Western Force 2014

[GaffaCHinO]

 

[lincoln]

For all Foley's limitations he has instilled a hardness in the Force that was sorely missing. The players running on look very strong and their defence is first rate. I am now looking forward to the likes of Goodwin taking them to the next level if they are to be real contenders. Their scalps this year include a a couple of previous Super champs plus a show pony team. Need to close out against weaker teams. Good luck in SA and NZ, my guess is there are a number of teams somewhat worried.

 

[tranquility]

Awesome stuff!

Always a good sign when the media team is producing content for the fans to engage with too. I hope Perth in general is starting to get very excited.

 

[ForceFan]

For all Foley's limitations he has instilled a hardness in the Force that was sorely missing.

Care to elaborate on these "limitations"?

It's to his credit that he didn't fit into the Tahs culture.

The Western Force dodged a bullet by not selecting Cheika as he would have brought/developed a completely different culture.

Michael Foley has turned a team with few Wallabies into a good combination. Given a chance to recruit well for next year it will be an even better combination.

It will be interesting to see what up-and-coming young players from the East are keen to join a team culture where playing rugby can be fun again instead of all of the egos, politics and infighting shown by some of the other Aussie franchises.

Fasten your seatbelts as we're in for an interesting ride over the next couple of years. Who knows the ARU may have to even get serious about developing the game in WA with some extra $$s.
e.g. The total remuneration package for the Tahs is ~$2million more than that of the Force.

 

[tranquility]

All hail the west.

 

[Bairdy]

West is best

 

[I like to watch]

Care to elaborate on these "limitations"?

It's to his credit that he didn't fit into the Tahs culture.

The Western Force dodged a bullet by not selecting Cheika as he would have brought/developed a completely different culture.

Michael Foley has turned a team with few Wallabies into a good combination. Given a chance to recruit well for next year it will be an even better combination.

It will be interesting to see what up-and-coming young players from the East are keen to join a team culture where playing rugby can be fun again instead of all of the egos, politics and infighting shown by some of the other Aussie franchises.

Fasten your seatbelts as we're in for an interesting ride over the next couple of years. Who knows the ARU may have to even get serious about developing the game in WA with some extra $$s.
e.g. The total remuneration package for the Tahs is ~$2million more than that of the Force.

He didn't fit in with the culture?
He was fucking in charge of the culture for 4 years!
Where do you get your info that the Tahs receive $2M more than the Force?

 

[thierry dusautoir]

How was he in charge for four years? He was barely head coach for 1 and NLT arrived around 2010-11.

I think he means wage bills are higher at the tahs?

 

[Braveheart81]

Care to elaborate on these "limitations"?

It's to his credit that he didn't fit into the Tahs culture.

The Western Force dodged a bullet by not selecting Cheika as he would have brought/developed a completely different culture.

He didn't fit in with the culture?
He was fucking in charge of the culture for 4 years!
Where do you get your info that the Tahs receive $2M more than the Force?

He was the forwards coach at the Tahs for 3 years before becoming head coach for a year in 2012.

I think the criticism of Foley as head coach of the Tahs in 2012 and then Force coach in 2013 followed by praise in 2014 is far more related to experience in the job.

His first year sucked. His second year was with a new team and was also pretty poor. His third year is going brilliantly after a poor start (where the criticism began in earnest).

I think history shows that he was a good forwards coach but then struggled to make the step up to head coach as many would in their first year. Let's not forget that he had no head coaching experience before coaching the Tahs in Super Rugby. That's a fairly tough gig first up.

Now he's got some experience behind him and things are going very well.

 

[GaffaCHinO]

FORCE ANNOUNCES DUAL RE-SIGNING

WESTERN FORCE MEDIA ALERT​

Tuesday, 29 April 2014​

​

​

The Western Force will announce the re-signing of two players tomorrow morning at 10am. Both players will be available to the media at 10am at the Home of the Western Force in Floreat, immediately prior to a weights session at 10.30am. The session will be open to the media for vision/photos purposes.​

​

The Western Force has a competition bye this week before heading to South Africa to tackle the Cheetahs (Saturday, 10 May) and Stormers (Saturday, 17 May).​

 

[GaffaCHinO]

Going off the West it will be Ollie Hoskins and Adam Coleman!

Also say they are working to re-sign Cottrell.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sport/rugby-union/a/23081675/force-move-to-sign-young-guns/

 

[en_force_er]

Going off the West it will be Ollie Hoskins and Adam Coleman!

Also say they are working to re-sign Cottrell.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sport/rugby-union/a/23081675/force-move-to-sign-young-guns/

Coleman is my smokey for Wallabies this year, probably on the spring tour.

He's a big man with huge impact and potential (much like Skelton) but he's got a better rounded game (better lineout jumper for instance).

He doesn't do the more amazing stuff Skelton does like rip the ball from other professional players like they're a child but I think Skelton would be found out if he tried to do that at test level.

 

[GaffaCHinO]

Hoskins, Coleman re-commit to Force to 2016


The Western Force has locked away two of its outstanding up-and-coming forwards with the re-signing of young guns Adam Coleman and Oliver Hoskins for a further two years.
Both players have been regulars in the Force’s match day squad in 2014, with Perth-born front-rower Hoskins, 21, featuring on the bench in each of the club’s nine matches, while Coleman (lock), 22, returned from a wrist injury early in the season to force his way into the starting line-up.

Read More: http://www.westernforce.com.au/News...skins-Coleman-re-commit-to-Force-to-2016.aspx

 

[GaffaCHinO]

 

[Slim 293]

Coleman is my smokey for Wallabies this year, probably on the spring tour.

He's a big man with huge impact and potential (much like Skelton) but he's got a better rounded game (better lineout jumper for instance).

He doesn't do the more amazing stuff Skelton does like rip the ball from other professional players like they're a child but I think Skelton would be found out if he tried to do that at test level.

Indeed........

Skelton's performance against the Force sums up his abilities - run through players for 5 minutes and then what?

Currently size is all he's got going for him and that's not going to cut it at test level...........

 

[Shiggins]

Yeh Skelton is awesome but only lasts 20 min in a game. Coleman is impressing me.

Anyone see same Christies performance for the highlanders on the weekend. He only got on the field 4 times for us.

 

[GaffaCHinO]

Yeh Skelton is awesome but only lasts 20 min in a game. Coleman is impressing me.

Anyone see same Christies performance for the highlanders on the weekend. He only got on the field 4 times for us.

Different players.

Highlanders player was Shane Christie open side flanker.

Sam Christie the flyhalf player for us in 2012.

 

[Shiggins]

I must be seeing shut. I'm sure he came off he bench in Jersey 23. Just looked at the team list and he isn't there. Maybe I heard he South African commentators say it. Wouldn't be the first time
They got a name wrong. They are
Probably the worst commenters in the world and getting names right.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Jeez I loved seeing those big hits. Nothing like driving a bloke backwards in a tackle to change the momentum of a game. As Lincoln says, there is a hardness in this team that hasn't been there before. For all our misgivings last year and in the early rounds this year, some credit must go to Foley for that. I think the squad is a much tighter bunch this year. None of them are super stars and they've developed a bit of seige mentality (in a good way) and seem to play hard for each other. Few things give me greater pleasure than seeing an underrated group punch above their weight, whatever the endeavour.

On the Coleman signing, that's great news. I've been a fan of the bloke for a couple of years, from his Shute Shield days with the Two Blues. He's definitely a smokey for the EOYT if he keeps improving at this rate.

 

[ForceFan]

Where do you get your info that the Tahs receive $2M more than the Force?

The Waratahs have 16 capped Wallabies in their 35-man squad (The Western Force have 6).

All Aussie Super XV players play under a single contract - an ARU contract.

In addition to payments under the Salary Cap a large number of Waratah players (and hence the Waratahs as a franchise) get the benefit of top-ups from the ARU. e.g. Israel Folau gets $250k under the Salary Cap plus $400k top-up from the ARU.

Add all these top-ups together, less the very limited top-ups payed to Western Force players, then you get a total remuneration package for the Warathas which is ~$2,000,000 more than what the Western Force has to distribute.

I'm delighted by the performance of the Western Force.

If I was a Waratahs supporter I'd expect a hell of a lot more!!!