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Thread: What makes you smile?

  1. #4066
    Immortal Contributor shasta's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by FingerTips View Post
    What can one say in defense of the final standings?
    "The fix is in ..."
    Well it proves a couple of things actually: You still can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear. But if you're SANZAAR you can turn one into a pig's arse.

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    "The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David


  2. #4067
    Veteran SNOB's Avatar
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    Watching the Force in the sunshine, in the UK, on Twitter before the Wedding!

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    May the FORCE be with you!

  3. #4068
    Champion andrewg's Avatar
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    The availability of HD YouTube copy of each WSR game to enjoy again at my leisure.

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  4. #4069
    Champion andrewg's Avatar
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    An interesting perspective from Bret Harris (ex The Australian) who is now Sports Writer for The Guardian (18 July 2018).

    After a Super Rugby season without the Force, is history repeating?

    The first Super Rugby regular season without the culled Western Force has just concluded, begging the question: was all the pain and anguish worth it?

    To be sure, there were signs of improvement by the four remaining Australian Super Rugby teams – the Brumbies, Melbourne Rebels, NSW Waratahs and Queensland Reds.

    Keeping in mind this year’s competition was reduced from 18 teams to 15, the Waratahs won the Australian conference and finished third on the table after coming 16th last season; the Rebels improved from last to ninth; the Reds went from 14th to 13th; and the Brumbies slipped from fourth to 10th, although they finished strongly.

    The one thing that did not change from last year was that only one Australian team reached the Super Rugby play-offs – this season the Waratahs – even though more teams made the top eight than did not.

    If not for Super Rugby’s conference system, the Waratahs would have finished equal fifth on the overall table with the Highlanders, the team they will host in the quarter-final at Allianz Stadium in Sydney on Saturday night.

    Were those results really worth the price of cutting the third largest rugby state in Australia (behind NSW and Queensland) from Super Rugby?

    There is no doubt the four remaining teams benefit from a wider pool of talent, albeit unevenly at this stage, and a potential increase in their share of broadcast revenue. That, however has to be weighed up against the drawback of alienating a whole state, and a big one at that – the second largest country sub-division in the world.

    Sure, a Western Force team will compete in the National Rugby Championship this year, but that is a development competition, not a professional league. If not for the philanthropy of mining magnate Andrew Forrest, who created the invitational competition World Series Rugby, there would be no semblance of professional rugby at all in Western Australia. The pathway to professional contracts would head due east.

    But cutting the Force was not about rugby. It was about economics. Rugby Australia claimed it would go broke if it had to continue to support five Australian Super Rugby teams. RA had propped up the Force financially just as it had the Waratahs, the Reds and the Rebels before them. It was the Force’s timing that was the problem. They were like the player who is yellow-carded after several of his team-mates receive warnings.
    With Forrest’s financial support, the Force would have potentially been the most commercially viable Australian franchise, but it was too late. SANZAAR had decided to reduce Super Rugby from 18 teams to 15 and the Force had entered into an “alliance” with RA, which meant they effectively signed their own death warrant. In the end RA got rid of the Force – rather than the Brumbies or the Rebels - because they could.
    Unlike South Africa, who re-located their two culled teams, the Cheetahs and the Kings, to Europe, there was no fallback position for the Force. If not for Forrest, the Force’s ocean blue jerseys would be collectors’ items.

    Moving forward, it has to be asked: has Australian rugby learnt anything from the culling of the Force, or is the code doomed to repeat the same mistakes which led to the western franchise’s demise?

    The Force and the Rebels, the two rugby expansion franchises in AFL-dominated states, got into financial difficulty primarily because they tried to buy success without laying the foundation for growth.

    Is history about to repeat itself? Rugby Australia waived the salary cap this year to allow teams to absorb ex-Force players, but the players were not evenly re-distributed among the four remaining Australian teams.

    The Waratahs only recruited one ex-Force player, outside back Curtis Rona. The Brumbies picked up a few ex-Force players, but only number eight Isireli Naisarani made any real contribution to their season following winger Chance Peni’s problems with the Super Rugby judiciary, while the Reds recruited playmaker Jono Lance.

    The vast majority of ex-Force players, including Wallabies Adam Coleman and Dane Haylett-Petty, followed coach Dave Wessels to the Rebels, who had already signed high-profile Australian halfback Will Genia.
    Naisarani is leaving the Brumbies to re-join his ex-Force coach Wessels and team-mates at the Rebels, while there is speculation former Brumbies playmaker Matt Toomua will wind up in Melbourne after returning from English club Leicester.

    Certainly the Rebels would have plans in place, but a casual observer might wonder how they are going to fit everyone under the salary cap, if indeed the salary cap is restored.
    The Rebels fell just short of reaching the play-offs this season, and there will be more pressure on them to succeed next year. We have been down this road before.

    We have already seen what can happen when an expansion franchise raises expectations and fails to deliver in a market that is not yet ready to capitalise on success, but will punish failure. It has been the great error of Australian Super Rugby expansion.

    If the Rebels, and the other Australian teams for that matter, learn from the mistakes of the past, then perhaps that will be the Force’s greatest legacy to Super Rugby.

    Maybe then, if the Force’s sacrifice is not in vain, the sorrow and pain felt in the west will all be worthwhile.

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    Last edited by andrewg; 22-07-18 at 10:07.

  5. #4070
    Veteran valzc's Avatar
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    Once again the media glosses over just HOW MUCH money the Rebels were ‘given’. Making it look like the Force & Rebels were on the same level is laughable -no comparison.No mention of the years of no support by the ARU which drove the Force into the situation in the first place.

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  6. #4071
    Veteran sittingbison's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by RA shill
    ...Moving forward, it has to be asked: has Australian rugby learnt anything from the culling of the Force, or is the code doomed to repeat the same mistakes which led to the western franchise’s demise?...
    Without dashing Off 3000 words of bullshit, the answers are NO and YES

    BTW an actual look at the results reveals some interesting stats as to whether the Aus teams have improved:
    They have not, basically they devoured themselves, and feasted on the Sunwolves. Against the other two conferences they were abysmal, while the Shoes were hopeless at home but much better away especially against the big boys in NZ

    Copied from a bloke on Roar:
    .. The Sharks won 3 from 8 games within their conference for 14 table points, and won 4 and 1 draw out of 8 games outside their conference for 22 table points.

    Within their conference, the Tahs won 7 out of 8 games for 31 table point, Rebels 6/8 for 25 table points, and Brumbies 4/8 for 20 table points. Outside their conference, the Tahs won 2, 1 draw, for 13 table points, Rebels 2/8 for 11 table points, and the Brumbies won 3/8 for 14 table points. The Sharks beat the Highlanders, Chiefs and Blues, and lost to the Hurricanes by 1 point.

    The Reds and Sunwolves were the only teams in the Aus conference to gain more points outside their conference than within. The Tahs gained 19 more points within their con than they did outside their con, and the Rebels 14 more points within their conference than they did outside. The Lions gained 12 more points within their conference than outside, Brumbies 6 more points, Bulls 5 more points. All other teams gained more table points outside their con than within.

    Winning percentages for conferences outside own conference:
    NZ – 30 wins from 40 games – 75%.
    SA – 17 wins – 42.5%.
    AU – 12 wins – 30%.

    Five of the bottom seven sides in points from inter-conference matches are from the AU group.
    Of course, a laughable riposte by the usual suspect who scored an own goal

    Oh, and don't forget the Sunwolves, who raised the AUSTRALIAN conference winning percentage to a whopping 30% by winning 3 of the 12 games

    How anyone can call this season a success and worth the Force saga boggles the mind

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    Last edited by sittingbison; 19-07-18 at 08:34.
    The long sobs of autumn's violins wound my heart with a monotonous languor

  7. #4072
    Immortal GIGS20's Avatar
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    But they did win at least one game against Kiwi opposition, so that is an improvement.

    (not that it could have gotten any worse, the Kiwis were bound to slip up at some point)

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    C'mon the

  8. #4073
    Immortal Contributor shasta's Avatar
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    "The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David


  9. #4074
    Veteran chibi's Avatar
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    Japan and the Pacific Islands for Aussie Super 9's!

    Let's have one of these in WA! Click this link: Saitama Super Arena - New Perth Stadium?

  10. #4075
    Veteran Sheikh's Avatar
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    It's making me smile that Chelsea have an open training session at the WACA tonight. I saw a number of dads and sons heading down there.

    Schadenfreude, mir?

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    Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

  11. #4076
    Veteran chibi's Avatar
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    I just hope those uncultured diving soccer primadonnas don't rip up the pitches on our hallowed turf

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    Japan and the Pacific Islands for Aussie Super 9's!

    Let's have one of these in WA! Click this link: Saitama Super Arena - New Perth Stadium?

  12. #4077
    Veteran BLR's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sheikh View Post
    It's making me smile that Chelsea have an open training session at the WACA tonight. I saw a number of dads and sons heading down there.

    Schadenfreude, mir?
    Chelsea are the Rebels of English football.

    Dodgy Russian Oligarch who likely made his money through pretty shady deals who is apparently moving to Israel to avoid paying taxes.

    So yeah, I would suggest don't be too big of a fan.

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  13. #4078
    Veteran Bakkies's Avatar
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    I remember when they were purchased for a pound.

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    'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'


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  14. #4079
    Champion Contributor sandgroperrugby's Avatar
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    In front of a disappointing — albeit vocal — crowd of 12,067 at Allianz Stadium!!!!!

    Way to represent your state in Finals Rugby.

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    Generally speaking you aren’t learning much if your lips are moving!!!

  15. #4080
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    Watching the waratahs win

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