Thanks for the memories, Will, but it’s time the Reds moved on

PLEASE don’t get me wrong, I love Will Genia, but maybe it is time to say, “thanks for the memories” – and spend what little money the game has developing the next superstars.

Will Genia in action for the Wallabies.

How exciting is it that Will Genia might be coming back to the Reds?

No really, how exciting is it?

Please don’t get me wrong. I love Will Genia. I love how good he was in the World Cup two years ago, and of course I love how he scored the winning try in the Super Rugby final back in 2011, and I love how he set up his family by taking the big money on offer in Europe.

I’m just not sure if I’m in love with the idea of him returning to the Reds.

Genia on his way to scoring THAT try in the 2011 final.

I just can’t help feeling we’ve been down this road before – as in this season – and to say it hasn’t been a roaring success would be an understatement of Will Skelton proportion.

A couple of weeks before the start of the current Super Rugby competition I wrote that I couldn’t remember ever looking forward to a season as much.

After some pretty lean years, it seemed like the Reds were finally headed back to the glory days.

After all, what could possibly go wrong? They had opened the purse strings and signed up some of the biggest names of the past decade. Sure some of them were in the twilight of their careers, but so what? Brad Thorn had proved that rugby talent is like red wine, it gets better with age.

PAY CUT: Reds return to cost Genia

MATCH: Hunt stands tall in Test debut

We had Quade Cooper coming back from France, Stephen Moore returning from the Brumbies and Scott Higginbotham from the Rebels. Leroy Houston was flying in from the UK, and Hendrik Tui from Japan.

We also had the Wallabies starting locks from the Rugby World Cup final in Rob Simmons and Kane Douglas, Wallaby vice-captain James Slipper in the front row and … drum roll please, we had 36 year-old George Smith, one of the greatest open-side flankers ever to play the game.

Put them together with a bunch of talented youngsters who we were assured would go ahead in leaps and bounds just by riding in the same team bus as the golden oldies, and it was just a question of Reds by how far.

And what did we get? A season that has achieved what many felt was impossible by being even more frustrating, dispiriting and at times downright embarrassing than the two that preceded it.

Genia was back in Wallaby gold against Fiji.

Now here we are being told that Will Genia is considering a return to the Reds.

Maybe if I had heard this at the end of last season I would have been thrilled. Genia and Cooper, the old firm reunited, being fed clean ball by a pack that boasted 378 Test caps, firing out bullet passes to some of the most exciting young backs in the game.

Now, having seen how age and experience don’t necessarily add up to 80 minutes of effort, I’m not so sure.

Especially when I hear that for Genia to return to Queensland the Australian Rugby Union will have to pay out a motza to the UK club that has a contract with his name on it.

Given that Australian Rugby doesn’t have much money in the kitty – and after hosting Fiji, Scotland and Italy this month they are soon going to have a lot less – maybe it is time to say, “thanks for the memories Will” – and spend what little money is left on finding and developing the next Genia, Moore, Cooper and … drum roll please, George Smith, rather than trying to recycle the old ones.

TIME TO FIND A NEED FOR SPEED, DAN

While in no way what could be termed a Formula 1 aficionado, I have taken an interest in the predicament facing Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo this season.

The F1 championship is fast becoming a two car race, with the Ferraris and Mercedes’ simply too powerful for Ricciardo’s Renault-powered Red Bull racer.

Which is not say he isn’t a good driver. This week, after two third-placings in a row, he went on British television and made the rather inflammatory statement that he and his teammate Max Verstappen are actually a better team than the Mercedes pairing of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.

Time for an upgrade, Dan.

According to Daniel, all they need is the right car to prove it, which is where I come in.

Over the past year I have taken to driving the motorway linking the Sunshine Coast to Brisbane three or four times a week, and what I have ascertained is this: if Daniel Ricciardo wants to increase the speed of his F1 vehicle, the first thing he has to do is paint it white.

Giving it a hatchback and a silly name like Red Bull Whooska, or Renault Rhumba would be helpful as well.

And he should definitely get a set of P plates. I’m pretty sure these stand for ‘Phwoarrr’, the noise little white hatchbacks make as they fly past.

Not that these modifications will guarantee the top step of the podium, as there is one vehicle that, from what I can make out, is the fastest on the road bar none.

The tradesman’s ute.

Seriously, if Daniel and Max want to leave Lewis, Kimi and co in their fumes, they have to get Red Bull to buy them a 4x4 double-cab, and not just any old 4x4 double-cab.

One with a couple of those long tube things strapped onto the roof racks, and preferably pulling a trailer. Can they move or what?

Now, if he can just master steering with one hand while texting, he’s got the world championship all sewn up.