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Perth Pigs a Force for good
The West Australian3 Jan 2018David Wessels
Former Western Force coach David Wessels is now with the Melbourne Rebels.
There is a cliched adage that “a week is a long time in sport” — by that rationale, a rollercoaster season has indeed been an eternity.
In my first year as a rookie head coach, I was exposed to more lessons in one season than I could ever have imagined.
To briefly recap, at the beginning of the season, the Australian Rugby Union confirmed speculation that one Australian team would be jettisoned from the Super Rugby competition.
What ensued was a period of ongoing uncertainty and a prolonged legal process, that ultimately determined it would be the Western Force to go.
While it is easy to focus on any ill-feelings or unfairness of the decision — perceived or otherwise — the greatest lesson this process taught me was the power of the passion and quality of the fight of those proud West Australians involved with this great club.
On the field, our players put aside the uncertainty of the future for them and their families to fulfil our objective of playing a style of rugby that would make those that supported us proud. This culminated in a 40-11 win over the Waratahs in what would be our club’s final Super Rugby appearance.
From the beginning, the Western Force playing group nicknamed ourselves the Perth Pigs.
Before we took the field against the Waratahs in the final game of the year, I told the team what George Bernard Shaw once said, “never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it”.
This quote sums up my experience of the wonderful people in this State: never wrestle with a West Australian — they’re proud, passionate, and determined, and they always rise to a challenge.
I am so proud of how hard everyone involved fought to save Picture by Sharon Smith the Force. You made banners and T-shirts and attended rallies and court hearings and corralled senators and sent letters and turned up in numbers to the Force Field.
You called into talk shows and encouraged us in the local coffee shop and flooded social media. You never stopped fighting. And I’m proud of how hard you’re still fighting. Professional rugby in WA will rise again because of your passion and commitment. How can it not!
I’m fundamentally an optimist. And as Nelson Mandela once said, “part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward.” Keep going!
I’m incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to continue doing the job that I love in Melbourne. The city is fantastic, our players are extremely determined and — like so many of the fans out West — the Victorian rugby community is eager to test ourselves against the traditional heartland States.
I’m excited about the challenge and will give it everything I have. Unfortunately, the timing of the announcement that the Force would be axed from Super Rugby didn’t give many of us from the West the chance to say our proper goodbyes.
But perhaps that wasn’t necessary. Surely, “if it’s not OK then it’s not the end . . .”
Up the Pigs!