2024 Round 13 Force v Brumbies

[James]

The other thing. Fiji replace Crusaders at 8. Crusaders not in finals.

Yeah. I think it is good to see a finals series without them.

[travelling_gerry]

Looks like a successful season is over....we beat the Waratahs, mission accomplished.

[todd4]

If we had scraped into the finals we would probably have had to play the Blues at Eden Park. That honour will now go to the Rebels and likely their final match.

[jargan83]

Looks like a successful season is over....we beat the Waratahs, mission accomplished.

Fremantle Dockers energy.

[WFDom]

Too little too late!

[wallabydarnd]

Please can we please keep burey???
Can he play 12 as back up to Stewart??

[Sheikh]

Please can we please keep burey???
Can he play 12 as back up to Stewart??

Burey's running made me wonder whether Donno at 10 is the best idea. Donno's kicking is great (although Kuenzle finished the season with a 100% record, I think!) but should be looking to have Burey at 10 and Donno at 15?

[SNOB]

After some of our performances this year that wasn’t as bad as it could have been but we looked flat compared to the Brumbies. Our only player that seemed to be able to break the line was KB. The end of another disappointing season.
As for the game of rugby that was not a game to bring new fans to the code or probably keep old ones. I know Health and Safety are paramount but at nearly every break in play a Brumby would go down and the pitch swamped in medics and water boys. At one stage the medic was running onto the pitch giving individual players instructions. You could see him on his coms speaking to whoever then running onto the pitch. So much for speeding up the game.

[bootsetal06]

Refs need to control breaks in play better . I noticed when the Brumbies had the yellow how slowly they got to the centre for a restart. A short arm or even a penalty would soon stop that behaviour. Max Burey … great game ! Thought George Poolman and Ronan Leahy had very good outings as well ….

[boof1050]

Burey 10 and Donaldson 15 would be really dynamic. You could really switch the 2 during the game quite easily. After watching other games and the delivery of the half back i think its time for Nick White to be rested a bit more. Just a millisecond too slow to the first receiver.

[Garry Owen]

Will have pasitoa at an option at 10 and 12 next year as well, he looked good in pre season

[Tazzmania]

Well another season comes to an end.

That match summed up our season perfectly.

Slow out the blocks, cruelled by injuries, came with a rattle at the end, but as always gritty and determined to keep on trying.

Five things we learned this season:

1) While in an ideal world it world it would be great to have mainly or only WA born players playing, they need balanced, seasoned, experienced and next level up players to provide a platform for them to achieve their goals.

2) Cron and his team are building something worthwhile, however we are still desperately short of big bodied forwards and backs with a bit of size and out and out speed.

3) Despite peoples reservations Princep, Beale, White, and Donaldson have been astute "gets" this year and added substantial value to the team.

4) Last night we saw first hand the value of Donaldson's kicking metres, and his combination and reading of the play with Beale, he was sorely missed.

5) I left the best for last. That Sea of Blue. Those rusted on " Sea of Blue" fans, and there are probably only a hardcore few thousand left of us now, that turn up week after week, and despite the results or score line stay true to the team and urge them on and applaud their efforts after the game. Thank you to you all for making being a Force member that much more special. Last but not least to see over the couple of games that the fans were allowed onto the field my heart was warmed by the hundreds of kids now starting to get behind the team, and hope that they add to our numbers as the years go on.

[todd4]

I hope we sign Beale for another season. He looked dangerous every time he touched the ball, even set up Poolman for his try.

[Kernow]

Well another season comes to an end.

2) Cron and his team are building something worthwhile, however we are still desperately short of big bodied forwards and backs with a bit of size and out and out speed.

Cron said as much in the post-game interview - that plenty of the lads would be getting plans to help them bulk up. The three 25 signings I recall are all big units: Swain, Dolly and Paenga-Amosa. Add Throbba back into the front row, and it's another step forward. I hope they can get Santi's pen to paper he's had another solid season and put in some massive shifts.

Last year, I was encouraged by Cron's words, his vision for the club, and the plan he had set out. This season, I've been encouraged by what I've seen on the paddock. As Nic White says, they are building the house, and it ain't finished, but there's been progress. Sometimes, that's been a ten-minute spell, and other times, 60 to the full 80, but I'd say they cumulatively have more minutes of seriously competitive rugby this season than last (I am not sure I can say that the seriously frustrating minutes have reduced though .

I don't know what they do about the travel challenge; it seems to me that some of that comes with experience - they manage it in the Pr014/ United Rugby Championship with geographically diverse teams. Wonder if / how they glean some of their learnings.

[Tazzmania]

Final Match Stats:

In attack 476m and 142 carries with 24 defenders beaten and 7 clean breaks, 229 passes and 9 offloads made for pleasing reading.

Only 15 kicks this week, and without Donaldson getting us decent distance we did not resort to this as much as usual and it left us one less weapon in the armory to work with, which was telling in the end.

Scrum went well at 100%, however 4 lost lineouts hurt us badly.

11 penalties conceded was a better disciplined effort than usual.

Beale showed his class again and Poolman had pleasing stats.

Rodda and Princep good attack stats again.