Sharpe urges patience

[wholetruth]

The West Australian
Nick Taylor The West Australian


Western Force foundation captain Nathan Sharpe has called for calm and patience and says coach Michael Foley should be supported despite opening the season with two heavy losses.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/spo...rges-patience/

[GAFFA]

Sorry sharpie but we have been patient for 9 years our patience is wearing thin. Foley is a dud coach who should never have been signed at the force and the sooner he is gone the sooner we will see improvement in the team Foleys game plan is no different now than what it was at the tahs. It didn't work then when he had an Australia A team and it won't work here with the players we have. Mark Sinderberry is kidding himself if he thinks people will accept the crap we have see from Foley for much longer it's he is proactive and gets rid of the dud he inherited.

[SNOB]

What no comment Gaffa?

[.X.]

Sorry sharpie but we have been patient for 9 years our patience is wearing thin. Foley is a dud coach who should never have been signed at the force and the sooner he is gone the sooner we will see improvement in the team Foleys game plan is no different now than what it was at the tahs. It didn't work then when he had an Australia A team and it won't work here with the players we have. Mark Sinderberry is kidding himself if he thinks people will accept the crap we have see from Foley for much longer it's he is proactive and gets rid of the dud he inherited.

You know GAFFA - 99.9% I believe that you and I are on the same page, we agree on pretty much everything. But, with the greatest of respect, I think you have spent to much time listening to Tahds fans on GAGR.

You see real Tahds are the ones that Boo their team for no apparent reason. And continue to blame a coach for having one bad season in the midst of 6 or 7 bad seasons in a row.

On the other hand a Real Force fan knows what its like to have a bad game or a bad season we thrive on the injustice of the East Coast Media and love the fact that we are the perennial underdog. A real Force Fan knows that when the going gets tough we hunker down and tough it out. When the wins are few and far between we wear our OCEAN Blue Jersey with pride because the bad times make the good times feel oh so much better. Real Force fans are primed and ready to explode.

Michael Foley has the ability and the plan to lead us to the promised land - We need to give him the opportunity to do so.

[hertryk]

I think we have been rewarded for our patience! Let more good times role! YEE HAR!

[Rex Messup]

I agree Exile in many ways, however, the success of the game in this state hinges on a successful professional team.

The Melbourne storm mungoes are a great example of how success can be achieved quickly in an AFL city.

The Force have been badly run during the middle years. The secret of getting ahead is getting started however. At least it is functioning however badly.

The venue is now acceptable and a great view is assured even if a great game is not.

Watching the plethora of junior teams involved on match day warms the cockles of my soul.

Seeing a Force A team competing successfully in curtain raisers is building depth and community involvement.

The Franchise seems to be headed in the right direction again. I believe Foley is a good coach. It isn't as if many great ones had their hands up asking for the role.

They seem to have shifted their recruitment vision to RSA at last. It was a no brainer that took almost a decade to realise. The east coast recruits are largely tourists. I feel the South Africans may be making the move with long term intentions given some of the social and political issues back in their homeland and based on the growing South African ex pat community.

The future looks good to me. There is a sense of a growing professionalism, a foothold in the sporting culture of Perth, an increased junior membership, a growing rugby community.

The success of professional franchises however is based around the $$$$ and sponsorship. Companies want a successful brand to affiliate with to hand over large sponsorship dollars.

Winning is crucial!!

The organisation has been making too many excuses. They have made very poor hiring decisions around coaching and management and the "front office" has been a clusterf#ck. The fish stinks from the head down.

Rugby in this state will die if they lose a professional team. Children need a big vision to follow and an involvement at the highest level to find the inspiration to take up the sport and commit to it.

The survival of the franchise hinges on success.

It's time to start winning.

A decade of farcical shenanigans, a turnstyle player roster, the hiring of incompetents and poor onfield results has to stop NOW.

Success requires a bloody mindedness that nothing else is acceptable. Nobody should be involved in the organisation that doesn't want to be involved in holding the trophy.

Winning is the only thing that counts in professional sport.

No more farking excuses

[Alison]

Agree 100% Rex. I truly believe that with Sinderberry as CEO and Foley as coach, we do finally have the right leadership combo in place. They have already stopped the slide (imo) that had us heading into oblivion under Reid and Graham. This year they will start the long climb out of the depths. Next year should be the one for "going vertical"! :-D

[valzc]

I would like to thank Foley and all the Force guys for taking on board the 'harsh' criticism they copped the last 2 weeks and have appeared to have listened to their fans & turned it around in a whopper of a comeback! From now on we will all have to channel only 'positive' vibes & keep the Force going! 1 down now only 7 to go!

[GIGS20]

Well, yes and no Val, this team seems to have a problem with letting their head get in the way and entering games overconfident. I think they need to be told good job, but we're not finished yet. They still didn't play for 80, choosing to shut the game down at 1/2 time, it's a little bit scary how much that looks like a coaching directive....I hope not, because there's nothing surer than the fact that you can't win rugby games without holding the ball.

I want to see them working as hard as they did in the 20th minute right up to 80 and the only change to be that they will kick themselves out of the 22. There were still far too many useless unchallenged midfield bombs in the second half, evidenced by the fact that we let the rabble catch up in virtually every stat.

In short, I love what they did last night, but they need to know that is far from enough to win against a really good team.

[Tonkar]

GiGs you right on the money rugby goes for 85 mins and if you dont play that 85 at the same intensity then it can bite ya butt....


I was not there last week at the cnr post but maybee hearing the suporters at the bar knocking phases of play might have got home... The 1 point that has not and as everyone keeps saying aimless kicking.

[James]

Well, yes and no Val, this team seems to have a problem with letting their head get in the way and entering games overconfident. I think they need to be told good job, but we're not finished yet. They still didn't play for 80, choosing to shut the game down at 1/2 time, it's a little bit scary how much that looks like a coaching directive....I hope not, because there's nothing surer than the fact that you can't win rugby games without holding the ball.

I want to see them working as hard as they did in the 20th minute right up to 80 and the only change to be that they will kick themselves out of the 22. There were still far too many useless unchallenged midfield bombs in the second half, evidenced by the fact that we let the rabble catch up in virtually every stat.

In short, I love what they did last night, but they need to know that is far from enough to win against a really good team.

I don't know if I completely agree with that GIGS.

Our dominance may have dropped off a bit, but part of that was the Rebels dragging a handful of those players who were contributing to their own poor performance.

What we were able to do, and very effectively if you ask me, is force the Rebels to play all the rugby and mostly from their own half. We did that and they almost were not able to score a point for the whole of the second half. We probably slipped from 4th or 5th gear down to 3rd, but clearly we were good enough that it did not matter. I personally would rather we took it a bit easier, unloaded the bench and ensured we were fresher for the following week than to have maintained that intensity, risked injury and came up with the same result.

I guess the counter argument is that the game was less entertaining in the second half for the fans. There is probably also an argument that a similar approach may not work with other teams. I don't think you can go 32-0 up at half time and be reeled back in in a hurry. Any less than 32-0 up and maybe they would not have used the approach they did.

Even the best sides do it GIGS. I am reminded of Sharpie's last game for the Force against the Crusaders in NZ. The Finals bound Crusaders went up 32-3 at half time. Lost momentum in the second half and finished the game 38-24.

[SNOB]

IMO the tactics, whilst not a spectacle were correct. Kick deep and chase well which they did,normally with two or three players. Rebs coughed up the ball a few times under the pressure. The continual having to run the ball back from their own 22 was wearing them down.
As James says it might not work with every team but I'm just glad it worked last night.
Now go and play 80 in NZ.

[MI5_Dog]

The big problem for the team is that, now we have seen what they are capable of, we (I) are going to expect that sort of intensity and, to be honest, level of skill every week.
It's ok to get beaten when you're crap, but when you can score better than a point a minute then that's what I'm going to want to see next week and every week after.

[Flying 14]

Too true Dog!! I've had enough of the mediocre and want to see that level of play every game. If we play well and lose, at least we played well. The fans will stick around. If we play like we did the first two weeks, it gets harder to justify the membership every year.

[AndyS]

Have to agree. I don't expect that we will score with that freedom every week, but that wasn't what impressed me about the performance. What I was pleased to see was multiple lines in attack, players running onto the passes, raw aggression at the breakdown and tackle, and hard chases of the gratifyingly few box kicks. Best of all was the support running - when Cummins chased that kick and had to die with it, support was there despite it being a wild breakout. That is how good teams score tries, particularly when a big unit like Junior starts running strong at the gaps, committing multiple tacklers and getting the offload away. Maybe the only thing I did notice was that, as good as the scrum generally performed, McCalman seemed to be binding a bit high. Might need to look at that against the better scrumming teams...