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The boys put in a solid effort today but sadly skills were lacking which is our sad tale whereas Claremont are clean and highly skilled and much bigger bodies. Big job starts now for the recruiting department. Bigger bodies and A graders need only apply.

Connor Sing and Jacob Coniglio were outstanding down back and I thought big Harry played his best game of the season and has finished the year off well. Stubbs should have kicked 6 or 7. Has to get rid of that stupid little skip out to his right in his run up.

Sing and Quartermaine are amongst the exits IMHO.
Along with other mistake riddled non-league players.
Sing cost us goals today and Quartermaine far too lazy.
Plenty of others to be looked at and given marching orders.
We need at least 20 A graders.
Just pathetic.

You would have as much of a clue as the streaming service callers and the Sunday Slimes reporter Chompers. FMD were you there? Don't bother answering that one we know the answer.

Tried hard but overall nowhere near WAFL standard. Skill levels and fitness not up to it. For mine, there is too much jogging and not enough hard run. How often do Byrner and Davis have to be run down when clear to set up the forwards and the attacking thrust is turned over? They do not capitalise on their pace. 
I see a big turnover of players ahead but not sure how we will replace so many. Big opportunities for some of the Colts boys progressing to league next year but we will need some fresh experienced players on board to help them.
I like the look of Watson and Hall as defenders and the other Hall at full forward shows promise. Any losses from the Colts to the AFL are unlikely IMO.

 

Is this talk of a player exodus based on anything or just speculation? Frankly, we don't have more than 20 players at best who are worth keeping on the senior list, and most of that 20 wouldn't get a game at any other club. But we need to have about 60 players just to field two teams, and we can't have another off season where we cobble together a squad by picking up a bunch of players from lesser leagues or fringe players from other clubs. Lane, Paton, Barwick, Howard, Shannon, Moody, Bropho, Miller, Wolf, Ewing and others are in that category. Manzone sums up our plight - good player, but we spent 10 points on an injury prone 31 year old who was told he was no longer in the best 22 of a better club. Even players that have worked out well, like Avery and Cooley, came to us for opportunities, rather than being targeted recruits.

We need some stability, and we can't afford to have an off season where we are focused on replacing what we have lost rather than building on what we have. The colts offer some hope, but they won't be making an impact consistently until at least the 2026 season. We are, in my opinion, at our lowest ebb. If you take out the shambles that is WCER, we have beaten Peel last year by 2 points and SF this year by 4 points. Without some serious recruiting, next season is likely to be more of the same. 

 

Ted, I have heard rumbles from different sources that indicate an exodus of players walking out of the club and others being dropped from the lists. I am not sure that your guess of 20 players worth keeping could form a basis on which a rebuild could occur. Where will we find 30 or more players with proven WAFL ability and experience?
The reliance on emerging talent from Colts and underage players alone will be no magic wand
A pretty grim picture of what we can expect. Surely there can be no quick-fix, if any.
The vultures may already be circling.

If players are going to walk anyway, it hardly makes sense to drop players from the list. We will need them just to have enough players for two teams. We really can't elevate more than 6 colts. In terms of the vultures circling, I find it hard to imagine which of our players others clubs might want. We had a mass exodus last year, it will be a disaster if it happens again. We seem to be in a perpetual state of rebuilding. 

Ted, vultures circling has nothing to do with other clubs wanting any of our players. That is the last thing to worry about.
We have very few players that other clubs might want IMO.

Vultures as in WCE circling a corpse.
 

True. As I have said before, that be an ever present issue for so long as both clubs remain weak on field. Sadly, I would expect that WCER are likely to become competitive before we do.