TOPIC:

Now the club has said who we have and who we don't, is this our best possible side? Yes I have included Lennon Marlin in it, only because I feel his seriously under valued at the club. He can play back line, but I think his best spot is up forward (perfect when Johnno helps out Eyres). Thoughts?

FF C. Ninyette B. Johnson Z. Roe
HF C. Leggett M. Bennell M. Rogers
C C. Byrne C. Jones G. Narrier
HB M. Sinclair M. Taylor J. Levien
FB J. Burke C. Giblett J. Bell

Ruck: C. Eyres, C. Yeo, B, Colledge,

Int: L. Marlin, M. Lague, C. Bryan, A. Scotney

It remains to be seen if we have done enough to avoid slipping back rather than recruiting.
Chris Bryan appears to be coming to the Club with wraps.
I seriously hope he is better than a reserves player. My concern is I think we may slip back a bit.
Having said that there are a couple of Clubs who not covered their losses.
What's with Laine Wilkins he remains on our list.

Demons Forever wrote: It remains to be seen if we have done enough to avoid slipping back rather than recruiting.
Chris Bryan appears to be coming to the Club with wraps.
I seriously hope he is better than a reserves player. My concern is I think we may slip back a bit.
Having said that there are a couple of Clubs who not covered their losses.
What's with Laine Wilkins he remains on our list.

Have to "SLIGHTLY" disagree, I think we have strengthened our Midfield compared to last year with the inclusions of Narrier and Bryan, without losing anyone of significance. Also the only forward we lost was White and he was hardly there anyway. The youngsters last year have had a full years experience and will be better for it. I'm tipping Blake Johnson to have a big year. So IMO opinion our forward line will be on PAR with last year. Our Defence hasnt changed a lot, maybe if anything strengthened a little with Belly back (hopefully for a whole season) and young Josh Burke was certainly in our best defenders before he left, so hopefully he adds a little bit of depth.
All in all, I think we are better off than last year - but by how much? Hopefully enough to play finals, but sadly I think we will just be making up the numbers in the 5 this year.

Improvement obviously has to come from what we have.
Jared Bell with full pre season... big plus
Matt Rogers a better player than before he left... big plus
Chris Bryan has the pedigree... hopefully he will add quite a bit
Michael Bennell… will be looking to him to take his game to a new level
Gordon Narrier… should be a better and more mature player given his AFL experience last year
Dakota Baldwin-Wright... still developing hopefully that will continue but still green
John Levien… has developed into a good go-with player. He will get better
Johnson, Nicholas, Scotney and others have improvement in them
We wont have a forward target but we will have a stronger midfield. Hopefully they wont just bomb the ball forward and get caught on the rebound and transition by the opposition and allow easy 2 goal turn arounds.
BUT we still have not addressed our primary needs of a top ruckman and a forward target who can kick 50+ goals.
We will be depending on that improvement from within which probably wont be enough and makes it hard for us to move far up the ladder.

Other sides haven't really seemed to recruit big name players either this off season. That said we shouldn't be concerning ourselves with what other teams are doing and focus on our own needs.

The whole team will need to improve if we are to move up the ladder this year.

If Burke and Latch have committed for 2019 then there will be competition for places down back. I don't think we will be getting a ruckman at this late stage of the preseason. That being said I will be looking at Dakota during the intra club and scratch matches to see how he has developed since the end of last season. We saw last year what Clayton Giblett can offer as a ruckman. I'm not saying that he should take over but if Burke and Latch are back and playing league then I wouldn't mind seeing how Giblett goes as the designated 2nd ruckman in the team.

I was looking forward to seeing how Sam Garstone was going to go this year after injury issues over the last 18 months. As far as I am aware though he had work commitments up to Christmas and am not sure if he has returned to training.

I don't think we will improve on last year, marginally at best. In terms of gains, Bryan, Wyatt, Green, Kickett and Eades look to be reserves players. I personally don't rate Roe, but glad to be proved wrong. That leaves Narrier, Rogers and Burke as the only additions, and they do little more than cancel out the loss of Giobbi, MacFarlane and (apparently) Wilkins.

Here's my team:

FB: Bell Giblett Taylor
HB: Leggett Sinclair Burke
C: Colledge Henderson Narrier
HF: Rogers B Johnson Cary
FF: Ninyette Marlin Bennell
F: Eyres Yeo Byrne
Int: C Jones, Scotney Levien, Lague, Hill, Edmonds, Dennis

Sorry PD1899 I think our forward line has to be better than the one you named,I realise there’s not many options and our backline has to be heaps better,we had the second worst defence in 2018.

That's not a bad side Ted. I reckon. C Bryan will play round 1. If you add a fit Sammy G, S Smith, K. Nicholas and a colty or 2 we might be batting a bit deeper than people expect.

I think we have a top 3 midfield but need some goals out of them Don't want Leggett off half back, I want 25g out oh him and 25 out of BC and 20 out of Burner.

For what it's worth, here is my best side:

B: J. Bell - M. Taylor - Z. Hill
HB: M. Sinclair - B. Latch - J. Burke
C: G. Narrier - B. Collegde - C. Leggett
HF: M. Rogers -B. Johnson - M. Bennell
F: C. Ninyette - M. Jones - K. Cary
R/Foll.: C. Eyres - C. Yeo - C. Byrne
Res. C. Giblett - C. Bryan - M. Browne - A. Scotney - C. Jones - L. Marlin - B. Edmonds - M. Henderson - L. Dennis - J. Levien

I think we have at least one A-grader on each line. Backs and Midfielders look stronger than our forward line, though at their best Ninyette and Bennell are A-grade small forwards.

Pretty easy to spot the weaknesses: no back-up ruck, no CHF or FF with a proven record; midfield is great but there's little after those guys. I have only included recognized league players in the res. list. Take 4 out of that, and then the overall team depth is weak. Sing and Hamilton represent the best hopes from the colts, at least on paper. Rogers is an A grade recruit and Burke might be included. Narrier is a potential A Grade recruit. There seems to have been no recruiting done outside the club at all, with the exception of Bryan. Disappointed we weren't able to attract anyone away from WP. Having said that, when EP roll out Joel Houghton as a recruit and as a potential FF it seems there may not have been a lot out there. I also think that if Giobbi represents our only league loss from the list, then we've slightly improved over last year.

I think it also has to be said that new AFL rules around rookies and mid-season draft etc have made the job of recruiting or retaining players at WAFL level that much harder. So has the fact that the WCE have a reserves team, despite the rules imposed on them re recruiting.