Where to now for the Western Force?
Roar Rookie By tj_adam, 24 Apr 2012 tj_adam is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- Australian rugby, Ewen McKenzie, Queensland Reds, Richard Graham, Rugby Union, Super Rugby, Western Force
David Pocock (left) captain of the Western Force and coach Richard Graham. AAP Image/Paul Miller
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When Richard Graham signed a three year deal with the Queensland Reds earlier this month, it could have marked the downfall for the Western Force.
It might explain the Force’s poor results this season for fans could easily use this as an excuse for a coach not fully committed to the team. Who knows how long he’s been focussed on himself and his next job as opposed to the task in front of him?
No one had foreseen last week’s departure of Graham, who was contracted to the Force until the end of the 2014 season wearing a 29 percent winning record on his sleeve.
With the tables now turned upside down, the young 39-year-old has been lured over to the defending Super Rugby champions in what has been speculated as part of the club’s long term succession plan with Ewen McKenzie.
“It’s the opportunity to go to a rugby-strong state and a young side that has already won a Super Rugby championship,” Richard Graham said.
In all honesty, how could one expect the players to continue to look up to their leader after publicly announcing his departure for an apparent winning culture and rugby driven state? Talk about a kick in the guts for WA rugby union.
There is a bitter sense of irony in the air too. After all, the Force snatched a number of key Reds squad members during their opening seasons of Super Rugby including ex-captain Nathan Sharpe, Drew Mitchell, and Digby Ioane.
And now, in what could be potentially a future great asset, from the Force’s coaching staff – Richard Graham.
Just how often do we see a formulated futuristic plan across any football code these days anyway?
So what are we to expect now of the Western Force without a mentor in place?
The Force are currently held to a record of seven wins in 24 games in 2011-12 and are now sitting favourites for bottom place of the Australian conference with eight games to go side by side with the Melbourne Rebels.
The Force are yet to be playing the footy they would have liked to with only 181 points clocked up in attack, the fifth lowest in the competition, but still surprisingly higher than the Queensland Reds.
The fact that the Force will struggle to sign any new players, that is to say retain players, until a new coach is brought in is probably the biggest hints of them all – the Force are in turmoil.
And that isn’t their biggest of concerns. The future of Wallabies star and soon to be out of contract Force captain David Pocock now hangs in the balance.
One would imagine that the Western Force will go above and beyond the call of duty to keep him in WA.
But more work still needs to be done. A step forward in rejuvenating the club would be starting the search for a real gem of a coach, who will attract top shelf players from around Australia as well as overseas – another Jake White (if one exists).
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April 24th 2012 @ 11:28am
Nathan of Perth said | April 24th 2012 @ 11:28am | Report comment
Force needs to understand that they MUST work to bring through LOCAL juniors. Development of potentials to professionals will be the long term redemption of the club. Instead of hiring a team that will suffocate the growth from below, spend the money on training and juniors. Even when we end up with players of lesser quality, at least we know local boys will play with the heart we need and the supporters will endure easier seeing Perth’s own sons give it their all.
How can a team play without at least the hard core holding pride in the soil beneath them? It can’t just be a particularly strenuous 9-5 job, it has to be about representing home. And when you have the core that feels this way, then you can bring in outsiders and the pride can bouy them too. How can we expect a team from outside the state to come in and set down roots and hurt when the team falls short? The Eagles and Dockers make sure that they keep at least half the roster West Australian!
Bring through the local lads!
April 24th 2012 @ 11:48am
formeropenside said | April 24th 2012 @ 11:48am | Report comment
Yeah, no one on the East Coast grows up wanting to play for the Force. The Force need to develop locals if they want any passion.
April 24th 2012 @ 12:08pm
Nathan of Perth said | April 24th 2012 @ 12:08pm | Report comment
Yup, the dreams of a Sydney union boy is to where the jersey of the tahs, a banana bender boy to wear that of the Reds. They don’t dream of bleeding for and earning glory for a state and city further from them than even Wellington. Find us the Rockingham lads, the Armadale lads, the Morley and Nedlands lads and bring them forth, they are the ones who in the last ten minutes will stand up.
April 24th 2012 @ 12:35pm
Blinky Bill of Bellingen said | April 24th 2012 @ 12:35pm | Report comment
I agree in principal with the idea of selecting local lads where ever possible, if they are good enough.
However there is a certain exTah player who seemed to be going no where and pouring beers until given an opportunity by Ewen. He is one of the first out of the blocks and goes like crazy for 80.
I agree with the decision to show Richard Graham the door. The problem now is to turn that around into a positive asap for the players and the fans. The General had been killed……everyone needs to fight harder and smarter under the next in command.
Several things MUST happen:
1. Retain Pockock.
2. Get the best International Coach possible.
It needs to be someone who will * improve the team * attract new players * attract sponsors * excite the fans. Forget this idea that he MUST be Australian. That’s like fighting with one arm tied behind your back. Just get the best available. If he’s Australian then good. If he’s from Timbuktoo but then BEST then good.
3. Develop local talent that WANTS to play for The Force.
April 24th 2012 @ 12:52pm
sittingbison said | April 24th 2012 @ 12:52pm | Report comment
perfect summation blinky. If only the board could see it.
exactly correct FOS, the sea of blue is getting increasingly disgruntled with import especially the “Marquee” taking off after deliverying nada, and RG has done nothing to inject the locals into the fray despite injuries, preferring to sign short term journeymen.
Nathan, If prefer to play some of those locals than sign journeymen, who knows what they can deliver until tested, and they would play their hearts out.
April 24th 2012 @ 1:03pm
Ahem said | April 24th 2012 @ 1:03pm | Report comment
Good comment.
April 24th 2012 @ 2:44pm
Mella said | April 24th 2012 @ 2:44pm | Report comment
We need to face reality, the Force need marquee imports and they should have been given favourable incentives by the ARU to attract and keep them. Its about the only way they can close the gap on the ‘rugby playing’ states. The problem is they have recruited badly. David Smith was a fantastic signing but he left after one year. They need to have an expert recruiter who can scout up and coming talent in the areas they lack it, which has mainly been outside backs. Here is an idea, right now they should be watching the progress of Shannon Walker very closely.
April 24th 2012 @ 12:49pm
kingplaymaker said | April 24th 2012 @ 12:49pm | Report comment
There’s no reason why it should be particularly difficult to develop rugby in Western Australia. I would be interested to know what the Force’s strategy is for expanding the game there, how many recruitment officers they employ, what percentage of their budget, which and how many schools they target to introduce the game, how all of these measures are working and with what results, and so forth.
April 24th 2012 @ 12:53pm
sittingbison said | April 24th 2012 @ 12:53pm | Report comment
what we do know is the monies allocated by the ARU are miniscule compared to NSW.
Makes it very hard to do all those things if the boss doesnt support you
April 24th 2012 @ 1:24pm
AndyS said | April 24th 2012 @ 1:24pm | Report comment
Let’s not confuse the Super teams with the state bodies. It is not the Force’s responsibility to expand rugby – that falls to RugbyWA. They own the Force and can use it as a promotion tool etc, but the money each team receives from the ARU cannot just be reassigned to other uses, it is specifically for professional rugby.
The state bodies get separate funding for community rugby and, as SB notes, it is not much in WA’s case – checking the 2010 annual report, they get about a quarter million to run and develop all junior and senior rugby in WA. That is about half what the ARU gives to the Australian Rugby Football Schools Union. RWA obviously must rely heavily on outside sources, but I would imagine they must already be tapping them pretty hard.
April 24th 2012 @ 1:35pm
kingplaymaker said | April 24th 2012 @ 1:35pm | Report comment
AndyS when you say the money is specifically for professional rugby, what exactly does that mean? Professional rugby involves increasing the player and spectator base and these directly improve the playing strength and financial position of the elite team. I see that there is a difference between rugby elsewhere in the community and at an elite team, but in many places surely the concerns overlap considerably.
However, even if they only have a very small amount of money, I wonder what Western Australian rugby’s strategy is for growing the game? Furthermore, while the Force may only be a tool of Western Australian rugby, surely as it is their direct interest to grow the sport in the region they have some input and the coach will in some way be involved in this, as where they get their local playing resources and fans is of fundamental importance to them? It would seem extraordinary if the club itself had simply no autonomous role whatsoever in growing the game itself.
Given your obvious command of the subject under discussion I would be interested to hear how these matters work.
April 24th 2012 @ 2:19pm
Nathan of Perth said | April 24th 2012 @ 2:19pm | Report comment
“Furthermore, while the Force may only be a tool of Western Australian rugby, surely as it is their direct interest to grow the sport”
That’s what -we- thought!
April 24th 2012 @ 2:39pm
AndyS said | April 24th 2012 @ 2:39pm | Report comment
Of course RWA are keen to grow the game and the Force obviously plays a big part in that wrt community activities etc, particularly with the juniors. But it certainly isn’t autonomous, it is all managed by the community officers, PR bods and the like. My point though was that they can’t use money they receive from the ARU for professional rugby for anything else – it is specifically earmarked for particular things like wages, travel, insurances, etc. They can’t take some of the professional wages allowance and go hire a juniors coach on the basis that it is in the long term interest of the professional game.
Games obviously generate money, as do memberships, but they all come with costs. Promotion of games and the team, sponsorships etc obviously raise the profile, but when it comes to putting people or equipment on the ground at the grassroots, they have whatever is left over and whatever the ARU has specifically earmarked for the grass-roots. They seem to be doing a reasonable job of growth, around the 9% mark, but it is focused very much on the junior level. But simple truth is they can afford two or three development officers to break a lot of new ground, compared to the dozen or so in Q’ld where the ground is well broken. Perhaps the ARU should consider separating development and operations budgets…
April 24th 2012 @ 1:20pm
kingplaymaker said | April 24th 2012 @ 1:20pm | Report comment
sittingbison sure, but I would just be interested to know what the strategy to expand the game in Western Australia, because undoubtedly they have some money to do it.
April 24th 2012 @ 2:12pm
sittingbison said | April 24th 2012 @ 2:12pm | Report comment
hehe KPM if you read the force forums and sit in the sea of blue listening to chit chat you’d find out we are all interested in just what that strategy (or lack of) is as well %) no one has any idea. Well no one has any idea what RWAs or ARUs strategies are, but we have plenty ourselve, which are pretty much what blinky, nathan, fos said above
April 24th 2012 @ 4:57pm
Wilson said | April 24th 2012 @ 4:57pm | Report comment
WA is a hard market for rugby for sure. The ARU did the Force no favours when they started off (number of imports etc) and it has been downhill from there. The ARU have again decreased the Community allocation down to $250,000 for the year for all community development. From reports from the east coast NSW and QLD got over 8 times this amount (not sure about ACT). The east coast also has a huge population to draw upon compared to Perth. We also do not have any significant rugby anywhere except in Perth, unlike AFL which is played in pretty much every region of WA. So the local competition is far below the playing quality of that in club rugby in NSW & QLD. Which is why anyone with any signs of top level skills are encouraged to go to NSW to play club rugby. Not only do they get paid to play but they progress faster than they do in the local competition. Until there is real leadership, strategy and funds for grass roots development of rugby in WA there will only ever be a handful of local talent for the Force to draw upon. They do well with what they have through maintaining their local academy (despite the national academy that the ARU wanted); but they can’t afford to do more. This isn’t a new argument but it will take big money to fix this. And the local clubs and rugby WA do not have it. Any additional fund they have are being spent on neccessities such as basic gym equipment upgrades (which are still required), facilities at the ground, etc. They don’t have a kitty of cash waiting to spend at their leisure.
April 24th 2012 @ 5:06pm
Johnno said | April 24th 2012 @ 5:06pm | Report comment
Well if the ARU has no money to develop rugby union in WA. Will the NRL have more money to develop grass roots rugby league , who knows. The NRL at least will allow private ownership via someone like Tony Sage buy a Perth franchise.
The ARU should allow private owners, and allow more imports the game needs money. But the current business plan under JON is too draconian in my view and restrictive.JON will leave in 2013, hopefully fresh idea will happen, and better business models for the grass roots development. And that is Australia wide.
April 24th 2012 @ 9:41pm
Nathan of Perth said | April 24th 2012 @ 9:41pm | Report comment
As every West Australian knows, a player certainly can still leave (Chris Judd-as)