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Thread: Emirates Western Force Squad Members Hit The Park

  1. #1
    Player Contributor RugbyFan's Avatar
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    Emirates Western Force Squad Members Hit The Park

    Doesn't it suck that Palmyra have 2 quality contracted players playing for them and some clubs have none!

    Taken from RugbyWA website..

    As many as fourteen players from the Emirates Western Force squad will be in action for their clubs this weekend as they get some game time under their belt before the clash with Samoa on Saturday 8 July at members Equity Stadium.

    The following players are set to play some part of First Grade games this weekend.
    Gareth Hardy, Matt Hodgson (Palmyra)
    Angus Scott, Jimmy Hilgendorf (Wests Subiaco)
    Matt Windle, Richard Brown, AJ Whalley (Cottesloe)
    Junior Pelesasa, Josh Fuimaono, David Te Moana, Vitori Buatava (Wanneroo)
    Luke Holmes (Nedlands)
    David Fitter, Brett Stapleton (University)

    Get down to your local club to support your team and see the big guns in action.

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    Sorry (the strangley quiet?) Redbull, but I think Kala may be in for an arse whuppin'!
    Timely inclusion of Scott and Hilgendorf for Wests coming up against ladder leaders Soaks too.

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    Legend Contributor fulvio sammut's Avatar
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    I agree with RugbyFan.No club should have two until every club has one.

    Therefore, on the broad basis of last years finishing positions, I suggest the following solution.Take two players from Wanneroo and give them to Rockingham.Take two players from Cottesloe and give them to Kalamunda.
    Take one player from Wests and give him to Associates. Take one player from Uni and give him to Perth.
    We then have the bottom three clubs from last season plus new club Rockingham with two players, and all the rest with one. Fair and simple.
    Palmyra still play "ugly rugby" (ask Rick Boyd about that) and the two players will no doubt pretty them up.
    No one should complain, because after all, we all want a fair go for all (the Australian way) and we wouldn't want to see poor old Nedlands disadvantaged futher after being screwed by Rugbywa all season.

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    What do you suggest doing with the rest of the forty man Force Squad fulvio?
    I think they were reasonably shared out at the start of the season, at least on paper however, with the political issue at Kala and the inevitable attrition rate and national selections, it is pretty much impossible to plan to have a level playing field of distribution at this point in the season.
    That said, a week out from the Samoan fixture, I would have expected to see at least 22 players out there this weekend to knock the cobwebs off and contest for playing positions!
    The last three for Wanneroo are interesting as the rumour mill suggests that they are being dropped from the Force Squad

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    Legend Contributor fulvio sammut's Avatar
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    I was just taking the piss out of that cheeky closet Nedlands supporter, Rugby Fan, Burgs, as he was out of me.
    You're right though, there is no absolutely fair way of distributing players between the clubs while that distribution is left to the discretion of the Force or Rugbywa management or to the players themselves. And of course a lot depends on what your interpretation of fairness is, and what you are trying to achieve.
    I believe that what our collective goal should be is to attempt to have 10 clubs of as near as possible equal strength and competitiveness.There is nothing to be gained by having one "super club" feeding on the carcass of the rest of the competition. Eventually this is self defeating anyway, as they will end up playing with themselves, literally and figuratively.
    Whilst it may suit the Force to have players located in a cluster of (or indeed one) conveniently situated clubs,the Force's concept of convenience should be secondary to the needs of its owners, and the owners, as Geoff Stooke was at pains to point out when he was desperate to get the clubs onside with his Grand Plan, are the clubs themselves.
    My proposal is that all professional players, i.e.all players on the Force's (and therefore the collective clubs) payroll be placed at the commencement of the year in a draft . The bottom club would then have first selection, the second bottom second selection ,and so on until all players are allocated. Each club would therefore select in order of greater need, and be able to decide for itself in the selection process whether it wanted a lesser player who would presumably be available more often, or a name player for greater prestige. The clubs could also factor in the player positions they are in greater need of or any other consideration important to them. By this process the clubs would have ownership of there selections and could not thereafter complain of the consequences if things don't work out.
    The players themselves should have no choice where or for whom they play. To put it bluntly they are professionals and must do the bidding of their employers.
    I would include in the category of players available in the selection process all paid academy players no matter what local club they originally played for. Either they are professionals or they are not. If they are professionals they play where and for whom they are paid to play.
    This process would still enable the clubs to continue on their merry way of poaching or enticing each others amateur players and to buy, hold on to, or import whatever players they want, using their own money. Or better still developing their juniors.
    The Rugbywa approach for next season appears to me to be to do a Pontious Pilate;to put it in the too hard basket and allow an open slather approach by the clubs to all contracted players. Rugbywa is saying it has no control over where the players chose to go. I say that is a copout and absolute nonsense. It is certainly easier for Rugbywa to say this (and then I suspect to direct the players where it suits the Force to have them) but it is not in the best interests of the competition. It is in fact the beginning of the end to a vibrant local comp and will eventually result in one or two bloated heavyweights and the rest of the clubs moribund or dead.
    Already I have heard of gloating comments from a loose lipped ( or stupidly disingeneous) senior Nedlands player boasting that that club has secured Hilgendorf and several other Force players for next season.Under the present proposed head in the sand approach of Rugbywa I say good luck to them but God help viable club rugby in this State.
    And before the more cynical of you cry sour grapes , perhaps there is an element of this, but please don't think my club doesn't have the financial and administrative ability to play the same silly game, because I am sure it has and I know it is happening already, but that doesn't make it right or in the best interests of a competition I have been intimately involved in for over forty years.

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    Immortal Contributor The InnFORCEr's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by RugbyFan
    The following players are set to play some part of First Grade games this weekend.
    Gareth Hardy, Matt Hodgson (Palmyra)
    Angus Scott, Jimmy Hilgendorf (Wests Subiaco)
    Matt Windle, Richard Brown, AJ Whalley (Cottesloe)
    Junior Pelesasa, Josh Fuimaono, David Te Moana, Vitori Buatava (Wanneroo)
    Luke Holmes (Nedlands)
    David Fitter, Brett Stapleton (University)

    Get down to your local club to support your team and see the big guns in action.
    Anyone got this weekends fixtures?

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    Home Building Society Competition Round 12 Fixtures
    1/7/2006 - 3:05pm

    These are the Home Building Society Competition Round 12 Fixtures. First Grade games kick off at 3.05pm.

    Associates v Wests Subiaco, Allen Park.

    Cottesloe v Kalamunda, Harvey Field.

    Perth Bayswater v Nedlands, Morley Reserve.

    Wanneroo v University, Kingsway Reserve.

    Rockingham v Palmyra, Dowling St.

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    No dramas fulvio, I thought as much but was a handy way to get a dialogue going
    Your draft proposal is probably the closest I have seen suggested to a "fair" system, although I would hesitate to include the Academy players in this proposal for two reasons. First is there is no assurance that those players are going to go on to a S14 Squad (ours or the other three. I wonder who will be our first "poached" Academy player?!) so for many of them they are being removed from the strong sturcture of their home club for no real gain. Second, I would actually think this may lead to being even more counter-productive in certain clubs developing their juniors. Also the stronger juniors development structures will get even more jack of continually seeing their talent walk out the door. I would be more inclined to develop some period of "hands off" where a player has a commitment to their junior club for X years (maybe 3 years of Seniors) unless both parties agree to him leaving.
    Without even suggesting which clubs or anything like that, would WA Rugby actually be better served by forming an elite comp of maybe five teams with no Grades behind them? This could perhaps start the season as curtain raisers to the Forces' last matches and then as double headers on Sunday afternoons so all in the WA Rugby Community could go to Perry Lakes or the like to see the best of the local talent play. This would offer the best level of opposition for the Force Squad and also a greater test for our promising locals.
    I fully admit that I am sitting on the outside for this one however, from the outside, it would appear that our so called "Premier" Rugby comp has our talent spread way too thin to be a breeding ground for our next generations of Force and Wallaby players.
    As our rugby population increases (local and immigrant) the opportunity is perhaps there to restructer a more Nationally competitive competition for the short term rather than trying to get ten equal clubs?

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    Player rick boyd's Avatar
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    You can see what the clubs on the bottom half of the table will be thinking though, can't you? Except Wanneroo, eh Frontrow?

    Just look at that list. The top four clubs, the old, vested interest clubs, the snouts in the trough clubs, have snaffled all the players -- like they need a helping hand.

    And there they will be, situation normal, stocked with players they pinched off the lower clubs, loaded with Western Force players, kicking the living daylights out of the lower clubs, who miraculously don't seem to have any Western Force players and no money to buy in the players like the top clubs.

    And so the vicious circle continues. The rich get richer and the poor get pooorer. Tell me again how the Force was supposed to even out the competition and boost grass roots rugby in Western Australia.

    Disgraceful.

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    Legend Contributor fulvio sammut's Avatar
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    Steady Rick, you're starting to sound like me!
    Unlike you to include "lowly Palmyra" in the top club category though!

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