Furious Western Force players wanted Richard Graham sacked

[Rex Messup]

Sort of. He got around a bit, did Blakey. Starting and finishing with Manly (1998) but retiring before the season after a trial injury. He also played for Souths, Norths, Warrington, Canberra, Saints and Auckland. He managed one Origin. Many, including me, thought he was pretty unlucky not to get more. There was some bloke named Laurie Daley running around during all those seasons.

Strangely he has never been appointed a head coach at RL. He was caretaker coach at Souffs after the sacking of Craig Coleman. His only head coaching jobs were at Manly where he started with the lower grades and progressed to take the first grade side from last place to a Shute Shield grand final in 2 seasons. So we know he has some form on the board. Hopefully he can do it in one season this time around.

He couldn't tackle to save his life and the cauldron of Origin was not his stage.

He was fast and fit and probably pulled a lot of tasty totty on the lower north shore.......lucky b@stard

tackle.......

defence coach.........

That'll do me

[GIGS20]

Yeah and Nick Stiles can't coach scrummage because Rex says he was so shit at it when he was playing!

It shows in the way our scrum has developed in the two years he has been in charge. don't point at Ma'afu as the reason, because you called him a tub of lard as well.

[onions]

People seem to forget that graham Henry was in charge of Auckland in the early days of super rugby.He was successful then,so it wasn't just the ABs he won with.At least he wouldn't be "looking for positives" out of a shit performance like that meely mouthed,greenie,schoolteacher looking dipstick we just had.If the Reds are anything to go by this year,without the cattle,mckenzie's no super-coach anyway,so if he's the best Australia's got to offer,the further we stay away from them the better.

[PerthChicka]

People seem to forget that graham Henry was in charge of Auckland in the early days of super rugby.He was successful then,so it wasn't just the ABs he won with.At least he wouldn't be "looking for positives" out of a shit performance like that meely mouthed,greenie,schoolteacher looking dipstick we just had.If the Reds are anything to go by this year,without the cattle,mckenzie's no super-coach anyway,so if he's the best Australia's got to offer,the further we stay away from them the better.

Love your work Onions :-)

[Rex Messup]

Yeah and Nick Stiles can't coach scrummage because Rex says he was so shit at it when he was playing!

It shows in the way our scrum has developed in the two years he has been in charge. don't point at Ma'afu as the reason, because you called him a tub of lard as well.

and you said Richard Graham was a good coach you belter

.......the scenario........Western Force trailing by 5 points with their season on the line against the Tahs. They force an error from the Tahs right on the bell in an attacking situation.......the scrum gets towelled and we lose a tighthead.........season over

The scrum hasn't been as good as belters like you think

Nick Styles is shite

Our defence coach has leaked 212 points in 7 games of super rugby

Hold your nose and fart and clear out your head Gigs

[GIGS20]

So you think that one tighthead by the best scrum in Australia is proving your point, rather than 80 minutes of standing up to them despite some shitty ref calls and Obliterating every other scrum in Australia makes your point?

Troll

[BDAVEY]

and you said Richard Graham was a good coach you belter

.......the scenario........Western Force trailing by 5 points with their season on the line against the Tahs. They force an error from the Tahs right on the bell in an attacking situation.......the scrum gets towelled and we lose a tighthead.........season over

The scrum hasn't been as good as belters like you think

Nick Styles is shite

Our defence coach has leaked 212 points in 7 games of super rugby

Hold your nose and fart and clear out your head Gigs

Disagree Rex I think our scrum has been good but our defence has been crap... and they want Phil Blake as coach... no way

[shasta]

Disagree Rex I think our scrum has been good but our defence has been crap... and they want Phil Blake as coach... no way

Sometimes when I see these posts slagging our defensive performances I wonder.......
"Has this bloke been watching the same feckin' team as me???"

So I decided to waste a bit of (the boss's time) this morning:

Even with two pretty crook efforts against the Canes and the Chiefs our missed tackle stats are:

Force: 181 missed tackles
Opposition: 187 missed tackles.

Our main problem is, and always has been, handling and execution. Inability to get over the stripe plain and simple.

That an an idiotic game plan of continually kicking posession to some of the most deadly counter attackers in the game.

Blake the mungo and Nick Stiles are the ones who have their act together. Who cares a f@ck how they performed as players. Thankfully they are staying on and hopefully they'll do OK from here on in.

Dead set.

[brokendown gunfighter]

that'll do me

[zed]

People seem to forget that graham Henry was in charge of Auckland in the early days of super rugby.He was successful then,so it wasn't just the ABs he won with.At least he wouldn't be "looking for positives" out of a shit performance like that meely mouthed,greenie,schoolteacher looking dipstick we just had.If the Reds are anything to go by this year,without the cattle,mckenzie's no super-coach anyway,so if he's the best Australia's got to offer,the further we stay away from them the better.

It makes you wonder whether these coaches are any good or is it simply they have a team packed full of awesome players, making them look good. The Auckland team that GH coached was full off All Blacks, they could have probably coached themselves.. I'm not judging GH as a coach, just makes you think how much of a teams success is down to the coach as opposed to the players.

[Man In Black]

Sometimes when I see these posts slagging our defensive performances I wonder.......
"Has this bloke been watching the same feckin' team as me???"

So I decided to waste a bit of (the boss's time) this morning:

Even with two pretty crook efforts against the Canes and the Chiefs our missed tackle stats are:

Force: 181 missed tackles
Opposition: 187 missed tackles.

Our main problem is, and always has been, handling and execution. Inability to get over the stripe plain and simple.

That an an idiotic game plan of continually kicking posession to some of the most deadly counter attackers in the game.

Blake the mungo and Nick Stiles are the ones who have their act together. Who cares a f@ck how they performed as players. Thankfully they are staying on and hopefully they'll do OK from here on in.

Dead set.

I see the RG situation is making everybody a bit antsy. It's worse than a script from
"Friends" when the girls can't find their hair spray.

dead set

[AndyS]

Our main problem is, and always has been, handling and execution. Inability to get over the stripe plain and simple.

That an an idiotic game plan of continually kicking posession to some of the most deadly counter attackers in the game.

Agree in part. I definitely think that our ball handling and passing is poor. The passes tend to be slow and every phase seems to falter due to a pass that goes to the shoulder, knees, etc breaking the momentum and allowing the defence to intervene. Watching some of the games this weekend really brought it home just how quickly the ball moves and how fluent it all looks when the ball is consistently put in front of the running player. I don't know whether it is the amount of drilling, but we tend to look a bit creaky by comparison. Player positioning comes into it as well, but probably with the same cause.

Not so sure about blaming the worst of the kicking on the game plan though. I just can't see how the game plan would contain the instruction to get into the opposition half and then grubber kick them the ball. Both the Chiefs tries ultimately came back to that, as have more than a few others. Our game plan has always been a territory game, just as it is for most of the Aus teams and the Wallabies. The problem is the execution, which is generally poor. If you want to play that game, you have to be able to kick long and find either touch, open space or a strong challenge for the ball. It doesn't mean just kick everything away, it is intelligently identifying space and patiently setting the play up for an effective kick, waiting for the right moment just like you would the opportunity to go wide. We actually managed to do it for a bit against the Reds, getting in behind their line.

What a territory game does not include is all the aimless kicks downfield, chip kicks, up-and-unders, box kicks, grubbers and cross-kicks. I'm not saying some of them aren't useful or can't work, but they are not part of the game plan - they are entirely down to the players. I personally think they are a very low percentage options, expecially when used so often there is no element of surprise. To me it indicates players that are panicked, scared of contact or out of ideas. They come off one in ten times, and they are just poor choices. Or maybe all the kicking becomes a habit, but whatever the reason those kicks are the very opposite of the game plan - they give the opposition the ball with no gain in territory, meaning you are playing in your own half and gifting them the chance to score.

So if we are going to blame the coach and senior players for anything, it is not putting a stop to it. It should be made abundantly apparent that off-plan kicking during the game is going to attract a major workload at training, but in the last 10 minutes is going to get bench time. More than, the leadership should make it quite clear that shit kicking in the last 5 minutes, especially in attack, is going to attract a season in subbies regardless of who it is. And then do it if necessary. Kicking in the last 10 minutes has cost us more games than I can count over the years, just as both the Blues and Tahs have kicked games away this year in exactly the same way. It is just stupid rugby and we just don't seem to learn.

[sittingbison]

Agree completely Andy, with the addendum that possibly RG doesn't completely understand the plan you described. The amount of aimless kicking without the coach interceding with the bench ihas been astounding, and sometimes when we have loosened the shackles and let rip there has been a message come out and it's back into the shell trying to defend a minuscule lead with 10mins to go. Furthermore as you said the execution has been execrable, if they are that bad at training then the kicking plan should have been shelved.

Which ever way we cut it, RG failed.
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[SinBin]

People seem to forget that graham Henry was in charge of Auckland in the early days of super rugby.He was successful then,so it wasn't just the ABs he won with.At least he wouldn't be "looking for positives" out of a shit performance like that meely mouthed,greenie,schoolteacher looking dipstick we just had

Interestingly, I read that Graham Henry was a former Headmaster

[jt12]

congratulations AndyS

An informative and very accurate picture of what is actually happening and HOW the Force are playing. If you look at the best tries that the Force have scored this year, it is when the advantage line has been breached easily, the ruck has been quick and precise, the ball has been cleared OFF THE DECK quickly and the inside backs have moved onto the ball at pace and kept straight, and quick transfer in front of the next player eg last try vs Reds this year in Perth (Although it took Pocock and Hoddo to show everyone in the team how to draw and pass properly!!)

Our passing execution from the half back to the wings has been poor all season - laboured, slow and inaccurate. Why do obviously good players, from one team - the force - think that they can step, run, sidestep and swerve past defenders when a simply well executed pass will always beat the man??Alfie, Cameron and our wings must be hugely frustrated men.

David Harvey scores a lot of points, so he is valuable, but the opposition team's analysts have worked him out now - he has to get out of the pocket, square up more and take the ball to the line to give his outsides more time and chances - Stanley and Cummins have got no choice but to tuck the ball - but this all comes back to passing and handling tecnique skills and drills .If you look at the sides in the S15 and historically in the S14 and S12 - the ones propering are the ones that get this part right. Look at Queensland now that Cooper isn't there taking that ball to the line. Even Morne Steyn is doing that this year, Aaron Cruden, Christian Lealiafano and Beaudan Barrett have made huge differences to thier franchises and Aaron Smith at the Highlanders with his speed of pass is doing the same.

The best teams in ANY era have always done the basics well. If players can tackle well then the catch and pass is the thing that will enhance a teams points scoring potential more than any other technical thing - 14 putting the last man over the line.