another kick in the teeth

[Bally]

A month ago clubs were told the grand final teams,the pinacle of our season,that no player from either team would be playing nrc.roll on to the week of the gf and 3 players have been told they are expected to travel to qld and wont be back till friday leaving 1day to prepare forth the gf.koteka has been told he is needed to play 80mins,even though hardwick is on the bench,winter is told he will play 30 or 40 because the locks are under done and ainsley will 15 or 20 at tighthead.2 from wests and1 from neddies.show respect to the local comp that it deserves.clubmen and players put in hundreds of hours of non paid time to prepare for this day to be slapped in the face by these so called professionals.enough os enough.the force was suppose to increase the profile of rugby in this state and all they have done is pulled away at the fabric of our game and turned it into an embarrassment.

[Ecky]

Fine line to tread here.

For the development of the , you'd imagine we (the -watching public) want the Perth Spirit to win. For the Perth Spirit to win we need the appropriate players to play for them.

While we'd all like the best players to play for their club in the PPG GF, should we not be looking ahead to the NRC?

Would have been better for the NRC to start a week later.

[palitu]

I would have thought that they could go the one game without those guys.

Did Kane play a lot of games this season? or did the Force duties impact.

[GIGS20]

Yeah I get where Bally's coming from though. It's gotta be hard to have the heart ripped out of both teams on the eve of the final, but on the other hand, we'd all be moaning if the Spirit rolled over in any game this season.

At the end of the day, I think the Spirit coaching staff were on a hiding to nothing in the public opinion stakes, jump one way and they risk not doing their job, jump the other way they piss off the club community by using the players.

I feel for ya Bally, but i also think it would have been a bitch of a balancing act and the Spirit coaches probably decided that since they were going to get hammered by public opinion anyway they were just going to try to win the game.

The better question would be why does the club grand final conflict so directly with the first away game of the "next level" competition specifically designed to showcase exactly the players Neddies and Wests are losing. That question doesn't strike at Michael Foley and the coaching staff, it is more a question of the community rugby administration structure.

[Bally]

Yeah I get where Bally's coming from though. It's gotta be hard to have the heart ripped out of both teams on the eve of the final, but on the other hand, we'd all be moaning if the Spirit rolled over in any game this season.

At the end of the day, I think the Spirit coaching staff were on a hiding to nothing in the public opinion stakes, jump one way and they risk not doing their job, jump the other way they piss off the club community by using the players.

I feel for ya Bally, but i also think it would have been a bitch of a balancing act and the Spirit coaches probably decided that since they were going to get hammered by public opinion anyway they were just going to try to win the game.

The better question would be why does the club grand final conflict so directly with the first away game of the "next level" competition specifically designed to showcase exactly the players Neddies and Wests are losing. That question doesn't strike at Michael Foley and the coaching staff, it is more a question of the community rugby administration structure.

Whos decision was it to play these guys because the email all clubs recieved was pretty clear that NO GF PLAYERS would be selected.yeh rugbywa made a mistake with the fixturing but now we are just being treated with no respect at all.pugs has been coaching along time and this is his first crack at a gf.hey this whole scenario works in neddies favour but thats not how u want to win its ment to be the best 2 sides going all out for there clubs and there team not having your preparation severally hamped by controllable decisions

[Kalahard]

Can understand your frustration Bally from a preparation point of view but:
1. Both teams are missing players - Neds : Ainsley Wests : Kane and Winter
2. The GF is Sunday and barring injury these 4 guys will be available for Sundays game.
3. The schedules for both the Pindan Premier Grade and NRC have been known for months therefore contingency plans could have been put in place by the clubs.
4. Tai McIsaac is the Spirit Coach and not Michael Foley therefore McIsaac is the head of selectors.
5. The individual players should not be held back from progressing their careers at the next level. The Pindan Premier Grade is this teams main feeder competition and so therefore supplying players to the Spirit should take precedence. Would you see McCaw turn down an All Black cap to play a club game? I doubt it.
6. Sundays GF will be a cracker. Absolutely looking forward to it. With teams in the U/19s, 2nd Grade and 1st Grade GFs, Nedlands will have adequate depth to rely on.

http://www.rugbywa.com.au/article/pe...orp-nrc-opener

[zimeric]

Unfortunately clubs across the planet are affected by this process, National sides stealing from Franchises, franchises stealing from Clubs..
I agree that if they outright said they wouldnt do it and then went on to call them up is pretty rude, however you cannot deny the players themselves for wanting to follow their dreams either.
Im pretty sure none of the players called up would want to miss out on playing at the next level regardless of the outcome of the club championships.

[jargan83]

Given that the clubs were told that no player would be picked from the Grand Final sides this is pretty disgraceful from RugbyWA/Perth Spirit.

As Palitu said, surely the Perth Spirit can go one week without the players.

Grand Finals don't come around very often and whilst the players will be available to play, not training with team mates can be poor preparation.

[choice]

In 12 months who will remember who wins the opening games of the NRC.
In 12 months every supporter of Rugby in WA will remember who won the GF, will this memory be soured the selfishness of the coaching staff of the Perth Spirit and the WF, probably!

[GIGS20]

I agree that if they outright said they wouldnt do it and then went on to call them up is pretty rude

That would be the rub right there. I'd missed that little tidbit in the initial post, however if there was a commitment made and then reversed, how is that any different to Geniagate?

Perhaps Taipan wasn't in the room when the initial commitment was made, and there would possibly be some need to compensate him for the loss of some of his stars (Kane would definitely be in that bracket, I don't know too much about the other boys) but I'm more of a "you made a commitment wear it" kind of guy, so maybe my opinion has changed

[Buck]

Very selfish of Tai and perth spirit those boys should and would choose to play in g.f if they had a choice. Sad

[MI5_Dog]

So why can't these blokes play in the GF on Sunday?
sure they might be a bit knackered but I'm sure they're tough nuts who can hack playing 2 games of rugby in 4 days.

[yungfen]

So why can't these blokes play in the GF on Sunday?
sure they might be a bit knackered but I'm sure they're tough nuts who can hack playing 2 games of rugby in 4 days.

It is very true that they actually 'can' play, but the reality is that the teams would not be able to have an ideal preparation for the GF, let alone the obvious fatigue and soreness from the 2 flights and 1 game of much higher intensity due to the law variations and obvious level difference from the PPG and the NRC.

[wjm]

It is very true that they actually 'can' play, but the reality is that the teams would not be able to have an ideal preparation for the GF, let alone the obvious fatigue and soreness from the 2 flights and 1 game of much higher intensity due to the law variations and obvious level difference from the PPG and the NRC.

Yes these guys could play in the GF but based on history RWA will block this due to 'load management' ... Blah blah blah.

If they do play then this flies in the face of what has happened all season with force/academy players who have had training/playing times restricted for their club. If they do get approval to play there will be an uprising from Soaks/Cott/Uni to name a few who have had to follow instructions or be fearful they will lose any allocation of players.

The players could say "stuff it I'm playing in the GF" but are made to be fearful of their future if they go against the direction of RWA so I doubt we will see them play unfortunately.

[Eel]

What's even more confusing and mismanaged, is that the likes of Rory Walton, Albert Nikoro and Brad Lacy who have played for Wests Prems ALL season - until they were withdrawn from the local comp after Rd14 to 'rest' (all 3 played zero Force games this year & contracted players) are NOT permitted to play in the Grand Final. Whilst Kane (un-contracted) rightly is permitted to play the GF - but has played Force games this year. Who makes this s**t up? All other eastern States Super15 players went straight back into club rugby when their Super15 season ended ...