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Jones: I can save Australia
By Jon Geddes
October 25, 2007
ALAN Jones has revealed his masterplan to save Australia - declaring he would make the legendary Mark Ella a member of his coaching team, overhaul the side's style of play and send some current coaches to the dole queue.
The man who guided Australia to its historic 1984 Grand Slam victory said bringing back Ella would be part of a massive team shake-up.
"If my candidature came to pass it would involve a lot of things," Jones said. "It would involve the composition of what is called 'the coaching team' and unfortunately that would consign a lot of people to Centrelink."
The push for the king of Sydney radio to return to the top coaching job in Australian rugby gained momentum on Wednesday, a day after his name was thrown into the mix by Queensland chairman Peter Lewis.
Lewis was previously a vocal advocate for the reinstatement of John O'Neill to the role of ARU chairman.
"If Queensland have gone public the matter is very serious, this is not flippancy," Jones said.
"If Peter Lewis and the Queensland Rugby Union - who have played a major role in Australian rugby for many years - are of the view I am the person who can make that contribution then I am obligated to put my hand up and say, 'Well if that is the case, I'm available'," he said.
"Australian rugby is now looking to rebuild and it wants an urgent renaissance - therefore experimentation is most probably a risk.
"If people think I'm not the person I don't have a problem with any of that at all. There is no ego here, there is no problem for me at all. That is for others to decide."
ARU CEO John O'Neill said the coaching position had been advertised nationally and internationally.
"If Alan wants to apply for the job he is welcome to do so," O'Neill said.
If Jones was appointed, it would be an extraordinary comeback. He last directed the Wallabies around the training paddock in 1987.
"I haven't missed it because my life is full," Jones said.
The first he knew about the campaign to have him appointed was when Lewis rang him at Brisbane Airport to say he had thrown his name forward.
"I said I am not uninterested," Jones said. "But I hadn't thought about it before. I don't know what the next step is."
The coach's job
Jones said the first obligation of a head coach was simply to coach. "He has to be in charge, he has to accept responsibility and he has to deliver," he said.
Jones said when he got the Australian job back in 1984 that was his first commitment. "I said my role was to win, there is no other role, that is why you are appointed," he said.
"You don't need three-year plans in any of this. We are not short of talent, we are short of method."
The coaching team
Jones made it clear the size of his coaching panel would be dramatically cut from its present levels.
"You don't need all these people to coach Australia," Jones said. "Mark Ella is a person I would want to bring into the team."
Jones would also like to recruit Alec Evans, his assistant on the 1984 Grand Slam tour. "That would be it," he said.
The style of play
Jones said the crux of the problem in the Wallabies side was how they play the game. He said the fundamental failure had been the persistence with the tactics to pick and drive.
Jones said the team had to play the ball in the air, which is what the Wallabies did in the period he was in charge from 1984.
"Only then can we pull forwards back to where they ought to be and release the backs to play one on one - and we have the best backs in the world. You can do that in a month because these are intelligent people who know how to play."
Jones said Stephen Larkham had been bashed for years, and his brilliance curtailed, because he had been sent inside to be confronted by a pack of forwards. "It's a miracle he is alive."
Jones said anyone could win ball and the first role of the forwards was to get the opposition forwards out of the backline. "It's a methodology thing, it's an attitude thing, it's a structural thing," Jones said.
Player welfare
Jones is concerned about what happens to the players away for football.
"While we pay Australian players we don't own them," Jones said. "It is possible to get results in Australian rugby and still minister to the well-being of the player."
Jones said there were many players who would never represent Australia again after the World Cup in France, and yet had nowhere to go.
"They are untrained for everything except rugby and we can't do that to people. Young people need a balance in their lives and that balance involves rugby and the world beyond rugby."
John Connolly
Jones said he had always supported outgoing Wallabies coach John Connolly, who he believes is a "a good man".
"John's greatest weakness was that he didn't dismantle the system," Jones said. "Had he done that and gone back to his nickname, Knuckles, he may be holding the World Cup," Jones said.
The Daily Telegraph