TOPIC:

Welcome back ladies and gentlemen for what is an exciting time for all as we enter the inaugural season for the Perth Football League, it has been a long time coming especially for the one and only Mr. Mysterious.

For those who know MrM you will be familiar with his weekly output of constant rubbish and critiques of footballers, crowds and canteen menu items, MrM comes out swinging and rarely misses. For those who are first time readers all I can say is welcome aboard and join in the fun, if you think you have what it takes to be the next MrM by all means…take over.

There has been a lot of discussion in the offseason about the new season, name change, new rules and the points system but MrM is looking forward to seeing how it all plays out, because at the end of the day it is still 18 v 18 on the ground.

In terms of off-season’s MrM has little to report.
Afternoons teas in cricket again lacked something, perhaps a cricket club willing to introduce hot chips into the fold would catch MrM’s eye. There is sadly no news to report on the MrsM front either, but mark my WORD; MrM will not rest until he has good news to report.

Who is ready to take the deep dive into thee world that is the Perth Football League, A Grade…MrM is, so come and join in Round 1.

North Fremantle v Scarborough @Gil Fraser Oval

Welcome back to A Grade North Fremantle, the good news is you do not have to travel to far as you get a home game, but bad news you also play the reigning premier who have seemingly gotten stronger in the offseason. North Freo do have a few good players joining the fold and should surprise a few teams, but it’s a tough ask round one. Scarborough, whilst they cannot kick at goal (Watch the video on The West) they have added some power to a side that looked good last season. I can see them being very good once again and will start well this weekend.
Scarborough by 4 goals

Kingsway v Wembley @Kingsway Reserve

Looking at the clearances out Kingsway has lost a few players in the offseason so one does wonder how they will fair in 2019. They do have a good group of youth though that will hold them in good stead. Wembley seem to fly under the radar for most, but not MrM, MrM wants more from Wembley. This is as good chance for them to start the season off well, but in terms of how they will go for the season, anyone’s guess. It will be a tricky game for both clubs, but Kingsway may get it done.
Kingsway by 2 goals

Fremantle C.B.C v Kingsley @Morris Buzzacott Reserve

Last seasons Grand Finalists will be hoping for one better in season 2019 after falling short last season. If they can maintain majority of there players, MrM can’t see why they won’t be. It is another tough test for the A grade newcomers this round, who have been done no favours by the PFL. Kingsley stormed all last season as they did the season before, but heading to A grade is another test all together. They face a tough test here and have lost their best player to West Coast Eagles. I cannot see them winning this weekend.
Fremantle C.B.C by 6 goals

University v Wanneroo @UWA Sports Park

Last Uni were there and there about, but will be wanting to improve on there performances this season. It is hard to know what you will get from the Uni boys, but MrM can see them once again playing finals, but losing a home final last season by a kick would be a driving force for this season. Wanneroo have had an indifferent preseason, 2 League coaches gone, player movement, but the MrM knows the spirit and hunger is there. IT will be a good game Saturday, even if getting from the change rooms to the oval is a warm-up in itself.
Wanneroo by 1 goal

Trinity Aquinas v North Beach @Bill Grayden Reserve MOTR

What a game to finish the round and no surprises here, it is this weekend Match Of The Round.
TA’s 2018 campaign came to an end in straight sets after the lost against a North Beach side that MrM thought were finding their feet and ready to win it all, but came up short. It will be important for TA’s to get a good start here, as they look to doing better this season. North Beach, were a kick away from heading to the A Grade Final again last season, but it was not to be. Both sides will be looking to finish in that top 3 this season and get a double chance come finals.
Always a tough contest between these sides as the 6-6-6 rule matters very little here. North Beach to get the win away from home here.
North Beach by 2 goals

Good luck to all, hope season 2019 is as kind to you as Santa was to MrM in 2018,which was generous indeed.

Solid as Always Mr M

Scarborough will be too good for NF to the tune of 7 goals
Kingsway have lost a few (work commitments mainly i believe) but have also picked up some quality. Will win at home by 4 goals
CBC by 10 goals
Uni to belt Wanneroo by a similiar margin - 10 goals
North Beach by a goal

Good luck to all sides in what will be a challenging year

Well if it is any indication at all from the first round the points system may have let the Genie out of the bottle, because I cannot remember such a large number of beltings in Round One of an A Grade Season.

North Fremantle
Loom us the dark horse and would have to feel hard done by in just failing to get up over what I thought was an invincible Scarborough outfit. Of course it helps when you can add WAFL depth like (Cook, Cooper, Stephens, McGuiness, Mirco and Stokes) but that is now what is needed to be a force in A Grade.
2nd Place.

Scarborough
Haven't lost any depth but a few of the other teams have stepped up.
1st Place

CBC
Absolutely belted last years B Grade Grand Finalists Kingsley. Look to have added even more WAFL depth.
3rd Place

North Beach
Very solid performance against TA's. Have picked up a few and will be thereabouts
4th Place

University & TA's
Have both lost a few from last year but hard to judge the Uni's performance as Wanneroo are really struggling in both grades.
5th & 6th place

Kingsway, Wembley & Kingsley
Only Kingsley have played a top five side from 2018 but Wembley with the addition of ex Curtin A Grade Leading Goalkicker James Charlesworth booting 7 goals still lost!
7th & 8th & 9th place

Wanneroo
Just don't have the numbers in either grade. It will be a really tough year for these boys and I hope they can regroup somehow
10th place

I think what is more telling is the reserve scores. Indicates which clubs have the depth in place to be sustainable A grade clubs. Unfortunately for some clubs early indicators are that you will not be competitive, your reserves won't be competitive and it is going to be a very long year.

University on a total 32pps handing out a belting to a club who publicly mocked them on Facebook during the week regarding there local recruiting. Wanneroo had higher points.

Full credit to University, seems remarkable that they will be competitive playing 10pps less than other clubs. Great example.

Pretty dismal in the Wanneroo 2s? Must have been tired from the walk from the Uni away rooms to the ground?

Well an interesting round of football indeed.
The Preacher you may be right, but I surely hope not. MrM will still be around all season so you could enjoy that surely

Thanks to UnholyTugBoat, you must be an absolute riot at parties…remind MrM to never inivte you to one.
Openly mocked? Not sure if that is the case, but as they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder… so you are able to see what you want.
Wanneroo did field probably the youngest most inexperienced group in A Grade though.
Please show MrM the stats for that? Thank you

MrM did manage to stroll to UWA Sports Park though. It was clear…maybe MrM should have attended pre-season training as he was puffed from the carpark all the way to the oval. Even more so on the way back.

MrM did miss the colts though due to early morning commitments, but arrived to see Wanneroo kick the first goal of the Reserves and were looking good.
It is just a shame University kicked the next 25, but as long as all had fun.
MrM did witness a good clean hit though that would have seen a University player picking shattered pieces of his ribs out of his lungs all week…even the tough MrM flinched in pain.

The League game, Wanneroo looked slighty off the pace, but with plenty to work on for the remainder of the season. Personally MrM didn’t think Wanneroo played that badly, scoreboard doesn’t reflect, but all you can ask for is effort. If a few things went there way it could have been different. Obviously Uni were very good with the ball, and torched Wanneroo, but remains to be seen if they can keep up for remainder of the season, I think Uni would be playing finals just a matter of how far they can go.

MrM is already looking forward to this weekend, it’s just a pity MrM is losing his mates as they go back to playing football. MrM will sit in the stands alone.

More importantly how were the hot chips at Uni Mr M. Couldn't get any food or drink last time I played there.

Who cares about the game.... most importantly how were the chips??

Not really remarkable UHTB.

UWA is the most elite sporting tertiary institution in WA and has 60 ready made league players rock up each year that play colts and league. It doesn't have to actively go out and recruit anybody. They are also located within a 3k radius of the most elite PSA schools whose students first Tertiary Institution of choice is UWA!

The plus for Uni now is that nearly ALL of their colts will have started with the club and will therefore be one point players.

Every other club has to "recruit" colts or attract players from elsewhere who will now be 2 or three point players.

The anomaly in the points system is that it penalises teams like Wanneroo who don't have a ready made talent pool at their fingertips.

Having said all that they still managed to put an A Grade team on the park with 34 points.

In my opinion Wanneroo are far more worthy of praise than UWA!

The biggest problem for clubs like wanneroo in relation to what u are saying is that most players capable of league footy end up playing colts @ West Perth @ 16 - 18 years of age. 3 points bang, even if they have played 12 years of juniors at Wanneroo.

I agree it's tough, kind of sucks.

But what u don't don't do after sacking your inept coach 3 weeks from season start is publicly criticize a club like Uni for their recruiting "grounds". They have played by the rules imposed and showed up with a very low pps.

Not sure why u would suggest praising wanneroo.