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Thread: Attack Coaching...post Meehan

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    Veteran sittingbison's Avatar
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    Attack Coaching...post Meehan

    seeing as the season is just around the corner of the next heat wave, and I decided to renew my membership after an unforgivable bout of enthusiasm, I thought I would pose the following question:

    What are the Force doing with attacking coaching and philosophies now that Meehan has been released?

    When Meehan was appointed as Attack Coach we all sighed a breath of relief after the drudgery served up by Braindead Dick. Meehan was eulogised for the attacking spirit and endeavour of playing style at Bath, and was meant to transform the Force backline play. Meehan was seen as the perfect candidate to assist Foley in Foleys role as Director of Coaching.

    It all went wrong. Although attacking play improved due to a tighter and more rigourous and disciplined overall improvement to the team structure, there didnt appear to be a vast improvement in attacking flair especially after weapons Mafi imploded and honeybadger couldn't get on the park with injury. Then Meehan was released in somewhat mysterious circumstances and it appeared there some conflict between the coaching staff.

    Which brings me back to the central question. Who is in charge of Attack now, and what are they going to serve up.

    Because I still like to think that there is still some vestige of regional style in a professional world, and WA has always been renowned in all sports for being fast clever and ferocious in attack, probably due to the hard surfaces we endure. Stodgy defence play has never been our strong suit.

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    Champion Contributor sandgroperrugby's Avatar
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    This does not answer your question directly but

    http://www.rugbywa.com.au/NewsEvents...6/Default.aspx

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    Veteran valzc's Avatar
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    I agree SB, Meehan didn't seem to achieve a great impace on the attack attitude of game play, and it's a bit vague as to why he left. And although Wessels and Foote seem to be well qualified, their backgrounds still appear to be more defence oriented which is akin to the Saffers style of play, and also not forgetting the atrocious year the Brumbies had prior to Jake White! So I'm not sure I'm that impressed at the mo with credentials. Will have to wait and see if the results are going to pan out this year. Live in hope!

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    (Previously WFDS) WFDom's Avatar
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    I heard he and Foley didn't see eye to eye in the way they thought the team should play. I don't think Foley suffers those who do not share his vision for the club. He's been employed by us to make the team successful. So if that was the case, in this particular pissing contest, the biggest boy in the playground wins.

    I am a fan of what Meehan did at Bath. I am a fan of what Foley has done at the Force.

    Time will tell......

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    Champion GAFFA's Avatar
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    I’m still not 100% sold on Foley as a head coach.

    That’s not to say he isn’t a great Club man and Rugby Director the work he has done behind the scenes are to be commended but as a Rugby Head Coach I’m still to be convinced.

    When he signed all the talk was that he wanted to bring an attacking game plan to the team and get the guys running with the ball. I was a bit skeptical about this because if anyone had followed his time at the Tahs you would know they were a very dull ridged team who would grind their opponents into the ground to get the win.

    Then we hear that Meehan has been signed as attack coach which was a great signing the work he did with Bath was well know and the style of game they played was one of speed and accuracy so I though that maybe Foley had seen the light.

    Come round one we face the Rebels in Melbourne I went to that game by chance being in town for work.

    The first 40 mins was great we ran the ball from everywhere sure we made mistakes it was the first game of the year and by half time we had 2 tries on the board. Then early in the second half a third then a few things went wrong a crazy yellow card to Alby and a few other questionable call from the Ref and some silly stuff from the players themselves we end up losing the game by 7 but I left feeling that we where on the right track.

    But that would be that last time we saw that game plan. Christie an attacking player was replaced by Sias a territory fly half then later on by SNK an old feller who was just about past it. We went back to the old Foley grind games and plenty of kicking the ball away. Now we did manage to get a couple of wins on the Board against the Saders we ground our way to a win after an early try and we won against the Highlanders after one of their players had a massive brain fart.

    We did however discover out attacking mindset in the final game of the year against the Brumbies but that was one game in a season so was it a fluke or a change in the mind of the players we wont know until this season.

    I guess what I’m saying is that with Meehan leaving I am fearful that Foley will play his type of dull grind game and the people that have been brought in 2 young untested SA coaches don’t really say to me attacking game plan nor do I think they would want to rock the boat and jeopardies their position at the team like Meehan.

    I hope I’m wrong but only time will tell.

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    Immortal GIGS20's Avatar
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    I don't know that I'm a fan of our team attacking at every opportunity. That's the Reds' game, and it's easy to tell why, they don't really have much of a pack, and have a pretty amazing backline.

    I saw last season's decisions a little differently.

    Yes, it's true, the team started throwing everything they had into running the ball, but, seriously, it wasn't working. It took three or four games befor Sam Christies obvious deficiencies in his kicking game became too much to bear and he was replaced by Ebersohn (who kicked better, but not sufficiently) to make limited, but measurable improvement.

    In a desperate move to find somebody who was capable of playing 10 to the standard, they bought SNK (who at least had some experience) in, and the results improved, but the play was far from exciting.

    I also think there's a lot to be read into the signing of Zach Holmes and Ian Prior. I wouldn't be surprised to see them play as a unit in the early games, trading in their partnership which has already been built at the Brumbies. This will put Alby on the bench, but that won't last long. Once Alby and Zach have their chemistry worked out p, I'd expect Alby and Zach to be first choice, which will make the most of a pretty enticing partnership between Zach and Kyle.

    If it all works out, it'll be freaking amazing....unfortunately, Foley seems to always have one eye on the numbers (and who can blame him) it won't take many poor games by one of them for other answers to be sought.

    With the makeup of our team, the safest route is to rely on our pack grinding it out and we'll be in the hunt most games. And I'd expect that to be the fallback position this season......hopefully, we won't need to go there.

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    Champion Contributor todd4's Avatar
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    I agree with what you're saying GAFFA. In previous seasons I've bought into all the pre-season brouhaha and started the year over-confident. Then by rounds 4/5 I've had to take a reality check. This year I'm going just see what happens on the field. Last year Foley had to work with what he had inherited. This year he has had a big input into the team make-up and the results we achieve will fall squarely on his shoulders. In previous years I would be hoping for a place in the finals but this year I'm going to be more of a realist and hope for a finish somewhere between 6th and 9th. That would at least have the team going in the right direction.

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    Legend Contributor Alison's Avatar
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    This certainly is a pivotal year for Foley. As you say, last year he had his hands tied a bit; this year he has much less of an excuse.

    I am quietly confident that we will do much better than last year - largely due to the Saffer recruitment strategy than anything else, to be honest. Just hope the two cultures really are blending together as well as they are all saying they are in their preseason pressers!

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    It's going to be a cracking season. Taking nothing away from any previous players, admin and coaching staff, but this coming season seems to be the most balanced and oddly has the most settled feel, since the beginning, with the players themselves coming across as easily confident.
    If Foley has orchestrated this, particularly with the pointy end of the fan and media stick in his face, he has done a brilliant job. I hope for him and lads every success this season.
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    Legend Contributor Alison's Avatar
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    I think the orchestration would have had a lot of input from Mark Sinderberry tbh. I can't speak highly enough of him!

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    Veteran Sheikh's Avatar
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    We've had a reasonably large turnover of personnel again, but the majority of new faces were contracted early in the off-season, so hopefully the team will be better integrated.

    2.5 weeks to the first pre-season game!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Sheikh View Post
    We've had a reasonably large turnover of personnel again, but the majority of new faces were contracted early in the off-season, so hopefully the team will be better integrated.

    2.5 weeks to the first pre-season game!
    I think the key to this season is that, even though there was a large turnover, the key players are still there. For the first time in a long time we have a better looking squad than the previous year.

    I think our scrum and line-out will be better than last year. Our attack will be better with either the combination that Mathewson, Ebersohn and Godwin have had the time to make, or if Zac Holmes is played it may be better for Zac's better (on previous form) all round game.

    We were only whipped once last season (Brumbies in Canberra) most of the rest of the games were lost by less than a try. We were competitive against all the finalists (Lost to Chiefs by a point, won one and lost one against the Brumbies, lost by 10 to the Bulls but it should have been 3, beat the Crusaders, beat and drew the Reds, lost to the Cheetahs by 9 but I felt we deserved to be closer than that).

    Might not be an amazing season but hopefully it will see us going places in 2015.

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    I personally think the "consultants" we had in previous years are a waste of time, money and effort, how the hell you can be a defensive consultant, and NOT a coach with the players is beyond me. So in 2014 with coaches it should be seen to be believed.

    Adding to this, Its now on Foley's head that he's selected all these coaches and players from SAFA LAND, if he doesn't perform now with 2.5 years in charge EWF have to have a good hard look at themselves.

    I personally dont see the point in getting "imports" to fill into our academy spots, these should be only for the LOCAL products. but thats my take on things.

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    Rookie Pitythefool's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by benny View Post

    I personally dont see the point in getting "imports" to fill into our academy spots, these should be only for the LOCAL products. but thats my take on things.
    Agree to some extent but the locals have to be up to it - Those that are are in the WTS, EPS and full squad. Burton, Hoskins, Kyle, Zach, Dane, Lacey and even KBomb and Louwrens show that the locals are getting a crack. I think that the rest are on their way and will have a shot when ready. Imports are the only way in the interim

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    Veteran Sheikh's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by benny View Post
    I personally think the "consultants" we had in previous years are a waste of time, money and effort, how the hell you can be a defensive consultant, and NOT a coach with the players is beyond me. So in 2014 with coaches it should be seen to be believed.

    Adding to this, Its now on Foley's head that he's selected all these coaches and players from SAFA LAND, if he doesn't perform now with 2.5 years in charge EWF have to have a good hard look at themselves.

    I personally dont see the point in getting "imports" to fill into our academy spots, these should be only for the LOCAL products. but thats my take on things.
    He only joined after the 2012 season (August 2012), so he's only had one season (2013) and 1.5 years. It's arguable how much say he had over the playing staff last year, as many would have been hold-overs from the Graham era (or is that error!)

    Meehan did change the playing style from the 2012 season, even if some of the same errors remained, but as James said we didn't play badly last year; we just didn't get the results which we'd have hoped for.

    We lost Cheese (a great hooker) and Mafi (a major focus of the attack), and we've got Cheese back and added Morahan. We went into last season without a reliable kicker (which is a major coaching blunder, but then maybe the guys were nailing everything in training but failing in the match) and have added Holmes, who can kick, and hopefully Heywood's been practising in the off-season as an option. Meehan tried a few different tactics last year; some worked, some didn't.

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