Force will stay with Mitchell in 2011

[force addict]

i agree with sheik. you have to take into account what has happened to the club over these past years. anyone can promise a 5 year "we will make the finals" plan, but you have to work hard with what you have been handed. the force are extremely talented and you cant ask for a harder working team. mitch has had to lose plenty of other talented players but he has stuck by the young ones and from last nights performance you can see that there is a possibility to turn this season around and with mitch next year too, he can blood those young guys into better and stronger players.

[Cowboy]

How well has John Mitchell performed?
On the positive side of his time here several Force players (6?) have become Wallabies from originally being super 14 rookies. This must say something good about his ability to develop talent. However Will Genia also managed to become a Wallaby while under Phil Mooney, so maybe it isn't all about the provincial coach.
Force Wallaby players also have a reputation for being some of the fittest, so it would be reasonable to assume that fitness & conditioning is done well.

The question marks over John Mitchell's time with the Force.
How well was player discipline enforced at the beginning? Would we have had the problems with quokka's and the Left Bank?
Can he handle difficult personalities within the players? Could the committee have been avoided if Giteau had been handled better?

List management, to give two players as examples of what I consider poor decision making - Luke Holmes and Scott Daruda. Both of these players were foundation year recruits and coincidentally were released at the end of last year. They also happen to be our key areas of weakness this season. In both cases they were the "understudy" to our starting player and if they had of developed according to plan would now be the starting player. Why was it left until the moment of truth to make the decision these guy's aren't going to be good enough? That decision should of been made sooner and if it had of been there might not of been the big problem this year.

To be fair I don't know the facts behind alot of the questions I have to be able to give any answers. But it seems that every problem has been someone else's fault and every sucess his alone. Questioning Mitchell has become equivalent to disloyalty to the Force. He has become bigger than the team.

[slomo]

Questioning Mitchell has become equivalent to disloyalty to the Force. He has become bigger than the team.

no ones bigger than the team. the force will be around in perth long after JM leaves, the way im looking at it is hes just an interim coach until the next one comes along.....

[Cowboy]

no ones bigger than the team.

I was implying that.

I also left out that John Mitchell doesn't have the best of media/marketing skills. Good skills would be an asset in our AFL dominated state.

[tragic]

the way im looking at it is hes just an interim coach until the next one comes along.....

... Then there's never any such thing as a permanent coach.... not that there would be such a thing...

[jono]

even sheeds was given the arse in the end

---------- Post added at 20:53 ---------- Previous post was at 20:48 ----------

I was implying that.

I also left out that John Mitchell doesn't have the best of media/marketing skills. Good skills would be an asset in our AFL dominated state.

i'm trying not to sound too much like i have my 'mitch goggles' on here. but mitch really doesnt have to have the best marketing and media skills to be a coach.
rugbywa employs other people to do that for him.
all that's expected of him media wise is that he answers a few questions. issues a statement if required and writes an article in the match day programe each home game?
as far as i am aware he doesnt maintain a blog.

i think i can see where you are comming from with the marketing. but IMO i believe the players turning out at their local clubs as often as they can and being involved in the community through other sponsorship capacities is much better marketing than the coach doing this (not saying he shouldnt. i think it would be great. but he would be spread too thin to do this at anything but RWA functions). because kids want to be like their favourite players, not the coach the coach isnt the one having fun on the pitch, and isnt seen as much. the players are easier to market because they are easier to 'idolise'

[Cowboy]

Agree in many ways jono, my point would be the relationship with sports journo's. If you get on well with them do you get an exta 30 seconds in the news every now and then? Could this increased exposure help get a few new fans along to games who have never watched rugby before?

Winning probably puts more bums on seats. But the media skills of a Kevin Sheedy can help.

[jono]

you're probably onto something there.
from every interview i have heard from mitch he is well spoken and equloent. he doesnt garble simple sentences. if he followed up said 30 seconds with a request for fans to get to the game i think we might see a few extra numbers.

sharpie making special mention to thank the fans last night will bring some fans back next week as well. even though we lost. the cheer that went up when he thanked us was pretty special. was almost as loud as some of the cheers during the game

[James]

List management, to give two players as examples of what I consider poor decision making - Luke Holmes and Scott Daruda. Both of these players were foundation year recruits and coincidentally were released at the end of last year. They also happen to be our key areas of weakness this season. In both cases they were the "understudy" to our starting player and if they had of developed according to plan would now be the starting player. Why was it left until the moment of truth to make the decision these guy's aren't going to be good enough? That decision should of been made sooner and if it had of been there might not of been the big problem this year.

To be fair I don't know the facts behind alot of the questions I have to be able to give any answers. But it seems that every problem has been someone else's fault and every sucess his alone. Questioning Mitchell has become equivalent to disloyalty to the Force. He has become bigger than the team.

Noone is perfect- you make some bad calls and some good calls. Ignoring those who have chosen to leave, how many good players have the Reds let go of? Huxley, Chisholm, Mowen- the list could go on a fair bit longer. The Brumbies let go of the Faingaa twins and look how well they are playing now. How do you know that Daruda and Holmes would've been any better than what we have now? How did you know Daruda just didn't want to leave? He seems to be struggling as it is in the French 2nd division. Mitch seemed to have banked on his marquee import and the hope of securing another hooker from elsewhere and it didn't work out tough luck. You can't always get everything you want.

I reckon Mitch has made a fair few mistakes but I remain adamant that very few other coaches would have provided for the Force fans what Mitch has provided. For the Mitch doubters- we don't really have anyone to compare him too and if you are proud to be a Force fan, like I am, at least he was successful in that.

[benny]

JM said we'd be finals contenders in 5 years, mitchell also said perth would not be a retirement home for older players to top up thier superanuation.............

He (JM) said the same about when he took the ABs to the World Cup and got em no where, If its taking can match the skills on the park we could be something..

I'll eat my words if he gets the Force in the top 10 next year.. I hope i'm wrong personally but I haven't seen anything different from the first ever game back in 2006 to what i've seen in recent weeks, you can Smote all you like, I have feeling for the club and been to more games than half of the supporters on this forum, but it shits me to tears that we are not improving as a "team"... anyone says we are they have rocks in there head,certain individuals have improved and others gone backwards.

[jono]

top ten next year benny?
i'll throw a carton of magners on that now if you're game?

[hopep]

JM managed to turn the team around from a thumping the other week to very nearly the 'upset of the year' on friday. He is a good coach, but as has been said before - when the CEO starts 'gauranteeing' your contract for next year, you nearly always need to watch your back.

I would not be at all surprised if, failing to reach to top 7-8 this season, JM's contract was not paid out before his 2011 completion date. It would be interesting to see how many other coaches are 'out of contract' at the end of 2010 - The Force execs also need to keep an eye on potential replacements and available negotiation windows.

IMO it will be much harder to negotiate in 2012 (WC year) than in 2011.

I did overhear a conversation where someone thought that RugbyWA had been sniffing around at Laurie Fishers management. Mind you, that was in a bar so may not have much cred; but - that fact the they will be having one-eye out for opportunities and options is a cert.

[James]

Laurie Fisher. Meh.

2011 will be tricky. You kind of need to nail down a coach before you can start recruiting players and a lot of coaches will be hanging out for the post-RWC jobs that come up. I'll bet a lot of money that England, Australia and New Zealand will have new coaches in 2012. I wouldn't be surprised if Wales, France and Scotland did too.

I'm really hopeful the Force pull in Todd Louden as a head coach. He'd do wonders for our attack, he has a lot of respect and pulling power amongst other players and he probably won't be in line for any national jobs.

[Burgs]

That's the other half of the brave predictions of some people hopep.
OK, accepting "Not Mitch".
Bearing in mind the expense of getting rid of him and forgetting arguments about if he is doing a good job or not.
If "Not Mitch", then who.
Some in the peanut gallery will go for the tired lines of anyone being better etc but the reality is there are very few quality Coaches available each season, of them for various reasons there would be less available for a specific location or tenure and of them there would be even less worth their own wage plus paying out an existing Coach for.
I think a few, with respect, need to take a bit of a reality check and consider the achievements of our existing Coach and give due credit to the climate in which he has achieved what he has with who he has had available.

[MI5_Dog]

What's Jake White doing these days?