The Force are playing for more than the 23 that will take the field for Friday's must-win clash with the Reds.
For the club, a maiden finals appearance would cap off one of the greatest comebacks in domestic Rugby history in Australia.
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In the space of 12 months, the club has gone from undesirable to undeniable as they sit in third spot and on the verge of a finals appearance.
Local product and flanker Kane Koteka has been through it all as the first ever graduate from the Future Force program to become a fully-contracted player for the club.
He believes that a win would be well-deserved for the club and the state for their continual support of the team.
“It’s a massive result, not just for the playing group but for the state,” Koteka told reporters.
“We’ve got the best supporters in the world so we were glad to get the result. It’s massive building up this week against the Reds.
“We spoke about every week being a playoff for us so we’re coming into this game trying to get a result.
“…For everything that the club has done to get back to this position, if we can do that as a reward for the club that’d be massive. It’s a massive goal for us so hopefully we can do the job this weekend.”
For the Force to qualify, they must either defeat the Reds or hope that the winless Waratahs cause a major boil over and defeat the Rebels.
However, Koteka and the Force have focused their energy towards what they can control; trying to hand the Reds their first loss of 2021.
“We want to control the controllable, we don’t want to be relying on other results to go our way, we want to take it by the balls,” he joked.
“Those close games, that’s when the boys start working hard for each other and we take a lot of confidence coming away from those two results, especially playing longer than 80 minutes, that’s the boys just gritting their teeth and our impact players coming on and adding what they can.
“Closing out those games have been massive for us.”
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With the match set to played in front of a boisterous HBF Park, prop Angus Wagner believed that their energy will lift the players as they push for victory and a maiden finals berth.
“The Sea of Blue definitely gives us energy, you could feel it on the weekend,” he believes.
“When they start singing and chanting, I think everyone starts to give a little bit more. All those efforts are start to get put in so I think home advantage is huge.
“If we can get that right momentum and energy, I think that will go a long way as well."
The Western Force will open Anzac Round when they host ladder leaders, the Queensland Reds at HBF Park in Perth on Friday 23 April, ad-free, live and on demand on Stan Sport,click here to purchase tickets.
