Opinion
Hard-working, humble and hungry: Queenslander Tate McDermott’s time is now
Michael Atkinson
Nine Network presenter, reporter and broadcasterTate McDermott may have captained the Wallabies in just his eighth starting appearance, but he is now the man to lead Australia into the future.
The team’s performance against the All Blacks under his leadership on Saturday was the best Wallabies fans have seen in years, and his own individual performances in the past two games have put him above Nic White as the starting halfback.
Tate McDermott and Pone Fa’amausili share a moment during the Wallabies’ captain’s run in Dunedin on Friday.Credit: Getty
By Eddie Jones’ own admission when unveiling his side for the second Bledisloe Cup clash, the captaincy would be reassessed after the Dunedin showdown.
Don’t worry about “reassessing”, the 24-year-old Queenslander has shown his time is now.
That’s no knock on James Slipper and Michael Hooper. Slipper is a hell of a player, Hooper too.
But Angus Bell has clearly overtaken Slipper as Australia’s premier loosehead prop, and there is chatter that Hooper might not even make it to France for the World Cup.
In Tate McDermott (left), coach Eddie Jones has a hard-working, humble, honest and hungry leader.Credit: AP
It’s clear the Wallabies need to start thinking about the future, and that Eddie Jones already is with his selections and much of his talk about “regenerating”.
Any regeneration needs to begin with the captain.
In McDermott, Jones has a hard-working, humble, no-nonsense, passionate, honest and hungry leader.
The day after being unveiled as the 86th test captain, media in New Zealand reported McDermott was first out on the training paddock for the traditional pre-game captain’s run.
That’s not a new habit, it’s just the type of professional the Sunshine Coast product is.
Ask anyone at Ballymore and they’ll tell you about McDermott’s tireless pursuit for improvement. His work ethic is relentless, and that’s a big tick in Eddie’s eyes.
In a recent pow-wow with members of the media, Jones bemoaned the general lack of extra work completed by modern-day rugby players.
He referenced the “extras” that former Wallaby halfback Will Genia used to do in his own time to perfect his craft in that position.
Fittingly, Genia has helped McDermott develop that trait, the pair spending private sessions working together when the veteran of more than 100 tests is home in between Japanese seasons.
Former Wallaby halfback Will Genia has helped Tate McDermott go above and beyond. Credit: Rugby AU Media/Stuart Walmsley
And McDermott isn’t too proud to pass it forward.
In his spare time during the Super Rugby season, he conducts up to three private one-on-one coaching clinics per week with budding young footballers.
Sometimes he’s paid for them, through a private coaching business, “Playbook”, but he’s been known to do them free of charge.
None of this is a crafted image, it’s just who he is. The type of guy you’d be happy to take your daughter on a date. The type of person you want to go to war with. A proud Australian with a competitive fire you just can’t coach.
Tate McDermott (left, pictured with Angus Bell) is a proud Australian with a competitive fire.Credit: Getty
His leadership skills have been tested in his first two seasons in charge of the Queensland Reds.
Following the victorious Super Rugby AU campaign in 2021, the Reds’ results have slowly declined – competitive for the most part against Australian franchises, but struggling for results against the Kiwis.
Much like McDermott’s “never say die” personality, the Reds rarely – if ever – threw up the white flag, but the lack of results and losses on the back of the same errors took their toll on McDermott.
Happy to be honest about any lack of effort or execution from his team – or himself – the former Aussie Sevens representative has also learnt there is greater value in finding solutions than just pointing out problems.
“Being [in the Wallabies] ... just how quickly we can solve problems is probably the biggest [lesson] I’ve learnt.”
Tate McDermott
“It’s so easy to be a captain and criticise or pick up the negative points of a game, particularly with how poor the Queensland Reds played the last two years,” McDermott said after his unveiling as Wallabies skipper.
“For me, every day was a bit of a challenge, and there was a lot going on in the background [at the Reds], but that’s prepared me to where I am now.
“Being [in the Wallabies], particularly from a leadership point of view, just how quickly we can solve problems is probably the biggest one I’ve learnt.”
And what invaluable lessons he would have learnt from the Wallabies’ heartbreaking 23-20 defeat in Dunedin.
McDermott is far from the finished product as a leader, and we shouldn’t expect him to be at such a young age.
It’s understood that Jones acquired a sports psychologist specialising in leadership skills to work directly with McDermott since he joined the Wallaby camp after the Super Rugby season.
Jones identified captaincy material in McDermott long before he officially put the “c” next to his name on the team sheet.
The Wallabies will gather in Darwin this week for a pre-World Cup training camp and will unveil their 33-man squad for the tournament on Thursday, hopefully with the captain’s title next to McDermott’s name.