He made a career out of tucking the ball under his arm and charging up the field as a workaholic forward but Brad Thorn is breaking that mould as a coach.
Despite their 1-4 record to start the season, the Reds have led at halftime in every game and had the chance to win each match after playing attractive, attacking football that has challenged opposition defences.
Thorn has come under fire in his first two seasons as a Super Rugby coach, with the Reds at times playing one-dimensional football that failed to make them a competitive outfit.
But their offerings early this season - they lead the Super Rugby standings in tries scored, clean breaks made, metres carried and offloads - show that had as much to do with the abilities of the players early in their careers as it did with any lack of imagination on Thorn's part.
Much has been made of the age of the Reds' squad over the past three years but as his players have worked on their core skills and gained experience at the Super Rugby level, so has their game blossomed.
"We've worked on a lot of stuff - high ball catching, our defence break down, our offloading skill, continuity," Thorn said.
"I think we were down the bottom for offloads last year and I think we're in the top three or four this year, so it's good seeing some of the things we've worked on getting some pay.
"It's been good footy for us this year and it's also enjoyable for the fans to watch, to see some good continuity. If you think about Queensland and rugby when it's been strong, there's been really good continuity, passing, offloading."
Thorn last week described lock Harry Hockings as a small man trapped in a big man's body.
His own attacking philosophy would pitch him as having the physique of a forward and the mind of a back.
In a professional career spanning more than 20 years, Thorn won NRL and Super Rugby titles and became a dual international playing the role of tight ball-carrier.
"If you look at my career, people probably know me as a staunch hit-up guy or a tight guy in rugby," he said.
"But at the Broncos we played attractive rugby (league), at the Crusaders, the all Blacks.
"I did my role in the team but I played in teams where we expressed ourselves and played a great brand of footy and the public supported and really enjoyed."
Make no mistake, Thorn and scrum doctor Cameron Lillicrap remain huge fans of the dark arts of the scrum, ruck and maul.
But Thorn wants to use set piece dominance to set up something more.
Having the experience of attack coach Jim McKay is also a boon, with the architect of the Reds' premiership-winning attack and former Wallabies assistant working relentlessly on improving the core skills of the backs and fine-tuning the moving parts of Queensland's backline to be able to achieve Thorn's overall vision.
"I love that continuity and skillset, I love seeing the support play," Thorn said.
"So we look to continue to play good footy and hopefully get a result for it on one side, and on the other side, that Queensland really enjoy seeing us play.
"Generally, we want to be expressing ourselves and I want to give them the structure to be able to express themselves."
The Reds take on the Crusaders in Christchurch on Friday, March 6, kicking off at 5:05pm AEDT, with the match broadcast LIVE on Fox Sports, Kayo and via RUGBY.com.au RADIO.
