Western Force v Waratahs: Saturday 16th April

[SteveWA]

"sanctioned" has multiple meanings in this context

 

[Dan54]

If twiggy focused on bringing some of that talent home it would make a huge difference. Get Hoskins or Ainsley back, or both. Matt Philip is close to the best lock in Aus, Hardwick is a very good player. Luke Morahan, Billy Meakes, Curtis Rona, Isi Naisarani, are all still good footy players. Adam Coleman still has plenty of footy left in him agewise. If Twiggy actually wants the force to be contenders then matching the offers the players get overseas should be possible for a billionaire.

From what I have seen or heard from Twiggy, he is supporting the Force with x amount of money, and not actually running Western Force.
There seems this perception that Twiggy is running WA rugby, he's not, while he supports it, I am sure there are an awful lot of things ge cares/worries about more. Also I thing it pretty wrong to imagine that having a billionaire backing club means they have got all his money to spend.

Perhaps a smalll dose of reality just may stop so many getting disappointed.

 

[Rugbynutter39]

From what I have seen or heard from Twiggy, he is supporting the Force with x amount of money, and not actually running Western Force.
There seems this perception that Twiggy is running WA rugby, he's not, while he supports it, I am sure there are an awful lot of things ge cares/worries about more. Also I thing it pretty wrong to imagine that having a billionaire backing club means they have got all his money to spend.

Perhaps a smalll dose of reality just may stop so many getting disappointed.

He has given the force a leg up though with donations to development pathways but yes on recruitment they are subject to same salary cap.

 

[7137]

From what I have seen or heard from Twiggy, he is supporting the Force with x amount of money, and not actually running Western Force.
There seems this perception that Twiggy is running WA rugby, he's not, while he supports it, I am sure there are an awful lot of things ge cares/worries about more. Also I thing it pretty wrong to imagine that having a billionaire backing club means they have got all his money to spend.

Perhaps a smalll dose of reality just may stop so many getting disappointed.

Correct. If twiggy was all in with spending whatever it takes, Steve Hanson would be Head Coach on $20m per year. Not to mention the assistants, etc etc. There is plenty outside the player salary cap he could pour squillions into if that was his intent.
He’s keeping them at the table. Which is more than enough. The rest is up to the club to sort out.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

It looks like such a great ground to watch footie at. Nice weather too. Really like the grandstands behind the goal. I want to stand down the front behind the posts like Earle Kirton wearing nothing but my Blues cape and Blues speedos and Blues wrestling mask and get pelted with tinnies.

Yeah it's a great ground. You're close to the action and on a glorious day like yesterday, leading into a nice evening, it's a terrific place to watch some footy.

 

[Silverado]

Interesting stat from the game. Starting front row for Tahs had a combined 50 tackles made and 0 missed tackles.

 

[Drew]

Interesting stat from the game. Starting front row for Tahs had a combined 50 tackles made and 0 missed tackles.

They certainly get through a mountain of work.

 

[Hawko]

Interesting stat from the game. Starting front row for Tahs had a combined 50 tackles made and 0 missed tackles.

They really are our point of difference and I think they might surprise some of the Kiwi teams, who are not used to Australian front rows being quite that industrious. Our scrum is seriously under-rated especially by the referees, but that won't go on too much longer I am really looking forward to the game against the Chiefs just to see how we will go. Hoping for a win, but not really expecting it and looking for a really decent performance.

Hoping for a better game from Gordon next week. Defensively he was OK, but his box kicking was atrocious. Every time we got possession back after multiple phases for the Force he would immediately kick it away again and his targeting was extremely poor. I don't think we had a worse player on the park and if he does it next week the Chiefs back three will annihilate us.

I think its time to give Rahboni a start and have Harris finish; Harris looks to me like he's played too many minutes in the comp so far and needs further refreshing. Understandable, as he played a lot of 80 minute games early on but this is his first full year. He's definitely a keeper though, he's played some excellent games. Rahboni will give us some real dynamism early on to let the Chiefs know they are in for a fight.

Vailanu reminded me of a young Tatafu Polota-Nau and not in a good way. These days, Tatafu tackles are automatic yellow cards and Vailanu should already know that and his coaches should have trained him out of it.

Lots to work on but there's cause for hope next week. On what we've seen so far the Blues and Crusaders are a bridge too far but we could beat the other four Kiwi teams and three out of six would set us up for the finals nicely.

 

[7137]

They really are our point of difference and I think they might surprise some of the Kiwi teams, who are not used to Australian front rows being quite that industrious. Our scrum is seriously under-rated especially by the referees, but that won't go on too much longer I am really looking forward to the game against the Chiefs just to see how we will go. Hoping for a win, but not really expecting it and looking for a really decent performance.

Hoping for a better game from Gordon next week. Defensively he was OK, but his box kicking was atrocious. Every time we got possession back after multiple phases for the Force he would immediately kick it away again and his targeting was extremely poor. I don't think we had a worse player on the park and if he does it next week the Chiefs back three will annihilate us.

I think its time to give Rahboni a start and have Harris finish; Harris looks to me like he's played too many minutes in the comp so far and needs further refreshing. Understandable, as he played a lot of 80 minute games early on but this is his first full year. He's definitely a keeper though, he's played some excellent games. Rahboni will give us some real dynamism early on to let the Chiefs know they are in for a fight.

Vailanu reminded me of a young Tatafu Polota-Nau and not in a good way. These days, Tatafu tackles are automatic yellow cards and Vailanu should already know that and his coaches should have trained him out of it.

Lots to work on but there's cause for hope next week. On what we've seen so far the Blues and Crusaders are a bridge too far but we could beat the other four Kiwi teams and three out of six would set us up for the finals nicely.

Our defence is giving us, as DC would say, a punchers chance against the kiwis. And that’s all we can ask for really.

 

[Rugbynutter39]

They really are our point of difference and I think they might surprise some of the Kiwi teams, who are not used to Australian front rows being quite that industrious. Our scrum is seriously under-rated especially by the referees, but that won't go on too much longer I am really looking forward to the game against the Chiefs just to see how we will go. Hoping for a win, but not really expecting it and looking for a really decent performance.

Hoping for a better game from Gordon next week. Defensively he was OK, but his box kicking was atrocious. Every time we got possession back after multiple phases for the Force he would immediately kick it away again and his targeting was extremely poor. I don't think we had a worse player on the park and if he does it next week the Chiefs back three will annihilate us.

I think its time to give Rahboni a start and have Harris finish; Harris looks to me like he's played too many minutes in the comp so far and needs further refreshing. Understandable, as he played a lot of 80 minute games early on but this is his first full year. He's definitely a keeper though, he's played some excellent games. Rahboni will give us some real dynamism early on to let the Chiefs know they are in for a fight.

Vailanu reminded me of a young Tatafu Polota-Nau and not in a good way. These days, Tatafu tackles are automatic yellow cards and Vailanu should already know that and his coaches should have trained him out of it.

Lots to work on but there's cause for hope next week. On what we've seen so far the Blues and Crusaders are a bridge too far but we could beat the other four Kiwi teams and three out of six would set us up for the finals nicely.

Our forwards I agree are under rated. Hard to fit all the quality in at the moment. Pretty solid bench options too.

 

[Wallaby Man]

If twiggy focused on bringing some of that talent home it would make a huge difference. Get Hoskins or Ainsley back, or both. Matt Philip is close to the best lock in Aus, Hardwick is a very good player. Luke Morahan, Billy Meakes, Curtis Rona, Isi Naisarani, are all still good footy players. Adam Coleman still has plenty of footy left in him agewise. If Twiggy actually wants the force to be contenders then matching the offers the players get overseas should be possible for a billionaire.

If by ‘home’ you mean Sydney born and raised Philip that played a number of years in the Shute Shield before moving West via a detour in the NPC?

Sydney raised Meakes that played Shute Shield before moving overseas to play almost 50 games of pro rugby in England before returning to Australia?

Brisbane born and raised former Reds player Luke Morahan, that also played for the 7s team and debuted for the Wallabies while at the Reds?

Fijian raised Isi Naisarani that played for Brisbane City before moving west for one whole year of his life?

Tasmanian Adam Coleman that was at the Waratahs before the Force?

if you wanted to merge Victoria into WA then add Victorian raised Tetera Faulkner into that list.

I love the fact the Force are back and heading in the right direction. Hopefully producing some more DHP’s and Hardwick’s but can we please stop pretending there was a giant cull of local talent in 2017.

 

[qwerty51]

The only gun local talent the Force have ever produced both left in their prime to go to the UK. (Hoskins & Longbottom).

 

[Wallaby Man]

The only gun local talent the Force have ever produced both left in their prime to go to the UK. (Hoskins & Longbottom).

That’s been disingenuous as well DHP was a fine player, Curtis Rona is someone we never saw the best of in Aus but is now one of the best centre in Europe and Zac Holmes has produced a great career in France. There is a couple of others like Pek Cowan that have contributed to Aus rugby.

One of the issues I have with Aus rugby is the different standards applied to different teams. Waratahs accused of not having SS pathways, yet there isn’t many more players in the Reds that genuinely went through the QLD Prem pathways. Rebels labeled mercenaries yet there is more players from Vic in the Super Rugby squads than from WA and ACT. Players like Kaitu’u and Ikitau labeled as Force and Brums products (both from QLD) yet Hodge at Rebels is a Sydney import?

 

[Drew]

I always thought Godwin was a good WA product. Sure he was born OS, but he emigrated here as a kid, played his 100th Super Rugby game the other day. Not the greatest player in the history of the game, but consistently decent. Talking about Perth raised rugby talent is the same as talking about Sydney raised Aussie Rules talent, sure there’s some, but it’s not going to be the same as in whichever codes heartland.

 

[Wallaby Man]

I always thought Godwin was a good WA product. Sure he was born OS, but he emigrated here as a kid, played his 100th Super Rugby game the other day. Not the greatest player in the history of the game, but consistently decent. Talking about Perth raised rugby talent is the same as talking about Sydney raised Aussie Rules talent, sure there’s some, but it’s not going to be the same as in whichever codes heartland.

Yep fine WA player. Still contributing on a weekly basis

 

[qwerty51]

That’s been disingenuous as well DHP was a fine player, Curtis Rona is someone we never saw the best of in Aus but is now one of the best centre in Europe and Zac Holmes has produced a great career in France. There is a couple of others like Pek Cowan that have contributed to Aus rugby.

One of the issues I have with Aus rugby is the different standards applied to different teams. Waratahs accused of not having SS pathways, yet there isn’t many more players in the Reds that genuinely went through the QLD Prem pathways. Rebels labeled mercenaries yet there is more players from Vic in the Super Rugby squads than from WA and ACT. Players like Kaitu’u and Ikitau labeled as Force and Brums products (both from QLD) yet Hodge at Rebels is a Sydney import?

DHP developed overseas.

Rona, Holmes and Cowan aren't locals.

Zack Holmes can probably add to my original list, another who left in his prime.

 

[RugbyReg]

DHP developed overseas.

He moved to WA when he was 10…

 

[Hawko]

This argument has about as much worth as the Quade Cooper/Bernard Foley/Israel Folau etc. arguments and is in the Force/Waratahs game thread. Every franchise has to stay under the cap and can select anyone. Who cares which state brought them up? Can we go back to the rugby?

 

[qwerty51]

He moved to WA when he was 10…

Ya, just mean he wasn't a good player when he left.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

There has definitely been an increase locally produced talent in WA. The H-P brothers played their junior footy here in Perth. So did Rona, Holmes (Z), Hardwick, Godwin, Tizzano, Longbottom, Hoskins and a few other blokes like Lacey and Koteka who have played a reasonable amount of Super level footy.