Brad Thorn's emotional response to Izack Rodda's departure

A lot of personal chats - the last before the Crusaders game. Gee they sound really close there.

Perhaps it's that Brad is a Kiwi and not matter the results or how ludicrous the double standards are we should just remember he hails from across the ditch and thus cannot be questioned.

It was a lot less than 5 years...

perhaps it was the 5 or do years that made the difference Twas...Also maybe Thorn had met JOC many times whilst in the UK playing rugby.....I dont know what it was but the time frame would be the best bet....

He was. But how does it make sense to have no tolerance for drugs, unless they were used under a different coach? Either you have tolerance, or you don't. Had Slipper been unwilling to buy into what Thorn expected from him (or JOC for that matter) that's a different thing. But he seems to have bought in pretty well down in Canberra.

I was at Sydney Uni myself a decade or so before that Charlie, my children spent the '80s growing up under the stand at Milner, searching for dropped coins, and pouncing on the treasured corner posts at full time. We met that Randwick side in the '89 Grand Final at Concord, we were a chance for the first 15 minutes! I've not since seen an Australian club side as able and as talented - the splendid skill of David Knox, Eddie, Lloyd Walker (a lifetime disciple of, and tireless contributor to, the great game). The All Blacks were, of course, a bit like the famous Knights of the Round Table, the best of the best. Buck, Ice Man (the best footballer I have seen) both Whettons, Fox, Kirwan and Gallagher. Good days. Fabulous days.

Wasnt JOC sacked by a different coach for the same reason tho? And wasnt it years before he came back to Aus? Slipper got a different coach to "trust" him straight away....he didnt have to wait years like JOC did....And can you tell me the last coach in Aus who's player got a positive test for cocaine and kept his place in the team? I cant think of any off hand

I did a course at SU in 88/89 and played rugby there out of convenience. Strangely enough I had a few mates from home at Eastwood. I had a memorable day with those lads at the Randwick v All Blacks match. Seems like yesterday.

Good Lord no! I'm an Eastwood man, just visiting QLD for a couple of decades but I will return home across the border in due course. ???? I was raised on a steady diet of "Knuckles is your class enemy lad, do not trust those northerners!"

And his excellence is only as a player...

What a shame his excellence in every other facet if his life failed to translate to coaching. I wonder if his brother inlaw thought discussing his unfortunate drug addiction in the media was "exemplary"?

Haha I'll cop that. Mick just curious you wouldn't be a kiwi would you?

"Connley"? Never heard of him.

I noted his excellence, not his play, but don’t let me distract you from shifting those goal posts old chap.

And of course that's before we consider he's not willing to give Slipper a 2nd chance for drug use. But happy to give JOC a 2nd chance after using the same drug. Nothing like flexible standards to build loyalty!

Yeah the Wallabies for example were better with Cooper & Barnes than Cooper and Giteau by that point.

Nah Mick, Thorn might have the job Knuckles once had but he'll never be half the coach Connley was. If only Thorn had the intelligence, like Andrew Slack, to realise he's not cut out for coaching. This experiment is over!

Cooper exiled himself? How? Anyway I don't care how Brad has performed as a player. He's now judged as a coach.

I would have thought it more accurate to report that these two blokes exiled themselves. There are a dozen or two others who also deserve focused attention from their coach. Brad Thorn, who has performed in an exemplary manner in rugby and in league, on and off the field, joins a distinguished group of eight other Queensland coaches since John Connolly, not one of whom has met the approval of the Roar mob, who are best described by Paterson: "But all the finest horsemen out - the men to Beat the Band - You'll find amongst the crowd that ride their races in the Stand"

Exactly Fionn. Did Thorn even give Cooper a chance to deliver what Thorn wanted? Or did he come in and ludicrously tell him he was 5th choice 10 to him? (that would mean behind 2 club players). Since then the Reds have had Stewart, Lance, Hegarty, McGahan, Lucas and now JOC where the 10 jersey in 2 and a bit seasons. None lasting very long before being discarded.