Too Early to change the Coach?
September 10, 2012 in Uncategorized
After yet another disappointing game on Saturday (so I hear and the fact that we lost), most of us are getting a bit tired of Heyneke Meyers’ poor excuses and poor decisions regarding player selections. Right or wrong? I will not hammer on player selections though, I think my fellow bloggers have covered that base exceptionally well over the last week or two.
So how can a man, a man we all called for and wished for now all of a sudden find himself public enemy NR1 and is it too soon to change the coaching staff?
Heyneke took over at the Bulls in 2000 and we all know where they ended up the following few seasons. Heyneke eventually took the Bulls to become Champions. Yes I know he is still coaching the same style now as he has done for the past 12 years. The fact is he took the Bulls from Nobodies to Champions.
Now there is 3 things I hate in life and they are:
- The Bulls
- Malema
- Mugabe
Yes, in that order, but we cannot deny the fact that he won silverware with the Bulls, so he must have some sort of credibility as a Coach.
Any case, if we do decide to fire the coach, who will replace him? Mr. Coetzee? I don’t think so. Naka? Seriously?
The only option would be to get a foreign coach, who has NO affiliation whatsoever with any of the franchises. No Blue Goggles, no Snoek samies and no black and white.
We all know, as long as we have a SA coach, we will always have bias towards a certain franchise. It happened in 1995 and it is happening 17 years later.
We need to decide. Do we stick with Heyneke and his philosophies with the hope that he could bring success the same way he did with the Bulls? Or do we do what Liverpool do, and fire the coach after every 3rd game?
gertbloues said on September 10, 2012
Well, we did the Liverpool thing after Kitch was forced to retire in ’95. Between ’96 and 2004 we’ve had five coaches. Before Mallet took the Boks to the 1999 WC he was preceded by two other coaches after Kitch. At least we only had Viljoen before Staulli took the boys to that disastrous tournament in 2003.
It is therefore no wonder that our first success in the professional ear came after we installed a coach and kept with him for four years.
We as South Africans are very fickle when it comes to coaches and fly halves it seems. Jake White became the most experienced Springbok coach ever in terms of matches charge at the start of 2006, only his third year in charge. Morne Steyn, who only made his début three years ago is now the most experienced Bok fly half ever!
Just look at how long it took a South African player to make it to 50 Super Rugby matches for his team. This didn’t happen before 2005. Compare this with the NZ and Aussie players, who started at the same time as us in 1996, who already had half-centurions by 2002.
At the moment things aren’t going well and a lot of it must be laid at Heyneke’s feet, but we should give him the same courtesy we gave White and De Villiers. He has a four year contract with some sort of performance clause. I’m sure that that clause does not say that if you loose an away game against the Aussies and Kiwi’s, you’re out because it would be irrational.
Whatever the game plan, I’m sure you cant really blame Heyneke for the Beast getting yellow card as well as a non entity throughout the match, I’m sure he didn’t tell Pienaar to kick that up and under instead of a deep clearance and he sure as hell did not tell De Villiers to kick for touch while there were still eight minutes on the clock and the penalty was within our kickers’ range.
GEN DE LA REY said on September 10, 2012
To be honest I am split on the decision to fire Mr. Meyer.
On the one hand he has only been incharge for a short time and does have a lot of key injuries.
On the other hand he is just not willing even to admit that his GP is seriously out dated.
The biggest problem with HM is (and I blame SARU for this) that he serounded himself with only Blue Bulls assistants. People who will never stand up to him or maybe even want to stand up to him.
There is nobody that can bring something new to the table. Rassie has been marginalized and pushed a side.
I believe we need a South African head coach (like Rassie) with an Nz forwards coach and an Ausie backline coach.
I can tell you one thing if he keeps on losing. (something that is asured untill he changes his GP) He will find life very tough as coach and will prob not last untill next season.
HM should have been Bok coach in 2008 when his GP still worked and he still had the players he wanted. Then he would have been remembered as a great Bok coach. Now he will just be remembered as a sad failure!
powa said on September 10, 2012
HM has got the credentials and needs to be allowed/given time to do his job. I believe he is a good coach at S15 level but how much coaching did he do at the Bulls anyway. Ludeke was/is the Bulls coach not HM. Wasn’t HM a director of rugby or something. When last did HM actually coach and what credentials do his two asst coaches have?
mickeynelster said on September 10, 2012
Bloues, I agree. But then we need to stick by Heyneke’s side and stop bitching and moaning after every weekend.
mickeynelster said on September 10, 2012
The same way Eddie Jones was part of Jake White’s setup. Ricardo Loubscher?PFFT what does he bring to the table?
mickeynelster said on September 10, 2012
Heyneke is a good coach, he must just be a bit more flexible regarding game plans. If plan A doesnt work, go to plan B.
GEN DE LA REY said on September 10, 2012
Gert what if HM loses against All Blacks home and away and loses to Aus at home? This is a real posibility.
Aus where way way below their best yet we did not win?
Why ? Not because of Beast yellow not because we wanted to draw.
NO
Because we kick every deacent ball we had straight back to Aus.
Yes we did look OK in the first half because for some odd reason Aus kick all their ball back to us as well but in the 2nd half they decided to run the ball a bit more while we kick it a bit more.
Kick kick kicking imposible!!!
Young Goosen did more in his 10 odd mins with ball in hand than Morne did this whole season. Same goes for Lambie and Zane.
As I sad before Zane prob had his best bok game ever the sad thing is his best just isn’t good enough.
GEN DE LA REY said on September 10, 2012
Well Heyneke is a good coach but he should not have surrounded himself with only Bulls assistants he should have brought in real specialists.
kurupt123 said on September 10, 2012
Can somebody have a write up of HM credentials. I hear alot of Bulls glory years and he coached somewhere in the Northern Hemisphere but can anybody breakdown what he achieved. HM is only 43 years old so he could not have done that much coaching.
GEN DE LA REY said on September 10, 2012
And yes I know Frans and Jean did not set the world alight AND Duane and Alberts did not feature much either.
BUT
I believe this can all be change if we just change our game plan. Then Alberts will look like the destroyer he was at the Sharks.
Fransie and Div will have space and front foot ball.
I do not know whether Morne can do this? Some people say he can. I am yet to be convinced.
BUT the biggest problem is HM won’t even admit that his GP is flawed. He is like an drug addict in deniel.
The other problem is that we should have changed GP against Arg at Newlands.
It will be close to imposible to change GP and win in Nz against Nz. But then if we play kick and hope we will lose by 30 odd weather permitting.
Dagg will run sircles arround us if we just keep feeding him ball.
Met uysh said on September 10, 2012
Check Wikipedia. The only credentials that comes to mind is being the first SA coach to win the SR in 2007. Accolades
In 2006 he was inducted into the University of Pretoria Sport Hall of fame.[4]
Vodacom Cup Champions with the Blue Bulls in 2001
Absa Currie Cup Champions in 2002, 2003 and 2004 and joint champions in 2006
Vodacom Super Rugby (Super 14) Champions in 2007
He went to coach Leicester tigers in 2008 but resigned soon after, I don’t think he even completed a whole season.
Bulls supporters have hailed Meyer’s efforts with the Bulls and credited him with the Bulls subsequent SR wins in 2009 and 2010 while Frans Ludeke was the coach, hence the public perspective the Meyer was a genius.
Other than Robbie Deans, Meyer has a lot of great talents at his disposal but he doesn’t want to use them.
Met uysh said on September 10, 2012
Let’s just see how this thing develops. He deserves the chance and so far he is screwing up but giving Goosen, Lambie and Flouw game time on the weekend shows that he might be improving. We have a year end tour to see through as well and I think next year during the June tets we’ll have a very good idea of Meyer will grow and improve and learn from his mistakes, or will he just fok voort with the same old same old.