Connacht Team Talk Thread VI - Some like it TOH

The Moist Buddha · 01-06-2025 08:58PM

The IRFU 100% decided the Cullen would be Leinsters head coach

Tipp1991 · 01-06-2025 09:00PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123506833#Comment_123506833

Your club isn't owned by the IRFU.

Leinster would have originally appointed Leo as an assistant coach but the decision to make him head coach would have been an IRFU appointment.

eagle eye · 01-06-2025 09:18PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123506859#Comment_123506859

I would be confident that Leinster decided who the head coach was going to be. If you want to believe otherwise you are also entitled to your opinion.

ShineyShiney · 01-06-2025 09:19PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123506833#Comment_123506833

I'm sure that the Connacht board will have plenty of input but the IRFU will be hiring the Connacht head coach.

eagle eye · 01-06-2025 09:22PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123506933#Comment_123506933

So if we end up with another crap coach us fans demand that Humphreys loses his job?

ShineyShiney · 01-06-2025 09:27PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123506440#Comment_123506440

Look I'm not trying to pick an argument with you but how can I possibly discuss the quality of lack thereof in Connacht Coaches particularly when we are discussing the head coach with out going back a decade? There have only been 4 in a decade.

Continuity of coaching leads to success you say but that's exactly what was done with the appointment of Wilkins. Continuity. Successful coaches by dint of that success don't move on quickly so that continuity may be a result of the success instead of the cause of the success.

My only point is that I trust the process to select a suitable candidate, we can then argue the success or failure of that candidate based on results.

We could get a top coach if we had lots of money but it's pretty unlikely that we would be attractive or the only suitor for a top coach even if we had the money.

2025Connacht · 02-06-2025 01:29AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123506984#Comment_123506984

That's fine we obviously just fundamentally disagree on this which is fair enough. Not trying to be hostile.

In terms of continuity the point I was making (probably badly) is that we are churning through coaches like there's no tomorrow and we aren't building strong fundamentals as a result as we are tearing up the script every other season. When you look at the 22/23 coaching team if you exclude Eric in the academy all that remains in Tucker. Its a long list of different voices the players have been listening to over the last few seasons but with no real continuity in any area.

We've been through a world of different coaches since the 5 you listed and that needs to be our focus. 3 of those 5 weren't head coaches.

What has happened in the short-medium term past is what's relevant to the current team and it's decline / stagnation. The point you make about successes does make sense though. Those coaches were with Connacht for an extended period and we got the benefits of that but I doubt anyone who was involved in upgrading Dan McFarland to assistant is still in a decision making role on the Connacht side of things. Carolan was in coaching in Connacht for years almost since the academy began I think and is a good example of how that continuity helped also. Probably Gerry Kelly and the board at the time brought them in and that's ancient history at this stage.

There's a world of difference between building continuity as to what we are trying to do as a province like in the examples above and making a decision to hire an unsuitable head coach on a long term deal just because he's cheap and he's in the building already. Even doing that it was clear that to have any chance of even keeping us ticking over that Wilkins needed someone above him who knew the game. This is where I hope in time Millard will begin to put some structure to the chaos and we'll have a long term coaching strategy and a coaching team with defined roles again rather than the piece meal patchwork approach of recent times.

Aside from Wilkins, Keane was obviously a very knowledgeable rugby man and had a good CV but if his job interview was anything like the interviews he gave as Connacht coach in particular post Cardiff 2017 you'd have to question who was doing that interview.

Friend was generally positive but hardly an unqualified success either. Undoubtedly a nice man with great charm who has a good philosophy on the game and indeed life but if we are being pragmatic we definitely didn't have a hard edge under him and that has continued into Wilkins tenure. As examples, the lack of structure from a defensive perspective, the feeling that the players didn't want to have to do the dirty side of the game, the mid game meltdowns etc. are all recurring trends.

I hope that Millard coming in is an admission from the Connacht hierarchy that what we have been doing hasn't been working and that we need someone with a suitable background overseeing the playing side of things. He'll need time to put a structure to that. In the meantime lets see what the next few weeks throws up.

ShineyShiney · 02-06-2025 08:55AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123507563#Comment_123507563

Also not looking for conflict It's only a bit of off season discussion for entetrtainment but I find it difficult to ignore the obvious double speak in your point of view. There's plenty I do agree with in what you say. Eg.Millard,

You want change but also continuity.

You want new coaches but complain about coaching churn. Pick a side and we can discuss it, we might even agree.

I see it as a fairly straightforward situation. We had a coaching failure and now we need to recruit and go again. No one knows how extensive the recruitment process is or isn't and no one knows if the next setup will be a success or not.

I'm not going to be negative for the sake of it. I'll give whatever setup they put in place support at least until I see how it goes.

Like I've no idea how Rod Seib will get on but I'm not going to dis the appointment until I get a look at how it goes.

Tipp1991 · 02-06-2025 09:25AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123506929#Comment_123506929

Decided would be a no. They can make a recommendation but as its an IRFU funded position, the final call rests with them.

There would be very little point in the IRFU having a High Performance Director who has "ultimate responsibility for the delivery of integrated high-performance systems for the benefit of Irish Rugby, with world-class elite player development pathways, world-class coaching, world-class support, all delivering consistent and sustained performance by the National Teams through excellence and innovation" if he doesn't have a say in who is coaching the playing pool for the Men's XV who are keeping the lights on in the IRFU.

2025Connacht · 02-06-2025 10:47AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123507731#Comment_123507731

Don't think it's double speak at all. If you want to read it that way fair enough. I've probably explained my point badly.

All businesses need elements of continuity in terms of building systems that work but they also need to change what clearly doesn't work and need an appropriate setup to lead the vision they are looking to get to.

In terms of having continuity under Wilkins we didn't have much. Wilkins by his own admission was incapable of managing the coaching team while he was also firefighting trying to be involved in areas of the coaching like defence where he shouldn't have had to be getting involved if the coaching setup was working. By his own admission he was trying to do many things and as a result was doing nothing to the level he'd like. A head coach shouldn't feel in a position where they feel alone and without an appropriate person to relay their concerns to and rightly or wrongly that's clearly how Wilkins felt. How we ended up in that position is worrying.

In terms of continuity with the likes of Senekal, Lawlor, Sexton etc it was clear Connacht could do with keeping these lads but they didn't feel they could progress their careers at Connacht which is a problem. With the likes of Lawlor and Sexton especially they learned a lot on the job with Connacht but someone else is the main beneficiary of the lessons they learned. Keeping those lads is the continuity you want to have.

In terms of change you change when it's obvious that people are out of their depth e.g. Fardy or that there is nobody suitable in the building to take on the head coach role and lead the coaching setup. To me it was obvious that Wilkins was a completely unsuitable choice as head coach even with a limited budget and if you surveyed supporters at the time I think a large majority would have been similarly circumspect. That's not to say supporters know best as we clearly don't but in that instance it was obviously an unsuitable appointment at best and the three year element was the particularly crazy thing when there were so many question marks hanging over his suitability for the role.

I'll get behind whoever they appoint now as I think we have taken small steps to rectify the mistakes of the past but i'm just not as positive as you are that the process of finding that person is going to give us the best chance of finding the best candidate for the role.

Tipp1991 · 02-06-2025 10:55AM

I do think that a new coach will be announced for Connacht sooner rather than later.

With the IRFU having appointed McMillan in the past couple of months, they know exactly what coaches are out there and are available

eagle eye · 02-06-2025 10:56AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123507780#Comment_123507780

They did a crap job hiring Wilkins and if his inexperienced pal gets the job then it's a complete joke.

Tipp1991 · 02-06-2025 11:00AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123508032#Comment_123508032

Well, considering Humphrey's wasn't HPD when Wilkins was appointed, its hard to lay any of the blame at his door.

For all we know, Connacht could have recommended Wilkins be appointed

ShineyShiney · 02-06-2025 11:12AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123508009#Comment_123508009

I would be happy to down swords based on your final paragraph. 🙂

For me I'm absolutely delighted Sexton is leaving I hated every aspect of his attack plan and how it removed our two most naturally attacking players in Carty and Farrell. I hated the constant rotation. I hate to see JJ selected, shovelling the ball along. Granted it can look slick enough when it clicks and the metrics look good but at the expense of absolutely any defence. Mossie meh, don't care. Senekal seems a loss alright.

I wasn't enamoured with the Wilkins appointment especially the 3 years however I also felt that Connacht knew him well, had promoted him to head coach with Friend above him for the first while and tbf it wasn't a disaster initially. It wasn't a massive success either. Then Friend left and he selected his own team of young coaches and it all fell apart.

I see a cautious and careful approach to bringing a new young coach through. Just because it didn't work doesn't mean that the care, professionalism and culture weren't correct.

Anyway, hope we get someone who can deliver a balance of attack and defence and 8th place for a few seasons in a row.