Western Force did pre-season differently to most Super Rugby clubs. They weeded for a week. Monday to Friday, dawn to dusk, players formed a chain gang around the embattled community of Wooroloo on the outskirts of Perth and cleared firebreaks to help prevent a repeat of the devastating 2021 bushfires which razed 86 homes in the town. After long days in the sun and the scrub, the players headed not to the pub, but to a full training session.
“I wanted them to grow as people,” Force coach Simon Cron says. “My idea was to get the boys on the tools, revisit ground zero, get perspective and remind them how many hours are in a day.”
After winning five of six games at home but still missing the finals in 2023, Cron wanted a 2024 side with a harder edge and a deeper humility. “Compared with what most people do to survive, the pressure of playing rugby is actually a privilege.”
But if Cron expected his cup to runneth over with karma from the rugby gods, it backfired. The Force have started the season 0-4, riven by rotten luck, key injuries and suspensions. More worryingly for Cron, his side has pulled defeat from the fires of victory twice already. In round two they coughed up 29 unanswered points to lose 48-34 to the Melbourne Rebels and last week they led the ACT Brumbies 14-0 only to implode and go down 22-19. Ill discipline and missed opportunities cost the Force against Moana Pasifika as they slumped to a 22-14 loss in round four.
Luckily Cron doesn’t have any hair or he’d have lost it. He recruited brilliantly for 2024, luring Wallabies halfback Nic White (“a genuine international with much to add to a young team”) and World Cup fly half Ben Donaldson (“he wants the ball, we’ll create the shape around him”). The New Zealand-born Cron – “I’m a hybrid,” he says, “Cronny over there, Cronno over here” – has also drafted in former All Black Atu Moli and Māori All Blacks stars Tom Franklin and Reed Prinsep.
But it hasn’t been enough to offset the injury glut of Wallabies star Izack Rodda (foot, two to three weeks), playmaker Reesjan Pasitoa (elbow, 10 to 12 weeks), Siosifa Amone (thumb, six to eight weeks), Felix Kalapu (hamstring, seven weeks), Harry Hoopert (knee, three to four months) and Angus Wagner (knee, seven weeks). Worse, Marley Pearce was last week suspended for a month and Kane Koteka was this week handed an 18-month doping ban.
Luckily, Cron has a hard-won perspective he’s teaching his players. He arrived in Australia from Christchurch in 2006 for a year away from rugby and built a successful fashion business. “Winning helps but it’s critical I coach them as men and players,” the former teacher says. “My No 1 job at the Force is to make them better players but first I’ve got to work out how they learn, their skill sets and mindsets. My No 2 job is that they enjoy themselves.”
Easier said than done. The Perth franchise has walked a rough and rutted road to survive this far. Born from foundations laid by WA Rugby in 1893, they joined Super Rugby in 2006 but were controversially cut in 2017. Mining magnate Andrew Forrest swept in with backing, even creating a series of Indo-Pacific rugby competitions around them. Ultimately, Covid brought the Force back into the 2020 Australia conference and Super Rugby ever since.
Despite never finishing higher than seventh, Cron can lead them to the promised land. Barely 18 months after his appointment, the 48-year-old has been re-signed for 2025-26. “The trajectory of the team under Simon is exciting,” new Force chief executive Niamh O’Connor says. “You can feel an elite high-performance environment and success-focused culture growing.” It’s all part of a grand vision to turn the Western Force into one of the world’s best sides.
O’Connor, the first female CEO in Super Rugby history, is a big part of that too. She has balanced diverse roles in construction and the arts since arriving in Perth from Ireland in 2011, all while being heavily involved in the grassroots game as a mum, manager and board member. “The Force is our chance to position rugby in a massive sporting market, creating a juniors ecosystem and building on the astronomical growth of our women’s game locally,” she says.
In AFL heartland where the West Coast Eagles drew 103,275 members to the Force’s 3,660, the task for rugby in the west is as vast as the state itself. “Rugby isn’t the number one game in Ireland either,” O’Connor says. “But it is the one with the power of global connection.
“Like Simon, I want to think outside the box of how we do things here. And like the team he’s building, I see WA as a melting pot of all walks of life where the opportunities are boundless.”
As are the challenges. “Niamh loves the game,” Cron says, “and we both believe in helping for the greater good.” If only she could play front row for the Force. “If I start listening to people in the stands I might as well join them,” Cron says. “I’ve got a brilliant bunch of guys. They won’t stop trying so I won’t stop helping. We learned that in the pre-season: Get on the tools, do your job, work hard … grow.”
