You reap what you sow
Could the Western Force be the second major Australian sporting franchise wiped out by Firepower? I’m afraid it looks likely, according to a story in today’s SMH (it does not appear online). What many people do not know is that when the Force was founded back in 2005 it’s first game wasn’t until the following year. So it was able to build up a war chest of more than $10 million from sponsors to give itself a fighting chance to get off to a good start. Though the franchise didn’t set the world alight that first year, the war chest assured it had a good future … if it were not for Firepower. The mistake club officials made was to fall for Tim Johnston’s patter and then to allow Johnston to lure the likes of Matt Giteau and Drew Mitchell and others away from other franchises on the false promise of vast riches. The Force gave Johnston his credibility with the players. The players and their representatives naturally assumed the Force had done a little background checking on their new major sponsor. But it hadn’t. As I reveal in my book, all the players had to do was look at the name of the various “Firepower” companies that appeared at the top of their Firepower “contracts” and check to see if they were real companies - ie: were these companies known to the corporate regulator, ASIC? Boy, what a surprise they would have had right there and then. It needs to be emphasised that the players did nothing wrong. They are professional players with a limited earning opportunity who were simply misled by Firepower.