Ulster's Squad - money being wasted?

[thecrouch]

This info is plagiarised from elsewhere, but it raises an important point.

There are 16 players in our squad who have played less than 200 minutes this season.

1. Will Addison: 0
2. Shea O'Brien*: 0
3. Declan Moore: 13
4. Michael McDonald: 18
5. Frank Bradshaw-Ryan: 27
6. Dave Shanahan: 40
7. Jude Postlethwaite: 50
8. Ian Madigan: 71
9. Angus Curtis*: 111
10. Cormac Izuchukwu: 127
11. Jake Flannery*: 128
12. Callum Reid*: 134
13. Gareth Milasinovich: 147
14. Sean Refell: 167
15. Greg Jones*: 174
16. Craig Gilroy: 187

This list, IMO, is a great example of Ulster's appalling squad management, but even worse it's another example of the culture of mediocrity that permeates this club. Obviously there are players on this list who are low minutes due to injury, but these are the exception, not the norm.

Players with * beside their name were given new contracts this season. The stand out problems here for me are Curtis, Flannery and Jones. With such mediocre minutes on display, and none of them even able to make the squad for a home game against the Dragons, why are we spending money on players like this?

We have paid Madigan, Flannery and Curtis to play a combined 310 minutes this season. We have paid Shanahan and McDonald to play a combined 58 minutes! Shanahan was given a 2 year contract last year, why?!

Izuchuku banished to the abyss for much of the season.

Is Bradshaw-Ryan injured?

There are at least 8 players on that list who would be no real loss to Ulster if they left. At least 8.

There are serious questions to be asked not only of McFarland for his selections, but also of Petrie and Cunningham for what appears to be a totally arbitrary approach to squad building. And finally, the IRFU must take some blame for their daft insistence on signings being IQ, even if they are clearly not good enough and will never be within a million miles of an Ireland squad. This is a large part of why we sign some of these lads.

[StandUp]

Unfortunately, with the Ireland team flying high, the FIRFU will tell us to stfu because their IQ policy is brill. So we rely on Bryn and Dan to do a good job in selecting recruits.

[thecrouch]

Unfortunately, with the Ireland team flying high, the FIRFU will tell us to stfu because their IQ policy is brill. So we rely on Bryn and Dan to do a good job in selecting recruits.

Bryn and Dan are, IMO, not doing a good job in selecting recruits. Nor are they doing a particularly good job in retention decisions.

[justinr73]

Maybe we should have a 25 man squad and hope nobody gets injured?

Or play the brad pitt players in half the fixtures?

[flatpass]

Maybe we should have a 25 man squad and hope nobody gets injured?

Or play the brad pitt players in half the fixtures?

[MightyRearranger]

In terms of recruitment, Ulster are fairly limited in terms of only being able to target Irish qualified players. The problem, as has been mentioned countless times elsewhere is our youth pipeline is light years behind Leinsters.

Three of the players on that list, in McDonald, Refell and Bradshaw-Ryan were brought in, likely on fairly small money as punts. They might work out, they might not, but if you have space in a squad, why not take a look at someone for a year. Of the three Refell has been unlucky with injuries, but looked good with what little I've seen of him, but he's been unlucky with injuries.

There are a few other players needed to fill out a squad, Declan Moore as an example. Although he's not been used, you need your 4 hookers, and if we'd had a couple of injuries we need that depth, similarly at scrum half with Shanahan and McDonald (I haven't seen enough of McKee to say whether he should be prioritised as a prospect).

As with everyone, I obviously don't see everything the same way as McFarland with respect to selection, but the area that I think some criticism is definitely warranted with respect to selection is out half. Burns is regarded as undroppable, which may or may not be fair in the big games, but little to no effort has been made to choose, identify or develop a backup. There are three players on that list, in addition to Doak and Lowry who could maybe fill that role, but none has really been given a fair run of matches to stake their name to the position. Even if they're not viewed as 'good enough' it'd surely be worth identifying our second choice so we wouldn't be completely feckless if Burns does go down injured.

[MightyRearranger]

Also, in terms of giving some of the youngsters a chance against the Dragons, I'm sure that would have been done if we hadn't got ourselves into a situation where we need ten points from the last two games. As things stand, I'm sure you'd be throwing criticism at Dan if he did try some youngsters tomorrow and didn't get the five points. His hands have been tied by results.

[StandUp]

Unfortunately, with the Ireland team flying high, the FIRFU will tell us to stfu because their IQ policy is brill. So we rely on Bryn and Dan to do a good job in selecting recruits.

Bryn and Dan are, IMO, not doing a good job in selecting recruits. Nor are they doing a particularly good job in retention decisions.

I agree. My previous post was in sarcasm, which obviously failed miserably.

[StandUp]

Maybe we should have a 25 man squad and hope nobody gets injured?

Or play the brad pitt players in half the fixtures?

Is it better to have a smaller squad, or a larger squad from which some players don’t play?

[kingofthehill]

Unfortunately, with the Ireland team flying high, the FIRFU will tell us to stfu because their IQ policy is brill. So we rely on Bryn and Dan to do a good job in selecting recruits.

Bryn and Dan are, IMO, not doing a good job in selecting recruits. Nor are they doing a particularly good job in retention decisions.

You think Bryn has a say??


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[thecrouch]

Unfortunately, with the Ireland team flying high, the FIRFU will tell us to stfu because their IQ policy is brill. So we rely on Bryn and Dan to do a good job in selecting recruits.

Bryn and Dan are, IMO, not doing a good job in selecting recruits. Nor are they doing a particularly good job in retention decisions.

You think Bryn has a say??


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Does he not? Is McFarland authoritarian?

[Dave]

Bryn just makes the phonecalls. He doesn't decide who to. I would imagine.

He's like that guy in the office who suggests getting a takeaway but doesn't decide where. He writes down what everyone wants and phones it in. I'd like a pizza please, Bryn. BBQ base with chicken, bacon, peppers, red onion, jalapeños...

[Bart S]

Rugby is obviously an attrition sport but overall and compared to some other seasons I'd say ulster has been pretty lucky with injuries which has also impacted the minutes some players have got.
Take FBR - a pro D2 player who was never expected to leapfrog Hendy, tredwell, aoc or Carter. With Hendy away with Ireland and tredwell expected to be post last summer ulster were likely down to 2 fit locks without FBR, given Izzy's injury also. Instead Tredwell, AOC and Carter have been largely available and Hendy even played a couple of games. Same at SH. Mcdonald and Shanners ware not there to leapfrog Doak and Cooney so their lack of minutes is a reflection of how lucky ulster has been to have 1 or both available. It could be very different next season.

I do agree about the OH position where Burns is undrinkable despite being pretty average and constantly carrying a knock it seems. Is Flannery a possible alternative? Nobody has seen enough to know.

Also agree on some of the extensions eg Jones as being a mystery.

As for the fact that Matty Rea has obviously played more than 200 mins....the mind boggles

[LegsLikeSausages]

Not posted for a long time.
Two questions-

1. Who do people think our regular ‘first team squad’ practice against? (And how are these people remunerated?)

2. How do these sorts of figures compare to other professional rugby squads? (Check Welsh fora around the time it was suggested they needed to cut their squad sizes).

I would argue the issue isn’t that Greg Jones, Frank Ryan, Gareth Milasinovic etc are on the payroll rather that there is no worthwhile subsidiary competition (like the Prem Cup in England) for them to play in when they aren’t providing the opposition to our much vaunted line out maul, or various other drills.

[justinr73]

Very little to see here lads.

The Ulster squad is of standard size.

Due to a combination of a reasonably short injury list, limited international calls, the random Emerging Ireland tour to SA and the fact that the league has become so competitive, we’ve understandably stuck to a pretty settled side and achieved results enviable to all bar Leinster.

Indeed, when Dan widens the selection panel a little he gets accused of not knowing what he’s doing.

The half decent point at risk of being lost amongst the nonsense, notwithstanding any of the above, is Flannery’s lack of game time.

He seems to have been taken off against Zebre so we could entertain a 6 2 split on the bench in Europe but I’m not sure that 20 minutes for Doak at 10 would make much difference on that score.

We’ve got the Dragons coming to Belfast tomorrow. They’re dung. Whilst we want the five points, I’d like to think (or know) that we could get them with Flannery at 10.

If Munster don’t get a result (that’s the Munster who are in grave danger of missing out on the Champions Cup for those who think we’re mediocre….), then maybe we’ll see Flannery v Edinburgh (that’s the Edinburgh with loads of Scottish internationals that we’re 26 points ahead of…)