Different mindset

[westies man]

Had a long conservation today with a good friend from my hometown in NZ .Elliot Dixon the Highlanders no 8 contacted my old club Taieri with his playing resume asking if it was possible for him to attend club training as he had just moved into the area and wanted to play club rugby for someone.Asked for nothing, just the chance to join up with the club he lived closest to.Brad Thorn also had a run with the club on Saturday and put his All Black jersey he wore for his 50th test match up for auction with all proceeds going to the colts.If any players body needed a rest after all he has put his body through it would be this man's at 38 years of age.These men realise that without amateur rugby clubs they would not have been given the opportunities they have been fortunate enough to have been given.You then hear stories about Force players trying to extract as much as they can out of metro clubs here in Perth for the privilege of having them play for your club.This is the kind of mindset that will ultimately destroy the Force if they are not directed to make themselves available at every opportunity and to be distributed evenly across metro clubs.The Force has failed miserably to connect with the local rugby fraternity and I fear for the future if the current climate is allowed to continue.All it is doing is alienating a huge number of rugby tragic's and the powers that be need to stop pretending that a problem doesn't exist and address it.How good would it be if all players had the ethos that Thorn and Elliot have shown

[brokendown gunfighter]

different generation I"m afraid Westie

[shasta]

I read an article by Justin Marshall along the same lines about how great it was to turn out for his club in Otago and find that Andrew Hore was in the oppo team. Along with that other Ex- AB, Ex-Blues, now Highlanders has-been loosehead prop whose name I can't recal ATM. So fuggen what!
All those fuckkers have earned a good quid out of the game. Thorney has done so in both codes. Easy to be so magnanimous towards grasss roots when your superannuation is already banked. Don't be so hard on the also-rans.
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[westies man]

Your missing the point and a whole lot more and that the problem with this franchise

[westies man]

different generation I"m afraid Westie

It was yesterday

[RumourMonger]

I suspect the horse has already bolted.

After todays insipid performance against the Tahs, I'm not sure anyone's got the energy or inclination to chase it.

The games administrators have heard the club's feedback re this for some years now and have done very little to bridge the gap between the Force and the clubs, instead betting the house and car on the Force coming good and new sponsors and punters walking through the gates.

[shasta]

Your missing the point

Yes. I misunderstood what you were writing about but not completely. The fundamental problem is probably that many of the players don't see the local clubs as "their club".
Andrew Hore and Justin Marshall, in the case I read about were helping out the clubs they played at as juniors. Woodcock turned out. as a favour to Hore.
I wonder, though, whether things are a lot different with competions like the Shute Shield or in NZ with regard to pro contracted players turning out when not in the match day squad for the Super franchises.
Perhaps someone like yourself could explain whether these players started demanding match fees or whether certain premier clubs have set benchmarks by way of inducements?
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[RumourMonger]

Perhaps someone like yourself could explain whether these players started demanding match fees or whether certain premier clubs have set benchmarks by way of inducements?
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When the Force started in 2006 the players were familiar with Sydney clubs where players receive match payments of around $750 per game. They then expected payment when approached by Perth clubs to align themselves with their particular club. As an aside this is why half of the Sydney clubs are broke.

Initially and naively half the Perth clubs whose heads were still thinking amateur thought the Force players would join their club to be part of the local rugby community and didn't realise that the players minds and loyalties were elsewhere.

Certain Western Suburbs Clubs got the jump on the rest of the clubs by working out quite quickly that some dollars needed to change hands and from then on they have held the ascendency because the Force players they had then lured more of their team mates. Led to a very lopsided distribution of players.

That's the simple history of it and now the precedent has been set it is difficult to return to the type of community-minded relationship that Westies has mentioned.

How Mums and Dads administering rugby clubs are supposed to be tuned in to players and their agents I don't know. The western suburbs clubs were given the inside run from their men on the inside of Rugby WA and the outer suburb clubs were snookered.

[shasta]

Thanks RM. Pretty much what I suspected. Unfortunately. Though we also hear that it's not the case with evey player.
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[RugbyRef]

When the Reds players are not selected Ewen Mck sends them back to their clubs to play.

When there is a bye weekend for the reds, they go back to their clubs to play. Even when players were injured, they would turn up to watch their club play. No matter if it was Quade Cooper, James Horwill, or fringe players.

One massive difference I noticed about the reds was their attitudes toward to the junior game! They seemed to realise they are the ambassadors of rugby to the next generation.

They made themselves available after EVERY home game (win or lose) to go around the ground signing autographs and getting pictures taken taken with their fans.

The outcome was that the reds increased their membership to 15k season ticket holders (which for a town with AFL & RL was massive), they then turned their performances around to win and now have over 30k members who turn up if they win or lose.

I believe the Force need to take a leaf out of their books if they want to connect more with the junior game, and help develop then next generation of Force players.

[RugbyRef]

Thanks RM. Pretty much what I suspected. Unfortunately. Though we also hear that it's not the case with evey player.
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Salesi Ma'fu being a good example, rested for ages, so went to play for the club that his kids play for. I bet he takes not a penny either.