TOPIC:

Had to leave at 3/4 time to get to work and am a little worried to see the final scoreboard.

Spoke to some Giant (not playing today) at 3/4 huddle and was happy to hear that it was Daniel Murray. Heard he had a good one last week.

NEG:
Mcinnes pushed off the ball too easily, no voice and missed two very gettable goals.
Florio has not put on any weight or added any meanness.
No one full of voice.
25 and 55 in the back line out classed and out muscled.
Not sure Moody has the pace or meanness to be in center bounce.
Saw Houghton running water and he looks to have lost weight.
The win last week looses significance as South got trounced again today.

POS:
Hodge.
Batemen.
Beven.
Richardson (though missed an easy goal)
Teddy (as always-reading the play beautify-maybe think about a go in the center)
Deaves - reading the play better - still a way to go though.
Another scratchy next week to tweek.

UNKNOWN:
Eyers
Irons
Reimers

CONFIDENT WILL IMPROVE QUICKLY:
Manuel

SPECIAL NOTE:
Boyle

OTHER:
Hated seeing the size of Rodgers and the pace of Elari gone from our club, but am strangely happy they have gone along with Davis and Spandex/

Yes Daniel Murray was very good last week, I'm sure he will lead the ruck this year and do very well. I've heard some negatives about him, but since arriving he has shed about 9klgs and is working very hard. So obviously he realises this may be his last chance.

No one full of voice - that worries me a bit because the consensus was that this was area of much improvement.

25 is Kane, I think he played on Notte according to Smokey. He is not a key position player and does punch outside his height. 55 I think might be Holland, he is only a youngster but has a lot of promise. David Johnston who rucked yesterday has been recruited as a key defender and did some good things last week. He is a big boy but not quite as big as Murray & Leyendekkers both 200cm.

Risol is the other KPP recruit and he looks good being able to play either end.

Deaves is an interesting one. I won't have him but he is a big man and has shown some signs this pre-season. I would keep him around for the moment purely as depth in the big man department.

The big man department is the area the Club has improved most. Whilst some of them are young they are full of promise, just hope we can bring them on.

Overall I think our recruiting has been good.

6 goals in perfect conditions is below par in any game.
We had some missing and were experimenting....so were Swans.


The problems for mine that still exists are,who are our noted,not hope to be or has promise to be but who are our noted goal kickers in the forward line??
We are also relying on 3 inexperienced talls from Peel to fill the void in the ruck and down back...didnt that club get the wooden spoon whilst those players were there?

Our midfield has been weakened and i dont see it being close to what it was and that even with Young and Elari in it wasnt strong enough to compete against the better teams.
Matt Moody may be the fittest hes been but he does not have the tank nor the pace to be a damaging midfielder.

Hopefully the coach gets it right with Reimers and thats playing him in the forward line with the occassional run on the ball if the game at the time demands it.
I hope supporters are not expecting miricles from Chance,i'm 50/50 as to where he's better suited...forward or midfield.

Our defence still looks shaky and last year let the most points through in the wafl than any other team...the defence lacks at least 1 maybe 2 tall Strong mature bodies.

Our recruitment has addressed our deficiencies in the best possible way.

Other than Buddy Franklin who would you have recruited?

DF, Holland played in the ressies again and looked good. A promising development player who should get his opportunities soon. IMO he is a very clever young player but needs to bulk up.
55 was Rowlings ex WP. Did some useful things but jury still out for mine. He is a tall and still young and hopefully will develop. Also needs to bulk up a bit.

Thanks Smokey.

Demons Forever wrote: Our recruitment has addressed our deficiencies in the best possible way.

Other than Buddy Franklin who would you have recruited?

You tell me..is that a stupid response???

Are you saying other than "A" grade top shelf AFL players theres noone else out there??
So theres noone of experience in the VFL or SANFL??

Im not saying every player out there wants to play wafl but you present a good case and surely you must snare 1 afterall Ross Young played for us that just shows that we can recruit them.

Well you are obviously unhappy with our recruiting.

Who would you have recruited?

30+, we needed talls and have recruited Murray, Leyendekers, Johnston, Risol, Rowlings.
We needed to rebuild the midfield and we have Sketcher, Bateman and Irons. Both good additions to Ali Smith, Bevan, O'Sullivan, Hodge, Jacobs. Add Reimers who will no doubt run thru the middle a bit and also Moody.
Bateman is very fit for a 30+ (pardon the pun) player.
Will it make up for the loss of Ross Young? Perhaps not, but I don't count Davis as a loss to the midfield as he played, rightly or wrongly, mostly in defence or up forward.
I agree that the forward line is the weakest area for us given that Busher may not play much footy until at least mid season and that McInnes does not seem to have come on at all judging by the towling Ames gave him yesterday. So the attack looks much the same as last season without a power forward to straighten us up and to go to.

Given salary and points restrictions, recruiting is a complex process. IMO the club has endeavoured to address the shortfalls and the side certainly has a lot more height than we have seen for a long time.
Will that be good enough to lift us up the ladder? I don't know but time will tell. I see more depth in the ruck and a couple of tall defenders so at least we have tried.

Demons Forever wrote: Well you are obviously unhappy with our recruiting.

Who would you have recruited?

Lets get it right...i think we could have done a bit better in our recruiting with the following.



I would have balanced the recruiting of the talls,the couple we have got (recruits) combined with a couple of experienced talls (recruits) from comps equivalent to the WAFL.
I think we are too inexperienced in the tall man department and i think it will show especially as the season gets longer.

Goal kickers...who are they???We need a tall in the forward line that knows how to kick goals...we are not going to get that from a first or second year player!
We will struggle big time in this area.


In terms of money....Young,Davis,KT,Spaanderman and Elari would have freed up a fair bit of coin in my opinion.