That is well recognised and steps are being taken. You guys have to remember that up until five years ago if you were from WA and wanted to play top level rugby it invariably meant going to Sydney. There's a bloke playing for the Reds right now who if he started playing Super rugby now, he'd be in the Force squad: Adam Wallace-Harrison. He went to Wesley College here in Perth. There are and will be others like him, but at least now they'll get a chance to play for their local franchise. The loss of the Force academy is a blow, however.
Am I the boy who kicked the hornet's nest (can I borrow and bend that book title?)...TBH, as you know there's a lot more to assessing the viability of a franchise than its capacity, five years later, to export a handful of players to other States. (BTW, nowhere in my argument did I attack WA players, or doubt the integrity or passion of the Force's fans, or any of these conveniently emotive red herrings which detract from a robust critique of the Force as a total sporting entity.)
My point is this, essentially: an amateur club can absolutely afford not to worry about winning too much, it has low overheads, its culture can rightly be one of good spirit and love of playing and the Saturday arvo banter over a cold one and the sizzle, etc. Ultimately however, a professional State franchise in a niche sport has to achieve three things, at some point simultaneously: it has to be financially viable and self-sustaining, it has to have a group of leading players that inspire good crowds and entertain in the best modes of the game, and, crucially, it has win something important, like an S15 title, or reasonably regularly get into say the S15 Finals or SFs. Irreplaceably, winning creates a virtuous circle that sustains and protects the first two variables, and then further uplifts the franchise to potentially higher planes still.
We can all have our fan-love and defend our emotional sporting loyalties, I respect that, but harder realities inevitably lie in wait when you have the very high $ overheads to pay as is the case in a modern State-based sporting franchise.
If a State franchise, after say 5+ years of existence (or much more like the Brumbies), cannot break out into pattern of serious winning at an elite level, I predict that two things will surely happen, sooner or later: one, it will find it harder and harder to both attract outstanding new players and hold outstanding old ones, and a vicious circle effect derived from that core fact will thus commence, and, two, the income base of that franchise will slowly but surely begin to decline, or become fragile, leading to other derived vicious circles that relate back to every point of viability, from promotional funding to adequate $s to obtain a critical mass of top players, and, just as importantly, top coaches who can demand top $s. The recent history of the Reds is an excellent example of this process in the negative, and then the very opposite in the positive upon rediscovering (and then practising) the 3 golden rules of State viability.
Returning to my core point: I see no evidence whatsoever that the Force is even close to breaking out of general play day mediocrity to anything like the degree needed to comply with the 3 golden rules. I see no serious changes being made at the Force that rationally support any credible notion that such a break out is on the cusp of evolving, either at all, or quickly enough. I see eloquent excuses and good media management, and a few stars that to me seem lost in a poorly coached and managed galaxy. But I don't see, at this time, even a glimmer of the right changes in the making.
So, thus, I consider the Force (in its totality and as a business and sports entity, NOT the Force fans, or good committed players, etc), and the Brumbies (ditto) as largely failed rugby enterprises. I consider the annual sustained, material $ losses that the NSWRU are now year on year slipping into as highly dangerous for NSW rugby, and I consider the radical and (to this point) successful total clean-out executed by the ARU and QRU at the latter, as a powerful model as to what is required to deal with the fact that there is demonstrably too much mediocrity in the Aus S15 system at an overall, systemic level.
