2 Steps Backward and only 1 forward.

[Big Ted]

My Biggest concern for the Western Force is the clear lack of players in the wallaby set up-

Over the last two-three years the western force have only had two players that were inevitable to the wallabies starting 15 and classed as one of the best players in the country.
Not surprisingly these players were JOC and Pocock.

For the western force I firmly believe we must have two of these players once again in the squad.

In the next year I believe we have a player who fills that spot that JOC left...

Kyle Godwin.... He is the best 12 in the country and the moment and at the tender age of 20 he will surely be one of the best in the world. His overall game is fantastic he is the only player at the force who can break the line in a world class fashion... His offloading game while continue to develop, which I believe will be the strongest part of his game to break the line and give runner tactile offloads... His kicking game is average... Defensively he is also outstanding a tackling machine is our Kyle, people believe that Ant Fainga is the best option at 12 due to his leadership and defence quality I believe kyle matches his now even in the earliest part of his career.

Godwin<Barnes<Fainga<Lealifano<Carter

We have no one stepping up to replace Pocock the back row looks as strong as ever for the force but it doesn't have any zest they are three hard blokes that have great work rates and are capped wallabies who have got caps due to injurys.

What I believe is that the force must sign Lopeti Timiani. The 19 year old is huge and will continue to grow..... With a backrow of 6 Brown with Cotterel as a sub 7 Hodgo with Alcock backing up 8 Lopeti with Sam Wykes as a sub.... There you have got the two Hard working grafters with the Ball carrying hard hitting 8 that will be one of the best 8s I. The world.

The Force would then have near enough have the new JOC and POCOCK.

With the likes of Brown, Hodgo, Honey Badger, Junior Rasolea, Mafi, Morahan, Madness, Charles. All players that if the western force were winning games would be in the training squad if not in the match day squad... You now have a strong super 15 team.

But saying that I think we have had stronger teams in the past....


1 step forward two steps back.

[jono]

Can see where you're coming from here Ted.
Nitpicking, sharpie would have been one of the first picked for a world 22 when he was still playing.

Agree we have to hold onto Goodwin. But we should also be careful not to expect the world of him. He needs to grow into his posistion. And we need to find quality players who can complement him as well as take the heat off him & provide another equal in attack when he gets shut out of the game. Because he's getting noticed in a big way now - so this will be the natural progression.

We cannot build the team around one player. This is why we haven't cleared the middle of the table so far; and probably why there is only longbottom in the force so far. We wasted efforts on others as opposed to giving locals a shot.
Granted the local comp may or may not have been up to scratch to give us the players we wanted but the argument can be made that they were overlooked.

[Big Ted]

Rasolea is the righty player outside Godders... Who at 10 though...

[jono]

That's the million dollar question hey? :/

[Big Ted]

Well I think it should be a 12 with good distribution skills...... James O Connor....


But if JOC isn't coming back


Same applies but perhaps a pacific isles player someone with flair to take on the line.... Or even a 7s players...

Do you have any ideas...?

[Basha69]

Well I think it should be a 12 with good distribution skills...... James O Connor....


But if JOC isn't coming back


Same applies but perhaps a pacific isles player someone with flair to take on the line.... Or even a 7s players...

Do you have any ideas...?

Zac Holmes!!!

[.X.]

But saying that I think we have had stronger teams in the past....

I agree that we have had stronger teams in the past.

But I believe that we have never had as strong a team ethic, an esprit-de-corps if you will.

John Mitchell tried and failed miserably. Richard Graham had no idea. Michael Foley and his team of coaches has done it in less then half a season. No Western Force team have come together in the last couple of weeks and fight for each other and trust in each other like this team does. This is a good thing and in the next couple of weeks we are going to see more results come our way. I think that the only thing that will let us down is that we do not have a genuine game breaker in our team.

I also believe that with another coaching structure for the Wallabies - we would have more representatives in the Wallabies starting 15.

A healthy Nathan Charles, A healthy Hugh McMenamininan, Richard Brown, Matt Hodgson and a healthy H.Badger are all good enough to make a strong Wallabies Team

[James]

It will be interesting to see Luke Burton in the U20s. He's the second fly-half so he is likely to get a fair bit of bench time and maybe even a start against Fiji.

At the moment we have some great players. It would be great to have a tank in the second row to compliment McMeniman. It would also be great to have a wrecking ball number 8.

I'd really keen to see the Godwin/Rasolea combination develop. Other than that, there are still question marks over 10 and 15. I've liked SNK. I am not as big a fan of Ebersohn.

I don't think there is a lot that needs changing with the Force but we do need some genuine threats across the park so that attention isn't focused on two or three players.

[chibi]

No Western Force team have come together in the last couple of weeks and fight for each other and trust in each other like this team does.

I admire how they've managed to show this sort of application after those games against the Kings and Rebels.