Berrick Barnes leaning towards Brumbies
ALL parties involved are denying it, but rumours persist that Wallabies centre Berrick Barnes will move to the Brumbies, the Real Madrid of Australian rugby, if he is not satisfied with the direction the troubled Queensland Reds are taking.
Barnes and fellow Wallabies Digby Ioane and Sean Hardman are the only senior Reds players yet to re-sign, but where the other two have given strong indications they will recommit, Barnes is keeping his options open.
He asked for his negotiations to be put on hold over the past month while he has been on Wallabies duty, but with the Australian team going into a brief recess before gearing up for the Tri-Nations following tonight's France Test, he hopes to reach a decision next week.
Barnes has been closely monitoring the review process that so far has claimed the jobs of assistant coach Mark Bell and team manager Brendan Morris, with high-performance manager Ben Whitaker also resigning because of significant differences with senior QRU management.
Head coach Phil Mooney said yesterday he was consulting regularly with Barnes and was very confident he would re-sign, a feeling shared by senior player Morgan Turinui.
"There is a fair bit of player input into the review, and even if sometimes you don't agree with what is decided, the mere fact you were consulted means you have some sense of ownership of the process," Turinui said.
"When you're such a passionate guy, as Berrick is, you want to stay and see things through, so I would think he'll recommit. But I know that he and Sean want to see some action come out of all this. The huge positive is that Phil Mooney is driving it. When you've got the head coach on board, things can change.
"But at the end of the day, the players have to perform. People are losing their jobs at the Reds ... but if you're winning and you're getting an extra 10,000 people through the gate for each game, no one's going to get the sack."
While Barnes has stressed his desire to remain with Queensland, he also is keenly aware that he is at an important stage of his career and he does not want to get enmeshed in an organisation that has no clear vision of where it wants to go.
"I have to somewhat look after myself in this sort of situation," Barnes said recently.
The strong rumour is that if the Reds cannot convince Barnes they are determined to break a six-year slump that has seen them consigned to the bottom three on the Super rugby ladder, he will join the Brumbies.
A Reds insider said that a possible move to the Brumbies had been on the cards even before the internal review at Ballymore turned the organisation on its head, but both Barnes' manager, Peter Rogers, and ACT chief executive Andrew Fagan deny any such move has been discussed.
The Brumbies missed out on recruiting teenage Wallabies fullback James O'Connor, but Fagan said that did not necessarily mean the ACT had a spot open for Barnes. "We have an outside back position we have to fill but it's just as likely to be a raw young talent who'll get it as anyone well-credentialled," Fagan said.
Meanwhile, the Western Force's star recruit, former Springbok five-eighth Andre Pretorius, is looking to build the sort of combination with O'Connor that the teenager established with Matt Giteau in the Super 14 season.
Speaking from South Africa yesterday, Pretorius said he was delighted O'Connor had decided to remain in Perth.
"That's definitely one of the key elements of good back half play, the fact that 10 and 12 think a lot alike," Pretorius said. "I think (O'Connor) and Matt got that right and that's why they were so successful in the midfield. So yes, having a good relationship with your 12, which is James O'Connor, is definitely going to be a key."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html
