Melbourne captain Matt To’omua says sacking coach Dave Wessels after the Rebels failed to make the Super Rugby AU finals isn’t the solution to the club’s woes.
Wessels has mounted a passionate defence for Melbourne’s failure to reach the Super Rugby AU finals and boldly declared the Rebels can win the trans-Tasman version of the competition.
The Rebels ultimately missed the three-team playoff series by one competition point after beating the winless NSW Waratahs 36-25 in Saturday night’s ‘dead rubber’ in Sydney.
Wessels rued four last-minute losses and pointed out that the Rebels played almost the entire eight-round competition without up to a dozen leading players, including Wallabies stars Reece Hodge, skipper Dane Haylett-Petty and Isi Naisarani.
“We lost four games on the last kick of the game after the hooter,” Wessels said.
“We could be sitting here with a totally different story.
“We’ve also gone through the season without nine or ten of our most experienced players.
“So I’m really proud of the young group. I think the average number of caps in our team is 12.”
While acknowledging professional sport was a results-based business, Rebels captain Matt To’omua said sacking the coach wasn’t the solution.
To’omua insisted Wessels retained the full support of the playing group.
“We also understand the chat around. It’s essentially people wanting results and we’re not getting them at the moment,” he said.
“But it’s a short-sighted view to think that you just change one thing and (it will be okay). It’s not the way to go forward so we’re 100 per cent behind him.
“We’ve got to make some improvements in our program – 100 per cent – but Dave’s our guy. He’s the one we want leading us.
“The big thing for us this year was we were missing so many players, so much experience.
“It’s fine margins.”
Wessels urged the Rebels board to put the 2021 season into perspective, given the upheaval because of the pandemic.
“We didn’t train at our home base until the middle of March. We didn’t have one training session on our own field until then,” he said.
“Even now, we don’t have control over field time because we share the field with another team.
“And we don’t have our own gym because of COVID. You’re not allowed to share that space. We have to drive another 30 minutes to another gym.
“Unfortunately we missed out (on the finals) by a point – but I’m definitely proud of the effort.”
gatesy
Roar Guru
Leave him alone - we've got bigger fish to fry!
CW Moss
Roar Rookie
Makes me think that the list is just as important as the coach which is bloody obvious as I write this. So what about more brave selections and autonomy at the coach level if they are going to be the scapegoats.
Greysy
Roar Rookie
Sure, sounds like I misremembered that one. I remember how badly he played in the loss to the Chiefs which followed though. Regardless, of Cooper though, from a team persepctive it's pretty terrible to lose the last two games of the season by a combined score of 125-8.
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
And that’s the point. Simply sacking somebody to be seen to be doing something is idiotic if there’s not a better option available
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
He’s been poor this year. I have always thought, and still do, his best position is 12 so am a little sympathetic he’s obliged to try and run this team when playing out of position
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
I’m biased against him too but manage to see the insight be brings. He’s a surprisingly honest and intelligent contributor to the halftime analysis. You’re being a tough marker if you don’t see that
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
The first year he had the pick of the Force and the Rebels, it was, for an Australian squad, deep in quality. It is presumably difficult to bring the different players and culture together but he didn’t get close. Time to move on I think
stillmissit
Roar Guru
freddie, great leaders build great teams that fight for them, the boys may like him but it seems they will not fight for him or Melbourne. I have worked in teams where the majority hated the boss but they worked because he kept them on their toes. Kind bosses die a horrible death mostly.
stillmissit
Roar Guru
I agree with your Perth analogy Sheikh but I can’t agree with your conclusion, I think he has been given everything any coach could have hoped for and squandered it. There is a law in business and that is regardless of what happens the guy in charge is always responsible. I suspect he was against the wall in Perth, in Melbourne he assumed the comfortable position and that has not brought out the need to succeed in him.
Doctordbx
Roar Rookie
Cooper imploded because he'd played more minutes of Super Rugby that year then any other player. Wessels didn't manage his game time and fatigue at all well. He needed to rest him a lot more but couldn't and wouldn't. Lost my support right there.
Doctordbx
Roar Rookie
So you're saying Razor needs All Blacks in his stable to deliver results and couldn't develop a team?
jcmasher
Roar Rookie
That’s some really good context but it doesn’t explain a poor game plan and the constant changing of players that prevented any cohesion being built. I don’t know whether it’s a lack of good assistants or what but Wessels does seem a bit out of his depth
2017 was a long time ago...He's had some good rosters and done Zip...I think they need to move on and do it soon...
Sheikh
Roar Rookie
SMI, I was referring to the inference in Pinetree's original post that Wessel's teams always seem to drop off in performance at the end of the season (specifically the final 4 games). His 1 full season in Perth shows that the Force finished strongly that year, but in his years in Melbourne they haven't. In other words, it migth not be specifically a problem with Wessels, but with his players in Melbourne.
Sheikh
Roar Rookie
I'd forgotten, as Greysy reminded me, that you can't really use the 2016 figures for Wessels, so for the Force in 2017 he had a team which finished strongly, but his teams in Melbourne didn't. That suggests to me that the problem might be more to do with the players at Melbourne (and in 2018 a dozen of them were ex-Force players!) rather than Wessels himself.
Rhys Bosley
Roar Pro
MT comes across as a very nice man who will always stick up for a colleague who is under the pump. The reality is though that Wessels doesn’t “get” attack, he even wrote an article on here over Xmas praising England as the best team in the World, after a stodgy 18-7 defensive win over Ireland prior to a disastrous 6 Nations season for the Poms. His mantra was “defence is winning” and he turned up to the beginning of the SR season with only defence, clearly hoping to integrate attack throughout the season. It doesn’t work like that, attacking skills are an investment over time, and the Rebels failures to finish despite good run metres are a symptom of underinvestment before the season. Until Wessels learns to coach attack his teams will never be better than average, because you can’t consistently win only playing half the game of rugby. Given the amount of time he has had in charge of Super Rugby teams, he should be told to go away and learn on his own time, while a successful Aussie NRC or club coach is given a chance to grow rugby in the Melbourne market.
ethan
Guest
In this case, I think the excuses are legitimate, and Wessels deserves another chance. However, if the Rebels can secure the services of a top line coach, one demonstrably superior to Wessels, there is no reason why they shouldn't.
Tim Schuster
Roar Rookie
I thought the same,Diamond.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Wow. Quade must have imploded pretty bad to cause a 50 point thrashing for the crusaders game he didn’t even start
freddieeffer
Roar Rookie
TBH I've been a long standing fan of Toomua, but in all honesty, he has been very underwhelming this year, so right now in my eyes, he's on notice; perform or you're dropped. He really needs to deliver as someone with the broad accolades he has as a player. As the old saying goes, your only as good as your last game.