0
Gawd almighty!? The Old Boys Club strikes again.
RUGBY UNION
Super Rugby: McGahan heading home in super coup for the Reds
Melbourne Rebels head coach Tony McGahan.
The Australian12:00AM June 30, 2017
Save
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on email
Share more...
4
WAYNE SMITH
Senior sport writerBrisbane
@WayneKeithSmith
Queensland are understood to have pulled off a major coup by recruiting Melbourne Rebels head coach Tony McGahan as a coaching support for Reds boss Nick Stiles in Super Rugby.
Following a report in The Australian that McGahan intended to quit the Melbourne club at the end of the season, the Rebels issued a statement on June 15 confirming that the club and McGahan had indeed agreed to part ways. He will be leaving the Rebels as the longest-serving and most successful coach in the club’s history.
He coached them to four wins in his first season, 2014, before winning seven games in each of the 2015 and 2016 seasons, and early indications were that the Rebels would be genuine contenders to win the Australian conference this year. Indeed, had they won their tally of games for each of the last two seasons, they would have romped home. From the outset, however, Melbourne was decimated by injury and they currently sit second last on the table, with a win and a draw from 13 matches.
It was thought initially McGahan might venture back to Europe, possibly to the Munster club where he coached from 2005 to 2012, taking them to the final of the Celtic League against Leinster in the 2010-11 season, but indications are that he has decided to return to his native Queensland.
The QRU issued a statement insisting that, as it does every year, a review of the Reds program would be conducted at the end of the season.
“As such, it would be premature and inappropriate to comment on speculation or any potential changes or additions to the coaching staff until the season is over and the review has been completed,” the statement read.
It is expected that McGahan will be given a title commensurate with his enormous experience — he returned to Australia from Munster to be Robbie Deans’ defence coach in 2012 with the Wallabies — but in effect he will become Stiles’s right-hand man and mentor. Precisely where that would leave Stiles’s present assistant coaches, defence coach Jason Gilmore and attack coach Shane Arnold, is yet to be established.
Certainly Stiles and McGahan are old friends and would be able to operate together without any friction. Indeed, they would often telephone each other on a Sunday morning throughout the season to compare notes with how their Super Rugby teams had performed the previous night. More often than not, they ended up consoling each other.
There is no question that the malignant uncertainty surrounding the future of the Rebels as the Australian Rugby Union attempted all season to cull one of his five Super Rugby clubs — Melbourne and the Western Force quickly became the only contenders for the axe — eventually took its toll on McGahan.
But it is clear that the strain has been felt across a much wider front. One of the club’s best administrators, Steve Mitchell, the general manager (commercial), is understood to have submitted his resignation, so too the highly-regarded head of performance Damian Mednis, while two of the club’s senior Wallabies, Sean McMahon and Toby Smith, both are believed to be heading overseas, McMahon to Japan, Smith to the Hurricanes. More worrying still, the American Express cards of senior staff were recalled by the club earlier this week, ramping up stress levels.
It was understood that the first mediation session between the Rebels and the ARU was to have been held today but has been cancelled. Rebels owner Andrew Cox has launched legal action against the ARU claiming millions of dollars in damages stemming from the campaign to reduce Australia’s Super Rugby presence.
The mediation conference was to have been the opening step in that process. Instead, it is believed the two parties will continue with their ongoing talks — presumably to determine whether the national body is able to buy the Rebels from Cox and close the team down, an outcome Cox has several times stated will not happen.
Cox is believed to be in the United States on business.
The cruellest aspect of this seesawing battle for survival is that the increasing sense of gloom being felt in Melbourne is being balanced by a heightened sense of relief in Perth.
And by a delicious sense of irony, the two clubs will meet in Perth next Friday when Super Rugby resumes, in a match that will have little impact on the Super Rugby competition but will be of enormous significance for both of them.
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on email
Share more...
Reader comments on this site are moderated before publication to promote lively and civil debate. We encourage your comments but submitting one does not guarantee publication. We publish hundreds of comments daily, and if a comment is rejected it is likely because it does not meet with our comment guidelines, which you can read here. No correspondence will be entered into if a comment is declined.
4 COMMENTS
Sign in10
Post comment as...
NEWEST | OLDEST | TOP COMMENTS
Avatar for David
David 45 MINUTES AGO
Very few Rebels players have improved under McGahan.
1LIKEREPLY
Avatar for robert
robert 2 HOURS AGO
Adding McGahan will help the Reds but they need to look way beyond the coaching job. If they think changing the coach will be their saving they need to think again. The worst game of Rugby I can remember seeing was the Qld vs NSW clash at Suncorp about 2 months ago. The disinterest and lack of commitment by the two teams was surprising. The least worst team won and I could almost have given up watching the game. How the spirited clashes of the previous 30/ 40+ years were a distant memory. The whole code needs to have an honest look at the culture and look at generational change from the junior years up.
Perhaps Australian Rugby's greatest mistake was to think they could win taking on the NRL and AFL. 5 Australian teams, they had to be dreaming.
Last edited by valzc; 30-06-17 at 07:35.
What were senior staff doing with Amex cards? Why can't they make do with VISA and MasterCard which have much lower costs atttached to them! No wonder Aust rugby is broke if that's an example of its profligacy.
Proudly Western Australian; Proudly supporting Western Australian rugby
Interesting that mediation has been cancelled. Cox is obviously going for the jugular. And who could blame him. He was sold a pig in a poke.
Proudly Western Australian; Proudly supporting Western Australian rugby
But it is clear that the strain has been felt across a much wider front. One of the club’s best administrators, Steve Mitchell, the general manager (commercial), is understood to have submitted his resignation, so too the highly-regarded head of performance Damian Mednis, while two of the club’s senior Wallabies, Sean McMahon and Toby Smith, both are believed to be heading overseas, McMahon to Japan, Smith to the Hurricanes. More worrying still, the American Express cards of senior staff were recalled by the club earlier this week, ramping up stress levels.
Reads to me that things may not be as Cox tells it Perhaps the wheels are falling off
Don't want to be a downer but.....are the Rebels leaving their playing list open to sign up Force players? Who would you rather? Jack Deb*** or DHP? Meakes or Inman? McGahan or Wessels?
That is one way of looking at it, but the players cant be forced to sign with the Rebels. They will still have a choice.
Generally speaking you aren’t learning much if your lips are moving!!!
hasnt Inman signed oversees with someone?