SLACK SAYS MUM STILL HAS FAITH

Rookie Queensland Reds coach Andrew Slack, still without a Super 12 win, said he had at least one fan who had faith in him - his mum.

But even his mum could start to waver should the Reds tumble to a fifth successive Super 12 defeat at the hands of despised rivals, the NSW Waratahs, in Sydney on Saturday night.

In 2001 the Reds were in a similar position losing their first five games in a row only to finish the competition with a bang to make the finals.

They certainly haven`t given up on a similar scenario in the coming weeks with four of their remaining six games at Ballymore and an unbeaten Super 12 record against the Waratahs to uphold.

With former Queensland rugby league hardman Trevor Gillmeister, retired rugby madman Sam Scott-Young and Australian Hockeyroos vice-captain and Olympic gold medallist Nicky Hudson on a panel advocating a "smash-em" mentality, Slack remained calm about his failure to post a win since replacing Mark McBain this season.

"I guess if you were passing judgement (on my coaching) at the moment, unless you were my mother, I`m pretty average," the Reds coach told a packed corporate lunch entertained by Gillmeister`s tales of the hated "cockroaches" and stories of Scott-Young`s battles with anyone in a blue jumper.

Gillmeister, who played 22 State of Origin matches for Queensland, was introduced as the "Axe", raised by a pack of dogs and a player who learned his skills at a Brisbane ground known as "Bashup Park" where the traditional welcome to opponents was a head-butt and a knee to the groin.

Scott-Young was described by former Reds fullback Greg Martin as one of the "toughest and meanest" players Queensland rugby had produced.

Martin said when Scott-Young played against NSW or the All Blacks he did so with the mentality - "why tackle them when you can punch and kick them".

"When I start to talk about NSW I get these goose bumps and I just want to punch someone," Scott-Young said.

He said Queenslanders had a history of being overlooked by national selectors for years, no matter how well they played or what they did.

"I grew up thinking at the end of an interstate game, when the dust settled, and there were a couple of men standing, those guys would play for their country," he said.

"That`s what drove me to make sure there weren`t many left standing."

Gillmeister said he suffered from the same selection bias during his rugby league career, often being overlooked for the Kangaroos on the argument that he was "too small" despite often being the best forward on the field in brutal Origin battles.

It was left to Reds skipper Toutai Kefu to add some sanity to the debate.

"The passion is there and all we really need is one win to turn it around and we can string together another five or six," he said.