K Bomb signs for two more years

[The InnFORCEr]

Prop Kieran Longbottom, the first born and raised West Australian to make the Western Force professional squad through the ranks of local rugby and the Force academy, has re-signed with the club.

Longbottom, 25, who made his run-on debut against the ACT Brumbies in Canberra on Sunday still has a year left on his current deal but has agreed to an extra two seasons.

"It wasn't a hard decision at all. This is my home town and this is where I wanted to be," he said.

Longbottom began his career as a specialist loosehead prop but in the past couple of seasons has also been working on his tighthead skills.

During the Brumbies clash he played on both sides, moving to tighthead when Pek Cowan replaced Tim Fairbrother in the first period.

"I want to be able to play both sides, to be dominant on both sides, so I can be used in any situation," Longbottom said.

"I grew up always playing loosehead but I'm enjoying tighthead and it's a really good feeling when everything is going right in the scrum."

Longbottom started his rugby as a teenager with Rockingham, played for the WA Gold representative side and was a member of the Perth Spirit squad in the Australian Rugby Championship.

He made his Force debut as a reserve against the Chiefs at Subiaco in 2008 and finally got his run-on reward on Sunday.

"It was pretty nerve-wracking thinking about it in the week leading up to the game," he said.

"I was nervous and excited before we ran out but once I was on the pitch things settled down and I felt comfortable.

"The plan now is to keep moving onwards and upwards and if opportunity presents itself then I'll take it but at the moment I just want to help make the Force scrum one of the strongest in the competition."

Force forwards coach Nick Styles said Longbottom now had the capacity to play on both sides of the scrum.

"He's perfect front row wise with his best years ahead of him," Styles said.

The Force will need to strengthen their prop ranks with Fairbrother off to English club Harlequins at the end of this season.



http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/spo...op-longbottom/

[Thequeerone]

KOOL

[Tazzmania]

Great News

Also I thought Nathan Sharpe said on the Ten news last night Sheehan had also signed, we are getting there slowly but surely, JOC will be the cherry on the top

[blueandblack]

onya K! Keep 'em coming,

[GIGS20]

Onya K-Bomb, this is great news, he's developing into a genuine starting option, and the space Tim has left will be well filled.

Surely Rabbit would be happy with the forwards who are signing on

[zimeric]

even if he isnt.. with a pack gaining in experience as ours is it will be a drawcard for backs that want to play behind a dominant scrum.. people like Morahan, Cooper, Hilgendorf.. etc

[Burgs]

.. people like Morahan, Cooper, Hilgendorf.. etc

Bring back Jimmy!

Great stuff Kieran

[zimeric]

scratch Morahan good keeper for the Reds there

[AndyS]

And the most important line in the whole article was "It wasn't a hard decision at all. This is my home town and this is where I wanted to be". We ought to be pushing a disproportionate amount into our development program, looking to make it world class. Look for specific funding and sponsorship, get into targeted development programs, but do whatever it takes to bring through local talent. Until we do, it is always going to be harder for us to maintain a stable line-up. The ideal would be if we could get to a point where we were able to limit recruitment to older players who are genuinely interested in a permanent move (Stanners, Sharpie, Pusey, etc) and prioritise local youth, recognising that many will look to spread their wings in time anyway.

[beige]

Hopefully the ARU doesn't neuter our academy and we can see more of this.

[Rucking Good]

Great news re K Bomb - what a great game he had on the weekend - toweled up Alexander...

AndyS

Soo true and yet the ARU are stripping the Force of their academy and forcing the local up and comers (current Lvl 1 academy guys) to head to Sydney or Brisbane to join the new ARU Talent pool. They have been told that if they are not in these pools over east, headed up by that raving megalomaniac David Neucifora, they will not be eligable for Australian 20s rep and will have little chance of playing Super Rugby. $200k has been stripped from local development to fund another exodus to the East - It sucks the big one

[James]

It's all part of JO'N's plan to turn the Force into a Gold Coast franchise and the Brumbies into a Western Sydney franchise. JO'N must die.

Agree Andy. By the looks of things we have a handful of top props floating around at various stages in the academy and could easily plan a future around forming a powerhouse frontrow. Although I never wrote up anything about it (sorry ) I went to the Force A vs Rebels Rising game a few weeks back. Our front row held up brilliantly against a Rebels front row that had Rodzilla in it. That would've been a pretty good experience for them.

[hertryk]

It's all part of JO'N's plan to turn the Force into a Gold Coast franchise and the Brumbies into a Western Sydney franchise. JO'N must die.

Agree Andy. By the looks of things we have a handful of top props floating around at various stages in the academy and could easily plan a future around forming a powerhouse frontrow. Although I never wrote up anything about it (sorry ) I went to the Force A vs Rebels Rising game a few weeks back. Our front row held up brilliantly against a Rebels front row that had Rodzilla in it. That would've been a pretty good experience for them.

Can't something be done about this....CRIKEY!!! Bloody Custard....

[James]

How many things do the ARU have to do to shaft us in the back end before something happens to replace JO'N?

Salary cap- hurts us more than anyone else because it costs more to entice players to pack up and move to the other side of the country.

Pacific nations cup thingy- Tonga, Fiji and Samoa only playing Melbourne, NSW and Queensland.

Newly proposed academy structures- take funding away for current academies and make super academies in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney. Proper shafted.

Perth is, and will remain, a proper rugby hub if we aren't sabotaged by the ARU. Much better value than having the team elsewhere.

[beige]

Pacific nations cup thingy- Tonga, Fiji and Samoa only playing Melbourne, NSW and Queensland.

Brumbies were in that, Melbourne missed out. Would have loved for us to be in it...

Newly proposed academy structures- take funding away for current academies and make super academies in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney. Proper shafted.

Agreed, although Queensland might be even more p*ssed off I imagine.