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Melbourne have enlisted an AFL premiership sports psychologist to address their Super Rugby Pacific shortcomings and also help their Wallabies players, including playmaker Carter Gordon, deal with the fall-out from the World Cup failure.
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Andrew Waterson, who was part of the Melbourne Demons’ AFL flag success in 2021 before spending the past two seasons with Hawthorn has joined the Rebels.
The Melbourne side have narrowly missed the Super play-offs in a number of seasons, only participating in finals once, in 2020, in a domestic format due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Coach Kevin Foote wants more from the under-performing outfit, who have Test forwards Taniela Tupou and Lukhan Salakaia-Loto among some highly-rated signings.
He is hoping that Waterson can help the Rebels close out a number of close games which proved costly to their finals hopes while also support the Wallabies players, who were part of Australia’s worst-ever World Cup campaign.
“We’ve got a performance psychologist on board now which will be very crucial for a lot of our Wallabies boys coming back into the program,” Foote told AAP.
“And not only that – we look at our results last year and in the final 20 minutes, we don’t believe it’s a physical thing, we think it’s a mental thing so we’ve brought a sports psych in supporting us there.
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“Andrew was with the Demons when they won the flag and with Hawthorn last year but he understands rugby which is good and I think he will be really positive for us.”
Gordon, 22, had a break-out Super Rugby Pacific season this year which saw him earn his first Test selection.
The only specialist five-eighth in the World Cup squad, he was heavily targeted by Fiji and yanked by then coach Eddie Jones during their historic pool-match loss.
Foote backed the youngster to bounce straight back for the Rebels after the disappointment of losing his starting Wallabies jersey.
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“Carter’s tough. I’ve been in lots of environments with him where he gets challenged and he’s quite stoic, he’s strong and he doesn’t come across as someone who’s mentally frail,” Foote said.
“We want to make sure that he’s not the fall-guy as everyone’s accountable as much as Carter so we want to make sure when he gets back into Melbourne it’s a fresh environment for him and he doesn’t feel that pressure any more.”
Gordon’s 20-year-old brother, Mason, has been elevated to the senior squad after playing Australian U20s this year.
He can play five-eighth or fullback, where he will compete for a starting spot with Wallabies utility Andrew Kellaway, ex-Western Force back Jake Strachan and Nick Jooste.
The Rebels are in the midst of formal pre-season training with the World Cup players to resume with the squad on December 4.
Comments on RugbyPass
I am really looking forward to Leigh Halfpenny playing his first Super rugby game for the Crusaders Playing a long side his former Welsh and Scarlets team mate Johnny McNicoll.Johnny has been playing great, back in a Crusaders jersey.The attack has strengthened big time. Also looking forward to David Havili at 10. David is a class act, it also allows Dallas McLeod to remain at 12. A good thing.
1 Go to commentsIf he had stopped insisting on playing in the backrow, instead of wing, where everyone told him he should, he would have been a Bok years ago….
11 Go to comments‘Salads don’t win scrums’ 😂 I love that.
19 Go to commentsCan’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
16 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
16 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
81 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
2 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
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