TOPIC:

Well the off season finally has ended and hopefully, the rumour and innuendo circling the club, will be left behind with it. Message to the new CEO: maybe its time the EFFC pulled its sponsorship of a certain Hamilton Hill based radio station. Anyway enough of that, the team for the first weekend of our flag defence has been named.

Plenty of the side that helped lift the premiership cup last September feature. Some noticeable outs though, with Eardley, Harry Marsh, Joyce, Monty and O'Reilly all sitting on the sidelines. The brothers McGuire also not playing with Rueben finding himself back in seconds for reasons unknown.

Both Teakle and Hagan are back from their respective South Australian adventures and are definitely handy inclusions. Plus the 'Bull' Jono Marsh is back. Two league debutants and relatively unknown quantities have been named in Mitchell Zadow and Chadd Dunscombe. Obviously have impressed the coaching staff over the summer. 23 year old recruit Zach Rankin is also set to make his blue and white debut against his old side.

Without knowing much about our opponents they don't seem to be at their strongest, so the task tomorrow doesn't seem as formidable as previous season starts. Only time will tell.

Curious to see James Spadanuda named in our reserves side after playing preseason games with West Coast.  

Looks like no Brady Grey for them either. Still playing good football.

Good write upTi Em. Missing up to 6 players from that premiership side, plus O'Reilly continues to struggle to get on the park. Boekhorst not sighted in any of the pre season games, longest recovery from an ACL I can remember. 

Good to see Tassone in the twos, whilst as you say Spadanuda plus Yeo from the WCER named in EF reserves line up. I guess as they are on loan, if not picked by WCER on match day, they are available for EF. 

Congrats to  ex EF colts boys in Zadow and Dunscombe on their debuts, plus ex Peel boy in Rankin on his his EF debut. Can see a bench of Schoenfeld, Lawler and English, with one out of Cripps, Blakiston, Ball, Holmes and Paton fighting for that last spot.

Peel will definitely get a few late additions, post tonight's game v Adelaide, so they will cone in with a stronger 22 then what is currently named. 

Brett Raponi is a flog, his comments are a disgrace but his opinion, He hates the fact that Bill is our coach. I am a little disapointed JL did not go back at him. 

We have a few outs but we have depth and i reckon we will be ok, Peel have lost a heap and a big outs for them is Blair Bell and Brady Grey . 
Go Sharks 

Mossy, you blokes have depth in spades, you will win the Flag by the length of the Flemington straight. You could possibly only lose the game you have already lost via the salary cap breach.

I see English has also missed out and is also playing Reserves with McGuire and Tassone. Hopefully they are coming back from injury and haven’t the dropped the ball attitude wise. The depth at the club at the moment is the best it’s been in years.
Always exciting to see debutants from the Colts- good luck and well done to Dunscombe and Zadow. Hopefully Rankin is another handy pick up from Peel, we’ve certainly had a few of those over the years.

Big first up game and important we get a good start. Bill Monaghans 300th game as well- a great achievement across 2 clubs.

Pretty piss weak response from the reigning premier supporters on here after a first up loss. So you are stuck on minus 4. Is the redevelopment debacle taking it's toll on the players and some of you supporters?

DD, not sure what you mean mate. Peel, as they normally do every year, beat EF first up in round one. Not sure why you even care what response EF fans on here have, still plenty more rounds to play from memory. 

I guess ending that 14 match drought to Subi has got a few of the Perth boys, such as yourself DD, up n pumped,  thus your post. Kudos for Perth's win, long time  coming over Subi. Good for the comp and no doubt the Perth faithful as well.

Peel deserved the win, icing the match Iin the premiership 3rd quarter, with that 6 goal effort. Wilson making every one of his 6 kicks count with 5 goals. Watched bits and pieces of the game, a sound debut by young Zadow, great to have Teakle back, his mobility  alongside Reuben McGuire will come in handy around the ground as the season progresses.

Usual Murdock effort, hard at it all day. Definitely room for improvement by all n sundry wearing blue n white jumpers. Great 20 goal effort by EF reserves, great to see Tassone back, plus English picked up a few possessions and McGuire will better for the run. Youngsters in Sanchez, Cocking, Hyde and Paholski kicked a few each, looking forward to seeing Sanchez and Cocking develop over the year.

Big game coming up v Cl next week, both teams desperate for a win, more so EF being - 4. But hey nothing like a challenge to get the competive juices flowing. 

I think its going to be a long season for the sharks i can not believe a team can have so many injuries before the season even starts. Harry Marsh is 12 weeks away, Monty 6 to 8, Eardley 3 or 4,Bokehurst  back round 7Joyce is back against the tigers. Oreilly un known.

Bill Monaghan was on before the footy yesturday for those that want to listen to it 

Peel looked good but that could be because we looked very ordinary. No doubt they are linked to one another. The margin in the end flattered our performance. We looked rusty and lacking any sort of cohesion. Hard to see how they will turn it around next weekend at Claremont.  Safe to say we will be 0 and 2 with a 4 point handicap.

Not many positives to come out of yesterday. Teakle did reasonably well and was one of our better players. Blakiston seemed to become visibly more comfortable with league footy as the game went on. Debutante Mitchell Zadow did enough to hold his spot one would think. 

A handful of players battled hard like Murdoch, Jupp, Bennett, Turner and Jansen. Need alot more from the likes of Marsh, Baskerville, Schoenfeld. Can't see Holmes keeping his spot, and there will probably be a few more changes to the side to take on Claremont.

Good to hear from DD certainly having it large after  yesterday's winning start to the season at Lathlain. Didn't the new strip look good too!