Force set to be axed

[GIGS20]

I have signed the petition

Me too, but I'm not sure RUPA will agree with everything I said.

After all the work to build a pathway to Super Rugby in the West, that work is on;y now, after 12 years, beginning to see fruit. We have yet to see that fruit to mature into a strong and vibrant Wallaby factory like the "heartland:" states. It's even worse for the Rebels, who are still in the same boat that the Force were 6 years ago.

To have introduced a fourth, then a fifth team, with little or no support, and then reverse that decision before the experiment has had time to produce a result is wasteful and irrational. Not to mention unfair to employees, customers and business partners of whichever franchise is destroyed.

The issue that keeps Australian rugby performing below the standard of New Zealand rugby will not be solved by administrators throwing up the storm shutters and cutting costs. It will be solved by the administrators working to ensure that talent is no longer warehoused in the heartland (The Waratahs routinely field teams with Wallabies on the bench, the Rebels only have 2) and players are given the opportunity to play more rugby in a truly unified approach, much like the New Zealand Unions.

[zimeric]

yeah hopefully not. if they read my letter theyd realise that ive already mentioned that their public response has been underwhelming...

[shasta]

It will be solved by the administrators working to ensure that talent is no longer warehoused in the heartland (The Waratahs routinely field teams with Wallabies on the bench, the Rebels only have 2) and players are given the opportunity to play more rugby in a truly unified approach, much like the New Zealand Unions.

I read an article about a week ago that gave a little insight into the AFL's handling of the introduction of AFLW. The most important factor, according to the scribe, was how they spread the talent among the "lesser" AFLW franchises to ensure competitive outcomes and maximise fan engagement. Just one more example of how the navel gazing ARU are light years behind the major codes. Very frustrating when you think about how bloody obvious this concept is.

[chibi]

I've been slowly introducing my grandson to this fantastic game and, now he's got his membership, he's always on my case about when the first game is - thanks to the Bieber bullshit he missed the actual first match, being a Thursday. I am actually feeling a little uneasy about the whole thing now. Is he going to enjoy the experience so much that he is a rabid Force from then on - only to have his team kicked out of the comp? That is bugging me more than anything else - for all WA Rugby kids.

I suppose the saving grace would be to take the folding chairs to the hill and watch our premiership-winning Perth Spirit.

(If that's any consolation)

[blueandblack]

I suppose the saving grace would be to take the folding chairs to the hill and watch our premiership-winning Perth Spirit.

(If that's any consolation)

if they still exist.

[shasta]

What B&B said.

[GIGS20]

I suppose the saving grace would be to take the folding chairs to the hill and watch our premiership-winning Perth Spirit.

(If that's any consolation)

Unfortunately I think the Spirit will be required to suffer the effects of my decision to completely turn my back on the gsame if the ARU shaft the Force.

I think that they'd be on shaky ground anyway. As soon as some NSWRU numpty thinks that shafting the spirit would cover up the fact that the Tahs still suck even thoguh they had access to all the Force players they'll be gone.

Seriously Can't anybody see that the most superstar laden teams in the Australian conference are performing farthest below expectations? Surely increasing the concentration of superstars into those same underperforming teams will completely fix the problem won't it?

[PerthGirl]

Just had a survey back from ARU re did we answer your question etc. said not really and it's time the ARU stood up and grew some as per Kearnsy!

I said similar thing in my survey

[Sheikh]

If the Force go, the Spirit will, in all likelihood, go too. Why have an NRC side here, where there aren't any professional players and no Super Rugby side to provide players. The East Coast franchises wouldn't want their players this far from home, and they wouldn't want all the travel to play matches here if they don't have to. The Spirit would go and the spot as 8th team will go to the Pacific Islands side people have been taking about (probably based in Penrith to see if Western Sydney does actually want rugby!)

[chibi]

John O’Neill tells ARU to stand up to SANZAAR

WAYNE SMITH

Former Australian Rugby Union powerbroker John O’Neill has insisted the ARU must stand up to SANZAAR and veto any proposal to jettison one Australian team from Super Rugby.

Although the ARU has denied media reports that the Western Force have been earmarked for eviction from Super Rugby if SANZAAR decides to scale back the competition from the current 18 team to 15, the almost certain reality is that the national union has fallen in with SANZAAR.
If broadcasters give approval for a reduced competition and South Africa vote to sacrifice two of their teams — almost certainly the Southern Kings and the Cheetahs — at their April 6 general assembly, then Australia would have to decide whether to stand up to SANZAAR or meekly fall into line and sacrifice one of its own franchises.

The Force have been identified as the prime target in media reports, but it is understood that the Brumbies remain on the endangered list. The Melbourne Rebels are rumoured to have escaped the gallows, primarily because, as a private equity club, it would be too expensive to get rid of them.

The ARU deliberately has chosen to be flexible throughout this process, to give it as much room to manoeuvre as possible, but the walls are beginning to close in and some hard decisions will soon have to be made.

Yet all indications are that Australia already has reached an in-principle agreement at the London meeting three weeks to cut one of its sides if the South Africans do, so any change now would involve a monumental backflip.

O’Neill, who stood down as CEO of the ARU in October 2012, insisted yesterday that the national union could not pass the buck to SANZAAR on the question of cutting or not cutting a team.

“The ARU is SANZAAR,” O’Neill said. “It’s an owner with veto powers. It’s their decision and if they don’t like what’s put up, then vote it down.
“If Australia loses a team and the ARU blames SANZAAR, then it’s a misrepresentation.”

Despite the best attempts of South African strongman Louis Luyt in the 1990s to set SANZAAR — or SANZAR as it then was, before the introduction of Argentina — it was in fact formed as a joint venture. Had it been a company, directors would have been obliged to act in the best interests of the company but a joint venture entitles “owners” to act in their own best interests.

The ARU has stated that its preferred position is to maintain all five teams but, as former Wallabies captain Phil Kearns said on Fox Sports, the ARU would need to “grow some cojones” to argue that Super Rugby remain at 18 teams or, more boldly still as O’Neill suggests, insists that all Australians teams remain and that the last three teams in — namely the Jaguares of Argentina, the Sunwolves of Japan and the Kings — be the first three out.

That would put Australia directly in opposition to the man who looks set to become the next World Rugby chairman, current deputy chairman Gus Pichot of Argentina.

Meanwhile, the cost — both in terms of people and money — of cutting the Force has come into focus with Bob McKinnon, chairman of the Future Force Fund, insisting that loyal backers who have personally funded the scheme to bring local WA players up to Super Rugby standards would simply walk away if the Force were jettisoned.

“I’ve been a rugby tragic since I was 10 but I would just walk away. So would so many others. And who could blame them?”
Currently rugby supporters give $500,000 a year in tax deductible donations to the Future Force Fund through the Australian Sports Foundation and the Force are hoping to raise that to $1 million annually to create a squad of 20 players. But all that money would be lost if the ARU abandoned the Perth club.

Breakaway Kane Koteka, on tour with the Force in New Zealand and preparing for Saturday’s match with the Blues in Auckland, was in the original Future Force intake of just four players in 2014.
“It’s a good thing they’ve done,” Koteka said of the FFF donors. “Because of them, they’ve given guys like me the chance to pursue our dreams. They’ve played a really big part in me getting to where I am.”
But Koteka said the whole Force squad was gripped by uncertainty and admitted that he and others were weighing up their options.
“I guess I would head overseas which is not good for the growth of the game in Australia. Heading overseas or interstate would be the options.
“It’s the uncertainty. You don’t know what the plan is for next year so I guess you’re always looking to see what’s out there and where you might potentially end up.”

[DazloT]

I've been slowly introducing my grandson to this fantastic game and, now he's got his membership, he's always on my case about when the first game is - thanks to the Bieber bullshit he missed the actual first match, being a Thursday. I am actually feeling a little uneasy about the whole thing now. Is he going to enjoy the experience so much that he is a rabid Force from then on - only to have his team kicked out of the comp? That is bugging me more than anything else - for all WA Rugby kids.

Right there with you Shasta. My six old is just hitting the age where he is starting to fully engage and develop the passion for the Force. He now jumps up and yells just as loud as me when the Force score. He wants to go to the sideline and meet the players, he wants to sit down and watch the games on TV. We play rugby in the backyard together and he plays for the Force and I have to play for the Reds (because we beat them). Sometimes he is generous and lets me be the Force and win!

I've thought about how to tell him if the Force were cut and can't even think about how to explain why they were cut in a way he would understand. Let alone handling his disappointment.

[beige]

If the Force go, the Spirit will, in all likelihood, go too. Why have an NRC side here, where there aren't any professional players and no Super Rugby side to provide players. The East Coast franchises wouldn't want their players this far from home, and they wouldn't want all the travel to play matches here if they don't have to. The Spirit would go and the spot as 8th team will go to the Pacific Islands side people have been taking about (probably based in Penrith to see if Western Sydney does actually want rugby!)

Fiji Warriors are in this year.

[PJ43]

I just sent a message to Mr Pulver:

I am an AFL supporter who has switched to rugby as my preferred sport because of the Western Force being in Perth.
If the Western Force are shut down I will revert to AFL and never support Rugby in Australia again.
How can you consider shutting down 'my' rugby team???

Do you think he gives a toss?

[Leo86]

I just sent a message to Mr Pulver:

I am an AFL supporter who has switched to rugby as my preferred sport because of the Western Force being in Perth.
If the Western Force are shut down I will revert to AFL and never support Rugby in Australia again.
How can you consider shutting down 'my' rugby team???

Do you think he gives a toss?

Similar to my message, grew up playing/supporting/watching AFL and if the force were to be dropped id drop the sport

[vulcan]

this whole mess should of been put to bed long ago our great game has turned into a sporting joke thanks to the PLONKERS that live in thier ivory towers and have no idea what is going beyond the $$$$$$$