If you look at all those players' career stats and line them against Ollie Hoskins in the years since you'd be forgiven for concluding it was a pretty poor decision to cut him. Our loss London Irish gain?
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If you look at all those players' career stats and line them against Ollie Hoskins in the years since you'd be forgiven for concluding it was a pretty poor decision to cut him. Our loss London Irish gain?
Hindsight is 20/20 vision, as Andrewg stated earlier, Ollie was up against some tough oppostion.
Pek is a Western Force legend.
Jermaine was on the cusp of regular Wallaby time after a great Perth Spirit break through.
Francious like Ollie has excelled in the English Premership and continues to ply his trade well.
Tetera was a fringe Wallaby and all round hard grafter.
Guy was inticed to Southland and the Highlanders soon after so he was obviously no slouch, has continued in the French leagues.
Shamblecker was touted as the next best thing and could have been a tupou if things went his way.
All said and done we should all celebrate Ollies Western Force debut and Wallaby debut passionately, as we should with any Perth born and raised player that has come through the system. Too often we moan and groan about the systems and development in place here, but we need to acknowledge and celebrate the sucess that rugby in Western Australia has achieved against the odds over the years, and hopefully now with new structures and personal being put in place we will have a lot more to celebrate in the future.
Very true. And I don't want to labour the point, but this is one example where I reckon the smart thing might just be to persevere with and educate local products. It's supposed to be our mission, after all.
You need at least 6 props on your list, so I'm not drawing comparisons with obvious "keepers" like Pek, Faulkner, Ainsley etc. Perhaps I should have been more detailed. But I WAS thinking about blokes like Millar, who only managed 3 Highlanders appearances with most of his Biarritz career spent in second division. And Vui, who's record is less impressive than that. So my opinion remains - with 20/20 hindsight. :)
Agree with the general principle, but you are saying Hoskins would still be a Wallaby if he had stayed in Perth....?? :rolleyes:
No. But who knows?
There's also the shocking possibility that it was the actual experience of playing in England that made a difference to Ollie's capabilities, there's been a lot said about the quality of coaching Will Skelton received in England, making him a much better player than he was in Oz (now I've not seen any evidence of that to this point in his Wallabies return, but....)
Ollie might never have reached his potential due to the quality of the staff preparing him. Ollie left in 2015, which means he was at the Force in the Foley era. I actually don't think Foley was a bad forwards coach, but he certainly didn't have his heart in it at the end. Ollie might have been let go by a disgruntled coach who wanted to be DOR but ended up being Head Coach and Forwards coach, plugging the gaps.
I've no doubt the Premiership has improved him. It's a prop factory. Irish wouldn't have kept him so long if he couldn't cut it. Our scrum was always a problem until Taf arrived. That could only have been a plus had he stayed. If so, he'd have been a starter right through GRR I reckon, and would have almost 2 years mentoring under Greg Holmes by now.
So, like I said before, who knows? Unless Medrano is extended or Holmesy decides to play on, we'll be pretty light on THP's for 2023. So it would be a no-brainier to have a shot at Olly. Then he can have a chance at RWC.
Wow...let's not let the facts get in the way of a good yarn.
Ollie Hoskins left the Western Force at the end of the 2016 SR season - not 2015.
Michael Foley was/is a top Forwards Coach and evidently up until his sacking by RugbyWA he was being lined up by Cheika to be the Forwards coach for the Wallabies.
The effectiveness of our scrum has rarely been in question.
Are you aware that Foley has been working as a specialist scrum coach since the WF was sacked from Super Rugby?
Recently he and Greg Holmes have been working together on the WF scrum.
This situation may change when Paul Tito comes on board later this year.
Ask any of the WF Forwards for their opinion of Michael Foley's coaching and they'll give you their own honest impression.
Foley was hindered by the then WF CEO by the defunding of his rugby program.
I assume that this was done with the knowledge and support of the RugbyWA Board.
The detail is in the financial statements during Foley's time at the WF.
(The 2016 accounts have never been made available as the WF was under control of RA. But they are likely to have been worse)
These accounts were published every year but apparently few rugby fans showed any interest.
Attachment 5801
IMO the numbers speak for themselves.
The numbers show that the funding in the areas of Fitness, Recovery and Skills were reduced by >50% over 2 years.
Although Foley was given a chance to influence the budget, the actual $$ allocations was up to the CEO/Board.
The WF had its best year in 2014 (9 wins) – which shows the benefit of the program/developments over the preceding years.
Not surprisingly it couldn’t be maintained.
IMO, although Michael Foley may not have been a perfect coach, he was certainly used as a scapegoat.