Western Force 2025

[Brumby Runner]

Any news on Tom Robertson? He was limping when coming off at halftime in the trial last weekend and not looking happy at all.

 

[Tazzmania]

Western Force W team News

Force Super W leadership group announced, Pomare reinstated as captain

Trilleen Pomare will once again lead the Western Force as the Club’s captain in the 2025 Super Rugby Women’s season with local Wallaroo Hera-Barb Malcolm Heke elevated to vice-captain.......

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[Tazzmania]

Hoopert or HJH (Harry Johnson-Holmes) (Harry Johnson-Holmes)? That's devastating either way with them both having a horror run of injuries, but to lose both of them before the start of the season will just about end the Force's chances before the season has begun.

Both HH and HJH (Harry Johnson-Holmes) confirmed with season ending ACL injuries

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Oh man

 

[Adam84]

that's shocking news

 

[dru]

Fuck me. Bad.

 

[Tazzmania]

Western Force W team to play Reds in a pre season friendly 15/02/2025:

 

[Yoda]

Only the first game, against one of the weaker teams, but you have to admit, it was a bloody great finish to win a game that you definitely needed to win! Moana played well and would be disappointed although still get a bonus point.

 

[Sir Arthur Higgins]

Low crowd turnout at a touch over 5k

 

[Adam84]

Ffor the Force home game?!
Wow that's a shocking figure

 

[Sir Arthur Higgins]

That’s what it says online 5,300 thereabouts

 

[PhilClinton]

The game clashed with the AFL all stars also being played in Perth didnt it?

 

[Sir Arthur Higgins]

A pre season game?

 

[PhilClinton]

Nearly 40k in attendance…

 

[Adam84]

for only 5k to attend a Force match, there is a bigger issue at hand than 37k at a pre-season game at Optus Stadium.

 

[Wilson]

The corresponding fixture last year had a crowd of 5,480 (and might be the worst game of rugby I've ever seen), so while not at all good it's not evidence of any sort of year on year decline. Looks almost entirely unrelated to the AFL either way though.

It'll be interesting to see if they can draw a bigger crowd against the Reds for their next home game, last season's home game following the Moana one was also against the Reds and had a similarly poor crowd (5,462).

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

City of 2m people. As a Tahs fan I'm reluctant to torch anothers crowd figures but that is really poor.

Ending like that surely gets a bit of a bump next fixture.

 

[Wilson]

Just for the whole of season picture for the Force - there are only crowd numbers for their first 5 games from last year:

Round	Opposition	Crowd	Date
1	Hurricanes	7,855	23/02/2024
4	Moana	5,480	15/03/2024
5	Reds	5,462	23/03/2024
9	Crusaders	7,526	20/04/2024
12	Drua	4,882	11/05/2024
13	tahs	-	18/05/2024
15	Brumbies	-	01/06/2024

Data from https://www.austadiums.com

So an average of around 6000 on the reported games, but if the two unreported crowds are at or below the Drua level (which is probably a fair expectation) that drops down into the mid to high 5000s. Crowds are still clearly getting a boost for visiting kiwi teams, which I think has always been the case for the Force and the large expat population in Perth turning out to see their team visit more than the home side.

This Moana crowd was entirely inline with above. Hopefully that means a good result can springboard them to a bump in the numbers going forward, but the evidence of that in the past is sketchy at best. Realistically they are going to need to find a way outside of results to bring the crowds back in (along with pretty much the rest of Australian rugby).

 

[LeCheese]

2024 (per what Austadiums has available):

 

[PhilClinton]

Were these crowd numbers raised as a concern last year? It all seems in line with expected figures.