This week I was fortunate enough to catch up with president of the Queensland Rugby Union, David Codey, a former Reds player and also Wallabies captain. We had a great chat about Queensland rugby and he also reluctantly answered some questions about his own playing career!
It was great to hear his perspective and some of the great reasons for Queensland fans to be excited about the upcoming season.
Hi David, how are you?
Very well Tom. How are you?
Doing good, thanks. Thank you for taking time to chat at the end of the season. I’d love to ask you some questions about Queensland rugby, before talking about your own playing days.
That sounds good. Queensland rugby’s good. I don’t know about my playing days, people haven’t got memories that long.
How do you think 2018 has gone, from your perspective and the QRU’s?
I think it’s gone pretty well Tom. Like in any sporting organisation, we would have liked it to have gone better and would have liked to have had more wins this year. But I think the platform has been set for 2019.
Were you happy with the Reds season overall?
Hmmm. Yes, but as I said before, we would have liked to have won more games. But in saying that, there were a number of successful aspects to the season. We’ve got a number of new Wallabies out of the Reds cohort, which is very important. We’ve also seen one of our youngest ever players, Jordan Petaia go on the tour and he could play this weekend. He was at school the year before last. So the Reds program has shown that we can develop good players, we just need to be able to beat some of the better teams in Super Rugby.
I’m very excited about the 2019 Reds season. What’s something that makes you excited about next year?
There’s a few things Tom that I’m excited about for next year. A couple are to do with the coaching, the assistant coaches that we brought in for Brad Thorne. Obviously Brad’s going to be in his second season as head coach and I think he learnt a lot in the 2018 season. He admits that and we’ve had discussions with Brad about that. But bringing in Peter Ryan, who’s acknowledged as one of the best defence coaches in Australia in both Rugby League and Rugby Union. He’s also a different character to Brad, so we think that personality will be good. He’s a bit of a larakin. A very hard worker, but has a bit more of a relaxed attitude. The other exciting appointment is Jim Mackay, who’s our attack coach. He was in that position when we won the Super Rugby title back in 2011. I think the combination of those three could do something very special.
Also, the side was relatively young last year, they’ve had a year of experience, many of them in Super Rugby for the first time, so hopefully that lays the ground work for those key games where [last seasons] we just lost our way a little bit and didn’t know how to finish them off. Hopefully it means the difference between two or three of those games that we could have won last season.
We are hoping that with this combination of player experience and coaching, we might just be able to get this win rate up. It’s all about the win rate.
How did you end up playing in Queensland yourself?
I was a Sydney boy. So I started playing there and then I moved to a town called Orange, west of Sydney. I played for New South Wales Country and was captain there. NSW Country used to play Sydney every year and then they picked the New South Wales [State] team out of that and I was lucky to get picked. Then I got to play a test for Australia for me soon after, which was a great milestone for me. I wanted to leave Orange and I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to go back to Sydney. I’d been to Brisbane a few times and Andrew Slack, who was the Queensland Reds captain at the time asked me to come up and have a look. That was in 1984 Tom, which was a long while ago and I’ve been here ever since.
What are some of the differences between when you played and today?
We used to win more Tom in my day, than they do now. I’m not sure if that’s because we were a better team, or if it’s the competition. We used to play New Zealand sides, not as often as they do now, but we used to play New Zealand and touring sides.
We were fortunate to have some outstanding players in key positions. Queensland and Australian Rugby has always been strongest when if a world fifteen has been picked, or twenty-three as it is now, we used to always have half a dozen players in there. And usually half of those would be from Queensland. I think it says a lot that when they pick a world twenty-three now and perhaps only David Pocock would be selected and currently there would be no Queenslanders selected. Now that might change, with the Taniela Toupou’s, who’ve really set the world on fire.
Can I tell a story… We had a guy called Scott Johnson, he used to be a Sydney boy, but now he’s the director of professional development in Scotland. He went over there a number of years ago. He wants to come home, so we were having a chat to him about the prospect of coming home. (Nothing’s has eventuated there.) But Scott was out here watching a game when the Reds played the Rebels at Suncorp Stadium.
So I’m sitting next to Scott - by the way, he’s a back, so he knows nothing about scrums. Nothing at all, just like most backs. He was watching the game, we won two scrum penalties in a row, from Taniela’s great work at tight-head prop.
The Rebels half-back got the ball. Taniela hit him with one of the hardest tackles I’ve ever seen, right in front of us and drove him back five meters. He hit the ground and he helped him up as they do these days.
Scott Johnson leaned across to me and said “you have signed this bloke forever haven’t you?”
And then you’ve got Jordan Petaia. He could be anything. We just don’t know. He can play anywhere. He can play 13, he can play 14, he can play 15. He’s a pretty special talent.
That’s a very long-winded answer to your question. (Laughs)
Looking back on your playing days, what stands out as your greatest rugby memory?
Well, I think playing your first test, you always treasure that moment. Unfortunately, we lost and I didn’t play that well and I didn’t think I was every going to play another test after that.
My greatest memory is I was a member of a “Grand-Slam” touring side in 1984 that went to the UK and played England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. We were the only Australian side to win that, it’s been tried on ten occasions now. It was a great achievement against all the odds and friendships that were forged within that group will last forever. We used to have ten year reunions of that ’84 Grand-Slam. But because we’re getting older, our manager is getting ill and someone past away, our physio, we decided, instead of 10 years, we have it every year now. So that’s one of my greatest memories.
What do you see for the future of Queensland rugby overall?
As an organisation, in terms of Queensland rugby, we have set a goal of winning the Super Rugby title within three years. Now people will think you’re mad, so please don’t publicise that too much. They might want to lock me away for saying that, because we’ve got a long way to go from where we finished in 2018. Our view is, unless you’re really going to be challenging for a title within that timeframe, all the work that’s going in now, I won’t say it’s wasted, but could be put to better effect.
We want to build every year. We need to recruit a few more players. We need to work on a few areas and I think you’ll see a big improvement in 2019.
And you’ll be there, hey?
For sure!
Thanks David for your time. Thanks also for all you do for Queensland rugby. I’m looking forward to a great year ahead.
Thank you Tom. Thank you for letting me have this chat with you and thank you for not making the questions too difficult.
