2014 Season Preview: Gordon

by Paul Cook –

It’s been a few years since Geoff Townsend graced the coaching ranks of the Shute Shield but the former Southern Districts and Manly head honcho returns in 2014 in charge of Gordon, tasked with returning the Highlanders to the upper echelons of the ladder that they have routinely occupied in the history of this great competition.

Having recharged the batteries for the last few seasons since his time with the Western Force, Townsend is champing at the bit to re-acquaint himself with the day-to-day running of a rugby club and he’s not in it for the short term. Having signed an initial three year contract, he is already mapping out an exciting future at Chatswood Oval as he attempts to turnaround a side that has fallen by the wayside in recent times.

Blessed with a fair sprinkling of young – if inexperienced – talent, Townsend’s challenge is to harness that potential with the introduction of a couple of older heads in order to oversee their growth as top grade players. As he told Rugby News when we caught up with him recently, it’s one he is very much looking forward to…

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You’ve been out of full-time coaching for a few years after your stint with the Western Force under John Mitchell. What was it about Gordon that made you want to throw your hat into the ring again?

“When I went back to Souths in 2004 they were pretty much rudderless at that time, they were struggling for players and they looked like they were going nowhere and we managed to get ourselves within the fringes of the play-offs within two and a half years, which was a pretty good turnaround. When I went to Manly they’d run last and second last in consecutive seasons and in my first year there in 2000, we made our way through what was an extended play-off series due to the Sydney Olympics, to play finals footy, so I’ve had experience at turning teams around.

“I knew Gordon had a lot of young, promising players and a lot of players who had been pushed into 1st grade probably a year or two too soon. We’ll still suffer a bit of a hangover from that this year as there will still be some players who are maybe 12 months away from being genuine 1st graders but a lot of the younger guys are now ready to step up. We’ve also been able to add a few players here and there, no big names but a bunch of guys that are going to work hard every week and lay down a challenge to every team we face.”

You come into a side that finished 11th on the ladder last year, I guess the only way is up?

“The club’s been 11th for a couple of years now so there’s a bit of a challenge there obviously but as I mentioned before, some of that was due to the fact that it was a bunch of young guys with very little leadership, there were very few leaders when I arrived. We’re trying to  develop some of those young guys to be leaders but it’s still going to be a very young playing roster.”

Former Western Force assistant coach Geoff Townsend has returned to the Shute Shield with Gordon
Photo: Gordon Rugby Club

Given that Gordon have blooded a lot of young talent over the last couple of years, if you can keep them all together, that should bear fruit at some stage shouldn’t it?

“I think so yeah and we’re in a good catchment area for talent here, the problem is holding on to that talent. If you look at the Australian U20s side from last year, five or six of them came from Gordon but have now gone to other clubs so we’ve got to make these players want to come back and play at Gordon. That’s got to be through the program that we can deliver and if we can start to show that we can actually produce players that can go to the next level, we’re not going to lose those players. One of our goals for the club is to make sure that all the young talent in the area wants to come and play for Gordon.”

What is your vision for the club over the next three years?

“We’ve obviously got limited resources but we’re trying to make it as close as possible to what we would do with a Super Rugby province, trying to make it a bit more professional. We have one night a week for our weight session, we have a video analysis night, a couple of training sessions a week – we’re really trying to do what we would have done at the Western Force. We’re trying to build up their skill levels, increase the focus on individuals and a number of different things that I was involved with at Super Rugby level.

“I believe that the coaching staff we’ve got here at the moment can improve all our grade sides. We’re working very well together and while you may not see vast improvements this year – we hope that we do – within the next couple of years, you’ll see Gordon coming up and up and pushing to reach that level of the competition that they were renowned for every year not so long ago.”

Have you taken the ‘It doesn’t matter what went on before, this is now’ approach and used purely your own judgment to assess players since your arrival or have you also gone back and looked at any footage of last year’s games to get a better handle on where they stand quality wise?

“I’ve looked at some footage and from that we identified some areas of real concern, like the fact that we conceded 100 tries last year, which is simply not good enough. If we can reduce that tally by 40% we’re going to win a few more games. There are certain areas in the game that the players indicated they wanted the coaching staff to focus on and we’ve built those things into our pre-season program as well.”

Despite dropping down the ladder in recent seasons, Gordon always had the ability to put a few points on but last year, they dropped to an average of only 22pts per match. Has attack been a particular focus in pre-season?

“It’s been an all round focus based around the resources and the time that we have. Some coaches have got their preference as to what they work on, for instance, the way that Jake White approached his time at the Brumbies where they focused very much on playing rugby in the opposition half and having a strong defence. But in this competition you’ve got to be able to do both, play a bit of attack and defend a little bit so there’s been no total focus on one area, we’ve just been trying to improve across the board.”

Gordon: Ins & Outs

Do you feel you have the players, coaching structures and culture within the club already to take significant steps forward in 2014?

“I’d be very guarded on how far we can progress so I’m not going to make any outrageous statements about how we’re going to go. I’d just like to see us moving forward and if we can win a few games early on it will build momentum in the club and give encouragement to a lot of guys who in the last two or three years haven’t won a lot of rugby matches. Once you win a few games, it can become infectious so it’s important we can get off to a good start this season. We haven’t been done any favours with the draw and that’s been happening for the last three years now to Gordon as well as to Warringah and Penrith which is concerning but you have to build a mentality that says you’re going to go out there and beat everybody if you’re going to contend.”

There’s an earlier start to the competition this year, a couple of extra rounds and a six team finals series – are you happy with the changes?

“I think the six team finals is a good idea, I think it would have been a little bit hasty to go from eight straight to five in one fail swoop. As I said, the only thing that’s plagued me has been the inequity of the draw. I’ve made complaints about it and I’ve also offered a solution but nobody seems to want to take a reasoned look at it.”

The NRC arrives at the end of the year, what are the pros and cons of this competition for club rugby?

“The cons can be that the financial impositions placed on the clubs could put a lot of them into trouble. A lot of the clubs don’t have the capital that’s required to enter that competition so I see that as being a little bit of an impediment. Obviously, it’s a great opportunity for the young guys to really push themselves to the next level and if you look back at the ARC, when I was coaching the Perth Spirit side with John Mulvihill, the standard of football in that competition was fantastic and it did expose a lot of players to the next level. There’s definite pros there, I just hope it doesn’t render a few teams in trouble because of it, because it’s another expense that the clubs have to endure and you have to be involved in it. Down the track it could be something that’s quite interesting, I don’t know if it will be profitable but it’s something that could appeal to a lot of people in the future.”

With the Super Rugby final only two weeks before the Shute Shield grand final this year, those clubs with Super Rugby players will have less access to them depending on the relative success of each state. Can we expect a more level playing field across the regular season as a result?

“You would think so, it depends whether the other provinces allow their players to come back and play if they’re not playing regularly in their match day 23. It seems as thought the Rebels, the Force and the Brumbies are not going to allow that, which probably eats into teams like Manly and others for their talent. I see it as an opportunity for teams like us to maybe take a few steps forward but in saying that, you’d like to challenge yourselves against the best as well. If you go out and beat a Sydney University team that’s devoid of all their main talent, you’re still beating a very good side but it’s maybe a bit of a hollow victory but if you beat a Uni side that had a few of those Super Rugby players on the field it would do wonders for the confidence in the club.”

Jack Dempsey: “He’s going to be enormous for us,”
says Geoff Townsend – Photo: SPA Images

What trends, if any, do you think we might see appearing in the way the game is played or approached by teams this year in regards to law interpretations – particularly at the breakdown?

“I hope they reward the team in possession of the ball because it’s a bit of a blight on the game when you’re in possession or in control and players that might just lose their feet, get penalised. You’d like to reward positive play. Obviously, there are teams out there that are very good at slowing down the ball and getting their bodies in the way at the breakdown and I hope they’re punished. All teams are going to try and do it but some teams have made an art form out of it.”

Players to watch out for in 2014?

“It’d be nice to see someone like Gordon Broome get recognised. He’s still only young, he’s a talented footballer and it would be exciting to see him get some recognition. Jack Dempsey’s going to be enormous for us, he’s an outstanding footballer and alongside Mitch Greenaway and others, the backrow could become a potent area for us. I think Tom Mathews will be on the radar of most of the Super Rugby provinces because he’s probably the biggest centre in the competition, he’s an absolute monster. He’s trained very well in the off-season and [assistant coach] Tim Wallace and I are very keen to push him forward if he does produce the goods.”

What is a successful season for Gordon this year – simply making them more competitive again in terms of the win/loss ratio or are there any ambitions beyond that?

“I’d like to see the club as a whole move forward in the club championship. I believe we’ll be very competitive in the lower grades, we’re expecting some good results there, so that will help. I’d very much like our tries conceded ratio to come down and improving each player generally would be a really good goal for us and that will start to manifest itself through results. I’d like to be in a position mid-season where we can look back and say ‘If we can perform well in the back half of the competition, we’re going to be relevant.’”