Jeremy Williams swings a small pick, hacking at weeds along the side of the road in Wooroloo in Perth’s eastern outskirts.
Key points:
Western Force is targeting a big improvement in 2024In preparation, players have been clearing firebreaks in WoorolooCoach Simon Cron believes his side can make huge strides next year
It’s a step out of the comfort zone for the Western Force backrower, who’s more at home packing down a scrum.
“It’s not your usual start of preseason,” the 111 kilogram forward said as he pulled out handfuls of dried grass.
“But I think a lot of the boys are really excited to do something different and kind of switch up the normal average preseason.”
It certainly is a different type of training.
Williams, along with his teammates, spent the first week of their preseason in Wooroloo clearing firebreaks.
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They also had to train at night, while fitting in weight sessions and watching their nutrition.
It was part of a plan from Force head coach Simon Cron to give his players some perspective on their lives.
“We identified that some of our players hadn’t have had as much life experience before becoming a pro athlete,” Cron said.
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“We are going to think about them post rugby, and how successful they’ll be when they leave us, as well as ways in which we can help them grow and understand what the world looks like.
“When I finish here [at the club], and I’m not on field, or I’m not in the classroom learning, what else can I be doing that will help me for the future? What do I want to do with my life post rugby?
“We’re training Tuesday, Thursday night, they have two running blocks, four weights programs they’ve got to fit in, so it just becomes a little bit more about managing your life and leading yourself.”
Devastating fires
The players spent five days clearing firebreaks under the supervision of Parkerville Community Care, which has been working around Wooroloo to help prevent a repeat of the devastating 2021 bushfires, which razed 86 homes.
“It’s just removing a lot of weeds and highly flammable material out of the landscape. And it just makes the community feel safer,” said Bruce Watkins from Parkerville Community Care, who oversaw the Force players.
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“The amount of work that Western Force have done would take, I can’t think, 10 times or more in volunteer time.
“It’s boring pulling out these weeds and stuff, but over the long term it will help to make the the environment and landscape around Wooroloo, particularly on the fringe of their town, much safer.”
While the work isn’t glamorous, Williams understands the importance of what they were tasked with.
“It was quite overwhelming just to see all the weeds and the dry grass around. But it’s really rewarding,” Williams said.
“Especially with the devastation of those fires, anything we can do to get out here and help the community is awesome.
“We spoke to a few kids at the primary school and they were really appreciative of the work we’re doing.”
Force keen to improve
Western Force has finished 10th and ninth in the previous two Super Rugby Pacific seasons, but have recruited strongly ahead of the 2024 season, starting in February.
Wallabies pair Nic White and Ben Donaldson have signed multi-year deals with the Perth side, while former All Black Atu Moli joined as he tries to put a run of injuries behind him and return to the New Zealand national side.
But while these signings capture the headlines, Cron believed the improvements would come from the core group which has been at the Force for several seasons.
“Those guys transitioning into a second year is really important, because those are the main numbers,” he said.
“The big thing for us is creating squad depth.
“We just didn’t have the firepower coming off the bench and our training intensity started to drop off with injury.
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“So for us that was a that was the low-hanging fruit — we’ve got to make sure we’ve got a squad list that can compete with the best.”
He’s confident he has the talent required to play finals, and predicted big things from some of his younger players.
“There’ll be seven to nine Wallabies sitting in there now for the 2027 World Cup,” Cron said of his squad.