-one's noticed yet that will beat Quade out of the 23? I'll be amazed if it's not just more smoke n mirrors by the RA, and I'm still expecting Cheika to dump all over SJ and MO'C. But let's hope.

Especially sevens.

Yes, you're right Ouch. It's just going so well for the Leaguies at the moment isn't it? They had a great off-season (unless you're a woman).

I’ve disregarded McKenzie on the basis he wouldn’t do it, not merit.

A few good suggestions there (I particularly like Joe, although a big part of that is Southern Districts bias) but I think Fionn nailed it with Link. Fisher another outstanding nomination but agree he’d have to leave the Brumbies.

agree, IMO Cheika prefers mirrors, if you are not on board you are out i.e Larkham, Higginbotham, Fardy

Nice trolling.

"MOC could not be less of a Queenslandophile" is that a triple negative? Makes my head hurt trying work out what you mean. He is married to a Qlder and someone said he lives here. He is a North Brisbane R U old boy (Teachers Norths in his day) and attended and spoke at their heritage celebrations last year with Rochey and other legends. He's probably eligible for a Qld passport based on all that.

You realise O'Connor was a Wallaby, poached by an NSWRL Club and has been a rugby coach since retirement, right?

RA needs more leaguey's to show them how play and run a professional sport. Rugby types barely have a brain cell between them.