Foley to head the Emirates Western Force

[Invictus]

Andy S - the player development pathway in Australia is flawed at the national level. There is only so much that can be done in a regional setting as the largest piece of the puzzle is completely missing (a national competition).

They will be shovelling snow out of the main street of hell before we see the ARU move on the national competition issue... there will be 6 SR teams before that...

[Macattack]

The other thing that is good about this announcement is the repeated reference to an attractive, attacking style of game that is being demanded by the fans!

“It’s my role to set up a program that builds towards success. The coaching staff will be looking to promote an exciting brand of rugby that captures the imagination of our fans and wins games as well. To that end, we will be looking to recruit an attacking coach with a record of producing that style of game.

“I want our fans to be excited about the style of footy we’re playing and keen to be a part of the club. We need to be playing this brand of rugby to assist the club with our recruitment, retention and development, and we’ll be working hard to ensure that the Force is a club that people are proud of and where players want to play.”

Let's hope he really means it and will deliver it on the field - I can live easier with losses if we play brave and entertaining - hopefully it will also lead to more wins!

[normie]

Ditto, Macattack. If I hear anyone in the crowd shout out "Kick it" there will be blood.

[sittingbison]

...anyone in the crowd shout out "Kick it"..

I thought we were all shouting "Don't kick it". and then groaning

[normie]

We certainly were!

[Flying 14]

I'm up for attacking rugby, as are all my mates who come to the games with me. Normally leaving disappointed! We will need intelligent recruitment to achieve it me thinks......... Fingers crossed that development meeting Foley mentioned in the press conference was intelligent and threw up some idea's.

[AndyS]

First one for mine would be an extended training squad. All the teams have a limited Extended Playing Squad, but is there any limit on who can train with the team? Wouldn't necessarily be all aspects, but there must be a few players approaching the level where they could contribute and learn a bit in the process. Most teams burned through their EPS pretty quickly this year too, so how handy would it be to have some local players that might be able to step up rather than go to the ES for a player than knows nothing about the team?

[James]

We've had a range of fly-halves at the Force but I don't think any of them have been better suited to attacking rugby than Kyle Godwin.

Jimmy Hilgendorf and James Stannard were courageous, challenged the line and relied on their short passing game. They didn't always unlock the outside backs though.

O'Connor and Giteau were very skilled but tried to do too much themselves and didn't really use the backs outside them. Giteau ran across field and cut down the time and space for outside runners. When both players played 10 they kicked too much, although that could well have been part of the game plan.

Ripia's didn't play much, and when he did, he didn't challenge the line. He just threw cut-out passes which made things easy for the opposition.

David Hill was pretty good all round. Kicked too much though.

Godwin isn't a brilliant player but he has a really good running/passing game. Some of his passes against the Crusaders were really impressive. He also isn't a great kicker so hopefully we won't see a death by kicking.

[wholetruth]

Let's give Sias a chance shall we

[James]

I never said we shouldn't. It would be madness to start Godwin week in week out in Super Rugby. It was just an observation that we have the cattle (at 10 at least) to build towards an attacking style of rugby. The opportunity is there to be taken. I don't want to see any more of the conservative shit we endured through Richard Graham's time.

[GIGS20]

If we snare Pretorius (which has been suggested) it would be madness not to have Ebersohn sharing the field with hm!

[shasta]

(a national competition).

They will be shovelling snow out of the main street of hell before we see the ARU move on the national competition issue... there will be 6 SR teams before that...

Surely there is a simple, cost-effective compromise, which while not being ideal, is better than doing FA. Second XIV curtain-raisers to all derbies. Seems a no brainer.

[Burgs]

Second XIV curtain-raisers...

A Union-League compromise

[shasta]

XV - and I wasn't even using a phone keypad.

[Invictus]

Surely there is a simple, cost-effective compromise, which while not being ideal, is better than doing FA. Second XIV curtain-raisers to all derbies. Seems a no brainer.

While I would be the first to subscribe to the theory of anything is better than nothing, the second XV idea does not provide enough games for adequate player development (8 games over a season isn't enough). This is particularly the case for WA.

As we experienced this year with the carnage in SR, the development players need to be fit and match hardened as they need to be ready to step up at a moments notice.