TOPIC:

Royal, I don't know about our bank balance. I think heavy recruiting is essential for the simple reason that we do not have good enough zones. As recommended by the WAFC review, we have focused for a couple of seasons on mostly home grown talent. That has given us a reasonable base - Ninyette, Byrne, Sinclair, Taylor, Leggett, Colledge, Edmonds, Johnson, for example - but we fall away badly after our top dozen or so players. We have a few decent recycled players, like Giblett, Payne, Coniglio, but we lack match winners. We lack a line-breaking run and carry mid, a 50 goal a season key forward and a mobile ruckman who can take contested marks and link up play.So we need 3-4 really good recruits, and we have about 40 points to play with. However, as you say, we need to be mindful of recruiting within our means. That has been a focus of our club for many years and I don't think there is any danger of us leaving ourselves exposed.

Not sure the bank balance is what we need to worry about.
We have the resources now to identify and a desire to cure our short comings.
The war chest I believe will come from outside the bank balance.
I am sure that we have the resources to resource the recruiting.
We certainly have the room on our points table.
4 I reckon gun mid, mobile ruckman, marking leading grumpy key forward, and maybe an enforcer.
Wink wink nudge nudge say no more …….

It's called business acumen.

Ex EP ruckman Scott Jones has been delisted by Fremantle and unlikely to be picked up I’d say. He’s a lumberjack bit like Brock Higgins at South who also originated from EP. He’d be handy to lead the ruck while DB-W develops. No doubt he’d be a priority for the Royals but if you don’t ask you don’t get.

Nathan Blackly from Swans (Conner Blackly's Brother) dropped by Swans a couple of times this year. Would be worth having a talk to him too. Jones not highly regarded at either AFL or WAFL level. Must retain Ayers as well.

If we go into next year with Eyres leading the ruck then we are kidding ourselves about having success at this club. The bloke has a big heart and tries his guts out we all acknowledge that but he concedes too much height to his opponent and lacks skill like a Delahunty who is also a smaller ruckman but hurts opposition around the ground.

My advice to Christian would be thanks we need to move on and he should too.

Sorry DD disagree.
You are right we can't go in next year without recruiting a class big man.
But I would actually keep Eyres around the place as a back up and to add depth.
Can hold his own with hitouts but as you quite rightly say doesn't hurt the opposition around the ground or with possessions.
Continue to develop DBW.

Hang on, it's hard to be on top of everything including significant global political issues and be over a statistical matter over who has taken more marks for Perth in the WAFL at the same time.

Stand the Test wrote: Here’s a question for you, who has taken more marks this year , Higgins or Eyres?

Who cares? So Eyres took two more marks and played one more game in fact I think Higgins played only 16 but shows 17 after South played in a final against Claremont. Higgins thrashed Eyres in every other stat, without naming them all he clearly has far bigger impact around the ground. For mine Dakota Baldwin-Wright went past Eyresy in the last 2 games. When he was on the ball we started winning contests and clearances and we’ve got another 205 cm ruckman coming along in Chapman-Hill.

DD you're correct DBW has come on a lot, I think thanks to the appointment of that ex AFL ruckman as ruck coach.
Priority must be to continue to nurture and work on both DBW and CH.
But I still see a need to recruit a ready made one and to keep Eyres on the list.

Top 3 for Marks for Perth were
Sinclair. 111
Edmonds 85
Colledge 84

15th was Byrne on 32 marks

Eyres isn’t in the top 15