MITCHELL EXCITED BY 2009 SCHEDULE
Tuesday, 18 November 2008 4:10pm
Chris Pike - Sportal
With the opening two games at home, only one trip to South Africa and New Zealand, and a six-week stint in Australia, Emirates Western Force coach John Mitchell is delighted with his 2009 schedule.
Click here to view the full 2009 Investec Super 14 Season Draw
The Force spent the first three weeks of the 2008 Super 14 season in South Africa, but next year hosts the Blues and Cheetahs at Subiaco Oval in the first two weeks. That is followed by a game against the Brumbies in Canberra before their only trip to New Zealand to face the Chiefs and Crusaders.
A blessing of a stretch in Australia then follows with home games against the Sharks, Reds and Hurricanes split up by a bye in week seven. The Force then play the Waratahs in Sydney, the Lions at home and makes their only trip to South Africa to face the Bulls and Stormers which will present some difficulties.
The Stormers game is on Saturday night in Cape Town, meaning the Force cannot fly out until Monday, get into Perth on Tuesday, the players must have an off-day on Wednesday and only get to train on Thursday.
The Force then finish the season against the Highlanders on Saturday May 16 at Subiaco, but Mitchell is delighted with the draw as long as the Cheetahs game is changed to allow his team to arrive back to Perth on Sunday or Monday.
"The only area we need sorted, and we are hoping for ARU support, is where we are required to come home from the Stormers and play the Highlanders with just one training session. That will have to be addressed because I imagine it's the first time any team would have had just one training session before their next match at home," he said.
"It's always important to commence the competition at home. Last year, in some ways for everyone in Western Australia the competition didn’t really start until we got home for the Crusaders match, which was a great fixture played on a fine day."
"That was week four though. This year at least everyone that supports the Emirates Western Force gets a look at us right from the start."
With a draw that doesn’t pose any great hurdles strategically, Mitchell sees no reason why the Force can't make the finals for the first time.
"Everyone's aim is to contest finals and that's certainly ours. You always want to be the best and it should be the Super 14 title or nothing," he said.
"If you don’t have that aim you shouldn’t be in the competition. We will look to improve on last year but I can't decide what our goals are. That will be up to the playing group when we are all together in mid-January and we will all decide what our aims and goals are for this competition."
Making the finals won't be as easy as it could have been with a final six system not being brought in by SANZAR for the 2009 season.
"Obviously they haven’t been able to come to an agreement on making it a six-team finals series and with it possibly being an 18-round season in 2010 it is probably best that they incorporate a new finals concept into that," Mitchell said.
