A red letter day in Brumbies history

[skeepe]

It's official. It's over, it's finally over. Laurie Fisher's reign of terror is no more. How fitting that his last game in charge would highlight all of his deficiencies in one glorious grab-bag of failure. How apt that he finishes as the man to lead the Brumbies to their worst season in a decade.

History will not remember you well son. Go quietly, and ignore the cheers that sound your departure. They are not for you, a least not in the way you would imagine. The cries of joy are because the king is dead. Long may he be forgotten.

 

[aussies1st]

Thank God for that, we just kept going down and down with him.

 

[ozbash]

any goss on who will take his place ?

 

[skeepe]

Harlequins head coach and former Brumbies fullback Andy Friend will take over next year. Former Waratahs and Brumbies assistant coach, and former Brumbies skills coach. Also took Australian U21's to the final of the 2005 World Championships. Good pedigree.

 

[Slackboy72]

Didn't Laurie also do wonders with the U21 Wallabies?
To be fair to Laurie he took over at a time when the Brumbies were on a wane. Losing Roff, Finegan, then Paul, Larkham and Gregan has put a big dint in the Brumbies AND the Wallabies. Add to that Giteau and Henjak leaving and you have a team that's been routed by retirements, poachers and injuries. I can't honestly see the Brumbies coming good again for a long while.

 

[azazaz7]

Harlequins head coach and former Brumbies fullback Andy Friend will take over next year. Former Waratahs and Brumbies assistant coach, and former Brumbies skills coach. Also took Australian U21's to the final of the 2005 World Championships. Good pedigree.

I see he's appointed Tony Rea as one of his assistants with responsibility for skills and defense. Friend probably came into contact with Rea through Harlequins where each was involved, with Friend as Head Coach of the Union side and Rea on the board of Quins RL. I'll miss Rea as a TV pundit because he was by far the most balanced and gave the most cutting analysis of all Sky's pundits.

 

[skeepe]

Didn't Laurie also do wonders with the U21 Wallabies?
To be fair to Laurie he took over at a time when the Brumbies were on a wane. Losing Roff, Finegan, then Paul, Larkham and Gregan has put a big dint in the Brumbies AND the Wallabies. Add to that Giteau and Henjak leaving and you have a team that's been routed by retirements, poachers and injuries. I can't honestly see the Brumbies coming good again for a long while.

Laurie Fisher accelerated any "wane" that you speak of. The problem was his game plans. He moved well away from the attacking, running rugby that served so well for the Brumbies in the past, toward a defensive, kick-oriented game that the Brumbies just don't have the players for.

Earlier this year, the Brumbies absolutely smashed Queensland in what was a brilliant performance of attacking rugby, a performance that showed what the new generation of Brumbies are capable of. So, most fans expect that this will be the dawning of a new era... but what do we hear on the radio during the week after the game?

Laurie Fisher: "I think we need to focus less on an attacking game and work more on a tactical kicking game. We need to reign in some of the flair and low percentage plays that we saw last week."

He deliberately decided to move away from what had worked so well, and what the players excelled in doing, to go back to what led to several poor performances in the weeks prior (and almost all of the games since). Laurie Fisher is a cancer on the game.

 

[Slackboy72]

Smashing the reds was no great feat. The fact is that Laurie didn't have the cattle to take it to the top teams. Look at that 2004 team that was coaching itself by the end of the year. It was chock-a-block with international level talent. The only decent players we had on the field this year were Smith and Gerrard. The rest were also-rans at the provincial level.

 

[skeepe]

Smashing the reds was no great feat. The fact is that Laurie didn't have the cattle to take it to the top teams. Look at that 2004 team that was coaching itself by the end of the year. It was chock-a-block with international level talent. The only decent players we had on the field this year were Smith and Gerrard. The rest were also-rans at the provincial level.

I disagree. Not on the first part, that was an amazing team (poor old Radike Samo was ruined under Fisher). Adam Ashley-Cooper, Stirling Mortlock, Al Campbell, Stephen Hoiles, Guy Shepherdson, Mark Chisholm... all great players. Then there's the young stars like Salesi Ma'afu, Francis Fainifo, Christian Lealiifano, Josh Holmes (although admittedly he didn't play like it this year)... they should have been top 4 minimum. More talent than the Waratards, and they managed to finish second!

Then you have to look at the legacy that Fisher leaves behind. Preferred Patrick bloody Phibbs over Luke Burgess, when every man and his dog could see how much talent Burgess had. That decision alone has cost us big time. Then there's the fact that a Brumbies match will dead-set send you to sleep. Fisher is so bloody unimaginative, he coaches the attack out of his players. It's so painful to watch. Assuming you're a Brumbies fan, you're actually the first fan I've ever heard defend Fisher. I have spoken to plenty of fans, and it was unanimous: Fisher was a bloody awful coach who shouldn't have been in charge for as long as he was. That he was able to survive five consecutive seasons without even making the finals is a disgrace. That the Brumbies can go five seasons without making the finals is a disgrace. Make no bones about it, the Fisher era was the darkest days the Brumbies have ever faced. But the devil is now gone. There is light at the end of the tunnel. 2009 is going to be a new era in Brumbies rugby and I for one cannot wait.

 

[Slackboy72]

I think you'll be in for more of the same for a while if you think Laurie Fisher was the problem.