Half way point of the season

[WF1964]

Canno says we shouldn't be happy with aiming for 8 wins:

THE Force have been pulling the great western con job on us all, but I fear that it may backfire on them.

At the start of the year, coach Michael Foley and chief executive Mark Sinderberry stood side by side and declared that eight wins this season would be a good result.

With my history at the club as a proud former Force player, I was incensed and embarrassed. They were telling their supporters and sponsors that it was acceptable to aim to win just half the games they played.

That was the extent of the ambition of a club now in its eighth year, a club that has regularly underperformed.

But I suspect that was all a ploy by the Force to ease pressure on themselves and shock the eastern teams.

They are out of sight, out of mind in Perth, and by declaring underwhelming goals for 2014, it was as though they lulled rival teams into a false sense of security.

How they managed to string together a club record five straight wins was incredible, built around unwavering defence.



They conned us all. I freely admit picking them as my worst-performing Australian side before the season began.

But after watching their defeat to the Melbourne Rebels on Friday night, I am concerned that the eight-win declaration by coach and boss may have also had a psychological impact on the players. When I was there, the joke was that WA stood for Wait Awhile, you naturally have limited expectations.

What happens when you’re publicly sold as a team that can only hope to win half your games in a season?

They are already three wins away from achieving the goal, and from what I saw of them in Melbourne, they may be getting stage fright.

It is true they were missing a number of key players, but the way their scrum was marched backwards by the Rebels pack was humiliating.

Their scrum was demolished by the Rebels and that will ring alarm bells for Foley as they approach a run of four games against South African opposition.

But I think the Force can bounce back and do something special this year if they truly believe they are better than an eight-win side.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/br...-1226889916726

[travelling_gerry]

Was the "8 wins" actually said by Foley and Force? Or was it "Unnamed Sauces"?

The original article...

http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/...-1226834745175

Not a quote to be seen.

[jargan83]

I'm pretty sure that Foley mentioned it during a press conference after round 1 or 2

[shasta]

Slow news days over Easter Canno? It's quite ok to have goal that sets the bar a notch higher than your best ever performance. The object of setting a minimum acceptable target is to immediately re-evaluate it as soon as it's met.
Then set a new, higher target. Nthing unusual there.

[James]

Canno is talking shit. On one hand he is saying that we should have higher expectations, on the other he is saying recording five straight wins was incredible and that he didn't expect it to happen.

Whether Foley said it or not, it would be arrogant and foolish for a bottom three side to say they were aiming at the finals. Eight wins was a realistic goal at the start of the season. Now expectations have changed as a result of our progress.

We lost to the Rebels because he had a very, very tired team which was missing possibly our three best attackers (Mathewson, Hayward and Morahan). With acknowledgement to Cummins.

[Buddha Handy]

I would love to see us look to replicate the first half of the season, another 5 wins 3 losses would be very nice and good enough for finals.

As for recruiting I still think we need a high quality 13. As much as I love running rugby I think someone like Horne or McCabe would be a good fit for us. Agree we should try very hard to get Luke Jones back.

[SNOB]

I was actually surprised that this was written by Canno. My first thought on reading the article was your talking out your arse.
My thoughts haven't changed but my regard for Cannos journalistic skills have!

[Darren]

That was the extent of the ambition of a club now in its eighth year

or ninth perhaps ...

[wholetruth]

I think you will find that neither coach or ceo ever said eight wins was the target. It has been mentioned by reporters only because the previous best was seven wins. Durrr pretty obvious.
The only thing I can recall is when Foley said something about 10 wins in the past has got teams to finals.

[Kept One]

Slow news days over Easter Canno? It's quite ok to have goal that sets the bar a notch higher than your best ever performance. The object of setting a minimum acceptable target is to immediately re-evaluate it as soon as it's met.
Then set a new, higher target. Nthing unusual there.

I agree, the point about having KPI's is that it sets a target. If the KPi's are not achieved you re-evaluate and reset your strategy. If they are met you set new targets and aim to achieve these.

[GIGS20]

I agree, the point about having KPI's is that it sets a target. If the KPi's are not achieved you re-evaluate and reset your strategy. If they are met you set new targets and aim to achieve these.

True,but you rarely adjust your KPIs before they are actually met.

[WF1964]

I think Canno's article is a gee up - as he says he is a "proud former Force player" - maybe he's loved what he has been seeing and he doesn't want it to end.

There are quite a few former players out there who follow the Force intently and I'm sure want the franchise to have success egs Richard Brown, Cam Shepherd, Scott Staniforth, & James Stannard. Sharpie too but obviously he is new job requires him to be impartial (unlike some other foxsports commentators).

[Macattack]

Here's my two-bob's worth
Given where we are placed now we should definitely be aiming for at least 9 wins for the season and I reckon there is nothing wrong with re-setting targets/KPIs part way through a season. Setting aside the results, there are five key things I want to see for the rest of the season:
. to keep up the fantastic defensive structures and tackling success (our most improved aspect this year)
. maintain the control and composure that has led to tries after 15+ phases
. the two areas of improvement I would like to see are increased time with ball in hand (and hopefully more potency in attack) and
. no more being completely dominated in the scrum (back to what we did against the Tahs, not the Rebels)
Lastly, at all costs, maintain the attitude and belief in each other which seems to have emerged this year (unlucky JOC!)

[The InnFORCEr]

From a kiwi mate who is a Hurricanes supporter but living aboard without his regular kiwi influences, but this was prior to last weekends round.


First things first you’re absolutely right about the tahs. The force have an ‘easy’ draw but the tahs is even better. They will be there. On the flipside the Highlanders draw is awful, and too tough for them, I expect them to fade quite badly and despite being currently 6th will be fighting it out with the canes for bottom spot in the nz conference.

I am allowed to talk like this but appreciate if you guys can’t or won’t as you don’t you wanna hatch anything early. Based on my analysis the Force will definitely make play offs from here. ( please note they are play offs not semi finals until you make the final four). So also, yes your right there will be 3 Aussie teams. The Africans are off the pace and have played an extra game so Bulls/Lions are gone. Despite the huge number of ‘upsets’ this year there aren’t actually as many teams in the hunt as I thought. The force’s winning streak and has negated that and all it has meant is that the aussies teams have come out on the right side of it and the kiwi conference is closer than normal but unlikely to change the 2 team outcome.

Sharks,Chiefs,Brumbies,Tahs, Force, Crusaders is how I am pretty certain it will finish. So I reckon you will be to Sydney or they will be coming to you!

Blues and canes have to play the chiefs twice and the crusaders once each. Both teams would have to beat the crusaders and then the chiefs at least once and have the other do the same thing to get the crusaders out of the way. That seems a long shot. For the reds to come back into 2 of force,tahs and brumbies would have to drop its bundle.

So all in all I think the top 6 is sorted. There really is only 3 unlikely things that could influence what I am whaffling on about above they are;

• The patchy form of the chiefs gets worse without cruden throwing the nz conference into absolute chaos
• The cheetahs upset a couple of teams plans by winning a couple of their home games. This could happen. These guys finished 6th last year and play some serious attacking rugby so a big performance or 2 is possible.
• Outside possibly (that requires both these things to happen not one or the other) that the force just keep marching on win 6 of the last 7 and finish top due to the fact that the brumbies drop 2 home game. This would allow a 3rd NZ team to pass the brumbies. This is the only scenario I can see a trip to NZ for the playoffs for you guys by the way.

[shasta]

Put a lot of thought into that, did your mate. I'm not game to look that far just yet. One week at a time as they say. Knock over the Bulls this week and I might start to dream.