So far so bad!

[jombi]

So what now?

We had the first 2 tries as a direct result of poor throws from Cowan, and then we lost the ball from every drive due to either low numbers or trying to offload in every singel tackle.

Start Tyr? Get rid of Mitchell? I hear Kafer still wants to coach.

edit> I say this as someone who is a bit drunk and pretty depressed over the situation, not someone who is just bashing the force.

[jazza93]

i already posted negative crap in the other thread but i agree. Get rid of everyone and bring back Brendan Cannon. We may as well let Dunning kick as well from now on.

[Jambooi]

Actually the kickers were OK. Without them think what the score would be!

2 things they should be taught. Run the ball and tackle low. Big guys like the Chiefs fall hard when taken low and laugh as they carry the small Force (what an oxymoron the name is) guys on their backs

[farva]

Before everyone gets too panicy, consider what was done in the off season - we got rid of a lot of players who were established stars before they came to perth, and got players who are promising but are very young. Mitchell has now got a team that he can mould in his way, to play the rugby that he wants. But this season is a bit of a right-off, as he hasnt had a chance to do much with the current stock. The three teams we have played so far are three teams considered to be genuine title contenders as well. Playing young inexperienced players, who have yet to really get to know each other, against these guys is a recipe for disaster, and the fact we have yet to be comprehensively put away is a credit to the team.

If, in two years, Mitchell hasnt started to get some good results, then we can think about giving him the arse.
Cowen has now had 3 Force games at 2. He does everything a hooker needs to do with the exception of throwing quite well. Throwing will come as he works on it more.

I hope that the future will be quite bright. McCalman, Inman, Hocking, Wykes, Pocock, OConnor, Brown, Cummins, Whittaker, Hodgson, Hunt and Dane Haylett-Petty all have oddles of talent, and are possibly the next batch of Wallabies. They are all young (I think Hodgson and Brown are the oldest of that batch at 26) and hence by keeping these guys together, we can build a very strong team around this core group. Plus, there are a few guys who have been around the traps to pass their knowledge on - Spanner, Cross, Dunning, Sharpe - and I would like to see what Mitchell can do with the shackles removed.

[stejwill]

I'm sick of the excuses.
Other teams play at unsympathetically shaped grounds and still win (Crusaders/Hurricanes).
We have talent and we have a good coach.
We have support (but for how much longer). For the first time ever (apart from the night we thrashed the Reds - so I knew it was a safe bet) I let the game early last night.
We don't seem to have any real club culture. Off season ill-discipline cost us dearly twice. That is either a coaching or a management issue and that needs to be addressed.
The ARU also needs to take notice. The teams consistently getting to the finals come from countries where there is a credible skills building and team building national competition supporting and complimenting the S14. What was the first thing O'Neil did when he got back in? Scrap the ARC. I would have thought that having winning teams was a better way of bringing back crowds to the game. Winning teams develop with depth, its no good whinging about the rules. In any event, I thought the ELVs were an unmitigated disaster - they turned the game into one big playground scrap for the ball - just like the AFL (yuk).
How much did I pay for my membership (again)?

[farva]

Scrapping the ARC has not helped rugby in this country I agree. But how do you run a competition in the long term that is leaking $7m a year? It cannot be done. SA and NZ are at a major advantage to Australia in that the code is the major sport, the countries are far smaller so travel costs are less, and they have significantly more players than we do (80k in Aus, 400k in SA and 200k in NZ). The fact Australia is #3 in the world right now shows how good our player development is - look at England, they have something like close to a million players yet are terrible at the top level. I would in fact argue that Australia is the best in the world at player development based on our standings in the world rankings given participation rates.

Now back to the Force. We had some stars who were causing player disruptions, and then there was the whole Firepower debacle. We have trimmed the team of ready made stars and are building a new team.
We werent getting the results with the stars in the team, and fans were calling for the Force to get a team together that will be more close knit. They have done that now, but you cant pull together a young team and expect them to be competitive right from the word go in the worlds premier provincial competition. It will take time. The comments that the Force have the talent to win right now is rubbish. They have a hell of a lot of potential talent that in a few years will be firing. And last year we certainly had the talent - there were no results because there was no feeling of team. There has been some very clever recruitment over the off season, but consider the Force to be in the position West Coast were in late 80s. They were average but building, then 5 years later they had a team that was almost unbeatable. in 2 or 3 years this team will be very strong, if they stay together, and the whole set-up remains stable.

[todd4]

The Force will start getting it together as the season rolls on, unfortunately it will be too late to make any impact this year.

Correct me if I am wrong but Sheehan at 9 was the only player in the backline that was the same as last week, every other position 10-15 had a different starting player. Optimistically we all wanted them to fire but in reality expecting them to gel as a combination overnight, especially against a slick backline like the chiefs, was pehaps expecting a bit too much. I am still looking forward to seeing them progress as the season unfolds.

I thought Ben McCalman had a good game, expect him to have a good future at Force....

[Forcebull]

Agree with you you Todd4, 5 of the 7 backline players played their 1st game of the season, and it was evident in their communications in the back. Hopefully we can field the same backline in the next few games.

We need to reconsider where we play Barthol. and O Connor at times both were at flyhalf with no cover at full back and in the 2nd half both were at full back.

Although the loose forwards are working hard we are missing David Pocock.

Having a week off can do us good

[antiussentiment]

last night was a game many expected us to loose.. and some of us thought we would get smashed. those on the chaos side of the game (like the chiefs) will always do well on mistakes. i think you should be able to coach chaos teams out of most games though. and to some extent this was the case last night. discount the late tries that the dark chaos scored while the the blokes in blue were trying catch up footy and things were not going too bad.

i've been critical of mitchel before. i think his emphasis on disapline is way too limp (see postings over mr chookwank in years past). but i think he was on the right track last night with his game plan (for the most part, though why bring dunning on?).

last night's game was the bottom team against an unbeaten one. i think the blue blokes went pretty respectably. chins up cobbers.

[BDAVEY]

Last nite was the first EWF game I left early (I am not proud of that)........ i am not too sure what they practise during the week but directional kicking certainly isnt practised. I thought we had the Wallabies backline coach helping this year????Mark Bart. is not full back he kicked into the hands of the Chiefs and just put more pressure on out outside backs every time. We are missing Sheps. Hill will make a diference for sure but really at 31..... it is not if he has a great CV his experiance is miminal really.... JOC back to 15.
One can feel the crowd getting pissed off with the poor esults I hope they pull a surprise ouf the bag TOCC's Reds in a few weeks time !!!!

But gee well done forwards a grand effort Sharpie can u coach and play???? teach these guys how to tackle hard please and dont get pushed off...... Hodg's gutsey Sheehan... should be a loose forward!!! JOC do u have a twin bro.??