Written FROM SUNDAY 25/01/2009 TO THURSDAY 29/01/2009

THE GOLD COAST,  SUNNYBANK,  EASTS AND THE REDS ALL COME TO TOWN

PHOTOS UP NOW HERE

Saturday 24/09/2009,  almost Sunday 25/01/2009: Boy was it hot today. Terrible,  and we played footy in it.  Then the powers that be finished the day off about 8:30pm with a heavy storm and most spectacular lightshow,  absolute cracker.  Interesting that a lot of areas around Toowoomba lost power for up to 8 hours from this storm cell group.  As for the games,  the Downs sides didn't fair too well,  with the Under 14's putting up a brave fight early,  and even lead a powerful Sean Hourigan coached Easts side at one stage,  before seeing Easts run away to the tune of 37 TO 19.  The Downs Under 19's played in the wickedest heat of the day,  and put up a sterling performance.  Mitch Logan and Sean Mclellan,  footballers I have always rated,  were the glue that held the side together.  Mitch Logan has to be a shoe in for Country Under 19's in 2009,  has to be.  Very smart competent footballer.  Our game,  the Under 16 development match against the Gold Coast side was won by the Gold Coast outfit.  No question the better side won the match,  have no complaints or disagreements with the whole day.  I thought it was well refereed,  one of Andrew Coorey's better games I thought.  The Coast got the game by 20 to 12,  after actually leading 20 to nil from 4 tries.  I will write lots more on this game and how I saw it over the next few days,  also have a few photos,  although photos were difficult,  as my man on the camera was confined to the pen we all had.  Again though,  no complaints,  a big day,  we weren't the allotted photographer,  and you take what you can get at days like this and have to follow protocol,  otherwise the whole thing gets messy.  The Waratahs got over the Reds by 17 to 7 or so,  but I reckon the Reds have alot of firepower to come yet,  either back from injury or just being rested.  I think they are looking OK.  Some of these young guys look good though,  Aidan Toua,  Jake Schatz at 18 already is an imposing presence,  as is Luke Morahan.  The best of all from that group of schoolboys though has to be Rob Horne.  I still rate him up there with some of the best I have seen,  his biceps and triceps are incredibly developed,  and he has feet on a par with Aidan Toua.  If you are yet to see the Aidan Toua feet,  get along to matches he plays.  Most coaches still struggle with Aidan's feet.  Will certainly be some more over the next few days,  just be patient,  I am old,  tired and lack motivation.

The day at my place started with normal Saturday stuff,  washing.  What wasn’t normal was the profuse sweating seemingly caused only from breathing.  A DVD,  Condemned was playing in the loungeroom,  but at this moment I wasn’t that interested.  I did a few things and packed a couple of bags for the day,  prepared some cameras and stuff.  I sat down and watched the last 30 or 40 minutes of Condemned and realized that there was some exceptionally lovely violence across this movie,  and that Stone Cold Steve Austin looked really good,  some knife cuts,  bleeding from and around the ear.  I made comment then that a number 7 should bleed like that,  that was his job for the team.  I asked later in the dressing shed if anyone had seen the movie,  and Ryan O’Connell,  the 7 for the day had not.  I made quick mention of the blood and rather overwhelmingly pleasant violence,  and said then that Ryan needed to finish the game looking like Stone Cold finished the movie.  I wasn’t sure how we replicated the  knife cuts,  but I had some ideas,  however with most guys today wearing plastic tags,  it wouldn’t be easy.

The day was really hot,  and I had prayed for cold,  sleet,  and maybe even the Gold Coast bus to be diverted via Goondiwindi,  adding several hours to their trip.  Alas,  we had a Gold Coast day without the beaches.  Fortunately we missed the heat,  or most of it,  playing at 5:20pm.  The two earlier games would have been brutal,  the under 14’s and the Under 19’s would have been really under the pump heat wise.

Our Downs 14’s and 19’s performed pretty well in my eyes;  I don’t know any of the 14’s yet,  but for the 19’s,  Mitch Logan and Sean Mclellan were standouts.  To be expected I guess from these two exceptional footballers,  Logan being one of the best thinkers of the game,  and Mclellan one of the best “on ballers” around as well.  I thought,  given my knowledge of the 19’s limited and disrupted preparation,  that they performed very creditably against a Sunnybank side that looked to be fairly talented and fairly fit.  It is good to know the Sunnybank head coach is eating 14 eggs a week,  and attributes this to his 9 kilos of weight loss.  I just couldn’t determine whether or not he is eating Sunny Queen Eggs,  he didn’t know,  I assume he doesn’t do the buying,  just the eating.

I understand that ex Qld and Qld Country player,  and exceptional coach and reader of the game,  Russell Jackson is about to take over the Darling Downs Under 19’s.  Jacko will do a great job,  good footballer and highly regarded coach,  has already coached Darling Downs seniors and A Grade sides over the years.  This is a good move for the side.

Then came our game,  the Darling Downs Junior Reds Squad vs the Gold Coast Junior Reds Squad,  or Development squads, whatever you would like to call them all.

Looking back,  I think we arrived too early,  I think we got out of the sheds too early,  spent too long out of the sheds warming up.  We started poorly,  or were forced to start poorly by a Gold Coast side that took the opportunities that we presented them and made a few of their own.  Someone has knocked off my programme,  so I don't know too many guys from the coast.

From the outset we failed as a team to do the two simple things we talked about before the game,  linespeed in defence,  and accuracy,  precision and abrasiveness at the breakdown.  We allowed the Coast to dictate terms fully to us in both these areas,  setting up great space for their 10,  who grew into the game and ended up having a blinder.  I think that sweat stains would be the only mark on his jersey,  don’t think we laid a hand on him all day.    Absolutely no disrespect to this young bloke,  but my thought process has always been that if you put a 10 on your back,  you paint a target on your chest.  10’s have got to be whacked from a defensive point of view,  nothing illegal,  you just have to make them and create some doubts in their mind.  We didn’t do that for one,  and paid the price.

We fell off some  tackles early,  as you do when you wait for the runners to come to you,  and this set up some good field position for the Coast,  to knock up some early tries,  3 of them in fact,  unconverted.  Man I thought we were in for a terrible touch up at this particular stage.

Our lineout for some reason didn’t get the height we needed,  or the speed to the top of the jump.  Photos show limited elbow extension in the lift and jumpers got themselves out of shape.  We took a bath at lineout time.

They ( Our lineouts),  which looked good at the warmup (and confirmed by a very prominent Brisbane First XV coach) fell away from the outset.  Our two or three best lineouts were when we hit 6,  Cameron Mapusua to Nick Leggat.  They were nice.  We got a bath in the lineouts,  with some good work from the Coast at 2 coupled with some ordinary work from us.

A strong flow of penalties kept us in the game during the first half.  However,  and it is 100% my fault on a preparation front,  we made poor use of this possession flow,  I had failed to realize that we were under ELV’s and did no work on how to deal with this style and type of possession.  We didn’t use it well.  Also from my gaffs,  I failed to tell the boys to take penalties if in range,  and we had a couple at about 40 out,  full arms that we kicked out to a poorly performing lineout;  I think we would have been far better shooting for the points,  and either playing out of a 22,  or putting pressure on one of their guys to kick out,  and still attaining the lineout throw,  maybe around the same zone.  This also achieves a short breather; again the issue sits with me and my instructions prior to the game.  Again an interesting point,  sides I coach have usually taken a pounding in the penalty count,  with guys like Chong Nee,  Mclellan and House always pushing the limit during the whole game.  Strangely enough with the high penalty count has also generally come successful match outcomes.  Maybe guys just didn’t push the boundaries hard enough on Saturday.  Perhaps I need to re invoke the “it’s not cheating until you get caught” law I usually coach by.  Now that enrages number two son,  who by the way is a back,  he tells me it is cheating whether you get caught or not.  Don’t know,  jury is out.

Ryan O’Connell was a shining light in his work and field coverage.  He had a great  game for a number 7 and stole some critical ball from a forward pack on the front foot,  put his body on the line,  and did end up bleeding for the cause.  He ended up getting the player of the team (each team got one) and regular readers know how I dislike the term “man of the match” especially in a game like this,  rugby,  so reliant on many relationships across the park.

In short,  to sum up our forwards performance,  we just were not dominant enough at the breakdown,  plenty to work on there.  Ed Carter  from Brisbane,  coupled with Ryan O’Connell were probably our most abrasive,  and did some good things with ball in hand.  Rees Gillis,  another big unit from Brisbane was great at lineout time,  and for a massive boy carried the ball a number of times and covered a lot of territory.  Nick Leggat had a reasonable performance in the unfamiliar position of 6,  and Cam Mapusua,  young VJ,  is quite an abrasive footballer.  I live by the old adage that you have to go forward in the middle before you can go wide.  We did not go forward in the middle,  and therefore when we went to go wide,  we threw the advantage to the defence,  further frustrating the likes of Joe Frey and Matt Berwick.

Harry Hawker at halfback was a real physical presence,  and in his second stint in the second half was very damaging and potent.  He hasn’t played halfback for a number of years but really opened some eyes in the second half with a powerful performance.  He plays a bit like an extra forward,  a big,  fit physical guy that is equally at home at 12 or 13,  and is a genuine line breaker,  on a regular basis out there too.  He will be a handful in 2009 and has a lot of class.

Joey Frey never stops,  and for a guy with only a handful of rugby games under his belt,  shows tremendous maturity as a rugby player.  The fact he scored a try at the death indicates his never say die attitude.  His defence is strong,  and we did plenty of that, and his attack is direct and abrasive,  with a good offload,  and excellent feet.  Matt Berwick is another,  that has just completed his very first game of competitive rugby outside of control situations.  I thought he was pretty good for one so inexperienced,  and one of his ball carries out of trouble was an exceptional effort,  he also showed good presence of mind to pop a pill off the deck to a support player in a tackle situation.  I thought he got even better when I shifted him to outside centre,  he ran some deft lines and put on a couple of cracking balls to men outside,  one from memory in the leadup to a try.

I expect Joe Frey and Matt Berwick to be right in the Qld under 16 mix later in the year.

Again,   four tries to the coast,  unconverted for their 20,  one to Nick Oui who ran about 50 metres in the second half to score untouched.  He is quick this lad,  and along with the Coast’s 12 will be two more inline for Qld duties later in the year.  I assume they are both Under 16 in Year 2009.  I didn’t mind the Coast 6 either.  A quick word on Nick Oui.  The fashion police that I had planted in the Gold Park crowd came to me with the very important question; “did you see what Nick Oui was wearing on his feet”.  Of course I replied “no”.  “Slippers you idiot” was the reply.  Now my two sons have been wearing slippers out,  and I mean out for a number of years,  and I am sure they have gotten sick of my laughter at the habit.  Well lo and behold it sure seems to be a fashion accessory  now if it has caught on at the Gold Coast,  or has it been at the Gold Coast for a long time and we rather slow country Queenslanders are catching up.  We here at 15manrugby may know nothing about rugby,  but we are up to date with fashion occurrences,  I think!

WE had one try disallowed from a Peter Whyte intercept,  for off side.  Whether Pete was off side or not is irrelevant,  that would have been a soft try that we didn’t really build in any case,  and the referee is always right.

We certainly did some good things in the second stanza,  fought back pretty well,  got a small amount of front foot pill and made some holes,  again through the physical nature of Harry Hawker,  and some nice offloads from Matt Gordon who went into 10,  and some good balls from Joey Frey and Matt Berwick.  Our second half effort was much better than our first,  and we managed a few quality things.  Tries to Ben Rees and Joe Frey made the scoreboard look a lot better,  in a game that was disappointing for reasons way outside the scoreboard.  I think,  along with Ryan O’Connell,  Joe Frey,  Matt Berwick and Harry Hawker,  best were Ed Carter,  Cameron Mapusua and Rees Gillis,  probably leading the ball carries and being reasonably constructive.  The disappointing part is that we have spent a lot of time working on some basic concepts,  and we didn’t put them together on the field,  again as Gilly said on Friday,  catch/pass,  face shift accelerate,  dominant ball carries and accuracy and precision at the breakdown.  The Coast side did us in every one of these aspects of the game.

I have to take 100% of responsibility for those things we practice not happening  and figure out why the message is not getting across 100% and make appropriate changes to the teaching/coaching/delivery/review processes.  I guess you all need to understand that the simple things that we teach are straight off the Queensland and National songsheets,  and are 100% what those guys up the tree are looking for.  These are the non negotiable things you need to do to be recognized at the next level.  We often complain that we don’t get fair and equitable representation at the next levels,  these small things not being done are one of the reasons why.

Having said all that,  it was great to be a part of that historic occasion,  the first time a game like that has been played.  I give great thanks to the guys from the Gold Coast for making the trip up and being a part of it all,  you were better than us on the day and thoroughly deserved the end result.  I wish you all luck in your quest for further representative honours as the year grinds by.  Also fantastic to step outside and meet the coaches from the coast,  they look like they are still young and probably playing as well,  half their luck.  I hope you all felt welcome in Toowoomba,  I am sure the coast and in the water at the coast would have been a far more pleasant place to be.

The group photos came out OK and I will put some up in due course.  Thanks to all who put on the day, and guys like Whits and Gilly for allowing/making/suggesting that this type of event happen.  A question you are always asked is are there games,  and now through the support of the QRU,  it is happening.  Whits,  who sits at the top of the programme,  is a key supporter of actually playing and testing the skills/concepts under real game time pressure.  I think very positive.

Of course Whits (Ben Whitaker) addressed the boys from both sides before Berrick Barnes and James Horwill presented something to the best from each side,  Ryan O’Connell from the Downs and Winiate Barret from the Coast.  Regular readers will know that I am an unabashed fan of Berrick Barnes,  still for mine the best Under 15 footballer I have seen.  My judgement means nothing,  but Cyril Connell’s does,  and when we last spoke,  he only rated Darren Lockyer above him as a 15 year old.  On top of that,  from all reports,  Berrick is a great bloke.  James has become a very,  very good footballer.  I was often very critical of him for just doing silly things at critical times,  but  his elevation to captaincy has been his  completion as a footballer,  from where I sit in any case,  out here in TV land,  where it is deadset easy,  now a very complete player. A coaching master stroke from Moonie,  Bell and Emtage.  He is a giant of a man and an integral and tough part of that Qld engineroom that I am sure Belly can’t wait to have back on the go.  To have the two captains of Qld,  one injured and Berrick to handle duties until his return,  just great stuff.  Thanks to them for that.  It is great to have you guys do things like this.

The Reds and Waratahs turned up while we were playing,  man there are some big guys in those outfits.  Guys that caught my eye as they wandered in,  Aidan Toua,  Jake Schatz and Luke Morahan,  and in the NSW side Rob Horne.  A quite phenomenal grouping of athletes.  Schatzy at only about 18 and a half is already a very imposing athlete,  and of course a lot of us have seen Aidan’s work,  and I still think Luke was always unlucky at schoolboy level to miss out on the final selections.  Rob Horne,  cousin of David Horne from Kingaroy is just a freak of nature,  there is a lot of football in this group.

If you look at that particular schoolboy year,  we now have many with contracts and either have made,  or looking to make soon Super 14 debuts.  Add Damien Fitzpatrick to that list from the 2007 crop who were just in Toowoomba on Saturday night.  Then there is To’omua,  O’Connor,  Joe Tomane  James Slipper,  maybe Jonno Lance, and at least two others who’s name evades me.

I hope the Downs guys stayed around to watch two things,  maybe three,  those being,  the warm up and it’s intensity,  both sides,  the talk and where passes were made etc in relation to defence in the drills.  Two being the urgency and accuracy that both sides showed at the breakdown,  coupled with the power and vigour and what they actually did or tried to do in relation to the ball.  Thirdly,  the level of talk on the field,  and even Jake Schatz,  no doubt the baby,  with plenty to say when organizing the defence at 3,  a couple of times down our end.  All relevant stuff to what we did and didn’t do in the earlier match.  There are some beautiful ball handlers in both sides,  Kurtley Beale,  Rob Horne,  amongst others.  Charlie Fetoai delivered some very bruising defence,  man I wouldn’t want to get hit by this guy.  The Waratahs got the better of the game on the scoreboard,  but it was a reasonably even contest for a trial match all night.

Photos,  they are coming.  Couple of technical hitches.  Heading out on Saturday arvo,  I knew I would be leaving the camera in the car for a good part of the afternoon,  so I packed it in a cooler bag with some ice bricks,  cameras are not fond of severe heat.  Well that didn’t work too well,  we ended up with a fogged up lens that just wouldn’t unfog until about half time.  Some interesting filter effects can be seen on some of the shots until it all went away.  Also a new man on camera,  first time out,  I can’t coach and photograph at teh same time,  as far as ability goes many would say I can do neither,  but judging by my coaching exploits,  I should stick to photography,  which is not of any great standard either,  but less stressful and I think more fun.  However I have some,  and I will be putting them up hopefully before this weekend,  as this weekend heralds the start of a really busy period for me.

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