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Perth Pigs a Force for good
The West Australian3 Jan 2018David Wessels
Former Western Force coach David Wessels is now with the Melbourne Rebels.
There is a cliched adage that “a week is a long time in sport” — by that rationale, a rollercoaster season has indeed been an eternity.
In my first year as a rookie head coach, I was exposed to more lessons in one season than I could ever have imagined.
To briefly recap, at the beginning of the season, the Australian Rugby Union confirmed speculation that one Australian team would be jettisoned from the Super Rugby competition.
What ensued was a period of ongoing uncertainty and a prolonged legal process, that ultimately determined it would be the Western Force to go.
While it is easy to focus on any ill-feelings or unfairness of the decision — perceived or otherwise — the greatest lesson this process taught me was the power of the passion and quality of the fight of those proud West Australians involved with this great club.
On the field, our players put aside the uncertainty of the future for them and their families to fulfil our objective of playing a style of rugby that would make those that supported us proud. This culminated in a 40-11 win over the Waratahs in what would be our club’s final Super Rugby appearance.
From the beginning, the Western Force playing group nicknamed ourselves the Perth Pigs.
Before we took the field against the Waratahs in the final game of the year, I told the team what George Bernard Shaw once said, “never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it”.
This quote sums up my experience of the wonderful people in this State: never wrestle with a West Australian — they’re proud, passionate, and determined, and they always rise to a challenge.
I am so proud of how hard everyone involved fought to save Picture by Sharon Smith the Force. You made banners and T-shirts and attended rallies and court hearings and corralled senators and sent letters and turned up in numbers to the Force Field.
You called into talk shows and encouraged us in the local coffee shop and flooded social media. You never stopped fighting. And I’m proud of how hard you’re still fighting. Professional rugby in WA will rise again because of your passion and commitment. How can it not!
I’m fundamentally an optimist. And as Nelson Mandela once said, “part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward.” Keep going!
I’m incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to continue doing the job that I love in Melbourne. The city is fantastic, our players are extremely determined and — like so many of the fans out West — the Victorian rugby community is eager to test ourselves against the traditional heartland States.
I’m excited about the challenge and will give it everything I have. Unfortunately, the timing of the announcement that the Force would be axed from Super Rugby didn’t give many of us from the West the chance to say our proper goodbyes.
But perhaps that wasn’t necessary. Surely, “if it’s not OK then it’s not the end . . .”
Up the Pigs!
He’s more forgiving than I am! I just hope his words come true.
May the FORCE be with you!
Kate Webb, I’m glad you’ve had a change of heart about how the force have been treated. For that matter the rebels too in a way. It’s about time supporters mended bridges with each other. We are all passionate about our teams and we’ve been dudded royally so...
The result is that a lot of supporters have been at each other’s throats over something that has really only one common thread the hope of survival for a team.
The true villains and direction of anger should go towards those entrusted to grow the game. The board are a disgrace, they are deceitful, unethical, and feel they are beyond approach.
They should be targeted as the true masterminds behind the demise of rugby in Aus with apparent limited foresight and development of short term solutions to long term problems they do not have any rights to continue to run any organisation let alone one which a lot of Australians cherish. They are ruining rugby and should relinquish the helm. The cowboys the ARU / RA are in the top office and haven’t stopped shooting from the hip for the whole of 2017.
I sent this to the article on the Force the other day in rugby.com.au top 15 for the year. Kate Webb one of the protagonists about the Force and the rebels has changed her tune in comments related to what has happened to the Force. It made me think maybe board members wanted us to develop a them vs us rather than focusing heavily our energies on the true tyrants which is the board and their inept dealing with all of rugby not just this year gone but the past few years.
I hope this new year brings them to account!
Supporters should unite and ask for the clearing of all board positions.
Dave came to Oz for opportunity. Initially in Canberra then on to Perth where he gave everything he had until there was no choice but to move - and take as many of his players with him as he could - to stick together and improve as a team. He simply has to look forward. As do we all. But none of us will forget.
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David
'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board
And this is supposed to make us feel better?Originally Posted by Wessels
Exactly nothing has changed at all. Not a sausage.
- Boys club plus Cattermole all elected back to the board
- No major sponsor
- Overloaded squad
- Have to get rid of players who actually care to bring more blow ins in to the organisation
- More changes to the coaching staff
- No business plan
The Rebels have already had 4 head coaches/DoRs heading in to their 8th season. I can see that changing again with Wessels to get a likely promotion to the Wallabies as an Assistant to start with.
Brumbies have had
- Rod Macqueen
- Eddie Jones
- David Nucifora
- Laurie Fisher
- Andy Friend
- Tony Rea
- Jake White
- Steve Larkham
- Dan McKellar
Seems a lot however I wouldn't count Macqueen, Jones and Larkham were promoted to the Wallabies and not the result of getting sacked or not having their contract renewed.
Rea took over briefly after Friend was sacked after that shocking loss to the Rebels.
Contrary to media reports Nucifora and Fisher weren't sacked they just didn't have their expired contracts renewed. Fisher is now on his third come back tour to the Brumbies.
Waratahs
- Chris Hawkins
- Matt Williams
- Ian Kennedy
- Bob Dwyer
- Ewen McKenzie
- Chris Hickey
- Michael Foley
- Michael Cheika
- Daryl Gibson
Reds
- John Connolly
- Mark McBain
- Andrew Slack
- Jeff Miller
- Eddie Jones
- Phil Mooney
- Ewen McKenzie
- Richard Graham
- Matt O'Connor & Nick Stiles
- Nick Stiles
- Brad Thorn
Force
- John Mitchell
- Richard Graham
- Phil Blake (interim)
- Michael Foley
- Dave Wessels
'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board
Mothy I have written back to the Waratahs
Dear XX,
Thank you for you to taking the time to write back to me and I hope you have had a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year so far.
In regards to NSW Rugby and the Waratahs being an independent entity yes that's correct however along with the Queensland Rugby Union you hold the voting power to enable change to be made at the top of Australian Rugby. It is very difficult to remove the parasitic influence of Cameron Clyne in particular as Chairman without the support of the NSWRU and QRU. For the betterment of Australian Rugby and to allow Ms Castle report to a more honourable and honest Chairman Mr Clyne needs to be pushed out of his position as he simply refuses to resign.
Many honest and honourable men have had held the Chairmanship position however Mr Clyne is not one of them. He has been deceitful and his performance in front of the Senate Committee was a disgrace to the organisation and game he is supposed to lead.
The board is also an issue however we need to see how much bad influence Mr Clyne has on the men and women at the table when he is finally pushed out for the game to finally move forward.
I have taken notice of and understand your difficult position in regards to the limit amount of money you can fund to the community game as it isn't a lot of money to distribute in a state as vast as NSW. You have also addressed your overheads which your parent body is still failing to do. They have over one hundred staff members there and it doesn't include players, match officials and other contractors. This is another aspect that the NSWRU and Waratahs need to push through to the board as the money spent on bloated staff numbers should be allocated to the grassroots of the game.
Having read the ARU financial reports supplied by ASIC to the recent Senate Inquiry I am alarmed that your union and others didn't make more of an issue to the extortionate extra non budgeted funding that went to prop up the Melbourne Rebels as this has been going for far too long. Tens of millions that didn't go to the grass roots of the game and will never been seen again as the money owed to the game has been written off by the governing body. The Mums and Dads are now having to bear the costs and if the extra fee hits the press like the levy did it is more bad news for the game.
It is is good to read that you are staying within the salary cap though it will become a problem if you start start struggling with the injuries and teams like the Rebels have all those Western Force players in reserve to cover themselves.
Kind Regards
'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board
Great reply Bakkies.
Proudly Western Australian; Proudly supporting Western Australian rugby
Cheers Alison. Having posted on the NSW club Rugby they could have done with some of the money from the Rebels loan write offs from the RA to help their subbies clubs get teams on the pitch this year.
'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board
Only when the individuals get elected.
'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board
'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board