TOPIC:

mo -- I remember seeing young footballers, such as you mentioned, back in my high school days -- it was a bit of shock for them as they progressed; most, of course, as you know drop-out for various reasons -- cheers.

The problem remains.
Why we didn't piss Harding off all together is beyond me.
His communication style will not gel with the younger ones anymore. Try and have some meaningful conversation with him and you will soon see why he was a failure as a coach .

I try not to jump on other clubs threads but ...... in my experience there aren't many Rich's or Conoglio's who can step straight from colts to league during a season, for us perhaps Mitch Duncan was ok and Leuenburger did but that who I recall. We have had there or four step upto ressies and go ok.

agreed Grump - you may get one a season and we have had that over the last few years - Sam Taylor, Griff Logue to follow on from a few in the past but if they are not better than the blokes in ressies dont just play them cos they have some talent at colts level.

MarkOlsen wrote: only the quality from EF is allowed at Basso - Percy, Melly, JT won them a flag, Hethrington and Leigh Brenton !

Some quality there that is for sure MO....Broadbridge didn't go to bad for SD as well..nor did Mark Piano.....Brenton had a thumping torp on him from memory....

Yep true BH, think both clubs have done well from each other during our footy life time.....was really excited to see Olsen come to EF in 1980.....gutted he did his knee early on....was he a player swap for Melly back then?

In my time following Swans (40 years or so) we have had some very good 16, 17 & 18yo's (Colts age) play League footy in that time period such as-
Phil Narkle
Peter Sartori
Brent Hutton
Danny Penny
Jason Ball
Neville Jetta
Dayle Garlett
Murray Newman
Corey Gault
Blaine Boekhorst
Connor Blakely
Griffin Logue
Sam Taylor
Jarrod Cameron
Stephen O'Reilly
Michael Brown
Michael Clark
Craig Callaghan
Andrew Embley
Adam Hunter
Brett Johnson
Scott Cummings
Garth Taylor
Luke Blackwell
Nic Naitanui
Tony Notte
Dennis Armfield
Alex Rance
Dave Ellard
Chris Yarran
Michael Walters
Clancee Pearce
Stevie Coniglio
Jeff Garlett
Todd Banfield
Charlie Cameron
All of the guys listed above where taken in the afl draft or played in the vfl and have had great to reasonable careers and there have been others who had very good WAFL career
s like Don Langsford, Jon Fogarty, Peter Kelly, Christian Kelly, Drew Cornelius, Justin Simpson, Alex Howard etc.
There have been a few fails along the way as well but my point being IF they are good enough and better than those play them in the League side but if not dont play them if it is just to get draft recognition nowadays as SDFC dont get any financial benefit from it anymore!

Wow that's a hell of a lot of talent BH
Mark Piano Freezin? Bet he played well or was he out of tune with what the coach wanted...…

Freezin wrote:

MarkOlsen wrote: only the quality from EF is allowed at Basso - Percy, Melly, JT won them a flag, Hethrington and Leigh Brenton !

Some quality there that is for sure MO....Broadbridge didn't go to bad for SD as well..nor did Mark Piano.....Brenton had a thumping torp on him from memory....

Yep true BH, think both clubs have done well from each other during our footy life time.....was really excited to see Olsen come to EF in 1980.....gutted he did his knee early on....was he a player swap for Melly back then?

Yes Mark Olsen was part of the swap for Melrose Freeze.
I remember reading that Melly had originally wanted to go back to EF in 1980 but having just won the GF in 79 your football dept werent as interested as he had hoped and instead followed his old coach to Basso and the rest is history so to speak.
From memory Neesham, Brenton (playing Reserves), Piani were not wanted at Moss St at the time whilst Hetherington & Broadbridge felt they needed a change of scenery to ignite their footy and sure some of the SD boys who left to go to EF were in the same boat.

I'm not sure where you get your material from BH...whether its memory or you have some reference resources available to you but your knowledge of any and all things WAFL is bloody amazing quite frankly.

Piani came back to EF from memory, but only lasted a year before heading back to SD.....good footballer he was too