Half way point of the season

[WFDom]

Well, we're Half way though the season & i'm sure we're doing better than even the most optimistic of us would have expected.

5 wins 3 losses and 3 BP's

What do we need to do to make this season a success given all the good work so far?

Are the finals achievable?

Who on the evidence so far this season do we need to retain? Who needs to go? Where do we need to recruit?

[James]

Okay here we go-

1) To make this season a success based on the pre-season KPIs we probably need to finish higher than 9th. Based on KPIs now, we need to make the finals. At this point in time, if we don't win another 3 of our final 8 games, our season would be considered a failure. We can take the Bulls next week. There is no reason why we couldn't win both (or at the very least one) of the games in South Africa. We then have the Lions, Blues and Reds at home and the Crusaders and Brumbies away. Five wins should see us through to finals. Four wins would have it go down to the wire. We also need to ensure that the team will be going upwards into next year.

2) The finals are achievable and should be our goal at this point in time. We should be targetting the Bulls for a win. We should also be aiming for a win on the road in South Africa, and three wins at home vs the Lions, Reds and Blues. If we pick up a couple more bonus points, we might scrape into the finals off just 4 wins.

3) Of those guys off contract, we need to re-sign Longbottom, Charles and Cowan. Maybe it's better if Salesi Manu moved on and we had Oli Hoskins take his place. I expect Phoenix Battye will move on- although he was good when he came on against the Rebels. Adam Coleman must be retained and he would take Phoenix's spot. We definitely need to keep Cottrell and it would be great to keep Alcock. We will start to need to think about life after Hodgson in the backrow EPS too. It would be good to have a close eye on the U20s. It'd be great to get another year out of Alby Mathewson. However, if we can't have him, do we want to keep Ebersohn? Ebersohn and Mathewson work because Mathewson directs the attack. I really like Ian Prior's passing game, but I don't think Ebersohn and Prior compliment each other in the same way. It'd be great to keep Junior Rasolea. If we are looking to keep CTM, I reckon it would be worth looking at Godwin as a possible playmaking 10. It would definitely be great to re-sign Jayden Hayward. He plays a big role at the back. What do we need? A bit more depth. Maybe a big bruiser in the second or back rows. I'd love to have Luke Jones at the Force. A lot of what we have is already good enough.

[.X.]

You know this is a real interesting question.

And the more I think about it, the more I don't know how to answer it.

I am a Western Force fan and have been since day 1. Sure I live on the other side of the country, but that has never lessened my love for the Western Force. But for right or for wrong I am not used to all of this success. Please don't get me wrong I am loving every minute of it. My fridge is full of beers from winning bets from friends here in Sydney, but each and every week part of me is expecting the wheels to fall off the cart and for the team to fall in a heap.

Its hard not to see this season already a success. The change in the character and attitude of the team as a whole stands us in good stead for seasons to come. I have no wish to be greedy, if we weren't to make the finals this season. I am cool with that. Next year a finals run.

[Sheikh]

... I'd love to have Luke Jones at the Force...

You mean Luke Jones back at the Force? He was here in 2010 and left for the Rebels, mainly because Sharpie was still here in Perth.

Other than that, I pretty much agree with you, except that I don't think the KPIs should be changed to making the finals. The KPIs from the start of the season should remain unchanged - improving year on year. We've definitely improved on last year, and 4-4 down the stretch isn't a bad result for a team which was 13th last season. If we make the finals, great, but if we miss out I'm still looking at significant improvements from last year (but that doesn't mean we can go 0-8 from here on in!)

[James]

I don't know if I would call it an improvement if we lost every game from this point onwards. It's only an improvement if you are getting better. We need to come away with at least another 3 wins to be able to say we are improving. Lose the last half of the season and you are declining. Rather rapidly.

[jargan83]

9 wins probably won't be enough to make finals looking at the ladders from previous years. No side has made the finals with 9 wins in the current format.

I agree with James that if we went 0-8 from here it probably wouldn't be an improvement. In fact the usual media cretins would writing us off as being a flash in the pan.

Foley is on record as saying the side was targeting 8 wins for "successful" season so they are only 3 away from that but finals should be the aim for the team. I could cope if they didn't make the finals but it would be bloody brilliant if they did!

[Hoolly Doolly]

If ebersohn goes with alby then I would prefer Holmes at 10 then Godwin. Holmes needs more game time though.

[chibi]

Trying not to be too harsh, but it is a worry when a team looks a bit rudderless without Mathewson. Having said that, you can't win on defence only, but I can see a direction for the team now, which I couldn't before. We can keep the ball for several phases and we also have a maul, so if we can get this going, and we start creating our own tries, we really could have something special. On this path, I can see exciting times ahead.

[Kept One]

If we get 8 wins for the year would that not make it the most successful Force season, as I think our previous best was 7 wins.

[jono]

i'd be ok with 8 wins. i think more is achievable though.
i'd love to start hearing some noises about re-signings though! james hit it on the head. there are some members of the team we need to keep on the books, or we will go right back to re-building again.

[shasta]

I can't actually remember how the finals gerrymander works. Taking the current ladder, would the top three f(Sharks, Brumbies, Chiefs.) fulfill the "one from each conference" farce. Or would the wild cards go to the Tahs, Crusaders and Bulls with the Force being stitched up?

[blueandblack]

We need to keep winning. Not sure how'd we go IN the finals, but I think we can at least get there and I want to see it happen.

[jargan83]

I can't actually remember how the finals gerrymander works. Taking the current ladder, would the top three f(Sharks, Brumbies, Chiefs.) fulfill the "one from each conference" farce. Or would the wild cards go to the Tahs, Crusaders and Bulls with the Force being stitched up?

If the season ended today the Force would go through in one of the wild card spots. The one from each conference (which I agree is a farce) only applies to the conference winners.

[Sheikh]

If we get 8 wins for the year would that not make it the most successful Force season, as I think our previous best was 7 wins.

2008 we got 7 wins, but that was from 13 games (7-0-6), so from a 16 game season you could argue that even 8-1-7 wouldn't be as good and we'd need 9-0-7 to be our best ever.

I wasn't saying I thought closing out the season 0-8 was a good thing; but we've had some injuries to key players and despite the improvement in depth, it still isn't equal to some teams (and probably won't be until the NRC is in place for a couple of years).

I'd say closing out the season 3-5 from here, to achieve 8-8, would be the minimum aim, but if the pre-season KPI was, say, win six games and finish 4th in the conference (both improvements over last season) then they should remain as the KPIs which the coaches are judged against at the season end.

[James]

In my opinion, the point is that we can make the finals by continuing on in the same vein as we have been playing. We are fortunate enough that in our next four clashes we play the four South African franchises. The Bulls are the only team who are doing any good and they are tired and injured (much like us). We also get a bit of a rest before the Cheetahs (A) and Stormer (A) and the Lions (H). The Lions will be on the last game of their overseas tour and will be ripe for the picking. I honestly believe we can take three wins off the South Africans. There are then four games (2 away in Christchurch/Canberra and 2 at home) were if we can scrounge 2 wins or a win and a 2 or 3 bonus points, it could happen. I'd settle for less, but we should not be aiming for less.

Next weekend will be be the tipping point. Beat the Bulls, stay in touch with the finals and effectively put them out of the finals race. Lose to the Bulls, fall back further down the field and keep them in the finals race.