Sack Graham now!

[jono]

isn't that what I said?

yeah. i wasnt disagreeing with you. sorry, i could have worded it better

[Sheikh]

Didn't Sharpie get asked at the WTF Awards Night whether he'd consider coaching when he retired? IIRC he said he wasn't interested in coaching. (Maybe that was just at the moment.)

[Burgs]

Didn't Sharpie get asked at the WTF Awards Night whether he'd consider coaching when he retired? IIRC he said he wasn't interested in coaching. (Maybe that was just at the moment.)

Probably looking to avoid speculation on chat forums...

[hertryk]

Sharpie advised me that he would like to go and do some coaching after he hangs his boots up as a Player?

[hertryk]

Didn't Sharpie get asked at the WTF Awards Night whether he'd consider coaching when he retired? IIRC he said he wasn't interested in coaching. (Maybe that was just at the moment.)

He said he would like to stay in Rugby in some form or other and stay in Perth..when he retires as a Player...

[James]

Good. Hopefully we can get his giraffic children to play for the Force.

[hertryk]

Sharpie advised me that he would like to go and do some coaching after he hangs his boots up as a Player?

Thks coach

[domattw]

All I want to say is that everyone is very quick to pin the blame on the coach. However, the players need to front up and acknowledge the poor performances. To my. limited knowledge, it appears the players only turn up for 60 mins a game and it's been in the missing 20 mins that games have been lost - particularly in the tight ones. Also RG and the coaching staff can drill them to the cows come home on tackling drills, etc, but if the team continues to miss tackles on the field, drop passes, give away penalties etc at critical times and positions on the field, well that's the players fault (or refs but that's another issue). So come on people lets be fair. It takes the coaching staff and the players to turn up week in and week out and give 80 mins of hard concentration and commitment not 60. It's a Team sport so, at this stage I feel the blame has got to be shared across the park, regardless of how good the players are.

[kipper_mckinnon]

All I want to say is that everyone is very quick to pin the blame on the coach. However, the players need to front up and acknowledge the poor performances. To my. limited knowledge, it appears the players only turn up for 60 mins a game and it's been in the missing 20 mins that games have been lost - particularly in the tight ones. Also RG and the coaching staff can drill them to the cows come home on tackling drills, etc, but if the team continues to miss tackles on the field, drop passes, give away penalties etc at critical times and positions on the field, well that's the players fault (or refs but that's another issue). So come on people lets be fair. It takes the coaching staff and the players to turn up week in and week out and give 80 mins of hard concentration and commitment not 60. It's a Team sport so, at this stage I feel the blame has got to be shared across the park, regardless of how good the players are.

Sorry domattw, but I DO blame the coach for that awful game at the weekend. When David Smith kicks the ball as much as he did on Saturday, then you KNOW he's been told to do so - that is not his natural game and he's not even good at it - Coach's orders I reckon

[qld supporter]

We're all disappointed in some of the results , a couple more of the close ones our way would give the season a far better glow. We're more than competitive but seem to put too much emphisis on playing to exploit some perceived weakness, or concentrating on the oppositions gamebreakers.
We appear to be reactive when we should be concentrating on developing our own playing style. This is what the Reds did and after some initial teething problems look like winning the title.
Q.C. still can't tackle but he has great vision and backs himself and his team to outscore anyone. I don't think the Reds are dwelling overly on their opponents tactics they dictate how the game is played ,generally, to suit themselves best.
We seem to concentrate on our defence presumably to frustrate the opposition into mistakes for our backs to feed off the scraps of possession this produces.
The initiative is always with the attacking side ,then, we wear ourselves out and end up trying to win it when go forward players are fatigued.
I can't see how we can develope our own playing style with good attacking combinations when we change the way we play with each new opponent.
Someone said defence wins games , I think it's more about the physical domination of your opponents , attacking play wins games on the back of that domination.I hope we see some chancing of the arm now the seasons gone.

[Nipper]

The Force have kicked the 2nd LEAST of all Australian teams, so I don't get all the gnashing of teeth about them always kicking away posession.

Against the Tahs it was a plan to exploit a perceived weakness, and if not for a flukey try off the posts, it likely would have resulted in a win. I doubt the Tahs would've been doing the old "stick it up the jumper" if they'd been behind 9 points with 15-20 minutes left.

Yes, it was boring as hell. But, would anyone be complaining had they won?

I do agree that the quality of some of the kicking appeared to be poor - if the perceived weaknesses were with Anesi and the lineout, why was the ball being kicked straight to Beale and Turner?

I also agree about the incessant one-out hit-ups from the ruck. The strength of the forwards are that they're a strong, but mobile - not necessarily big beasts adept at smashing through well organized defenses. And if memory serves, the majority of the Force's tries have come from broken play, rather than set moves or breaking down defenses through multiple phases.

I'd love to see the ball moved around a bit more! As someone mentioned, the only time David Smith has seen the ball has be in counterattack. No wonder he is moving to France!

[Burgs]

Counterattack is when Smith has always been at his best getting the ball in hand, however, for whatever reason, in 2011 he hasn't had the freedom of movement to maximise his opportunities. It would seem that teams have done their research on him as a marquee player rather than a bench novelty.

[zimeric]

Finally some sensible comments... Granted we will aways have fans that feel outraged by the loss and want to vent.. But after the dust has settled its clear that but for one lucky fluke of a try we would won that game with the tactics we had. David Smith kicked twice... Once was a horrible shank and the second looked like it couldve been kicked by a fullback, was not bad at all.
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[TOCC]

Id say its a rudimentary failure with the whole Force attacking structure rather then just pressure on one player.

David Smith is purely just a outside back, he still needs support players around him to be able to effectively counter-attack. The best counter attacks are done when there is 5 or 6 players in support.

[kipper_mckinnon]

"[QUOTE=Nipper;286202]The Force have kicked the 2nd LEAST of all Australian teams, so I don't get all the gnashing of teeth about them always kicking away posession.

Against the Tahs it was a plan to exploit a perceived weakness, and if not for a flukey try off the posts, it likely would have resulted in a win. I doubt the Tahs would've been doing the old "stick it up the jumper" if they'd been behind 9 points with 15-20 minutes left.

Yes, it was boring as hell. But, would anyone be complaining had they won?"

Nipper - I for one, would STILL have complained even if we had won - we've no chance of making the finals, so I would far rather like to see them go out and play the expansive rugby that we all know they can play, rather than watching 80 minutes of pure pish rugby !!!!!