Highlanders 2024
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Southland will have its best season in nearly a decade if they have a good run with injuries.
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@Landers92 A shame about his injuries. I played rugby with him during our school days, he was 2 years younger than me but still played in the same teams as him and he was the best player I'd seen at schoolboy level and there were a lot of other guys who have gone onto much bigger things who played with and against us too.
He achieved a lot in League and union in Europe, but not gonna lie, I thought he was gonna have a huge career at the top.
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That's that then for 2024.
Overall I'd say an improved season, and they had us genuinely believing we were a chance last night, and for forty minutes they certainly hung in there.
The Good
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The emergence of the young forward pack. Holland, Haig and Withy in particular just got better and better as the season went on. All were very strong last night. Bell, Taylor and Stodart too enjoyed good first seasons, whilst de Groot ended the season very strongly and will be the skipper for the future. Broughton was another one who I thought just got better and better. Ma'u was perhaps slightly disappointing, so we will need to find a good replacement for Jermaine Ainsley. Mitch Dunshea was also very strong, and will be the experienced head
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The Fijian back three. Jim, Jacob and Jona. A joy to finally watch us score some good tries. No way would we have scored the try we scored last night with who we had last year. Slick finishing. Keep them together, with a good reserve option coming in, and we are looking good there. I can see JRK kicking on even further next year.
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Breaking the derby duck. It needed to be done, and we got it done. That game might just give ticket sales a boost at the start of next season.
The Bad
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The mid-season slump. The coaches lost the plot in the middle of the year against the Canes and then in Aussie. They rectified it to some degree, though we never managed to find the competitiveness against the better sides we had early in the season.
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Going the full 80. We failed to score a point in the second half in our last three away games (Blues, Canes & Brumbies). That has to be worked on. I think partially this is because we are a little limited and can't chase games, but probably also speaks to a lack of depth.
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The midfield. Take out Tele'a, and our midfield options are hardly even strong NPC options. Te Hiwi got a good run, and probably showed he is only ever going to be a backup option at best. Gilbert too burnt out, though I actually thought he was really good last night. We simply have to find a classy second five if we want to compete for a title.
The big questions
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The first fives. I think Millar and Faleafaga all in all had good seasons. Faleafaga certainly started the better and looked really good, though his lack of a kicking game saw him come unstuck. Big issue for him, is that he is unlikely to start at 10 in the NPC. His running and playmaking means that at the moment he probably has a higher ceiling, but he has to work on that punt. Millar showed both his strengths and limitation, but I can confidently say at the very least he will be a good backup, who is one of the best goal kickers I have ever seen. Both these two will benefit from the NPC.
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The coaches. Are the coaches getting the best out of the players? I think this will be a question better answered next year. Ultimately, our midfield options are limited, and our forwards are young, but I'd really like to see us get more ball to our outside backs. There were also a few questionable selections (I just don't see it with Hurley...)
Overall
I think you'd grade the 2024 season a B-. A solid pass, but I think we are kidding ourselves if wins over MP 2x, the Drua, the Force, the Waratahs and the Crusaders warrants anything more. We put up a fight in the quarter final, and it feels like the team is finally on the up.
An early goal for next year, without knowing the squad and competition format should be to be competitive in every game. Stop the blowouts, pickup a couple of upsets and win more than we lose. That would be progress.
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The two wingers are class, especially Nareki who should be in the AB conversation with his skills. The fullback though... the Brumbies targeted him with the high ball and he was really found wanting. You could feel the game swinging the Brumbies way with all the balls he lost. A work-on I suppose.
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@Old-Samurai-Jack said in Highlanders 2024:
The two wingers are class, especially Nareki who should be in the AB conversation with his skills. The fullback though... the Brumbies targeted him with the high ball and he was really found wanting. You could feel the game swinging the Brumbies way with all the balls he lost. A work-on I suppose.
In fairness, I think JRK has largely been really good under the high ball this year. It was also Millar who I think was found wanting more often - and part of it was that the Brumbies hung the kick right on top of a stationary player. Clever tactically.
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Thought I’d chuck sports radio on today while driving. They had Jeff Wilson on and he had something really interesting to say.
He said that there is noise that there will be coaching changes/movement ahead. He also said ‘does Jamie Joseph move to head coach?’, something along those lines. But he did finish by saying don’t be surprised to see movement in the coaching department.
Considering he is the one saying that, I think we can expect some news in the near future as there won’t be many more in the know than he is.
It will be very interesting to see what those moves are, are the shot callers ready to move on from Derms as head coach now instead of pushing it out another season knowing that’s their plan anyway? A case of ripping the band aid off now and getting on with their long term plan a year early.
Could be an eventful offseason.
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@Landers92 Joseph to HC, Dermody back to forwards coach, Flutey, Dillon and Donnelly's positions need to be revised. Especially Flutey and Dillon, those two have been stealing a living. Maybe look at replacing defense coach Dillon with Ben Herring who has recently finished up in Japan.
HC: Joseph
Forwards: Dermody
Donnelly to concentrate solely on lineouts.
Backs: Lynn and Ben Smith
Defense: Herring
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@Landers92 said in Highlanders 2024:
Thought I’d chuck sports radio on today while driving. They had Jeff Wilson on and he had something really interesting to say.
He said that there is noise that there will be coaching changes/movement ahead. He also said ‘does Jamie Joseph move to head coach?’, something along those lines. But he did finish by saying don’t be surprised to see movement in the coaching department.
Considering he is the one saying that, I think we can expect some news in the near future as there won’t be many more in the know than he is.
It will be very interesting to see what those moves are, are the shot callers ready to move on from Derms as head coach now instead of pushing it out another season knowing that’s their plan anyway? A case of ripping the band aid off now and getting on with their long term plan a year early.
Could be an eventful offseason.
Jamie will get what Jamie wants. If Jamie wants to be HC, then that would have been signed sealed and delivered a few weeks ago I'd say. It really depends how they think Dermody has done... he was on shaky ground you'd imagine after they went to Aussie.
I think the spotlight is probably more on the assistants... I'd be stunned if Donnelly saw his contract extended, and Dillon could be a curious one to. One thing I am pretty sure of, is that Dermody won't step back to be the assistant - he'd have no authority.
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normally im not a huge one for blaming the coaching, i more often than not find effort or basic handling bigger issues and those can be put at the feet of players as much as anything
....but i think far too often over the last few years ive struggled to actually see what we're trying to do or when i could see it it was pretty pedestrian, too often it was just crash at 12 and look for quick ball....but we'd look to crash on inside shoulder leaving the defence to spread wide
when i look at the players making good meters in the midfield they ALWAYS work to get onto the outside shoulder to either draw in the outside defender and make room for their wings....or to threaten that and to try and get the defence to over commit to the fold and fire back the other way...and we're either not trying to do that or putting in the effort to do it
either way, some really basic things need to change
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@SouthernMann said in QF - Brumbies v Highlanders:
@Damo said in QF - Brumbies v Highlanders:
@SouthernMann said in QF - Brumbies v Highlanders:
@ruggabee said in QF - Brumbies v Highlanders:
@SouthernMann It was the absolute lack of urgency in the final 20 minutes, win a turnover immediately kick the ball away, a complete lack of desire, walking to lineout, taking a full 30 seconds to decide which spot to take a penalty from. Complete absence of ideas on attack, serious lack of looking for out-of-box ways to get the backs involved, which is something that Brown always worked hard at and excelled even with the more limited squads in seasons past. He was innovative, Dermody, Dillon, etc. don't have a creative mindset.
What crap. The last play off game he was in charge of we lost by 29 points to the Blues in 2022. A Blues team miles behind the team that is the 2024 itteration. More limited squads than the kids in the team this year? Celebrate the positives of this year and enjoy the growth. Tony Brown is not coming back
Hang on.
2022 Blues hosted the final.
Yeah I didn't go into the full detail of the season when checking last night. The point was that with Brown, we still lost a quarter-final, and by more points.
Not even comparable.
Tony Brown was not afforded the same resources as Dermody - in both playing roster and specialist assist. coaches.
Brown only had 3 assistants (due to Covid cost-cutting) whereas Dermody has 7 assistants including Joseph and B.Smith.
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@frugby said in Highlanders 2024:
@Landers92 said in Highlanders 2024:
Thought I’d chuck sports radio on today while driving. They had Jeff Wilson on and he had something really interesting to say.
He said that there is noise that there will be coaching changes/movement ahead. He also said ‘does Jamie Joseph move to head coach?’, something along those lines. But he did finish by saying don’t be surprised to see movement in the coaching department.
Considering he is the one saying that, I think we can expect some news in the near future as there won’t be many more in the know than he is.
It will be very interesting to see what those moves are, are the shot callers ready to move on from Derms as head coach now instead of pushing it out another season knowing that’s their plan anyway? A case of ripping the band aid off now and getting on with their long term plan a year early.
Could be an eventful offseason.
Jamie will get what Jamie wants. If Jamie wants to be HC, then that would have been signed sealed and delivered a few weeks ago I'd say.
I sure as hell hope Jamie Joseph takes the head coach role on if he has been offered that. Would be the best thing for the franchise moving forward 110%. If Dermody wants to step down to forwards coach that’s fine, if he doesn’t then I’m sure Jamie won’t struggle to find a more than qualified coach to step into the role.
Two things I ask for this offseason is for a midfield signing who can start and Joseph to be HC. Dream result.
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@Tim said in Highlanders 2024:
@Higgins Ah ... Matt Proctor ...
As mentioned a couple weeks ago I heard the Canes are also talking to him for 2025 as a centre/wing option.
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@Canes4life said in Highlanders 2024:
@Tim said in Highlanders 2024:
@Higgins Ah ... Matt Proctor ...
As mentioned a couple weeks ago I heard the Canes are also talking to him for 2025 as a centre/wing option.
Surely he would prefer regular game time… unless he’s happy to head back to where it all started and be at home of course.
You’d think Japan would make the most sense for a player like him but he could sure as hell be a regular for the Highlanders.
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Sacking a coach means they need to be replaced by a clearly better candidate, with team byin. Joseph is a great coach. The quesrion is, does the impact he has in his current role outweigh what he could do as head coach.
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@Landers92 said in Highlanders 2024:
@Canes4life said in Highlanders 2024:
@Tim said in Highlanders 2024:
@Higgins Ah ... Matt Proctor ...
As mentioned a couple weeks ago I heard the Canes are also talking to him for 2025 as a centre/wing option.
Surely he would prefer regular game time… unless he’s happy to head back to where it all started and be at home of course.
You’d think Japan would make the most sense for a player like him but he could sure as hell be a regular for the Highlanders.
All his family is in Wellington so that might be a huge influence for him at this stage of his career. A chance to play alongside his brother would be another reason for him to sign for the Canes. Proctor is only 31 so still has plenty to offer.
If he goes to the Highlanders though fair enough, he would be a solid pick up and would provide plenty of experience in that midfield. A 12/13 combo of Tele'a and Proctor would be pretty solid.
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The other guy is being released is Tamati Tua from the Brumbies. Defensively pretter average, does get over the gainline though. I can't see Proctor going to the Highlanders, especially as he turned us down to go to the Rebels. Also not a fan of picking up short-term solutions.
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