0
![Not allowed!](images/buttons/up_dis.png)
This Saturday's game against Perth Bayswater. is a danger game for Pally, suffering the loss of numerous senior players including Stannard, prop Frazer Smith, Chris Rankin and several key backs. James Blumberg injured his hand at training and a virulent strain of influenza has laid out several others including Ben Viriki and Lekka.
Perth would be hot favourites to win, with their powerful front row and outstanding lineout jumpers. Palmyra's perceived advantage in the backs has been reduced, if not negated by illness and injury and it will take a Hurculean effort on their part to pull this one out of the fire.
Levon Kvas-Rothwell will play his first run on first grade game of the season and hopefully will make the most of his opportunities. Jason Burke will continue at halfback and second grade coach Tony Alatini will take on the key 5/8 position.
Rumour had it that Ratu has been cleared to play by the Academy but he did not train and was not selected in the team so this is probably wishful thinking.
perth bayswater is coming off a tough game against kalamunda and have also been hit with that annoying bug known as the flu!! seems to be getting around at the moment...
it is good to see levon finally get a start for the pally 1sts, he is a good player and a good mate of mine and is a very lethal attacking player! As for Ratu being cleared i hope so because he is a player i have looked forward to playing against since the sevens at the start of the year where he just simply dominated! we will have to wait and see what happens i guess
When I spoke to Jason yesterday he expected Stannard to be available for the game and was hopeful that Ratu would be released for 40 minutes of rugby.
Rugby WA haven't put my preview up yet, but I'm sure they won't mind me releasing it here:
Match of the Round: Palmyra v Perth-Bayswater
by Rick Boyd
Palmyra’s third place in the Home Building Society competition is up for grabs when they meet their nearest rival, Perth-Bayswater, at Pat O’Hara Reserve on Saturday.
The Melville based-club has come a long way since they won the wooden spoon in 2004 and 2005, and last year led the competition before bowing out to Wests by a single point in the Preliminary Final.
Palmyra’s rise in fortunes has been achieved with quality recruiting from Brisbane with players such as flyhalf James Stannard, flanker Jerry Viriki and wing Nems Momo; along with inspirational coach Jason Jones.
A win by Palmyra will put some distance between them and Perth-Bayswater that might come in handy when they play Nedlands in two weeks’ time.
Perth-Bayswater won the round five encounter over an injury-stricken Palmyra 22-6, and while not as desperate, the Melville club has problems with this game as well.
Prop Fraser Smith has been suspended for four weeks for striking, leaving Palmyra short of depth in the front row against the strongest scrum in the Home BS competition. An injury to prop Rob Salotti in the last match against Perth-Bayswater left the Palmyra pack weakened and battling to contest, and the game ended with uncontested scrums.
Lock Chris Rankin is absent with a workplace injury, but Jones is hopeful that star flyhalf Stannard will be back from Australian Rugby Championship duties in time to take part, and that giant wing Ratu Siganiyaui might finally get clearance for some game time.
“I guess that’s life,” Jones said.
“You just have to deal with it this time of year.”
Jones is confident that the improved continuity in his back line and a mobile forward pack will enable Palmyra to turn the tables on Perth-Bayswater this time around.
“I know it’s a big cliché, but I’m concentrating on us, not the other team,” Jones said.
“In the first half of the season, we were just doing enough to win.
“But we’re stringing together fifteen or twenty phases now, and I’m confident if we can do that, we can compete with most teams.
“We just have to work on keeping that structure and getting our phases going.”
Jones has plans to neutralise Perth-Bayswater’s big pack by running them into the ground.
“We don’t have the biggest pack, but we play a really mobile game,” he said.
“We’re starting to get into that, we’re trying to get away from the breakdown and move the bigger packs around.
“We’ve got a really good back row, so we have to use our structure to get away from the big boys up front.”
Discipline and turnovers are areas Jones hopes to improve on, and he sees the Palmyra lineout as a key area to compete in the set pieces, despite the absence of the 205 cm Rankin. Jones is also concerned about the weather.
“At the start of the year when it’s dry, you can throw it around a bit,” Jones said.
“But with the weather at the moment, it does change your patterns.
“But I’m fairly confident, if we can get 50/50 ball, we can beat most sides we’ll play.”
Jones sees the top four as being a very evenly balanced contest, Palmyra losing 11-7 to Kalamunda three weeks ago and Perth-Bayswater dropping the same game 18-16 last week, but he thinks Palmyra is steadily improving towards the finals.
“Perth-Bayswater are a good side, and it’ll be a good battle,” Jones said.
“Our boys get on well with the Perth-Bayswater boys, it’s a good hard contest played in the right spirit usually. It should be interesting.”
Last edited by rick boyd; 27-07-07 at 11:37.
Good stuff Rick, thanks
I'm sure there will be something there to get Fulv back on the war path again though![]()
"Bloody oath we did!"
Nathan Sharpe, Legend.
mate if a team can string 15-20 phases together in the home bs competition they should be scoring alot more tries than palmyra have been!! talking it up a little bit i reckon!Originally Posted by rick boyd
I hope they're not being arrogant. I know how much Frank hates teams that are arrogant pre-game.Originally Posted by mixmastamark
So are we saying that there is some chance of him being happy for a change - or should we order more drugs now![]()
61 years between Grand SlamsWas the wait worth it - Ya betta baby
Hey Rick, I appreciate there will be things that are confidential, but who decides what articles are to be written in WA?Originally Posted by rick boyd
By that I mean does RWA come to you and say, this is the match of the round and it would be good if you made mention of (x) as well?
Does the paper call and say we are doing a massive Union feature tomorrow, you have 100 words to tell WA about rugby?
Or do you just keep putting up stories and hope they get past the Editors desk?
I'm not having a go at you, I'm sure you would like a double page in the paper and five feature articles on the RWA site every other day. It just seems that not much actually gets out to the punters.
We can get a report about all the issues in the world about a Melbourne AFL player but hardly ever anything about our own WA based International and National players.
Even when Rugby does make the Press it is regurgitated two day old articles from the East Coast.
It seems that WA media may underestimate the scale of interest in the public?
"Bloody oath we did!"
Nathan Sharpe, Legend.
rugby in w.a is still on the rise, it wont become a dominating force over here for quite some time but i do agree that the w.a papers are a bit behind with updating us on all things rugby! i just got back from a trip to brisbane and i was amazed at how rugby orientated that state is, i was loving it! i actually started watching rugby league over there because you read so much about it that you feel the urge to get behind it, unlike over here
Jones was probably misquoted. You know how the press in WA is ...Originally Posted by mixmastamark
ouch!!! fighting words right there rick
Who decides what articles will be written in WA? The two big newspapers have dedicated journos -- Dave Hughes at the West and Nick Taylor at the Sunday Times, both great blokes who really know their game -- and how they get their stories in is between them and their sports editors. Both newspapers are interested only in professional sports. The West does zero club sports, presumably because they couldn't afford it enough meaningful space to positively affect sales, although Dave got us some great space in the Super Rugby liftout while the Super 14 was on. The Sunday Times does some club sport, including my weekly rugby column, hidden behind the racing after 16 pages of cross-country netball. Both papers will give limited coverage to amateur representative rugby, such as Perth Gold.
The Community newspapers do news only as a sideline, they run an 80/20 ratio of advertising to news, and they rely on free publicity from sports organisations to fill their sports page. Singular.
RugbyWA tell me what the Home Building Society competition game of the round will be, although I can make suggestions. If there's another significant game on that weekend, I try to cover it by telephone. RugbyWA have limited funds for the Home Building Society competition and the nature of the club game means its audience will probably remain fairly limited.
I think the two big newspapers have yet to appreciate the contemporary market for sports media. In many ways, Perth is still a big country town. Perth is an AFL city and probably always will be. A region's iconic sport is deeply ingrained culturally and nothing will change that. I did some work with Glen Jakovich in primary schools and the saturation penetration that AFL gets in WA is something that rugby should never dream about.
What people in WA have to realise is that rugby does not seek to overtake Aussie Rules in this state. Perth is big enough to have several successful major football codes operating at a high level, without AFL needing to feel threatened by rugby. There are enough people and enough money for mutually beneficial co-existence.
Sooner or later the big newspapers need to wake up to this and give rugby the kind of coverage it deserves as a major professional sport in this state. It's a win/win situation. More sport, more media, more advertising, more coverage, more engagement with the sports public and more SALES. It's not AFL v rugby, it's AFL AND rugby. And soccer. Stats show that WA has a high percentage of residents from outside the state and most of those would be from non-AFL places. It's time the WA media matured a little and reflected the cosmopolitan, sophisticated market they sell to, not the entrenched, resentful attitudes of a few old die-hard Aussie Rules media kingpins.
well said Rick, only time will tell I guess
80 Minutes, 15 Positions, No Protection, Wanna Ruck?
Ruck Me, Maul Me, Make Me Scrum!
Education is Important, but Rugby is Importanter!
Thanks Rick.
Pretty much as I thought.
It just really bugs me that even when we do get a few inches of a page it is normally Eastern content with Eastern bias etc etc.
So even when we are given an elbow at the bar we don't seem to get local input.
The Wests liftouts were brilliant, as a starting point in an AFL state, but can be so much more.
As I just commented before reading this thread, the Stanners article by Geddes, why isn't that coming from WA media? He plays here, he lives here, he's staying here yet we get the story from the East Coast.
When I buy a paper it really is for little else than (unless there's some world event) Sport generally and Rugby specifically however I should just put the money in a jar because it is very rare that I read something that I haven't already seen up to 48 hours before.
Anyway, I'm sure you know all the arguments so I'll end my rant there.
Just keep writing the good stuff mate and hopefully the Editors will start to see reason![]()
"Bloody oath we did!"
Nathan Sharpe, Legend.
Hey frank, any idea who is stepping up for fraser at prop?i know Rick Mckeith is filling in stretchs' place at lock, which is a position he has played at u16state and state schoolboys and now plays at 6 or 8, so maybe it is an advantage having 4 loosies in the predicted conditions. Should be a good game either way.Am also looking forward to seeing Ratu have a run.