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Teams are up. As expected, McInnes and Nicholas out. Steel in, along with Perkusich. That latter selection surprises me, as does Bird keeping his spot. Quill is very unlucky, I thought he'd be a better bet than Perkusich or Bird. He's one of those players - every club has them - who doesn't quite seem to step up to league, but surely his reserves form deserves to be rewarded. Langlands is back in the reserves. Extended bench named as always, but having regard to who is named in the reserves, it's likely Davis, Grey, Taylor and Sing will be in the 22. Really can't see us winning this one. SD have Gault out, which helps, but Anderson is back. I'd like to see Fisher out a tag on him or Fisher. 

Once again it seems that we are in transition mode. The team lists to me appear to indicate just another chance for players to show the club why they should stay on the list next season.
I do not know how it is going to play out in the end but it sure does seem that there will be a lot of faces missing next season.

After 45 years I'm almost done. This will be the first game is 10 years that I am able to but am electing not to attend. 

Smokey, how can we possibly be looking at a player clean out? How can the club be sizing up players? Surely it's the other way around - players will be asking "why should I stay when we are plummeting towards a wooden spoon and losing players to injury every week?" My concern is a player exodus - Masten already gone, but what about Yeo, Fisher, Richo, Rogers, Fraser, Colledge? If players are wavering with commitment, thinking about returning East, weighing offers from rival clubs - how do we convince them to stay? I guess it's two sides of the same coin whether players jump or are pushed, but the problem either way is that we seem to have no-one to replace them. I guess we can only hope the club has a plan to bounce back next year, but how many times have hopes been dashed over the years? One thing is for sure, we won't be losing anyone to the draft. 

 

Make no mistake about it, this club is in crisis while the WAFC sits on its hands and does nothing and the silence coming from the Perth Football Club is alarming.

I’m going to say it. We will be left with little choice than to align with the Eagles in the WAFL while are so disadvantaged with our zones. We are going nowhere. We will need to bank the cash EP and Peel have enjoyed while our zones are so poor and we wait for the extra money required to knock down the old grandstand and build new facilities.

I’d say it will all take around 5 years to achieve these outcomes and after 5 years being aligned we might bank 1.5 to 2 million. That buys the club time to achieve these important outcomes.

DD wrote:

Make no mistake about it, this club is in crisis while the WAFC sits on its hands and does nothing and the silence coming from the Perth Football Club is alarming.

I’m going to say it. We will be left with little choice than to align with the Eagles in the WAFL while are so disadvantaged with our zones. We are going nowhere. We will need to bank the cash EP and Peel have enjoyed while our zones are so poor and we wait for the extra money required to knock down the old grandstand and build new facilities.

I’d say it will all take around 5 years to achieve these outcomes and after 5 years being aligned we might bank 1.5 to 2 million. That buys the club time to achieve these important outcomes.

DD, from a business perspective, that makes sense. Would you accept the club doing that- if it guaranteed long term viability? It seems that aligning with the Eagles is gaining some momentum around the traps. 

KC, this is just my view, but I would be done with an alignment. I couldn't do what EP fans have done (twice), to tolerate the club selling out, then celebrate the return of the "real EP" and expect everyone else to welcome them back like nothing happened. If we align, I encourage all WAFL fans to pour scorn and derision on us. I won't see it, because i won't be taking any further interest in this site or anything else related to the WAFL. 

That said, it's a worry. The best way to keep the concept at bay is to be Independently successful on field, which leads to financial stability. But I am very concerned that we are on the same trajectory we were in 2014. It would be difficult for the club to withstand another 5 year stretch of bottom 3 finishes, and that would no doubt make us vulnerable if the Eagles promised riches. But I'd rather just fold than align - you know, die on your feet rather than live on your knees. 

It appears that the merger concept is gaining momentum and to me looks inevitable. The WAFC does nothing to assist us because I believe their end game is a merger. They would rather have an Eagles Reserves side that is competitive every week than the current model where they have no home games and it is a week by week proposition if they can field a side or not. I for  one am flexible on the future of the mighty Demons on a merger as long as we are always known as the Perth Demons and not West Coast.
 

Which is it Froggy? A merger or an alignment as they're two different beasts? I see Perth's situation not too dissimilar to EFs where you are producing your fair share of AFL players but struggling at WAFL level. That to me is not a zone problem...it's more an issue of development and then retention of second tier players coming through. All zones are having trouble attracting young kids to play footy for a variety of reasons so I don't think it's something unique to Perth. Even in a rich zone like EF, I've seen first hand where junior clubs have had to fold, merge and generally reinvent themselves to stay alive because kids just aren't that interested in playing footy. I could be wrong and will stand corrected if I am as Perth's zone is not an issue Ive looked all that closely at tbh but I think it's a wider problem than just PFC.

BC, it's neither a merger, nor an alignment. It's a takeover. That's the problem. If you understand that, and don't rationalise it the way EP did, your choice is clear. You walk away from the club and the WAFL.