Blues 2018
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Blues chairman resigns after disappointing five-year spell
Having overseen a tumultuous five years at the club, Blues chairman Tony Carter has announced that he will leave the side at the end of the 2018 season.
Taking over in 2013, Carter oversaw the joining of Auckland, North Harbour and Northland to become Blues Limited Partnership.
However, although the organisation remains a success from a business standpoint, Carter says the on field results do not reflect the work going on behind the scenes.
"My personal view is the board needs more rugby expertise on it and for that reason I have told the board it is time for me to step aside and allow the shareholders to consider bringing in someone that can make a greater contribution to the rugby programme," he said.
"We all believe we are close to unlocking the playing potential of this club and have the right people in place to do so. I believe someone with different experiences as the new Chairman could help take our performance to the next level.
"It has been a privilege to Chair the Blues and I thank the shareholders, my fellow directors and NZ Rugby for their support during my tenure. I wish the Club every success in the future".
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@duluth said in Blues 2018:
Good. Tony Carter has more integrity then Redman, Umaga and Jackson.
One person with personal standards is not enough though. Hopefully the others show some decency and fuck off too.
Yes, good on him for having the self awareness and integrity to put the franchise's success first. Next should be the CEO and Coach, then select members of the board.
Hopefully this the beginning of accountability, and the search for competent back office staff so we can avoid farcical appointments like Tana in the first place.
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So Michael Collins with the last pass.
His other noteworthy contribution to the game was throwing Akira a hospital pass.
Tana of course rushed Collins in to 15 - despite the fact Duffie had actually found form at 15 in recent weeks. But no - Tana shifts Duffie back to wing where has been poor this year (and he was again poor) and Collins at 15 who was also poor (and provides 0 attacking thrust cos he is as slow as molasses). A double whammy selection fail.
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@kirwan said in Blues 2018:
Hopefully this the beginning of accountability, and the search for competent back office staff so we can avoid farcical appointments like Tana in the first place.
Appointing him wasn't a farce at the time. He'd done good things with Counties, and had a few years of coaching experience in pro/semi pro environments. Very different to Hammett, for instance.
it's just everything since then has been a bit poo fingered.
Ah, we're all going to regret this when he coaches the Blues to the title next season [insert ironic grin here]
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@nzzp said in Blues 2018:
Appointing him wasn't a farce at the time.
It wasn't farcical but it was risky
I didn't criticise him much during the first two years. The old mantra was 'judge him after three years'. Alarm bells went off when he tried to get an extension, regardless of results, before this season kicked off and he used sycophants in the media (Patrick McKendry) to campaign for that.
Were the wheels already beginning to fall off before the season started?Getting another years salary, ultimately paid for by fans, is his greatest achievement at the Blues.
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@duluth said in Blues 2018:
Getting another years salary, ultimately paid for by fans, is his greatest achievement at the Blues.
If you could bank bitter tears, angriness on the internet and excessive red wine consumption, he'd be able to retire.
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@tim "My personal view is the board needs more rugby expertise on it"
Good fucking grief. That this even needs to be said...I guess good on Carter, but five years these idiots have been grinding the franchise into the mud. The damage that he and fucking Redman and the procession of rubbish celebrity coaches have done is massive. I mean seriously? "We are close to unlocking the playing potential of this club". Dude, you are the fucking franchise of the biggest city in NZ, that used to be the powerhouse and is now an embarrassment.
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I'm still a bit mystified as to why Leon has taken up the Asst. coach gig.
He's surely not going to have free rein to make sweeping changes, he's going to be plugged into a stumbling regime, with a high probability of failing.
So then he's tarnished in terms of getting appointed as Head Coach and - even if he is - he's no longer a bright new saviour from the players' perspective.
I just don't see where there's a big win for him - unless he manages to turn the Blues around and even then Tana gets the public credit and presumably an extension.
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@chris-b mkes you wonder what they have negotiated that we are not privy to, musta been some carrot?
If the Blues carry on next year the way they are, his rep will take a huge hit, right or wrong, but I guess if they make improvements, these will be attributed to him.
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@taniwharugby Yeah - will be interesting to see how it pans out - you'd think there must be some hidden carrot in the mix.
Leon seems to be pretty patient in terms of his progression, so maybe he sees helping rebuild a broken Super team from the Ass. Coach position as an important learning step.
Maybe he can see some obvious fixes - you'd hope so.
Building an effective lineout drive is an obvious one, but that's possibly not part of his job description. You'd wonder how it is that the guys who've been in the AB environment haven't been able to fix this even if the forwards coach is hopeless.
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@chris-b you'd of thought he'd have been patiently on the path to the Crusaders head role, so it makes it and even stranger decision, even if promised a head gig at the Blues, to go to the Blues...assuming that was the carrot, to be head coach in 2020, which would be a huge call for the Blues to make (although not surprising with this board) given the potential international candidates that could be available post 2019.
Maybe Leon just wants a challenge, a big challenge!
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@taniwharugby If he was impatient for a Head Coach role, you'd have thought he could have almost picked up the Highlanders job when they had to twist Tony Brown's arm or perhaps ahead of Aaron Mauger.
Not sure that the Crusaders' Head Coach job is coming free any time soon - but, you'd think if Leon wanted a Super head coach job that biding his time at Ta$man would be better than this shift.
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The other way of looking at it from Leon MacDonald's point of view is right now it is rock bottom - Leon can make some pretty big improvements in one season as attack coach. The attacking structure of the Blues is legitimately awful - I'd suggest the worst in the comp - there's no guile, there's no deception - there's very little evidence of a plan.
Blues are going to win at max 4 games this season and the target for Tana to be retained beyond next season is a semi final berth in 2019. The most likely outcome is the Blues finish somewhere between those markers in 2019 - meaning both Leon has improved the joint and Tana gets canned.
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@kiwimurph I guess a wildcard in the mix is that it is RWC year, so not everyone's eyes will be focused on Super rugby. That might help (or hinder) the Blues.
Still, the most likely result is the Blues do a little bit better than this year, but still don't make the play-offs. I don't really see that strengthening Leon's hand.
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@chris-b said in Blues 2018:
@kiwimurph I guess a wildcard in the mix is that it is RWC year, so not everyone's eyes will be focused on Super rugby. That might help (or hinder) the Blues.
Still, the most likely result is the Blues do a little bit better than this year, but still don't make the play-offs. I don't really see that strengthening Leon's hand.
How not? In this situation he'd either be head coach himself in 2020 or someone better than him (e.g. Gatland) comes in as coach and MacDonald has a chance to really make a difference.
What else was there left to achieve/prove at the Crusaders? He already won a title as assistant coach there?
