Emirates Western Force Forum Invitation

[Elf1]

Got my invite Friday, confirmed for tomorrow night. Wow free lemonade for the Elf that does not happen all that often.

[The InnFORCEr]

How did you go Happy and Muddly?

[hertryk]

Eager to know...

[Happy]

ok so the forum at Force HQ last night was good, open table to discussed what ever we wanted and some good comments and suggestions were raised.

Here's what I remember;

Foles comments:

Foley said for the most part the refing in rugby is of a high standard but does agree that some are better than others.

He agrees with too much kicking comment, it is not their game plane and sometime screams as much as we do in the box when we kick away possession, especially if we don't chase it and apply pressure

Honey Badger is happy with Force contract offered to him, he doesn't want to leave here or go overseas, ARU is causing the pain by refusing his top up much to both camps frustration.

Pulver wants the ARC replacement running, all Australian franchises are very keen to have it running and are collectively breathing sighs of relief now that O'Neil has gone.

Darryl's comments:

Stadium upgrades have 4 stages, they've finished stage 1 with the major works completed this year. The western stand is going to be replaced eventually, nib stadium is known in SANZAR as the worst facilities of them all. Pressure to replace the grandstand will come from sanzar, media, other teams etc.

Crowd numbers being displayed at the game, funnily enough because the ground is quite antiquated with the hand held scanners, it takes them a long time to gather such a number. What you would be simple is actually not in this old system. This is part of the stadium's issues and not the Forces, they hire the facilities they don't own them. It was also mentioned some people don't beleive the numbers and have told the Force they think they're understated, which was denied last night.

Opening the grounds prior to the game, for the curtain raiser - again the Force have no control over this and comes down to liquor licencing and staffing at the ground. If they want the ground opened up before the "hour" currently they have to pay for another whole 2 hours of ground time fully staffed as it is charged in blocks of time by the ground. But despite this time issue, it is liquor licencing that is the biggest hurdle, not being able to have the ground open and the bars shut for some stupid reason.

Membership packs next year you will be able to have a hat OR a scarf if you wish. And yes they will never ever give out visors again!!! They actually received 1000 of them back in the post.

Coment was made that some of the GOLD seats were not really of gold value, it was mentioned they will look at some of these issues.

It was a good session

[PeterM]

Good stuff cheers Happy for the info

[Muddly]

Yep spot on Happy, you covered the main points. You stayed clear of the JOC part? LOL. If anyone wants to go email memberships and do it. Was good to be able to chat openly with staff and get honest answers.

[GAFFA]

Yep spot on Happy, you covered the main points. You stayed clear of the JOC part? LOL. If anyone wants to go email memberships and do it. Was good to be able to chat openly with staff and get honest answers.

and this part would be?

[Elf1]

Could not agree more with Happy and Muddly, very frank and candid discussions with good input from a range of participants from Force issues to dare I say it Community Rugby.

All in all a good session.

[Elf1]

and this part would be?

You will need to await the press release

[GAFFA]

You will need to await the press release

so its a done deal?

[Muddly]

Gaffa the way they are going about the whole JOC issue would make all of the TWF proud (IMO). No backward step taken. It's all about the TEAM not HIM. As Elf said wait for the press release.

[Muddly]

Where else could he really go?

[Marty_Mcfly]

thanks for the details chaps. some good things said by the sounds of it.

[beige]

"... in other news, secret contractual negotiations between the Western Force and James O'Connor were broken off after cryptic comments appeared on a supporters website earlier today..."

[UNCLE BOOG]

pfft. Basil (Faulty) wouldnt waste his breath on a non AFL/"football" (soccer) news piece!