ARU website poll
Interesting that out of a tad over 1300 people that completed the new poll more than 65% said that the Force are the team to beat. (Unless of course it was this sites population that have done the bulk of the voting)
That Grand Slam last year must have really riled those eastern types.
Get used to it, it will be a regular occurrence!
And the Reds are running second??
Hadn't seen any mention on it here before (if I had, then maybe there'd be reason to suspect shenanigens).
Added my vote just for good measure though ;)
good measure is right
Force 65.4%
Reds 19%
Tahs 8.1%
Bumbies 7.5%
So I assume the sentiment is the team they want to beat rather than the best team? No way 65% of the population would allow themselves to vote that way otherwise I guess...
only wa votes counted at this stage.....? To me the Brumbies are the team to beat on paper anyway
The Brumbies and the Waratahs both have very strong squads this season, and will be the top two placed Australian sides.
The Brumbies certainly are relying on a fair few players that will leave after the 2011 RWC. They have 2 years to win a title and then it will be all over. The Tahs arent quite as bad, but a few of their stars might also leave after the RWC. They will always have the talent mind, with NSW having the bulk of players in Australia, but they dont seem to be very good at retaining players. I also think that these two provinces will be the ones hit up by the introduction of the rebels.
The Force on the other hand have started to rebuild the team with players that are not stars right now, but will build together in the Froce team over the next couple of years. Force wont win this year, and I am predicting a mid table finish. But there are a lot of young, very promising players in the team and they will learn to gel with each otehr over the next two years. By 2012, the Force will be a title contender.
Interesting point, farva. I wonder if the Force 'rebuilding' this year will drag the Rebel's recruiter's eyes eastwards. If the Reds are also poor this year and the Rebels strip-mine the Brumbies and Tahs, listen for the howls of protest and cries of conspiracy. You heard it here first.
The poll is a good measure of supporter loyalty and team 'soul'. Force have it in spades, Reds are the real deal, Brumbies and 'tahs fans are faded and jaded ...
Brumbies - 7.9%
Reds - 19.0%
Waratahs - 8.2%
Western Force - 64.9%
2.30pm awst
Well, I hope the poor old Reds don't get shafted again as when the Force started up. If we thought about it at all we would have supposed that the existing 3 franchises would have lost players pro rata - more or less - but that didn't happen.
If you blokes lose any players to Melbourne there will be a bit of righteous schadenfreude felt by folks north of the Tweed River. They still remember the photos of the grinning Nathan Sharpe when it was announced he was going west - they love you not.
The Tahs will have some players poached, as they should, but they won't lose a heap of experienced Super14 players as of them only Palu, Carter and Benn Robinson are not signed for 2011. Hooker Adam Freier could be released - he's the type of livewire guy who would be great for a brand new team and if Fitzpatrick develops as most expect him to do, and there is not a serious injury, we won't need Freier for 2011.
Barnes is not signed either but he is Tahs poach himself.
We will lose a lot of our professional Academy players but it's nothing new. Ex Tahs Academy players like McCalman are spread through the other Super teams as they should be. There's only 2 fellows in the current pro Academy I really want the Tahs to keep - both 2009 Schools players who I think will be special - and the 3rd 2009 Schools player I wanted to have in our pro Academy you blokes poached - Luke Jones.
My prediction would be like most non-Aussies would have it:
1. Brumbies
2. Tahs
3. Force
4. Reds
Because of Giteau, and how influential he is as a flyhalf at the Super14 level, I reckon the Brumbies will go real close to getting the chockies this year, but I would have been be even more sure if the FK sanctions were still in place.
Come on Lee
Any red blooded Queenslander hates the Tahs more than the Force
The Brumbies hate you as well
The Kiwis just laugh at you
Lee, I dont think the stars will go from any teams. The provinces have learned from the Forces entry to make sure that their star players are signed up nice and early before they can be nabbed by the Victorians. Unless of course that player has a desire to go to the new club (Barnes, Elsom and Dunning are players that this might be true for).
I think it will be the second string players that go. The guys that cant get a starting spot in their province because they are fighting for a spot with a world class player. Im thinking here the Lealiifanos, the Mitch Chapmans (although he wont go). The players that are S14 quality but warming the bench. And because of the depth the Tahs and Brumbies have over the Force and Reds, I can see the Victorians targetting these teams. And what that will mean is that the Brumbies and Tahs will lose the next generation of players, much like the Reds did in 2006. When the current crop of stars retire, then these teams will be in a bit of bother. Having said that, since most of the rugby talent in the country comes from NSW, I cant see the Tahs having too much of an issue bringing through talent, they will just find someone else. The Brumbies will have problems though, as they have traditionally relied on the NSW excess players to fill their ranks, with a few home grown players too boot.
Didn't say they didn't - they always will. It's a great historic rivalry and I hope that never changes.Quote:
Originally Posted by SleazyWineBaas
Strangely we don't hate them - well not to the same extent. Our vanilla crowd can't match their passion. A lot of them aren't rugby heads. They like a winner when the Tahs win at home but they love to be entertained more. Many of them are general sporting fans who like a night out.
They got bugger all of that last year: http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/tah...-to-break-out/
The noisest people at the SFS are the Kiwis when a NZ team is in town. The Brumbies and Reds crowds are feral and the Force mob looks the same on TV. It will be great for Force fans at the new stadium. Maybe that will help their team to win more home games that should be won.
Yeah everybody hates us. We wouldn't have it any other way. Even in rugby league folks who know nothing about the game go for Qld against us. Everybody hates teams from the big smoke. Melbourne fans will too - they won't have big smoke standing as far as rugby is concerned and the chips on the shoulder will be as big as anywhere else..
The Kiwis put us to shame as well Lee, our only hope is that, since they never become members, there'll only be about 20 seats available for them this year.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee Grant
Likewise, we hope the cauldron atmosphere MES creates will help push our boys over the ine in those close ones......God knows we lost a lot of close games at Subi!
farva
Everyone should beware of that crafty Rat, Rod Macqueen. Year after year at the Brumbies he picked up players overlooked by the Tahs and turned them into better players than we had. Expect him to do much the same in 2011. The trick is to have not many good players going off contract in 2010.
But something cropped up that will be a relief for teams like the Force with a small local player base. The Rebels will be able to use 10 foreign players in Yr 1 - something that the Force should have been able to do when they started up as it would have saved the Reds from falling into the depths of despair.
That's 10 Aussies saved for the other teams and it's a good thing because the number will decrease year by year and the pathways for young Aussies open up.
I'm not worried about the Tahs; we seem to be getting better at keeping the good S14 and pro Academy players than we were in the past and we can't keep everybody. I wouldn't say that we had a lot of depth in our younger players but we have a lot of width - a lot of good players more or less the same so that if one goes there's another around. So we have a bit of insurance.
It doesn't mean we''re going to be world beaters, in fact we were nearly last a couple of years ago, but it was just a blip as we made the final the year after and nearly made the top 4 last year but were 4 points short on for and against.