TOPIC:

I fear the aim of this match has to be to keep the margin respectable. Still no sign of Simpson and Clarke. Wills to make his debut. Byrne will be a welcome return, but we look seriously outclassed on paper. EF have Boekhorst, J Marsh and O'Reilly back - we have to hope they will be underdone. 

In 46 years as a full member, I don’t ever recall being as downcast and disappointed in a season as I have been with this one. When has any club ever recruited as well as Perth, to only have all of those recruits sidelined for as long as Simpson, Clark and Constable? Desperately unlucky. Congratulations to Riley Wills on his debut. Let’s hope he provides some shining light…and doesn’t then suffer any injury like so many before him. 

Looking forward to seeing how Will's handles it.
I think he'll do alright.

Country member wrote:

In 46 years as a full member, I don’t ever recall being as downcast and disappointed in a season as I have been with this one. When has any club ever recruited as well as Perth, to only have all of those recruits sidelined for as long as Simpson, Clark and Constable? Desperately unlucky. Congratulations to Riley Wills on his debut. Let’s hope he provides some shining light…and doesn’t then suffer any injury like so many before him. 

And add to that the injury to Avery in the last qtr of the last scratch match that sees him listed this week as still 5 weeks away. That will make it 13 weeks on the sidelines and I regard Avery as our best player outside the big 3 recruits brought into the club this year being Constable, Simpson and Schlensog. For me A. Clarke is yet to prove he is going to be an A grader. 

5 weeks ago Clarke was listed as 3-4 weeks, still listed as 3-4 weeks. Someone being slack or had a setback? Simpson I was told on the day of the Claremont game had a bit of a calf but should be right after the bye. Just listed this week as calf 2 weeks. That makes it 5 weeks since the Swans game plus another 2. Clarke what? 8 or 9 weeks??? You can’t make this shit up. The communication from the club is a joke.

CM, you need look back only 3 years to find a similar, if not worse situation. Going into that year our list included the following: stalwarts like Byrne, Sinclair, Taylor, Colledge, Rogers, Nicholas, Gibba, Coniglio, emerging players like R Clarke, McPartland, Hunter, Davis, and recruits Langlands, Fisher, Masten, J Smith, Yeo, Grey, Richardson, Busher and McInnes. By about round 5 our season was in tatters due to injury. 

So next season no doubt we will all be hopeful that Constable, Avery, etc, will be set for a full season, plus maybe one or two more recruits or returning players (Q Narkle? Hunter?) and maybe we will be set for a big year. How long will that optimism last? 

Yep. There’s always next year. Or the year after. Or the year after that. Or……

Ted Nugent wrote:

How long will that optimism last? 

Normally three rounds, this year five. Be grateful. 

This year would still be a positive step if Perth won 6-8 games, and that’s a possibility if some of the injured players come back. That would give your recruiters something to sell next year and, should you stay healthy, you’ll be away

You also have the bonus of getting a number of games into the younger players

15 minutes into the first quarter. Brogan Henry had to mark that on the half back line. No desire 

A very good effort overall. Missed opportunities in first quarter was not helpful and some poor execution of skills costly.
But they never gave up and just when it looked like they were going to be over-run in the last quarter they lifted but just fell short.
Perhaps a game we could have won.