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Fulvio knows ...
Matt never struck me as Machiavellian, more like Blackadder %)
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Emirates Fly to the Rescue
In breaking news from Dubai, the Board of Emirates, the long term major sponsor of the Western Australian based Emirates Western Force, have announced that they have had enough with their name being associated with mediocrity in Australian Rugby and so are injection an amazing sum of money to engage an elite Coaching panel of expat Australians, reversing the trend of Coaches and Players heading to Europe.
Australian Rugby Union CEO, John O'Neil said, "This is an amazing gesture of support to the Emirates Western Force by Emirates and a major win for Australian Rugby to see the return of such a large "brainstrust" of Rugby knowledge from overseas."
While further appointments are to be made, the following personnel are confirmed and will be boarding flights as this story is written:
Tony McGahan
Munster, Director of Coaching
From Warwick in Queensland, Australia, a teacher by profession, (BE in Physical Education from Queensland University of Technology), he played Rugby Union (inside centre) with Queensland Schoolboys and Eastern Districts and Rugby League with Queensland U16s/19s, Australian Universities as well as professionally for two seasons with the Brisbane Broncos.
The 37 year old joined Munster in February 2005 as Defence Coach and the following season - with his role expanded to Defence / Backs / Skills Coach - played a central role in Munster securing their first ever Heineken Cup title.
He enjoyed further Heineken Cup success in 2008 when Munster triumphed against Toulouse and in 2009, his first season as Munster Director of Rugby, took the squad to the semi final of the Heineken Cup and victory in the Magners League.
Matt O'Connor
Leicester, Head Coach
The son of a former Australian rugby league professional, Matt played most of his club rugby in Canberra with ACT and then the Brumbies.
He was capped at senior level by Australia, while also fitting in a spell in Super League and a couple of seasons in Japan.
Matt coached in Japan before his return to Australia where he worked for four years with the exciting Brumbies backline which included national team skippers George Gregan and Stirling Mortlock.
His abilities were further recognised with three years working with Australia A before joining Heyneke Meyer at Welford Road in time for the start of the 2008/09 season.
Matt played a major part alongside Richard Cockerill when Meyer returned to South Africa in early 2009, with Tigers picking up the Premiership trophy at Twickenham and reaching a fifth Heineken Cup Final.
After retaining the Premiership crown in May 2010, O'Connor became Head Coach in July 2010 and he reached a third Twickenham final in May 2011.
Brian Melrose
London Irish, Backs Coach
Brian joined London Irish in June arriving from Connacht where he was backs coach. During his coaching career, Melrose has enjoyed spells with Australian Super Rugby side New South Wales Waratahs, as well as time with the Australian U20's side and the Sevens team.
John Isaac
Olympic Biarritz, Co-Coach
Brad Davis
Bath, 1st Team Coach - Backs and Defence
Brad Davis joined the club in September 2006 from Castleford Tigers Rugby League, which he joined in 2004 as a player and Senior Academy Head Coach, and where he had been Assistant Coach since 2005.
Brad first came to the UK from his native Australia in 1992. As well as Castleford, he played for a number of English clubs, including Huddersfield and Wakefield Trinity Wildcats, and spent a brief spell in France as player/coach at Villeneuve Leopards RLFC.
He brings years of experience from rugby league, particularly of defence, to help the club's ambitions to be at the top of European rugby.
Brad Harrington
Llanelli Scarlets, Head of Strength and Conditioning
Australian born Brad Harrington is the Scarlets' Strength and Conditioning Coach.
Bryce Cavanagh
Munster, Head of Fitness
From Australia, Bryce joined the Munster set-up at end of June as the Head of Fitness. Now based in Cork Cavanagh previously worked with the Sydney Swans, NSW Waratahs and West Indies Cricket.
Joe Gallanagh
Munster, Strength & Conditioning Coach
Born in Wexford, Joe actually grew up in Western Australia and his family are now living in Donegal. He graduated from the University of Salford Manchester with a BSc in Exercise and Health Science.
Prior to joining Munster in September '08 he worked with Wigan Athletic FC, Wigan Warriors RL and Salford Reds RL.
Married to Angela, he now lives in Limerick and other interests include surfing and swimming.
Trent Hacking
London Irish, Strength and Conditioning Coach
Trent is in his fourth season at London Irish after he spent a season working for Essex County Cricket Club as Head Strength and Conditioning Coach. Trent worked in his native Brisbane with the professional basketball side.
Mick Ennis
Ulster, Resource Manager
Mick Ennis, who is originally from Australia, was appointed towards the end the 2007/08 season as Resource Manager.
Mick has responsibility for ensuring the players always have the correct training equipment, kit and refreshments at training and matches, home and away. As a registered masseuse, Mick is also able to spend between 8-10 hours a week working on the players as part of their recovery.
Small portions of this story may be bullshit...
BRET HARRIS From: The Australian April 17, 2012 12:00AM
MICHAEL Cheika has emerged as the leading contender for the vacant Western Force coaching job following Richard Graham's shock decision to leave Perth at the end of the year to take over the Queensland Reds, with incumbent Ewen McKenzie becoming director of rugby.
Cheika, who guided the Rocky Elsom-inspired Irish province Leinster to the Heineken Cup in 2009, is coaching French club Stade Francais.
An informed source in Perth told The Australian yesterday that the Force had already had discussions with Cheika. Ironically, the Force interviewed Cheika when it entered the Super Rugby competition in 2006, but went with former All Blacks coach John Mitchell instead.
Other coaches believed to be in the running are former Wallabies assistant coach Tim Lane, ex-England attack coach Brian Smith, former Waratahs attack coach Todd Louden, Canterbury NPC coach Rob Penney and Force assistant Phil Blake.
Full story here
No not Michael Cheika - another 'average coach', a bit like RG (with some description from prior seen below)
Coaching career
Padova - 2001.
Cheika coached Padova through a Heineken Cup campaign but did not yield any wins
Went missing in 2001 - 2005 due to personal reasons
Leinster - 2005/2010
Cheika's first season as assistant culminated in a Heineken Cup Semi – Final against Munster, Lost
Cheika's second season in charge was a difficult one as Leinster were knocked out of the Heineken Cup at the Quarter Final.
The 07/08 season saw more European disappointment when Leinster failed to get out of their qualifying pool,
Leinster lost their Magner's Celtic League crown to Munster in 2009
Stade Français. - 2010/2011
Head Coach, at S.F. and is currently in 2011 they are in 11th position and only 1 lost away from religation to 2nd division french rugby.
NO NO NO NO NO NO !!!!... next.....
Who are you? How did you hijack a Mod's a/c? There's no way tbe real Burgs would praise up all those bloody Mungos. :-)Quote:
Originally Posted by Burgs
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The much vaunted 2009 Heineken Cup win had the following amongst the Leinster team -
Jonathan Sexton (Ireland)
Jamie Heaslip (Ireland)
Brian o'Driscoll (Ireland)
Gordon D'Arcy (Ireland)
Luke Fitzgerald (Ireland)
Cian Healy (Ireland)
Rocky Elsom
Isia Nacewa (Aukland Blues)
Chris Whitaker
Clearly a similar sort of talent pool to that available at the Force, especially amongst the backs.
I believe we should be targeting Robbie Deans, he has the absolute best Super Rugby coaching credentials in the entire world and I'm sure he can see the writing on the wall at ARU HQ post 2013. I'll also bet he has a get out clause in his contrct that either party could exercise. If RugbyWA are really trying to get THE BEST MAN FOR THE JOB, we should be hearing about some intensive talks with the ARU regarding the future of Robbie Deans in the next few weeks. Obviously if this happened Ewan would get an additional year with his squad prior to a RWC, and that is good for everyone.
Either way this is going to be a great comparison in how well a franchise can move on from such adversity. The Brumbies were in a simialr position last year, pulled in the big name coach and lost a few good players, but look where they are today. If we can do something even close to that by this time next year, we will probably be having our best start to a season ever, only time and decision making will tell.
deans / fisher would be good choices .. however i think it is too early to pull the rug under dingo's feet .. the wallabies have been crap the past 10 years and it isn't because of the coach .. our player depth and talent coming through now (decade) is and has been way behind our rivals.
I like that idea.
Graham to QLD, McKenzie to Wallabies, Deans to Force
Anyone who says Deans - take a look at his record with the Crusaders AND wallabies AND allblacks!
Deans is a part of the Mitchell problem (he was assistant allblacks coach during Mitchells reign) - when he gets his sight set on something he won't change. He kicked Mehrtens to the curb for personal reasons at the Crusaders, was partly responsible for ending the international careers of Randell & Cullen and he has shown himself to be crap without the right people around him at the wallabies.
If Deans had a falling out with any force player they'd be lucky to make the bench no matter how good they are, just look at how he's treated Sharpe.
I'd rather go back to Mitchell over Deans, it'd be the same coaching but cheaper.
Come on Jombi, Mehrtens had the old "Steve Walsh" syndrome :cheers: you can't blame Dingo for Cullen and Randell, they only have themselves to blame for not being suitable to select, out of form, better younger options etc. Sure he has not set the world on fire with the Wallabies, but he has made improvements and if he can "improve" on what JM and RG left in their wake, he will be the most succesful Force Coach ever known.
Mehrtens initial dropping fair enough you can make a case for, but he was practically forced back into the Crusaders by the board!
Randell was dropped for Reuben Thorne, aka Captain Invisible. No one could work out how he got more than 2 caps! Cullen was moved to 13 and then dropped after he didn't perform out of position.
What has Deans actually done with the wallabies? You've got 1 TN, and that's basically due to the allblacks fielding second string XV's into Afrikaa with that stupid (but ultimately successful somehow) resting/rotation policy Henry went with again.
Ultimately when it comes to Dingo you just need to look at how he treated Sharpe.
Deans should not be allowed anywhere near the force!