At the St.George Queensland Reds we demand that the performance benchmark is set higher at the beginning of every new season and we understand that ultimately we are judged on wins and also by the amount of silverware we have in the trophy cabinet at the end of the year.

I’m proud to say we have captured every piece of available silverware during my time in Queensland but our challenge today isn’t any less than when I arrived and my expectation of this group is that we will continue to grow and evolve in the future.

It may only be round two but already there is more than just pride and bragging rights on the line with the Templeton Cup up for grabs for the first time this year on Saturday night.  The Cup is symbolic of the traditional Queensland and New South Wales rivalry and after taking it home on the past three occasions against the Waratahs, we won’t be giving it up easily without a fight.

There is no better way to begin our season at Suncorp Stadium than against the Waratahs.  The importance of any Australian Conference derby has been magnified in previous seasons but the tradition of Reds and Waratahs matches are always something special and one our fans circle on their calendars when the Super Rugby draw is released each year.

Last week wasn’t the beginning to the season we were hoping for against the Brumbies although we always learn a lot from our losses, which we will take into this weekend’s match.  The Waratahs present a completely different challenge in how they approach the game but we’ve remained focused on preparing to do the things we want to accomplish well.

I’d also personally like to congratulate lock Rob Simmons who will play his 50^th game for Queensland on Saturday.  Rob has been a staple in our group for many years now so it’s great to see him reach this milestone in such an important game at home.

We’re excited to see our fans out in force for the first time this year at Suncorp Stadium. Our supporters levels of dedication to this team is unrivalled in Australian Rugby and we’re proud of our strong home record which currently stands at 21 wins from our past 24 matches

We look forward to your continued support throughout the year.

Ewen McKenzie

The 2013 preseason has commenced for the St.George Queensland Reds and those that are fit enough are out on the field and slogging away with the hope of contributing to success in August next year.

Preseason takes a building block approach where many smaller areas are developed with a view that the sum of these parts will give us significant improvement when it matters most.

History suggests that to get the job done in Super Rugby at least 35 players will need to contribute on matchday throughout the season, which is the exact number we have under contract and includes at least two players in each position in effect, plus an extra prop, hooker and halfback.

If injuries were kind then there would be no need to dig deeper for playing resources but unfortunately it’s the depth of injuries and not the volume that can give you the trouble.  We experienced this in 2012 when we were forced to use our sixth option at flyhalf, something that is extremely difficult to cater for unless you have South African squad sizes of over 50 players.  But that’s a topic for another day.

It’s therefore critical that the Reds have access to a strong pool of players beneath our contracted squad who are ready to play for us tomorrow.  This essentially means that they have the necessary preparation and knowledge to “pinch hit” for a few games when injuries invariably hit.

Queensland Rugby has a unique model and we see great advantage in our case as we provide participation and talent pathways for the Reds and also the wider rugby community.  Access to more talent will allow us to better manage our squad by not having players with injuries on the field and it also obviously promotes new and interesting players who may not have had an opportunity otherwise.

We all know the Beau Robinson story well.  He came to the Reds as a proven performer but it was an incredible effort to take the opportunity to progress from the Wider Training Squad to the Test arena in the space of six months.

So with this in mind, our newly introduced Reds College will have access to an extra group of players in 2013.  Many will remember that there was a Reds College in the past although the new model will now form the crutch for the Reds on a day-to-day basis.

The Reds College will also run as an addition to our talented five-man Extended Playing Squad, which are one-year contracts for squad members 31-35 and allows players to also develop closely with the squad.

Recent successful graduates have been Nick Frisby and Albert Anae from 2012 while our 2013 group consists of returning EPS members Kevin Davis (hooker/prop) and UJ Seuteni (flyhalf/centre/fullback) and new members in Jarrad Butler (No.8), Blake Enever (lock) and Joel Faulkner (outside back).  Of those, Jarrad and Blake have already received a small taste of Super Rugby after earning their debuts for Queensland late in season 2012.

The Reds College will consist of roughly 13 players and all will receive significant training exposure with the main playing group over the course of the year while giving themselves the greatest opportunity to represent Queensland in Super Rugby.

The Reds College provides an opportunity to train alongside Wallabies and replicate Super Rugby game intensity and speed. The types of players here are slightly more experienced and/or are developing at a rapid rate. They have all proven their worth in some way to convince the Reds coaching group that they can play for the Reds tomorrow.

They will also complete specific training programs created to their individual needs to allow each player the opportunity to participate with the Reds as much as possible while also still being permitted to conduct the other necessary pieces in their life.

Our inaugural Reds College has now been finalised and will consist of backrowers Curtis Browning (University), Nigel Ah Wong (Sunnybank) and Matt Blain (GPS); locks Ed O’Donoghue and Tom Murday (Sunnybank); prop Sam Denny (Souths); hooker Shota Horie; outside backs Lachlan Creighton (Brothers), Simon Morahan (University) and Danny Routledge (Sunnybank); scrumhalf Ben Meehan; flyhalf Dion Taumata (Sunnybank); and, last but not least, centre Rex Tapuai (Sunnybank), brother of Ben.

We have chosen a mixture of experience and youth and it’s especially pleasing to see such a strong representation from the Queensland Premier Rugby competition with the vast majority of players integral to their respective clubs.  It’s also notable that, as a result of the College, there will be more experienced players returning to a club competition that will invariably be strengthened and also some new faces.

There are numerous “good stories” within the group and you can bet lock Ed O’Donoghue will be determined to add to the 27 Queensland caps he earned between 2006 and 2008.

Another interesting name is Japanese Rugby World Cup Test hooker Shota Horie, who in 2012 represented Otago in New Zealand’s provincial competition, while Ben Meehan returns from a stint in Rugby League with the Melbourne Storm Under 20s to the code he played as a schoolboy, Rugby, where he represented Queensland at an Under 15, 16 and 18 level.

There will also be two Tapuai’s training at Ballymore, with Rex another member of our Reds College determined to make the most of the opportunity.

Australian Under 20 Player of the Year Curtis Browning has also elected to join the College after a stellar season with Queensland University last year.

So, we will have a fresh environment at the Reds for 2013.  We have been building new facilities inside the former Queensland Rugby Club at Ballymore, including a new gymnasium staff and player facilities.  This will be the exclusive domicile of the Reds and its College.

The combination of a new preparation base and environment, plus a larger group of experienced players, will arguably produce the biggest dividends for the group who are expected to reach the levels we require from them next year.

Can’t wait till February – bring on Super Rugby 2013!

In any business faced with difficult times, the common response is to batten down the hatches, consolidate your position, cut and trim your discretionary spending, and then ride out the wave.

This is the blueprint many organisations choose to adopt but the reality is that once those business tricks have been exhausted, you are left with only one way to go – and that’s to grow.

Employing a growth mindset in tough times is difficult and is certainly not the norm, but then again, the business of sport is not exactly normal.

Across the board, sport never produces great profit margins. While there are some astronomical revenues generated in our industry, profit lines remain minimal. So it’s safe to say if you were an investor you wouldn’t be running into the sporting industry with a view to huge profits, instead you would be chasing your 20-30% returns elsewhere.

But, as tough as the business of sport is in Queensland – where mistakes on and off the field can cost you dearly – we at Queensland Rugby continue to ensure growth remains at the forefront of our thinking and strategic planning.

As a starting point, accumulating enough funds and being able to deliver strong economics is paramount, as this at least gives you the opportunity to implement growth.  Without enough funds, you won’t be able to compete.

Once you have enough capital behind you, then comes the hard part.  You can talk growth, which is cheap, or you can action it, and that has been our mindset over the last three seasons.

Queensland Rugby has grown its way out of trouble and has put the organisation in a strong position to compete with the major sports on every level.  Had I written this three years ago when we were formulating our strategy, everyone would have laughed.  But, we have been living and breathing our business philosophies and the outcomes have translated into record results.

We often talk about the evolution of our membership base which has grown from 5,000 in 2010 to over 32,000 in 2012.  We’ve now set the ambitious target of 40,000 for 2013.

The impact of memberships for a business is massive as it allows the fans to be connected to the game, not just on the nights we play at Suncorp Stadium, but throughout the entire year with our regular communications and engaging campaigns.

It also allows Queensland Rugby to be connected with one of its many key stakeholder groups and develop a relationship that will hopefully prove mutually beneficial.  But growth in membership is just one example.  The organisation has also grown its representation in the Wallabies ranks by having 14 new players rise to this level since 2010 and we have grown our internal experience levels in parallel.

For the Reds, our playing group had a total of 804 Super Rugby caps in 2010.  This number grew to 1098 in 2011 and now sits at 1,454 appearances.  At the same time, the average age of the squad has remained at just over 23-years-old, so there is plenty more to come.

Away from the Reds, Rugby participation numbers in Queensland also continue to grow.  In 2012, we are heading towards a record 180,000 participants, which is a significant rise from the 137,000 in 2011 and 103,000 from 2010.

These figures haven’t occurred by accident.  They have risen on the back of the introduction of new programs like Rookies2Reds, the inaugural Queensland Schoolgirl Sevens Championships and Try Sevens.

Queensland Rugby has also seen a fourfold increase to its community funding through the corporate support, relationships and structures it is developing.   Through these various Game Development strategies, we are funding the community game to the tune of $4million above that from which traditional grass-roots funding was generated.

My point is, you don’t get growth if you don’t have the right mindset.  None of the above would have been achieved without calculated risk, which is a direct function of strategic and adaptive thinking, along with a willingness and determination to be bold.

This is the business philosophy of Rugby in Queensland and it is reflected both on and off the field.  Doing things the way they were always done would not have captured the hearts and minds of the players, fans, media or our increasing stakeholder base.  Being bold to ensure growth and taking it up to the sport’s big boys hasn’t always been easy, but doing more of the same would have been a disaster.

There has been plenty of discussion in the media around player workload and the current rate of injuries to our Code’s top players.

Numerous reasons for our current injury toll have been discussed by commentators and experts with expanded competitions widely being held accountable for increased demand on the nation’s top players and rise in long-term injuries.

However, it’s important to provide further context into this topic, as the management of player welfare isn’t as black and white as measuring the number of playing minutes each player receives on gameday.

As an aside, the current rugby schedule for our country’s top players has less demand than that of what is set out in the European Rugby competition. What differs though is the size of our squads.  In Australia we are limited to 35 contracted players at a provincial level while our northern-hemisphere rivals can have upwards of 40, and that doesn’t account for their large provincial Academy systems.

As a preface to my views on player management, it’s also important to acknowledge that injuries are a given in contact sports and there are a couple of classifications which we use to differentiate between them.

There is what is classified as a contact injury, which is what unfortunately claimed Will Genia on the weekend, or what we call, avoidable training overload injuries, which can result from ineffective recovery.

Contact injuries are largely unavoidable in Rugby.  If you are unlucky, you could do an ACL or an ankle every game you play. You only have to get your foot caught in the turf and be tackled in the opposite direction for something to give.

Training overload injuries on the other hand can be managed with the appropriate structures in place.  It is paramount that we protect our key assets, our Reds players, and mitigate the risks of injury where possible.

There are three main components which we take into account when managing player workload and welfare.  The first is match scheduling, second is the amount of minutes spent training and playing, and thirdly is recovery.

Heading into 2012, we knew from the dictated scheduling that Reds’ Wallabies players, about half of our squad, were in line to play 16 matches of Super Rugby excluding finals and trials and 11 Test matches.  So a probable total of 27 or 28 games.

We don’t have control over the draw as this is determined by SANZAR, however we can determine when and where we play trial matches and who takes part and to what extent.  For our newer and developing players, this year we staged three trial games, two during preseason and one in the Super Rugby break for the June Internationals to keep our fringe players match-fit. Our more established players took little part in these games.

Next and probably the most effective way we manage our players’ workload is to determine the amount of minutes they spend training versus the amount of minutes spent playing actual games. 
This is an area where teams have the biggest opportunity to manage an individual’s player welfare.

We obviously want our top performing and therefore highest-paid players on the field and fit to play every Super Rugby match in the season, so that’s where we start and work backwards from there.

Typically, players can undertake up to three times more minutes in training each week than the important 80 minutes at the end of the week – playing in front of the supporters, viewers and sponsors.

Therefore the Will Genia’s, Quade Cooper’s and James Horwill’s can receive less exposure to training and their workloads can be significantly reduced if squad sizes are big enough. They can take on considerably less during the week to ensure they can play as many games and minutes as possible of Super Rugby. Unsurprisingly, that’s how they like it.

This approach is also made possible as these guys are established players and already have developed the skills and the background required to play the game well at the top level.  Missing portions of training doesn’t have a dramatic impact on the team’s performance come the weekend.  However, when these players do train, sessions are short and effective. Often our sessions last for only 60 or 70 minutes while at Test level this is at times increased by double.

Finally, recovery is critical to managing a player’s workload. Effective recovery – both mentally and physically is paramount. This means time spent recuperating physically each and every week – and also time away from the game to mentally refresh.

This is an area where the provinces and ARU must work collectively together in a congested calendar to ensure our players are receiving adequate rest to ensure they can perform at an optimal level during peak playing periods.

When we determine strategies for individual player workload management all three of the aforementioned factors are taken into consideration and our high performance staff closely monitor and reassess these plans weekly.

There is plenty of scope to better manage the balance of player workload throughout the year by the franchises and the ARU to relieve fatigue, burnout and avoidable injury however there is not a one-size fits all solution, much like most things in life.

Tonight we will host our annual Reds Gala Ball & Auction in Brisbane where we will get a final opportunity to celebrate season 2012 with our Members and stakeholders before our focus turns back again to 2013.

There will be a number of individual contributors who will be recognised tonight for their outstanding efforts during the season but for me it’s about recognising the total contribution our entire organisation played in the many significant milestones throughout the year, including winning a second straight Australian Conference title.

In what was one of the more difficult seasons I have ever had as a coach, our team and organisation showed enormous resolve to overcome the adversity it was faced with and I am proud that we were again able to rise above the challenges to record a number of memorable milestones.

With the Gala Ball & Auction giving us a final chance to look back on 2012, I thought it would be fitting to go over a few of the highlights which stick out in my mind most.

On the field, the new conference system adds significant importance to all local derbies and we finished our campaign with seven victories from eight games against national opposition. As a result, we picked up two very important pieces of silverware along the way, claiming the Rod Macqueen Cup for the first time since its inception in 2005 with a two-game sweep of the Brumbies and we also successfully defended the Templeton Cup with home and away wins against the Waratahs.

Our record against our New Zealand combatants was equally impressive – three wins from four matches– and we managed to achieve another first together as a team in recording a maiden win at Eden Park over the Blues, while we also topped the eventual Super Rugby winning Chiefs at Suncorp Stadium.

As a playing group there were seven new Reds debutants and five other players reached the historic 50-game milestone for Queensland, while the team of 2012 equalled the efforts of the great Queensland team of 1999 by winning their opening three games of the season.

More than half our squad has also received Wallaby squad selection in 2012 including four new faces in Liam Gill, Mike Harris, Dom Shipperley and Jake Schatz.

Again, our crowds at Suncorp Stadium were also our competition’s benchmark. We are the leading team in Australian Super Rugby and second only, overall, to the Stormers in Cape Town, by a small margin. Across the codes in Queensland, we are the benchmark of teams that play more than one game at home a year.

Attendances were up a healthy 16 per cent, with a season high recorded in our final game of the regular season against NSW, which was played in front of an Australian season-high crowd of over 41,500.

From a spectator perspective, that match had everything and was probably one of our most pleasing wins, scoring five-tries and securing a vital bonus point with finals qualification the end prize – as part of a six-game winning streak.

I hope all who attended that game will have next year’s fixture marked down in their diary as soon as our draw is released for next season.

In saying that, though, the support the Reds receive from the Queensland public is unprecedented.

From being 15,000 strong in 2011, Reds membership this year more than doubled, reaching in excess of 32,000. This is a great reward for the hard work being done by our teams both on and off the field.   Also, the membership drive importantly delivers back to the game’s grassroots through a ‘Member Cash Back’ program.

That figure will rise next year as Queensland Rugby is targeting 40,000 members in 2013 in what will be a huge season of Rugby, boosted by the first tour of The British & Irish Lions since 2001 in June.

The Reds will have the opportunity to test themselves against the northern hemisphere’s best in a once-in-a-career Tour match against the Lions.

The overall result for the ongoing success of our game, of course comes down to participation.

While we’re just about to flip our calendars over to September, we are on track to reach upwards of 165,000 participants in 2012 – which is around a 20% increase on last year’s figures.

So all in all, there are many achievements to celebrate at tonight’s Gala Ball.  Even though our focus has been set on preparation for season 2013 since the final whistle went in July, it’s important to come together and acknowledge what we are achieving for Rugby in Queensland.

The success of the St.George Queensland Reds is rightly determined by how many wins and losses we record each season.

In addition, our performance can be judged on our ability to win various pieces of interstate silverware and the number of players we build to the national standard and receive Wallaby selection.

Queensland continues to produce results in each of these areas – wins, silverware and Wallabies and it is pleasing to see us achieve results in line with our expectations over the last few years.

However, our evolving strategic model dictates that we also need to focus beyond this level, as the elite team operates out of Queensland Rugby (QRU), the state governing body of our code.

Driving participation through community engagement is paramount.

For the long term health of our game, we are always exploring different ways to have an influence on the national Rugby landscape and one of the necessary roles is to introduce Queensland kids to Rugby.

It’s important we encourage the next generation to choose Rugby over the many other codes that are competing for their attention and affection in our competitive sporting marketplace.

To improve Rugby’s reach in this state, Queensland Rugby earlier this year launched its new junior Rugby program, Rookies2Reds which has a year round presence and is designed to take on the AFL’s AusKick, In2Cricket and Netball’s Net Set Go.

In its foundation year, registrations are on track to reach the organisation’s year one targets, and if the recent sold-out Ballymore Junior Coaching Clinic is anything to go by, Rugby is again capturing the hearts and minds of our young.

There is still plenty of work to be done in this space but the year-round presence of Rookies2Reds can only be a positive for the code in the long-term in regards to future talent coming into, and stay in, our game.

There is no magic formula to judge the success of the Reds in the community but one of the main measurements we can track is the number of members we have supporting the team and the size of our home crowds at Suncorp Stadium.  Both reached record levels during our 2012 Super Rugby campaign.

Recently announced junior participation levels are also a strong indicator of the extent of our influence at a school level, and it is encouraging to see improved results.

Ahead of the first Bledisloe Test this weekend in Sydney, kids right across Australia have been participating in Walla Rugby Week, which is the Australian Rugby Union’s introductory sampling program for schools.

For the second year running, Queensland has provided the most number of participants to the program from the seven states and territories. Overall participation in the national program is up nearly 50 per cent, with half of that growth also coming out of Queensland.

These figures are a credit to all at our organisation who make a concerted effort over 12 months of the year to maintain and develop strong relationships within our community.

With the players, we spend countless hours running clinics and visiting schools and clubs to promote our game as part of Queensland Rugby’s continued focus on community engagement strategies.

It shouldn’t be surprising that with 12 Wallaby representatives selected from our Reds squad, with James Horwill missing through injury, the popularity of our game among kids in Queensland is at an all-time high.

An exciting Super Rugby season has drawn to a close but life goes on at the St.George Queensland Reds with our internal review of the season near completion and our new Wallaby players already hitting the training paddock in preparation of 2013.

Each offseason we are given an opportunity to evolve by doing certain pieces of business differently and by improving our structures.  We generate new ideas to challenge ourselves, the team, and to maintain motivation.

One of the main changes for next year comes in our coaching structure which is commonly used in Europe.  I will now hold the new title of Director of Coaching for 2013, as part of a more sophisticated and advanced coaching configuration.

The introduction of a Director of Coaching is somewhat new to the Australian Rugby landscape but I can assure you that, in terms of our daily football operations in 2013, nothing changes dramatically next season from what our players and fans have come to expect.

My title may change but the role doesn’t.  The ultimate accountability for the football program lies with me.

One area that does however remain the same heading into 2013 is our coaching headcount, where we will again fulfil the necessary on-field roles between three coaches.  As we have done previously, specific responsibilities will be allocated across each of the coaching members, giving all three areas to focus on throughout our campaign.

While the number of coaches doesn’t change, we do welcome Richard Graham to our program, where he will spend the next year learning the Reds systems, structures, culture and organisation.  He will hold the title of Reds Head Coach.

Richard’s strong knowledge of Rugby will ensure his transition is an easy one where he will also play a role in promoting the game of Rugby to the masses in Queensland.  Rugby operates within a competitive sporting marketplace and you can never have enough strong voices promoting the game.  Being a Queenslander himself, this is a space that I am sure Richard will offer extreme value to the organisation, above his coaching credentials.

This change of the coaching structure has made our organisation stronger during a time where it’s necessary to take the next steps to ensure the sustainable success of our Code, well into the future.

It’s also the first step in what will be a 12-month transition for myself into a new position in 2014 as Queensland Rugby’s Director of Rugby.  This is part of Queensland Rugby’s overarching strategy to ensure the continued success of the Reds and growth of Queensland’s talent and participation pathways, while also safeguarding our Rugby assets for the future generation at both the professional and grassroots level.

In a sense it’s a role which works to guarantee that we will continue to maximise and nurture the production of the best rugby talent in Australia and surround them with the best facilities, infrastructure and intelligence, for the Reds, Queensland and for our wider game.

You can see what vital assets these pathways are by how many Test players we continue to produce. This week 12 of our Reds were selected for national duty, with regular Test skipper James Horwill a notable omission through injury.  It’s a huge accomplishment for the Reds to make up almost half of the Wallabies squad and to again have the highest representation out of all five Australian provinces.

We have a proven track record of turning Super Rugby players into Wallabies and that’s one of the main reasons we have the vast majority of players choosing to remain in our Rugby program.

I mentioned before that while certain areas change, a lot still remains the same.  I’m proud to say that the continuity within our playing roster for 2013 is the most settled it has ever been and the experience gained by the group during the past two seasons will only serve to make our team a more formidable opponent in the future.

We are in the business of being better, and for 2013, this starts now.