See I told you..

[Tonkar]

I think that no matter how many star studded players in our side things will always be tough. There is something not going right.. I go back to the great wins we have had . we have rolled most teams that have gone on to be the champs. We have rolled the number 1 teams in the comp. The Crusaders, The Chiefs, The Bulls, The Tards. and the Brumbies. I watched a game on Friday night that was going in the right direction. The players got some calls that were in some ways not correct but they battled on. New or old players the force have the troops that can cause upsets. The ponies had to readjust the game plan a few times and a team of that calibre playing 20 mins against 14 men should have puts at least 20 to 30 points on us.... So when things are travelling north and if the Force ever look like gaining momentum the east will knock us down.. Like I said before were 2nd on the ladder and that would have scared the east so the men in charge would have been told to rule the game hard and our guys just got checked a bit harder than the ponies... Also we made some basic mistakes but the force also had the crowd going wild... The force will never win the battle, the east don't want us and it shows...

[jargan83]

....and the way to win games is to have a few class players plus a couple of gamebreakers in your squad. How you do that with the deck stacked against you is the conundrum.

Well we both stand in the same point on equalisation methods within the ARU in terms of scraping top up payments etc but I'm sure various stakeholders within Rugby won't give a shit what two blokes on a Rugby forum think especially when it will be a detriment to their sides eg NSW and Qld.

A second Sydney side in West Sydney would be about as successful as GWS and the ARU can't afford to spend $20 million a year like the AFL can.

[G_Beard]

Don't leave it in the hands of the judges. This will take time. A minimum of 3 rugby generations and crowd support.
Fuck east coast. The rugby community of WA has to pull tighter with a common enemy to unite us. That is the East coast.
The crowd needs to needs to be outwardly hostile. Turn that against every other franchise.
Market that. Market that everyone is from everywhere and they have a team from where they are from..but they are here now, and the Force need supports against the teams that folk don't support.
Junior coaches need to push the Force players and identities into the juniors they coach.
Fans need to bring friends to the games.
On Friday the Force gained the upper hand when the crowd got incensed at the reffing...a collective mindset achieves huge things.

[Tonkar]

Don't leave it in the hands of the judges. This will take time. A minimum of 3 rugby generations and crowd support.
Fuck east coast. The rugby community of WA has to pull tighter with a common enemy to unite us. That is the East coast.
The crowd needs to needs to be outwardly hostile. Turn that against every other franchise.
Market that. Market that everyone is from everywhere and they have a team from where they are from..but they are here now, and the Force need supports against the teams that folk don't support.
Junior coaches need to push the Force players and identities into the juniors they coach.
Fans need to bring friends to the games.
On Friday the Force gained the upper hand when the crowd got incensed at the reffing...a collective mindset achieves huge things.

Hi G Beard I am with you re getting people to games.. The worst thing here is and I might be wrong but many of us would have been pony supporters b4 the force came so Pony games are reasonable crowds but many kiwis living in Perth are just kiwi team Supporters..They don't realise if you don't support the force and it goes then no Kiwi teams will come... ( This maybe the reason we only get 1 kiwi team this yr to keep the numbers low for the season.) Many Saffa's are different 6 home games in blue then 1 in there old team colours which is great they want Rugby in WA.

One thing we also need in our fight is the corporate sponsor's to let it be known that they enjoy the exposure with the Force Would be very interesting to see the sponsor revenue of the force with the unique jersey sponsorship than the Other franchises.. I hope they don't go and I support them.

[Sheikh]

Friday night, nib, Force vs Brumbies, attendance 10,914
Saturday night, nib, Glory vs Mariners, attendance 11,127


Does anyone know what the attendance was at the Force vs Rebels match?

I don't know if that number includes people who turned up for the U20s match. I turned up after it had kicked off and strolled into the ground. My pass never got scanned on Friday.

[maelkann]

This maybe the reason we only get 1 kiwi team this yr to keep the numbers low for the season.).

Crusaders and Blues.

[jargan83]

Crusaders and Blues.

Never let the facts get in the way of a conspiracy theory.

[GIGS20]

Crusaders and Blues.

Never let the facts get in the way of a conspiracy theory.

Crusaders doesn't count.....they're the easybeats in Perth

[chibi]

Usual paranoid AFL rant here...

It's true that we view the East Coast rugby establishment as the enemy, but we have have our own enemy here in WA, who would also love to see the Force move east. The ARU have to face-up to the Aussie Rules establishment and their media here. I get that they may think it's the same as Melbourne's AFL press; but they may be ignorant in the knowledge of just how much of a shill for the Eagles our press has been, and how ingrained AFL is in our small-view political/business establishment; whereas Melbourne is trying to push itself as a forward-minded international "big-event" city. Our establishment see the WCE as Perth's team, and that other sports are rude interlopers on that special relationship, so for many years the Dockers, the Glory and Wildcats were put into a niche. That the Dockers now have more of a presence other than "just the second team" is commendable, but it also shows the bias in our media for that it took an AFL team to do it. Remember when the Glory were huge? Or when the Wildcats were the biggest name in town? That's all subsided, and it's nothing but footy-footy-footy ever since. The Wildcats won the title again this year and had to share the back-page headlines with AFL's pre-season matches- hell, even when the Scorchers won the title, the media were harping on about some AFL player catching a six in the crowd.

We've got to get the Force onto free-to-air somehow, even it's just an edited delayed telecast after the game; and we've got to see their ads and banners around town to accentuate the difference and show what an international competition looks like and stress that Western Australia are a part of it.
"The Black Swan has arrived in TOKYO; will there be a WA sunset on the SunWolves?! Watch live as the Black Swan rises in the land of the Rising Sun" etc etc or some shit...
I'm no good at slogans. But it would be good to see a big picture of a mean looking Hodgo (or Badger in the old days) contrasted next to the Japanese World Cup celebrations on the big Horseshoe Bridge billboards on the way into work in the morning.

[GIGS20]

"The Black Swan has arrived in TOKYO; will there be a WA sunset on the SunWolves?! Watch live as the Black Swan rises in the land of the Rising Sun" etc etc or some shit...
I'm no good at slogans.

But at least you're modest!

[shasta]

By any means necessary...

Good idea. I think I've heard of a bloke with a majic pill who might be welling to inject some sponsorship. Can't go wrong, ay.

[G_Beard]

Cash money upfront

[.X.]

Don't leave it in the hands of the judges. This will take time. A minimum of 3 rugby generations and crowd support.
Fuck east coast. The rugby community of WA has to pull tighter with a common enemy to unite us. That is the East coast.
The crowd needs to needs to be outwardly hostile. Turn that against every other franchise.
Market that. Market that everyone is from everywhere and they have a team from where they are from..but they are here now, and the Force need supports against the teams that folk don't support.
Junior coaches need to push the Force players and identities into the juniors they coach.
Fans need to bring friends to the games.
On Friday the Force gained the upper hand when the crowd got incensed at the reffing...a collective mindset achieves huge things.

I think its all about the Juniors.

At the moment we are only getting 10,000 bums on seats - so lets see 1000 free tickets to Junior Rugby Players. Can you imagine one of the Stadium in goal ends full of 10 - 17 years olds going nuts for the Force each game. Each time the reserve players need to warm up, they head down to the end where the kids are. End of Each game - head down the end where the kids are for autographs, score a try - do what the honey badger did 2 seasons ago - high five 20 - or 30 kids.

Each Club Rugby Side gets a chance - and the noisiest group win a prize.

Give out posters
Give out flags
School bags in Western Force Colors

what do you want for Christmas little Johnny? I want a Force membership Dad.

All of sudden you have 200-400 new memberships - and you have a stadium full of kids and parents and no one from the ARU is going to kill of a fan base that quotes Junior Membership in the 1000's

[shasta]

I think every registered junior gets free entry this season - presumeably to get parents along too. I also seem to recall a deal of a free kids ticket with every paying adult? Not sure if the latter applies to adult members.

[GIGS20]

I think its all about the Juniors.

At the moment we are only getting 10,000 bums on seats - so lets see 1000 free tickets to Junior Rugby Players. Can you imagine one of the Stadium in goal ends full of 10 - 17 years olds going nuts for the Force each game.

THat's the southern stand mate, free junior memberships with an adult Bronze membership...it's actually the deal that stopped me from dropping membership altogether, what with the financial situation this year and the poor value I got for my entertainment dollar last year, 2 for the price of 1 saved those memberships walking out the door.