TOPIC:

Here goes the next 5:

Griffin Logue – (8 games ave 15 possessions) -rarely have I seen a young player look so much at home when debuting in league footy as what Griffin demonstrated this year. He is strong, versatile and does not appear to fear anybody. Logue is a young gun and he will be snapped up by an AFL team without doubt. Before this he can hopefully assist the Swans colts to go deep into September.

Lindsay Murray (5 games, ave 11 possessions) – Made his debut in 2015 and I thought he looked quite good. He hasn’t really kicked on this year although he has picked up some big numbers in the reserves. I wonder if he might be a little bit slight for league footy and may need to bulk up a bit?

Jacob Ness (1 game, 18 possessions) – I didn’t see his league game so I will defer to BH or anyone else who saw it. Looks like he was recruited from the amateurs as he has only played 8 games with the reserves in 2016 and no WAFL games before that.

Murray Newman (1 game 16 possessions) – Very disappointing that he left the club after 1 game, particularly embarrassing for Harding after his over the top statements in the preseason. Hopefully Murray has got his life on track. I doubt if we will see him at Swans again.

Tony Notte (20 games, ave 16 possessions, 124 marks, 11 goals) – Cannot speak highly enough about this guy. As the most experienced big man at Swans he was thrown around everywhere and he spent the year plugging holes in defence, ruck and drifting forward to kick goals. He has always been a strong mark and is rarely beaten at this level. He played every game along with Faulkner and Riggio. I hope that Swans can get back into finals contention before Tony retires.

Was quite impressed with Ness on his debut Mike. His first half especially was good tired a bit in the 2nd half but looks an assured ball handler who uses the ball well off half back or a wing.

Good group of 5 players tonight

Jake Nuich (9 games ave 9 possessions, 70 ruck hit outs)- Jake had a lot of the season out with health issues but appears to have recovered and ended the season as a key forward/pinch hitting in the ruck. Jake has a lot of upside and will hopefully develop further next year.

Rudy Riddoch – (12 games ave 15 possessions, 10 goals) – Rudy appeared to be out of favour with the selectors early in the season, the view appeared to be that his fitness level was not to the required standard. However after some stand out performances in the reserves, he was installed into the team where he stayed till the end of the season. He has worked harder when he doesn’t have the ball and can improve this further by working on his fitness in the pre season. He is undoubtedly a talent and has the potential to be a marquis player at WAFL level in 2017.

Matt Riggio – (20 games, ave 26 possessions) – another stellar season for Matt and would have to be in line for consecutive Swan medals. He was a very consistent performer in a losing midfield and his skills were a cut above the others. I am not sure about his contract situation but if he hasn’t signed for 2017 I fear we may lose another one to the Subiaco chequebook.

Matthew Rogers (17 games, ave 15 possessions, 16 goals) – a reasonable season from Rogers without ever reaching the heights of the previous two seasons. It was tough being a forward at Swans this year and Matt suffered from lack of opportunities. I felt that he didn’t get involved in some games as much as he could have and his effectiveness was reduced accordingly. Still a key player for Swans going forward.

Justin Simpson ( 16 games, ave 17 possessions, 11 goals) – Simmo is a player that everyone admires. He is a great clubman, always puts a whole hearted effort in to a game and is an excellent role model for younger players. It looks probable that he will go around again next year which is great news and his last game of the season may be a clue that he may play more forward in 2017 season.

12 to go so will group them in 4's from here on in:

Jackson Slater (3 games ave 18 possessions) – came over from East Perth in 2015 having played one league game for them and has added 9 to his tally with Swans. This year he broke into the team late in the season and performed reasonably well. Some believe that he could have been given more of an opportunity as he does have some pace which is a quality that Swans have lacked at times this year.

Thomas Smirk ( 15 games, ave 10 possessions) – mainly used as a negating player and was reasonable doing a job on one of the oppositions better players. However Smirks skills were often lacking a bit when he had the ball and tended to turn over the ball under pressure. Unsure what his future might be in 2017.

Dylan Smith ( 2 games, ave 4 possessions) – Just given a taster of the big time this year. Has obvious talent and kicked 21 goals in the reserves. Will be exposed to league footy more next year.

Taryce Stewart ( 2 games, ave 11 possessions) – Stewart made his debut late in the season and immediately demonstrated an elite skill level and a capacity to make good decisions under pressure. Taryce also showed he had a good goal sense kicking 3 majors in his 2 games. A really good prospect.

Taryce will become a Swans fan favourite if he isnt drafted imo.

Next group, getting close to the finish

Brody Sutton ( 3 games ave 7 possessions) – Another player to be promoted from the Colts team in 2016. Played 5 reserves games before being given 3 consecutive league games from Round 8 – 10. Kicked 14 goals in 4 reserves games early in the season and a bag of 5 in round 6 propelled him into the league team. Fell away a bit possession wise once he was dropped back to the reserves and his last game was in round 19. Showed enough to deserve further opportunities next year.

Jesse Turner (17 game, ave 20 possessions) – A break out season for Jesse after skirting around the edges a bit last year. Turner emerged as the 3rd midfielder behind Faulkner and Riggio and was pretty consistent all year. What I like about him is that he maintains his work rate at a high level and he doesn’t taper off even if Swans are getting a pasting. Look forward to seeing him develop further next year.

Kirk Ugle (11 games ave 13 possessions) – For such a small guy, Kirk regularly puts himself into situations that a lot of bigger stronger guys would fear. The result is that he sometimes gets hit ……hard. Ugle is a courageous player, I have said this year perhaps a little too brave for his own good. He has had a few nasty knocks to the head and he may need to reassess the way he plays footy if he wants to continue, perhaps become a bit more of an outside receiver as he does use the ball reasonably well.

Jack Watson (9 games ave 9 possessions)- another 2016 debutant. He slotted straight into the team in one of the matches that Tallen Ames was injured and immediately looked the part. His season was ended early by injury but Jack will be a regular in the league side next year without any doubt.

I hope some of our young boys take note of the development of Jesse Turner who looks like he works hard on the track and in the gym and with it has come enormous improvement in the last 2 years.

Beasley Hutton wrote: I hope some of our young boys take note of the development of Jesse Turner who looks like he works hard on the track and in the gym and with it has come enormous improvement in the last 2 years.

Agreed mate he is going to be a key part of our engine room in the coming years

OK last group of 4 players

Benjamin Whitsed (8 games, ave 15 possessions) – Was in and out of the team for the whole year and appeared to be not given much of a chance to settle into league footy. The most games in a row he had was 2 and he was dropped 5 times during the season. Whitsed was prolific in the reserves, averaging 27 disposals a match but didn’t seem to translate that form into the league although I think he has been serviceable in most of the games he has played. Not sure where that leaves him for next year.

Warwick Wilson (9 games ave 12 possessions) – had a reasonable run in the league team in the mid to late part of the season before being dropped for the last 3 rounds after his form fell away a bit. He does have ability and unlike some other players he has good kicking skills. He seems to have a bit of a laid back style of playing which may frustrate the coaching staff sometimes. I’m sure he has a promising future at Swans.

Steven Wityk (4 games, ave 7 possessions) - Came into the league team late in the season after a solid but unspectacular season in the reserves. He has played 111 reserves games with East Perth and Swans since 2011 and I have some doubts whether he can make the transition to league footy. I hope he proves me wrong.

Troy Yukich ( 17 games, ave 8 possessions, 35 marks, 524 ruck knocks) – Troy was thrown to the wolves somewhat in round 2 when thrust into the number 1 ruck role when Nathan Blakely broke down. Overall he made a pretty good fist of it especially considering where he was at in April. His ruck tap work improved steadily under Percy’s expert tutelage. He also competed fairly strongly around the ground and he needs to develop more in this area in 2017. He only averaged 2 marks per game so he needs to be a lot more prolific with this skill. I think he also needs to show more aggression towards the ball and opponents to transition into a really good WAFL ruckman. He can be proud of his first season though.

So in total Swans selected 47 players in the league this year. Of these;

• 24 have played less than 20 games at the end of 2016, this number included no less than 14 debutants.
• Nine have played between 20 and 50 games although 2 of these (Newman and Blakely) took virtually no part in the season.
• We had 6 players in the 50 – 100 game bracket which included Blight who was injured early in the year and never came back.
• Swans had 8 players only who have played over 100 WAFL games, in reality it was 7 because one of them was Elari, who walked out of the club part way through the season.

As far as age bracket is concerned a whopping 30 players out of the 47 were 23 years old or under, including 9 teenagers, 12 guys were in the 24-26 range, 4 were aged 27-29 with Tallen being the only player over 30.

These statistics reinforce the point that all of us knew anyway, that Swans were a very young inexperienced team this year, so their season results should be considered in this context.

Tomorrow I might finish off with a few comments about Harding and the coaching as well as what Swans need to do to become more competitive next year.

Mike there were a few boys who would have played League footy for us this year as well if not for injury like- Kirkup, J.Daniels, Maguire and then of course the other lot that decided to play elsewhere in Nelson, Ridley, Houghton, Anderson and it was a completely different looking side to that we had on paper back in early March.

Freeze maybe you could start up a similar topic for EF and we could decipher and analyse that for you sight mostly unseen and then we can also ask why WA 18s boys like Zurhaar & Stranadica cant even get a look in the Reserves let alone League and why it is the Best Midfield Outside The AFL according to the late Ken Judge back in March 2015 cant even make the WAFL Finals?