Silver stuff to cheer..

[chibi]

Was always a little bewildered when they axed the Reds before the Rams, likewise, if they axe the Force before the Rebels. Both teams had/have a stronger local RL/rugby community.

[antiussentiment]

of course if we lose the force,we will lose our NRC side as well-and the club standard will drop--there will be no pathway to higher honours left in WA

I disagree. If we are to beat the All Black regularly we need the NRC. Without it, so many local players with talent will just never get discovered and despite their bungling, the ARU can surely see this now.

Under the old system, a few local players made good here and there. But I'm sure many other local players, who should have, didn't. Sure, these blokes knew they had some talent, but without an NRC side that was local were they ever going to gamble on moving interstate? Nope.. ..and remained undiscovered.

This year in the NRC, all sorts of unsuspecting blokes have put their hands up. Able to test them selves in a new forum and discover they have a little something they may not have even been aware of them selves.

The only thing wrong with the NRC comp at the moment (bar the party scores) is that there is not a team in every state uncovering talent.

As I said, to beat the All Blacks we need all the talent Australia (and evidently Fiji) can provide.

[Sheikh]

Antiussentiment, I think that's what BDG means. If the ARU close down the Force, the Force players will be distributed between the other four franchises. Then the Spirit will only be able to draw on the local Pindan players (plus a handful of SR players who may make themselves available to the Spirit, but if you live on the East Coast it's a long way to come for 3 months of rugby).

Therefore, the Spirit will be a weaker team with no/few SR players, and the Eastern States teams will complain about the travel west and campaign for the Spirit to be closed down "to cut costs" or moved (eg, to Adelaide, Central Coast, Gold Coast, Hobart, etc).

Plus the Pindan, robbed of the influence (and money) of the Force will likely stagnate as the players do not have an 'aim' of a Spirit or Force contract. (Do you think the Tahs/Reds will send scouts out here?)

Pulling the plug on the Force will be disastrous for all levels of rugby in WA, just at the time (~10 years after inception) when a ground-swell of locally produced players are starting to make their mark.

The comparison to the NRL disbanding the Reds is useful. 20 years on and league is still struggling to make a comeback in WA, hosting the odd match and only an under 18s code playing regularly.

[shasta]

Toigers Toigers

Was Laurie Nichols your Dad, Rex - the one who forced you to watch the Mungos when you were a kid?

[sittingbison]

...Pulling the plug on the Force will be disastrous for all levels of rugby in Oz...

fixed if for you Sheikh, at no extra charge

[Chopper1]

John Ribot was the scum behind the demise of The Western Reds...

[antiussentiment]

Well how many Super Rugby players do we actually need over here anyway?

Maybe there will be fewer, but there'll still be some. Blokes who can not get a run in the eastern states teams who've had a bad season and need a way to get them selves noticed. There's going to be a bunch of competition to get into the Eastern States teams and not so many spots/contracts. Look at The Booze line up? It's littered with folk who were not getting a good run in their supper rugby side and came here looking for a chance to prove the old club wrong.

My guess is, if there's a little money this side of the Nullabour, there'll be quality players in a form slump looking to get back on the horse. Lets not forget the Brumbies original player base was made up of just such blokes..

How old was Troy Coker again?

Seriously, they need us (and South Australia). Without The Booze, some Western Australian talent will be noticed. But I'm betting 70% of it will not even get to the point it even knows it's in with a shot.