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KEY POINTS:
Given the Aussies' liking for a punt, someone must be running a book on when John Mitchell gets the dropkick from the Force.
Framing the odds might be a shade tricky, though, because while the issues keep on coming for the Super 14 franchise, Mitch also seems to
saddle up again for work in the Wild West.
There have been all sorts of previous dramas involving player payments, Quokkagate and Ivan Henjak punching out a teammate.
Add on other spicy chapters about the coach's lack of man-management skills, the team locking Mitchell out of a halftime team talk last season, the recent inquiry into myriad complaints about his dictatorial style and you wonder if he will last the season.
From this distance it is all very hard to fathom. No doubt there are dramas but Mitchell still has several years to run on his extended contract and the Force cannot afford to make any premature exit payments.
After the latest pow-wow, the team direction seems to have swung 180 degrees from Mitchell's authoritarianism to player-power, with everyone from the loo attendant to the rubbish collector at Subiaco Oval consulted before the team selection is ratified.
Results, of course, will count for everything. If the Force can stitch together some victories in the early half of the competition some of the disquiet will evaporate. Note some.
Attention will switch more to the deeds of those like Matt Giteau and Nathan Sharpe than the off-field dramas of the coaching staff. But if the results ledger starts to show defeats, then more of the consternation about the coach will surface.
After twin home ties against the Blues last night and the Cheetahs next weekend, the Force have a rugged three-game away stretch against the Brumbies, Chiefs and Crusaders before facing the Sharks at home.
By then they will need their bye, while some punters will reckon that will double as bye-bye time for Mitch.
But one thing has remained constant about Mitchell. He is a survivor, he always bounces back - as he did after being chopped from the All Blacks in 2003. He went back to coaching Waikato before heading west where he is now into his fourth campaign. For how long though?
The players and some of the staff have aired their criticisms and his authority has been diminished. It must be an unpalatable and uneasy situation that's counterproductive for the Force.
The Super 14 is tough enough without that disharmony and the betting must be that something will give before the end of the season.
It has happened before in Australia. Player-power in the Brumbies in 2004 got rid of coach David Nucifora even though they claimed the Super title that season. Giteau was a member of that squad and takes that experience into this season for the Force.
