I’m with you Bill. Too much negative about a playmaker as good as Quade. Put Quade at 10 Tapui at 12 and see how they go.
Can’t understand the the guts of the article about Cooper being a good club player, his WRC may not have been great but in the Super 15 and Tri Nations last year he shot the lights out.
He is the type of player who at times will appear to do stupid things but overall wins a lot more than he loses. Also believe that the other players love playing with a player of his ability and talent which is a factor to consider.

In rugby terms a lot of the Queensland pride was a result of years of being beaten by NSW in the 60’s and then NSW said it was not worth playing Queensland any more because they where such easy beats.

A combination of Geelong slipping a bit and other teams improving has really highlighted Geelong’s poor start to the season. No doubt they have the personnel to win however history shows it’s very hard to get up from outside the final 4. No doubt that this season is a lot more even than the last couple. As long as Geelong are in touch at the business end they can win, like last year when they came into form in perfect timing.

Agree cannot sustain 5 super 15 clubs. Certainly not from a financial point of view.
And not from a player point of view either. If you where a Super 15 coach you would say you needed at least 2 five eights for a season, probably closer to 3, same goes for halfbacks. I can’t see 10 to 15 Super 15 quality 5/8’s or 10 halfbacks running around in Australia at the moment. Of course the numbers double for backrows wingers etc. although seems to have a good stock at these positions.

Ask Matt Giteau about 3rd party sponsors he will probably disagree.
When he was at the Force it was with Firepower and once they could not pay he was out of there.
There is no perfect system and as we all know the players will invariably go where they get the most coin.
Trouble is that why would a club invest time and money into developing promising players if they know that he can float as soon as another team offers him more coin and they are restricted by a salary cap.

It seems there is such a focus on the Wallabies and Super 15 that club rugby, where the vast majority of players are, is all but invisible. You only have to look at the numbers in the ARU annual report, player payments $30M plus with distribution to state unions $6M. When you get that situation they have such an investment in current players that they make it difficult to bring on new ones. I don’t know the answer however looks a bit top heavy to me.
As a side note maybe the Brumbies success is partlydue to the fact that they have a flatter pay structure for their “No Name” team.

It’s the same every year at the Tahs, they carry on as if the trophy is already in the cabinet ,then the recriminations come in about round 5 after they get dusted a few times. Individually the players are good but terrible as a team, don’t know if the coach is the problem as they have tried heaps and the results are always the same.

From memory Lawrence had a few shockers during the WRC.
Doesn’t look like he is improving nor does it look like the blokes who pick the refs seem to care very much.

I think you hit the nail on the head in the first sentence, the Brumbies really play as a team rather than individuals. It was only a few seasons ago that the Reds where full of new faces and a few rejects from other sides.
I think a lot of the success of these sides can be attributed to the fact that the younger more inexperienced players really lift when they get the opportunity to play against big name players and teams. A coach like Jake White gives the players the skills and belief they can match it with the other sides and when they have a bit of success it creates momentum for the side and they keep improving.
Contrast that to a team like the Blues this season who have a lot of big name players but are really struggling.

Some quality loose forwards in that lot but for mine Read & McCaw are a class above the others. Hopefully the Reds backrow really step up and will also need the backs to play a lot better, the Crusaders has the best backline in the S15 comp even with Dagg not in his best form.
If the Reds go back to their Sth African tour form it will be a cricket score.

It is not just a numbers game. You also have to consider quality.
At the moment Australia is very light on in terms of world quality no. 9 & no. 10’s. Can hardly get 2 teams with quality halves let alone 5.
I am all for developing club rugby further as that should be the engine room for up and coming players. While there is a lot of talk about developing another level between club and S15 we have to remember that they tried that and it was an expensive mistake that is unlikely to get the funding it would need to be successful.
Support to clubs is easy to implement given that the infrastructure is already. I think the Test and S15 players are pretty well compensated at the moment, time to look after the grass roots.
As for players being cherry picked by league, that is always going to happen and if you have not noticed rugby has a bit of a dip at league players as well.

The ALP has it’s two speed economy
and the AFL has a two speed competition.

The Crusaders play with a lot more depth and width than any other S15 side. They back the players to be break the line, and why wouldn’t you with Fruean and Dagg. Pick and drive is usually done to work the ball towards the side lines to open up the field for the backline, rather than up the middle of the field like the Australian sides. Agree with David that they will be the team to beat this year as they are getting better the longer the season goes.
The Tahs did well to as close as they got but watching the game you always had the feeling that the Crusaders were going to win.

Carter won’t get the gig until he learns to tackle.

it’s so hard comparing people from different era’s however like the look of your list,
From memory Loane & Ella only played about 30 tests each so amazing that they both had such an impact over a relatively short career.
Now days it seems some fairly pedestrian players can knock up 50 or more tests.

The Force & Rebels are incapable of producing any home grown talent so will always be poaching talent from Reds & NSW. In an ideal world they would signing up and coming players who cannot get a start in Qld and NSW, the two states that produce most of the players. Unfortunately the approach of both sides seem to be take older players at the end of their careers and try for a few “marquee players” (hate that term), on the basis that it will lure others players to the club. So far it doesn’t seem to be working that way.
The brumbies have one it well but I think they had the advantage of being in the right place at the right time, also they produce a lot of their own talent.
The evidence seems to be that Australian rugby would be better served by having four franchisees rather than 5. There are external reasons for having 5 but from a pure quality point of view 4 would be better.

I can’t understand your reasoning, do you mean he should tell the reds he will sign at the end of the year then stick at the Force pretending he is going to be there long term? How does that represent any principle.?
Your living in lala land if you think coaches and players are only going to negotiate with other clubs when they are out of contract with there current one.

I think you are kidding yourselves if you think players and coaches are not looking at offers from other clubs on a consistent basis. The reality of the situation in the Graham case is that he has an option at the end of the year and Queensland want to sign him now, do they have to wait until the end of the year or does Graham sign up and they both keep their mouths shut?
You cannot say Graham did the wrong thing by signing and the Force did what they think is in their best interests by asking him to leave.
Same as the corporate world send them on gardening leave when they resign.
If anything I think the Graham and the Force have all acted in a professional manner, just that the press tries to play the emotional / loyalty, card to try to make it look as if there is a drama.

Teams playing GWS will treat the game a rest game for their key players or if they need too as a percentage booster. It will be interesting at the end of the season if a club needs percentage to get onto the eight try to blast GWS off the field and belt them by 15 goals. In a way they are serving a purpose but not the one they were intended too.

Malthouse achieved a lot as a coach but his time is past and he seems to have trouble coming to terms with it. His recent comments do him no credit and should be taken for what they are, the rants of a grumpy old man who got the ar#e from his job.
Trouble for Buckley is that he is destined to fall short given the club’s result of the last two years.
Also as regards his comments about Dane Swan, he should remember that Swan probably won Collingwood the GF in 2010.

How did you get your job Murray, it sounds like a pretty good gig. Travel the world, watching rugby does it get any better than that.
Good to see the success that developing nations have had with the Top Down approach however for Australia it seems the club level footy is struggling because of the focus on Super 15 and Test.
Regular participation of the Super 15 players at a club level would certainly improve the game at a club level here in Australia however as you alluded to this is not really an option for developing countries. It’s not a simple matter one size fits all but more a matter of horses for courses.

I think you hit the nail on the head.
No doubt the players individually have the talent, apparent they are not playing as a team.
This has been a problem for many years, a perplexing question is when McKenzie was coach at NSW with arguably a higher calibre group of players then he had when he started at the Reds still did not enjoy much success.
Don’t know the answer but something is wrong with the way NSW run the team as by all accounts Foley has coached successfully at other clubs internationally.

How about an old fashioned tar n’ feathers or maybe put the bloke in stocks and have the fans throw rotten fruit at him. Why let the judiciary have all the fun.

The hypocrisy in AFL is rife, sponsorship by gambling yet bans players from gambling, or at least the ones that are stupid enough to get caught and of course the media connections as outlined above. The football world has never and will never be pure and we have to accept that. The fact the AFL and media defend it and say it does not exist is insulting to the intelligence of the average joe.
In the interests of balanced journalism why not interview the bloke who got chopped by the machete? As if that’s going to happen.

While the Reds are 3 from 3, they are certainly not playing with the same confidence and flair as last year. A lot to do with Cooper’s absence but also the heavy marking of Genia by opponents. A lot of basic errors in handling is also stopping any flowing footy which they did so well last year.
The NZ sides seem to be playing a faster up tempo style while the Reds/Tahs/Force games have been pretty ordinary to watch. Be interesting to see if the Reds can step up to the plate and get some of the mojo back.