Force boss facing player revolt
September 28 2008
Reports emanating from Perth suggest Western Force coach John Mitchell is facing a player revolt over his rambunctious approach to man-management.
According to Australia's Sunday Telegraph, a number of players have compiled a dossier of complaints that will be present to the Western Force board at their next meeting, to be held on October 20.
The unease has allegedly split the Force dressing room, and player representative John Wellborn admitted that several "issues" will need to be addressed before the start of the new Super 14 season.
"I caught up with the players recently and also the CEO Greg Harris and had a chat about any issues they've got," he told the newspaper.
"The players have got a number of issues. Some of those are around the coaching structure, some of them are around administration.
"The players are very keen to do well next year and to have some input into how that can happen.
"One of the standard items on the agenda of any board meeting is a report from the players."
One of the complaints concerns Mitchell storming out of the Force dressing room at half-time during the final match of the Super 14 season - a moment that reportedly led to Western Force player Matt Giteau asking for the door to be lock to prevent the former New Zealand coach from returning.
New Force chief executive Greg Harris reveals that he has been made aware of the issues in relation to Mitchell - but only informally.
"If there are any issues with the players, and I'm not saying there are, then at the end of the day they'll have to come through me to go to the board," Harris said.
"If there was to be anything handed to me, it would be something I would be handling internally and not something I'd be making a comment on at this stage.
"At this stage there's been nothing presented to me formally whatsoever and until such time as there is, there'll be nothing out of the board."
However, another Force official, Team Manager Mitch Hardy, denied any lingering problems between the players and their hot-tempered coach.
"Not one of them mentioned any issues at all with the coach," Hardy said, referring to the end-of-year reviews he conducted with the Force players.
"You get a bit of scuttlebutt every now and then, there was the whole incident with the Brumbies, but other than that there's been nothing."