I’ve been a long time supporter and keen observer over recent years and have also been a regular reader of these posts.
There’s always been some great insight from people in the know, the Perth supporter base really is one of, if not the, best going around and I really believed this year was our finals year!
But a-lass, I was wrong. The danger signs for me came in rounds 2 and 3 when it was apparent Perth seemed more happy with getting by with ‘lucky wins’ rather than addressing the issues that arose from those wins.
Content in the atrocious delivery of the football into forward line (I really feel for blokes like ninja, who really knuckled down and tried, especially in the last few weeks, to no avail and no support from the mids) Byrne really developed into the great mid we all thought he could reach, and was one of the shining lights in our mid for his chase and delivery, until injury struck him down. We have a small forward line, yet the likes of the midfield and some backs continue to bomb it high and long to no advantage of our forwards and wonder why it comes out so easy. Yes, our forward pressure can easily improve, (which may have been assisted by the addition of McCarthy, but for some reason never received a look-in) but our midfield accountability is non existent, similar to some of our backs who are more interested in pushing up and not pushing back. What good is 25-35 touches a game when 90% of those touches are ineffective or turnovers?
We managed to get a ‘legacy’ recruit in Bryan (which I thought was a positive move as we know now majority of drives stem from a teams backline now) from subi as a running back and user and we play him deep? Before he missed games at subi with injury he was one of their best movers and users according to some stalwart supporters. With the recruitment of coniglio as a small defender (another good get in my eyes) I thought we had been smart and could finally get our long awaited use out of Bryan up high and precise penetration into our forwards or link up with the mids, but it never eventuated, thus minimising our ability to reap huge rewards from a quality back. He wasn’t the ruckman or centre-half forward we needed desperately, but we could of utilised him a lot better than we did if he was one of our main recruits.
For mine, we need less ‘acceptance’ of the ‘old norm’. Each game is a learning experience and training is where the kinks should be ironed out. From a coaching stand point, be harder on the errors and accountability, at training so that during games it doesn’t occur. You can’t continually reward players on stats alone, it breeds an unwelcome culture, good for no-one. Hard to lure good recruits to a club that isn’t winning. Sides like subi seem to demand a high standard from one another, thus winning more games due to fewer mistakes and more personal accountability. Also, crucifying a poor young kid on Sokol and then dropping him the following week doesn’t fit in to the ‘learning and developing’ catergory I thought we had.
I hate naming names, but going forward, would love to see narrier on the wing, Rogers pinch hit through the middle more and then play deep forward when he’s not (he’s a big bodied impact player, he can’t be expected to play a full day in the middle but if we can get him to crunch some bodies, clear some packs and then pop up deep with a few goals, he’s worth his weight in gold), ninyette and Sinclair have the run of the forward line (keep it out in front and space for ninja and with Sinclair as your lead up marking target. He’s a great mark and reader of the ball in flight, but too loose and inefficient with the ball to play down back), a midfield more worried about execution, rather than numbers (Byrne is a good example of what we should be aiming for), better structure and use out of the backline (less runners, more accountability, potentially use Taylor as your delivery out and/or Bryan) and more urgency on changes from positions, whether it be on field or to the bench.
All of that, coupled with inclusions back from the injury list and some potential good recruits (even if we raid the amateur ranks for some good talls) Perth will be a force next year. We’ve set ourselves up so well off field with some great additions and new appointments, we just need to roll that into our on field structures too.
Looking forward to the new year, go the red legs