Work to do as the mighty fall - John Eales
Work to do as the mighty fall
JOHN EALES
March 8, 2010 - 4:01PM
It seems to be the season for humility. Kevin Rudd, not much more than a year after he made headlines apologising on behalf of all of us to the Aborigines, is now apologising to all of us for almost everything else that he has or hasn’t done. The Queensland Rugby Union, through chairman Rod McCall and chief executive Jim Carmichael, have consumed their quota of humble pie and gone cap in hand to the Australian Rugby Union declaring themselves in desperate need of a bail-out, and let’s not even touch on the Tiger.
But despite signs of a general economic recovery, times are still tough and sporting organisations are feeling it every bit as much as big and small business. If countries are still going broke why should we be surprised by the odd sporting team’s demise. In reality they often both fall for similar reasons.
In his latest book, How the Mighty Fall, business author Jim Collins describes the typical journey to ruin in five phases: hubris born of success, undisciplined pursuit of more, denial of risk and peril, grasping for salvation, and capitulation to irrelevance or death.
It is merely academic to speculate where the QRU might be in their lengthy capitulation, but you could realistically place them somewhere between stages four and five. That being the case, the good news is that after years of insularity, hubris and a sense that the normal rules don’t apply to them, they have taken a dose of reality.
Much like an alcoholic at an AA meeting, they have stepped forth and admitted they have a problem. While a long way from regaining the confidence of those nearest and dearest, they have at least begun the journey. Pleasingly, and somewhat surprisingly, in their darkest hour off the field, the QRU can bask in a flickering glow of hope from the Reds on the field.
It is unclear if the Reds’ decay on the field preceded the decay of the Union, or vice versa, but there is no debating the order of their recovery and for that they must thank coach Ewen McKenzie. On Friday, against the menacing and previously unbeaten Chiefs they were inspirational.
With history as a guide there was no reason to believe the Reds could win this game, but McKenzie is creating his own history through vigorous attention to the fundamentals. The administration would be wise to do similarly.
The ARU, now with its own money on the line, will be hands-on in this recovery, as there is only one worse fate in Australian rugby than the Reds going broke ...and the Waratahs, and the ARU, have been down that road already. The ARU desperately needs a strong Queensland and in many ways, in working towards such a state, they won’t have to wait long to get a pay-back, at least on the field.
While the QRU sits bashfully behind the begging bowl for off-field assistance, Robbie Deans and the Wallaby coaching staff are the ones requiring serious assistance from the Reds, Waratahs, Brumbies and Force coaching staff on field.
It might seem discrepant that a five-time Super 12 and 14 coaching victor requires the assistance of provinces that have won a paucity of titles, but it is the reality. One of the problems for the Wallabies in the past few years has been that the players have not always been consistently well coached at provincial level.
So when Deans and Co got their hands on them at Test level they required work on developing basic skills rather than refining them towards a game plan.
Rugby must get this right.
Before the Reds rebuild to their potential on the field, they must reconstruct the base off the field. There are no apologies to be made, this is a massive job and although the blame doesn’t lie with the current administration, the responsibility does, but so too then will the rewards
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/un...0308-ps76.html
