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The WARU is set to repeat the farce that was the 2009 WARU final at NIB stadium.
The WARU is going to allow 2 fully contracted Western Force players that have never played or been registered to Wests Scarborough to Parachute into their team to take on Palmyra in this weeks semi final at Success south of Perth.
MY GUTS is turning at the moment with this decision & I really feel for the Palmyra club & its followers . I can now see why there is such a pent up hatred in the rugby community for the Western Force.
I don't know what sort of soul searching this would be doing to Wests members but that's for them to sort out.
You were on the Money Westies man.
BLOODY DISGRACE
jonex - are you a player in that game?
Very easy solution, Paly refuse to play them. It's cheating. Even if it's within the rules. It's at the very least poor sportsmanship and I'm sure there's something in the WARU rule book that details 'good sportsmanship' and how it should be adhered to. Paly do this, they may be fined but ultimately it's WARU that are going to look foolish when there is no game.
I don’t really care about the Force players playing because I don’t think they will change the game that much.
What I do have a problem with and feel for are the players who are being dropped to accommodate them who have got them to the Semi.
Sure the starters will drop to the bench but what about the players who have come off the bench/filled in for injury all year?
This could be there only ever chance to play finals rugby and just when they had the opportunity BAM its gone.
“Everyone knows whether it’s rugby, politics or whatever, front-rowers should rule the world, so to have a hooker at the helm makes sense,” Nathan Charles Western Force & Wallabies Hooker.
as I explained clearly to RM a little while ago, it's up to the club management to handle that. If they want to shit on their players like that, surely they should deal with the consequences.
At the end of the day, competition rules are only worth the will of the participants to use them. If ALL of clubland was so up in arms about it, then the coach can simply be instructed not to select the players. That would be better egg on face than boycotting the game, particularly when the rule amendment allowing exactly this circumstance has been on the books since aforementioned 'debacle'
C'mon the![]()
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think it's bad here?
look at Sydney Uni...half their team is now made up of Super 15 players returning for the finals
In defence of the Force players themselves, these guys are registered with Wests and have been asking for several weeks if they can play in the local comp. Pek and Sam have been training and coaching at Wests for months, and had Foley allowed them to 'play' rather than 'train', they would each have the minimum 3 games required without needing dispensation via the 'Force Rep' rules. I'd be looking at RugbyWA and not the individual clubs. Neddies have a couple of 'new' Force players as well. If the powers that be decide not to allow the Force players to play this weekend, then good luck getting any of them to stick around and play local club rugby next year in Perth. Back to the bad 'ol days of going East again ... which would be a massive backward step for growing the numbers in Perth Rugby. Also, no one seemed to say too much when Soaks were allowed to play Hugh McMeniman in the last 2 rounds - maybe they weren't playing "I'll get my lawyers' Pally!
I'm not knocking it
If it was me and I was a first XV player at any club in the premier grade and knew I was never going to be good enough to play Super 15 or anything like that I would love to be able to come up against players who play/ed for the Force.
Lets all be very clear on this and no I am not an old man with a self interest as you have accused me of in another post Hansie.Our club was fortunate enough to have been given the opportunity to have some Force players align themselves with our club.Pek has his boy playing under 6's with Wests and lives 2 minutes away, Sam lives across the road and some guys from the club grew up with Jayden in his home town.To the best of my knowledge the amount of money used to entice these three players to Wests would be much less than one third of what other clubs paid for one player.We consider ourselves fortunate to have secured Force players as we have not had any for 4 or 5 seasons.I thought to myself after the game on Saturday when Jayden Hayward was mobbed by a large group of our school kids that this is really what it's all about,it's not about who wins or loses or who gets their name on a trophy, it's about our kids and the fact that they all idolise these guys and want to grow up and one day be Force players.As I have said previously they are great guys to have around and even the 1st graders hang off every word they say.Okay every one now understands that we love having Force guys at our club.What has transpired is that although told they didn't have to qualify according to the governing eligibility rules[set in stone I might add]but were told they could make themselves available at a prescribed date and basically everyone else could work around it.Clubs also in the finals have and quite rightly too I might add complained that these players and others in other clubs have not met the prescribed conditions as set out in the constitution..So now everyone has an opinion on what to do.It is now 12 o'clock midday on Thurday and no one knows which players are available and which aren't.So where to now,our coaching staff have been told these players are available and based around that have prepared accordingly and now they may not be available.These players Pek and Sam were never going to start and take the place of a regular anyway and Jayden has played a couple of full games so no problem there.The above is irrelevant because in my opinion our organization should never have been placed in this situation.If we win we will be no better than Cott and the Richard Brown fiasco, lose and the opportunity to attract more players sponsors and supporters and everything else that goes hand in hand with being winners will be lost.I am personally against the Force players playing only because the credibility of this club will be questioned through no fault whatsoever of our own.If there is one positive that I hope comes out of this sorry state of affairs is that you Hansie ensure in your capacity as a CRAC member that those responsible send something out to all rugby clubs apologising and ensuring that it can never be allowed to happen again.I speak not as a representative of Wests but as a person who has the best interests of rugby at heart and can only hope that the result on Sunday is not too heavily influenced by Force players who had not qualified through the correct channels
Wests Scarborough 1st Grade juggernaut has played finals rugby each and every year since its inception and continues this remarkable feat yet again this season and unbelievably it's still rolling on and as an added little circle jerk for the masses Wests actually hold the record for the current longest unbroken finals record.
Yes I agree having Force guys playing local rugby on a semi-regular basis will be of benefit to Perth rugby. But I can't see how it's of much benefit flying them in specifically for a finals game when they aren't eligible and have not played a single game for the team they are representing in the final. Do they even know the names of their teammates? You can tell by most people's responses in here that it's not a popular choice, I can imagine the Paly players & supporters aren't too happy and neither would be the benched Wests players. Additionally if Wests do win it with ineligible players it's going to tarnish their victory.
If Pek and Sam have been training with and coaching at Wests then they haven't really been parachuted in have they? Originally , reading though the posts I felt sorry for the players that will miss selection this week, but it's not as though they rocked up to training on Tuesday and got told the bad news-these players would have known for a while now.
I used to play for Paly so I hope there aren't any pay supporters out there complaining. Paly should just take their teamwork and effort up a notch, win the game anyway, and thank the Force boys for helping to raise the standard of the local comp. instead of heading east for a couple of months.
Wests Scarborough 1st Grade juggernaut has played finals rugby each and every year since its inception and continues this remarkable feat yet again this season and unbelievably it's still rolling on and as an added little circle jerk for the masses Wests actually hold the record for the current longest unbroken finals record.