- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Opinion
The good news for fans of Western Force – they hope, we hope, give us your best Oprah Winfrey, everybody hopes – is that they have seven games scheduled at home despite their state border being harder to get into than old East Berlin (Google it, kids).
Local fans, still bent out of shape after suits in the east tried to kill their team, follow their boys in blue with alacrity. Some of the great alacrity. There is feeling, and tribalism, and all that good, meaty, parochial fan-stuff.
Top stuff.
And though one would assume it’s a pain in the arse for locals, Premier Mark McGowan won the state election by 53 seats to six (genuine Saddam Hussein numbers) on a platform of keeping borders tight and preventing the infiltration of outsiders.
But the Brumbies are coming (in Round 6, here’s hoping) and the Waratahs are coming (in Round 9) and officials are in top-level talks with the McGowan junta about hosting Queensland in Round 3 on Friday March 4 at their very fine HBF Park.
In 2021 Western Force ran third in the local conference after going 4-4 against Australian teams. Against the Kiwis they were were 0-5 but in context still the third-best Australian team given the Rebels and Waratahs were also 0-5 (with worse points differential), while the Brumbies and Reds were 1-4.
And the Force’s points differential (-60) was the best of all five Australian state-province-franchise-clubs against the blighters from over there.
Make of it what you will.
But know this: the Western Force fears nobody, except perhaps ACT Brumbies whom they have beaten once in 15 games.
In the odd, COVID-benighted season 2021, the Western Force beat the Melbourne Rebels, Queensland Reds and NSW Waratahs (twice).
Sitaleki Timani of the Force runs the ball. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
They were well in games against Blues, Crusaders and Highlanders, and lost to the Chiefs by a point.
And now they have Izack Rodda to join Sitaleki Timani and ancient former All Black Jeremy Thrush in the tight five, and a bunch of youngsters back from the Brumbies.
Things are bubbling in the west.
What’s new?
Izack Rodda. A very big ‘in’ for the Perth-based franchise, the 25-year-old lock has played 32 Test matches for Australia and 46 times for Queensland, the state he left in controversial, COVID-affected fashion.
Rodda says his departure for France “was never about money”, Reds officials would likely disagree and coach Brad Thorne doesn’t care, he remains annoyed his best forward left. And Rodda has a huge game coming up on against his old state on March 4.
Look out for Fijian international and former Crusaders winger Manasa Mataele, 24, who can excite in space.
Izack Rodda from his days with the Reds – who are none too impressed with his signing with the Force (Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)
Star on the rise
Former Australian Schoolboy Daniel Ala has gone west, a young man in a hurry following a stint with the Manly Sea Eagles. The 19-year-old has pace, footwork and x-factor, the best kind of factor.
Who’s under the pump?
Mark McGowan. They love you now, sure. But close ‘em again at your peril, bubba.
Best-case scenario
Realistically (and after so many hidings from the neighbours, local rugby fans are nothing if not realists) let’s posit the Force beats one of the five Kiwi teams – Chiefs or Highlanders – along with Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika, and all but the Brumbies in Australia.
Do that and they could tell one another at awards night it’s been a mighty successful season and bring on 2023, and so on.
Now, given the Kiwis, generally, only lose to other Kiwis let’s say you have an all-Kiwi top-four, the Brumbies in fifth and the Force sixth in the 12-team competition.
That, sports fans, would be good enough to make the finals and take on one of the third-best Kiwi team, in New Zealand, in a sudden-death quarter-final.
Win that and it’s a semi-final.
Win that and awards night could be quite rowdy.
Worst-case scenario
Mark McGowan closes the border again and the boys from WA play all their ‘home’ games in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne or Canberra. For there would go the neighbourhood.
Round 1 predicted starting team
15. Reece Tapine
14. Daniel Ala
13. Richard Kahui
12. Kyle Godwin
11. Manasa Mataele
10. Reesjan Pasitoa
9. Issak Fines-Leleiwasa
8. Brynard Stander
7. Tim Anstee
6. Sitaleki Timani
5. Jeremy Thrush
4. Izack Rodda
3. Santiago Medrano
2. Feliti Kaitu’u
1. Tom Robertson
Others
Bo Abra, Harry Lloyd, Ollie Callan, Greg Holmes, Kane Koteka, Fergus Lee-Warner, Ryan McCauley, Jackson Pugh, Andrew Ready, Angus Wagner, Jack Winchester, Bayley Kuenzle, Michael McDonald, Jack McGregor, Brad Lacey, Jake McIntyre, Ian Prior, Toni Pulu, Byron Ralston, Jake Strachan