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As you are all aware a meeting was held at rugby HQ last night that was organised by Hertryk and David Redpath to which you were all invited, unfortunately not too many were able to attend. So I have taken the liberty of trying to summarise what took place.
The scope of the meeting was of an exploratory nature for both ourselves as members of the TWF, the board of Rugby WA and the Western Force to see how a possible Force Fan club may come into existence and potentially play an important part in the rugby landscape going forward.
The meeting was attended by Mark Sinderberry (Force CEO), David Redpath (Member of the Rugby WA board), Liz Manawaiti (Fan engagement and brand manager), four TWF members and a staff member from the Force marketing team (my apologies I forgot her name).
Between great rugby chatter that showed that the core factor that has brought us all together is rugby itself, some the important points were raised and discussed:
• The survival of the Western Force beyond 2020 is the driving factor behind all parties involved at the Force and represented at the meeting.
• Mark strongly believes that as part of this survival the current arrangement with the ARU is a good outcome based on the Western Force’s current predicaments.
• Despite perceptions out there, the ARU is and continues to be fully supportive and is starting to understand the situation the Force is faced with. The Rugby WA board has and will continue to play an integral role going forward, as the connection between the WA rugby community, politicians and sponsors needs to continue to be fostered and nurtured at a state level.
• All parties realise that the overriding factor to survival is that the Western Force as a professional sporting body has to become competitive, and we as fans as well as the other stakeholders need to be at least given “Hope” at this stage that this journey is going to have a positive outcome, so that we remain on-board.
• With the finalisation of the ARU arrangements now out the way, contract finalisations should start to materialise in the next few weeks.
• Limitations and lack of depth within the current player roster is of concern and they realise that it requires fixing in a professional sporting environment. To this end no magic wand can be waved to fix it. Realistically no player in the current environment where good dollars are being offered overseas is going to see Perth as an option to ply his trade, unless they were born or grew up in Perth. Therefore, the most sustainable plan is to grow the talent base here and to this end the Future Force program is seen as a crucial and vital component. Added to this it is hoped the ARU will help steer players with potential and unable to get sufficient game time elsewhere towards us. 2018 is seen as crucial year for potential returning Australian rugby players hoping to get a chance at 2019 Rugby World Cup.
• The board of Rugby WA despite some misgivings from posters on this site, has and will always act in the best interest of rugby in WA.
• We as supporters of the clubs have to also realise that like with any organisation we cannot be privy to every negotiation and decision, however they do realise that ongoing communication within accepted parameters needs to happen. To this end they will look at starting a possible monthly informal members get together, so that others can have an opportunity like we had last night to talk to Mark face to face and understand that all parties at the end of the day are looking to get the same end result.
In the end we all in this together and as a group (one of many stakeholders) we need to decide moving forward whether we want to remain informal and give feedback behind keyboards as and when needed or do we want to create a more formal fan base community that may at some time lead to us becoming a body that may even get a voting right at meetings.
I and the other TWF members that attended last night would like to sincerely thank David, Mark and their team for making the time to talk to us and give us hope that there is a future for rugby in WA. I hope that this is the start of something productive and constructive and look forward to many more joining us for that first informal session.
Simon Cron: “People talk about winning and losing all the time and they are critical, but there’s a process to get into and it’s the ability to stay present, do your job and execute skills under pressure.”
they should introduce a "moving to Perth" allowance above the salary cap that AFL has used for years with Sid er knee and elsewhere
BTW moving to Perth didn't seem to phase Sharpie, Mitchell, Gits, Cam, Spanner and youngens like Hodgo, Pocock and Judas etc which suggests its the current set up that alienates the princesses
Getting a professional system in place (from memory Foleys reason de'etre?) and a respected coach might help
The long sobs of autumn's violins wound my heart with a monotonous languor
Well done Hertryk for the effort! My only argument is the point about players not wanting to come to Perth. If so, how did the Eagles & Dockers become so successful, and it just can't be down to the draft system. They became winning teams under the same drawbacks like the distance & travel, and the ignorance of Eastern Staters. (Some of the comments I read on other forums about the Force from people know little about Perth & the Force are gobsmacking). It comes down to the fact making the Force a winning culture, winning games with a good coach, will attract players no matter what. We saw that in 2014. Saying that players don't want to come here is a defeatist attitude to me.
I think - with the benefit of hindsight. The first couple of years of the Western Force - we did have a "Perth Allowance" tho it was probably called the Firepower bonus.
I think that you are right Bison - my only question is who pays the allowance? At this stage it would seem that as an Organisation the Western Force dont have a lot of dollars to pay extra to players.
Exile
Port Macquarie
"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now if you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain’t you! You’re better than that!" - Rocky Balboa
People want to be associated with a wining team.
If the Force won the title then players will fall over themselves to get to Perth and start playing in the local competition in the hopes of being seen and picked up. Players will be happy to move to be part of a wining environment.
So catch22, you need players to win but unless you win you won't get players.
Thanks so much Tazz, Hertryk, Mark Sinderberry, David Redpath, Hansey and the staff of RugbyWA. You will always have our support in making the Force a winning franchise :-)
Proudly Western Australian; Proudly supporting Western Australian rugby
Just wanted to say good work everyone on getting this set up and running.
Hopefully it will produce some good results.
I would like to be involved however at the moment my, for want of a better word, 'disability' is keeping my 'social life' somewhat limited.
I ran the idea of a "fan club" past folk at WF years ago - they didn't want a bar of it at the time as they considered season ticket holders to already be members of their own fan club. This kind of made sense in some ways, except a fan club would be run by fans rather than staff.
I think if you now have their blessing, it's a good idea to follow up on. Should be a few people here experienced with setting up incorporated associations for sports clubs![]()
Dear Lord, if you give us back Johnny Cash, we'll give you Justin Bieber.
Thanks to everyone who attended the meeting. I had work commitments last night but I might be able to attend other meetings. I don't think there are any easy answers to our problems and it is going to take awhile to sort out
At least RugbyWA are doing all they can and offering to hear us on a regular basis !!
Darren - You are correct, I was a bit confused last night in the difference between a fan club and the current members; and the new fan club has yet to be defined and how it would differ from memberships. Mark said they have looked around at different models (German soccer clubs, Seattle Sounders, etc) but he felt none of those fit exactly what we needed. So he wants to hear from us how we think this should be setup and how both sides get the most out it. The first step is that they are going to setup a regular Q&A forum for anyone to come and have a chat (hopefully even stream it online for those who can't make it).
I came away from the meeting last night with the comfort that at least the leaders have their heads in the right space and they want the Force to succeed. To me the 2 biggest things from last night were:
1) Mark and David were very insistent that the deal with the ARU was not a takeover, but that the ARU has genuine interest in seeing the Force succeed in Perth. They realise that they don't have the relationships in this town to be successful. And the talk of West Sydney is only at the NSW level and not the ARU level.
2) Mark realises that winning will solve many of the issues and that getting the club into a winning organisation is the top priority. And he realises that we don't have the horses on the roster right now to get us there. He recognises the heart that most of the players play with but heart hasn't even gotten us to the final once. The hard part is getting the talent here. I think we'll see more Jono Lance type players come over from Eastern states to have a run. And if we get enough of those, combine with talented future force players developing and start winning, then the Western Force will be come a destination team for players.
Thanks Jo for coordinating and to Mark, David, Liz and Jess for staying late.