Western Force

[phonetic]

Waste.. of.. space.

I work with the brother of one of the Force's players, and all year he has been vocal with his opinion..

'They won't win a game this year'

Maybe he has owned a crystal ball all along.

 

[Polynesian Warrior]

Western Australia has the worst rugby union comp that I have ever witnessed.

The senior competition is full up with old men.Esp there Third grade and forth grade

The WARU favours a couple of clubs (Cottesloe and Nedlands) Look at the Force players drafted.

In the biggest area in Perth growth wise (Rockingham) they have not fielded a first grade for five years because the League is so strong.

The junior comp is in disarray with games refereed by Dads, no medical trainers for teams, players playing in different gear etc etc etc.

The Force have alot of work to do not only in getting a winning side but in setting up a decent local comp that can compete with the League comp in the West. They go for quantity of teams in union and really there is only 4 decent clubs who would even get near winning the comp. Their junior set up is as amateur as can be.

WA's rugby union comp is alot stronger fieldo . The 3rd grade and 4th are suppose to be the social grades of the comp with most players in that grade are all ex premier players .
The WARU has done alot of hard work to develop rugby in WA and the Force is the fruits of that hard work .
West (now West Subiaco) was fighting relegation along with Rockingham & ARKS a couple of years ago and now it has won two titles in a row .

Rockingham has the most Jrs in any rugby or league clubs in WA and was very strong a couple of years ago .
There was no schools in Rockingham that played rugby years ago but now all the high schools in the area played rugby .
Rockingham is about an hour drive from Perth but still manage to compete in the premier and country comp .
Unlike the Rockingham Raiders league team who pull out a couple of years ago from the WA Premier rugby league comp due to lack of players numbers .
Rockingham and another club about 40 minutes drive north of Perth (Wannaroo) have now join the priemier division again .

Dads or team coaches are suppose to ref all Jrs until a certain age . Its done in NZ and in Queensland .

I think the league comp in WA is the one in disarray with clubs with long history force to amalgamate (Canning Bulldogs, Mosman Cottesloe, Belmont, Bayswater, Coastral Cowboys) or dissappear all together .

The Force will get stronger and the rugby community in WA will still support the only rugby team in the state .
Not bad crowds for a team who hasn't won a game so far and Im sure some NRL and S14 teams will kill to get a crowd like the Force have been getting .

 

[Iafeta]

The Force will be without Staniforth for a while - how bad was his shot his elbow shot to a bloke who wasn't even getting the ball?

How'd he stay on?

 

[aussies1st]

Another inside centre gone, hmmm
Anyway Force lose another close one, they just can't win the close games.

 

[Polynesian Warrior]

The Force have an exciting centre in their team (Tahjong Mailata) who was close to singing with the Canberra Raiders a few years ago .
I heard he's got an attitude problem and Mitchell is not happy with him .

 

[yankeerugger]

they seem to be looking seriously at the longterm growth of the team, and the people are not demanding instant results, and are keeping with the team....


I'm a fan of both codes, but would have to think that a lot of RL clubs in WA are going to be loosing players to RU clubs as the Force starts to accelerate the growth/depth/quality of rugby in the region.

I would think (being the optimistic chap I am) that in 3 years, they will indeed be a "force" in the S14.

 

[douglasallen91]

force players may be let go to the air new zealand cup (npc) instead of going back to old clubs in sydney.

hopefully higgeldorf comes back to the naki and one of james (ex naki) or scott fava (to replace masoe) comes also.

 

[yankeerugger]

for the development of these players, this would by far be the best for the bettering of their skills, and improving their performances in the S14 next year and beyond.

The improvment of the local club competition will come with time.

 

[aussies1st]

They need to send guys like Daruda and Ioane to the NPC. These guys clearly need more experience.

 

[Iafeta]

Yeah, but why at a young New Zealand player's expense?

I say hell no, don't want them, don't need them, not good for NZRU to have them.

 

[aussies1st]

Lol not my problem what happens with the young Kiwis

With the way our national comp is set up these blokes have no hope in hell of improving.

 

[phonetic]

Another demoralising defeat last night. This time at the hands of the Auckland Blues.

They are one of the hardest teams to watch out of any sport. A true punish.

 

[Polynesian Warrior]

Yeah ! Its up there with South Sydney and Carlton AFL.

 

[phonetic]

I'd rather watch the bunnies than the force. They are a rabble, but at least there is a tiny bit of substance behind the mess.

A bunch of Shute Shield wannabe's plonked on the other side of the country, getting their bums whipped every week does zilch for me.

 

[aussies1st]

It will only get worse from here, lost their best 5/8 of the year.

 

[fieldo]

WA's rugby union comp is alot stronger fieldo . The 3rd grade and 4th are suppose to be the social grades of the comp with most players in that grade are all ex premier players .
The WARU has done alot of hard work to develop rugby in WA and the Force is the fruits of that hard work .
West (now West Subiaco) was fighting relegation along with Rockingham & ARKS a couple of years ago and now it has won two titles in a row .

Rockingham has the most Jrs in any rugby or league clubs in WA and was very strong a couple of years ago .
There was no schools in Rockingham that played rugby years ago but now all the high schools in the area played rugby .
Rockingham is about an hour drive from Perth but still manage to compete in the premier and country comp .
Unlike the Rockingham Raiders league team who pull out a couple of years ago from the WA Premier rugby league comp due to lack of players numbers .
Rockingham and another club about 40 minutes drive north of Perth (Wannaroo) have now join the priemier division again .

Dads or team coaches are suppose to ref all Jrs until a certain age . Its done in NZ and in Queensland .

I think the league comp in WA is the one in disarray with clubs with long history force to amalgamate (Canning Bulldogs, Mosman Cottesloe, Belmont, Bayswater, Coastral Cowboys) or dissappear all together .

The Force will get stronger and the rugby community in WA will still support the only rugby team in the state .
Not bad crowds for a team who hasn't won a game so far and Im sure some NRL and S14 teams will kill to get a crowd like the Force have been getting .

Rockingham has played first grade RL for the last six years with the last two years finishing third.

Rockingham RU has played in the third grade since 2001 and when they have tried to play first they have dropped out part way into the season. This year they have won two against the weak teams...this week they play a stronger team.

Union in the schools developed shortly after the REds went belly up....most of the development work was done by the RL. And they have Kobe College which was a league schol prior to 2000.

RL is in the schools as well ....its the schools who dictate when the various competition run.

The RL clubs you mentioned that have gone were all either inner city clubs with no development areas, or third grade clubs with terrible administration or no development.

Dads refereeing juniors...well thats an amateur and dangerous ideal as with insurance the way it is these days I hope all Dads are covered if they have no referees ticket....and what about medical?

Rugby League has the strongest junior comp in Rockingham and a number of the players play a bit of both....WARL junior and club champions in 2005 were the Sharks.

I wish the Force well as at least the talk is about rugby not AFL or soccer....

I still think the Force has done Rockingham RU no favours.

 

[Polynesian Warrior]

Rockingham RL has finish third in a comp with 6 teams in it . And you can apply to play in the WARL first grade comp even if you don't have Jrs or history in league .

Rockingham RU played in first grade in 2002 and when Rugby WA(WARU) restuctured the league the follwing year .
Rockingham and ARKS RFC were asked to play in Districts comp which Rockingham won by beating Wannaroo .

Rugby was already establish in school in WA before the Reds join the NRL . The Private school Association(PSA) comp has been running before league and rugby clubs were form in Perth .
Rockingham has ten junior teams, and the only club in W.A. to field teams in every age group, and also sponsoring nine high school teams. (Bringing up the number to nineteen teams in the Rockingham area.) Rockingham led the nation in player growth in Rugby Union in 2001.
Kolbe College is an AFL school and a South African immigrant by the name of Wille Van Dyke became a teacher there in 1997 and Kolbe College now has five rugby teams and its one of the best rugby schools in WA .

A league school by the name of Aramore High couldn't find any other schools to played league against so they now played in the Rugby union school comp and also rugby 7s .
Rugby WA runs the Combined Schools & Colleges (CSC) comp in year 8, 9, 10, 11 and Open .
There were 64 teams and its not bad for a comp that was indroduce in 1997 with only four schools .

Dads referee Jrs league/rugby games in Brisbane until certain age groups where professional refs a use .

Rugby Union has the strongest junior comp in Rockingham and even in the Peels region with record playing numbers in clubs, primary and High schools . Rockingham rugby club and High schools make up the most numbers of representative players in WA State teams from any region of Perth .

The Force has help alot with juniors paticipation numbers up 30% from last year .
Rockingham rugby has beaten a strong University team and Wannaroo and so far is looking good with all its players returning home from estern states and from other clubs .

 

[fieldo]

Rockingham was never asked to pay in the district comp.....they were just not good enough-be truthful now.

Aramore and John Wollaston were the two league schools...the only reason why Aramore changed was because of lack of opposition thaT THEY WEREN'T BEATING BY 60 POINTS.

Yeah union only had 4 schools until league pulled out in 1997 when the Reds buggered off....left the WARL to struggle back....Union just moved in and said thank you very much.
Before thr Reds arrived the only schools that played RU were Private schools such as Scotch College. The Reds opened up alot of schools to Rugby.

There were six quality teams in the league comp not 10 with three who could compete (Nedlands, Cottelsoe for example)

The guy from Kobe Wille Van Dyke gets a trip to SA every year while the players play upwards of $2000. or the parents pay I suppose.

When you organise a trip like that must be a few free ones in there...probably raffle them off I suppose.

but saying that it looks like Rockingham is a strong rugby(league and union) area in 2006.

Lets see whos more successful this year

League or union

Still think Union in Rockingham is not being looked after by the Force.....when it comes to players allocated to them....well Nathan Sharpe isn't going to play is he?

 

[Polynesian Warrior]

Rockingham was never asked to pay in the district comp.....they were just not good enough-be truthful now.

Aramore and John Wollaston were the two league schools...the only reason why Aramore changed was because of lack of opposition thaT THEY WEREN'T BEATING BY 60 POINTS.

Yeah union only had 4 schools until league pulled out in 1997 when the Reds buggered off....left the WARL to struggle back....Union just moved in and said thank you very much.
Before thr Reds arrived the only schools that played RU were Private schools such as Scotch College. The Reds opened up alot of schools to Rugby.

There were six quality teams in the league comp not 10 with three who could compete (Nedlands, Cottelsoe for example)

The guy from Kobe Wille Van Dyke gets a trip to SA every year while the players play upwards of $2000. or the parents pay I suppose.

When you organise a trip like that must be a few free ones in there...probably raffle them off I suppose.

but saying that it looks like Rockingham is a strong rugby(league and union) area in 2006.

Lets see whos more successful this year

League or union

Still think Union in Rockingham is not being looked after by the Force.....when it comes to players allocated to them....well Nathan Sharpe isn't going to play is he?

Rockingham was relegate to the District Competition after coming last in 2002 .


Aramore is now one of the breeding grounds for Rugby WA and they gave the school $20,000 worth of rugby equipments .


There are 7 schools in the PSA school competitions . Games between states schools were played before the Reds arrived . They were organise by local clubs .
Rugby WA just took over the states school competition in 1997 and call it CSC and made it statewide with 64 teams .

A friend of mine who still play for the Sharks tells me that only two quality teams played last year in the league comp with some teams having use the same players for the reserves and first grade all the time .

Nedlands, Cottlesloe, University, West Subiaco, Associates and sometimes Palmyra, Bayswater, and Kalamunda are very compertative in rugby .
West Subiaco who use to be easybeats of Perth rugby are now three times winner and they waited 26 years to do it .

Willie Van Dyke is a school teacher at kolbe and has organise and fundraise to sent Kolbe over to South Africa numerous times .
He is now the first grade coach at Rockingham .

Rockingham will do well in both league and rugby . The future looks good in rugby union with again strong paticipation numbers in juniors and schools this year .

Rockingham would find it hard to compete against strong teams from Perth and Freo but Im sure they will upset a few teams along the way .
The Sharks shouldn't have a problem beating pub teams like Willagee and Kalgoolie, Joondalup and Fremantle .


Nathan Sharpe won't played for Rockingham and so do other Force Wallabies players at other clubs .
But having the Force captain and a Wallabies player at your club will do alot more for Rockingham rugby than not having one at all .

 

[fieldo]

I believe Rockinghams RL test will come this weekend....against Souths...however no good being April premiers.....Rockingham will be in the Grand Final...whether they win it will be whether everything is on their side.

Aramore has done very well out of both codes of rugby.

I suppose last year Armadale, Norths, Souths, and Sharks were quality with Joondalup and Freo rebuilding....point taken. however I have seen some RU games...now the have some rebuilding to do also.

I still think the Rugby Union with their sharing of players did Rockingham no favours.

Anyhow there appears good people in both codes down there and new grounds when the council can get organised at Lark Hill...all seems good.