TOPIC:

What's everyone thoughts about wafl players playing on a Saturday and then fronting up in the swfl on a Sunday. Graham Jetta played reserves for Swan Districts and by all reports was BOG and then fronted up and played for the Harvey Bulls on Sunday. I'm guessing that Swans must have given a permit back to play? But seems against the spirt of the game.......Just interested in hearing others thoughts on it.

I know in the Avon that can't happen, maybe that is just an Avon rule, if a boy plays Reserves for Perth Demons Saturday, can't play for his home team Avon team Sunday.

it depends on the league ... can't do it under WAAFL rules and guidelines.

If SWFL allow it then nothing you can do.

I think that its funny that the SWFL have their own set of laws for the game from the rest of the competitions in WA.

This year i have had the pleasure of experiencing exactly the same thing you mentioned Lions Pride where a Colts player played WAFL then starred in the following day against us. The club involved only have 30+ players to choose from so someone missed out.

Then we had a team play 3 players on permits from another competition against us just because their team had a bye. They were all payed for the day, yes in colts!

And then.... well why go on as it only pisses me of.

In response to your original post about being in the spirit of the game then i would have to agree and as you know too well the competition down here fails on that account...need i mention Eaton and the recruitment of players!

Harvey fielded 21 players with at least 4 players ( 3 x colts and 1 x reserves) all having played a full game earlier in the day. So without the player depth of clubs like HBL the Harvey Bulls will play someone like Graham who wants to play and also gives a lot of experience to the young bulls around him.

Trav

Trav wrote: need i mention Eaton and the recruitment of players!
Trav

Hi Trav,

I hardly think you can cry foul about Eaton's recruiting when in the last 3 years Harvey have recruited Brad Smith, Jarrad Schofield, Phil Read, Jeff Farmer, Caine Hayes, David Mapleston, Sam Larkins, Richard Ambrose, Chad Cossom, Alex James and others.

In my time playing in the SWFL (since 2001), I have seen every club, without exception, top up their playing list when they view their premiership window to be open.

I understand the population of your town and the difficulty of keeping young people that move away involved in your football club and I empathise with you. It was not so long ago that we, (Eaton), were in a similar position in regards to our playing numbers. 15-20 players across all 3 grades was the normal turnout at training.

Thankfully we have had a steady stream of talented juniors making their way to the club through both the Eaton & Boyanup juniors. The club decided in 2007 to play as many young players as possible. A lot of the league players playing now (Matt Jas, Matt Scott, Cody Miller, Chris Atthowe etc) gained valuable football experience that has allowed them to develop as league footballers.

We continued on this path from 2008-2011 and managed to finish 6th, half a game outside the finals in 2010, and finally make the finals in 2011. Of that side that played in the elimination final loss in 2011 only 2 players had not played Colts for our Football club.

Basically what I am trying to say is that whilst we certainly have recruited our share of players, we are hardly the first club to do so and we still retain the vast majority of our team from the aforementioned rebuilding period. I highly doubt that some successful teams of the past few years would have been able to field their side with the current player points cap.

Will

Hi Will,

My point was recruitment of players that were playing in the SWFL, not recruiting players from outside the system. You will never please everyone but to actively chase players from clubs that have a very small player base will not help the competition at all, which no doubt you experienced whilst located out at Boyanup.

Also after visiting your ground on the weekend I hope that you are ringing the Dardanup Shire on a daily basis as your oval is in pretty poor shape and you wouldn't want one of your thorough bred players sustaining an injury due to the condition of that oval.

You definitely have the teams to win the GF in all grades so maybe it is the year of the Boomer.

Cheers

Trav

The issue with our oval and lack of good facilities has been an ongoing issue. A lot of promises & not a lot of action. With the redevelopment of the Pratt Road oval the Eaton Junior Football Club also uses the facilities for training & playing. The playing surface gets used 7 days a week so it is no wonder it is not in A grade condition.

In regards to actively chasing players from other SWFL clubs, I am not involved in recruiting but I understand your point. You are correct in suggesting that we experienced "poaching" of some players whilst we were less successful. However losing more than winning is not fun and some players leave chasing success. I believe that unless clubs can provide an environment that will make leaving a more difficult decision, then unfortunately players choosing to play elsewhere will continue to happen.

We are going pretty well at the moment Trav but as we all know October is a long, long way away. It's a very even competition at League level, as your league side displayed on the weekend, albeit for a half. As cliched as it sounds we are taking each game as it comes & hopefully the results will take care of themselves. Although if the comments coming from your bench were anything to go by, all our players will be on holidays come finals time spending their millions of dollars of match payments.

Will

Trav,
I find it a little amusing that you make the comment about recruiting players from other SWFL clubs. I can think of 10 players that Harvey have recruited from other SWFL clubs this year in D Davis, D Italiano, L Morabito, A Jetta, B Jetta, C Jetta, G Jetta, M Jetta, P Jetta and M Robson. Not sure if there are any other i have missed.
Eaton have recruited heavily this year but they have done the ground work in developing their local base and have topped up to give it a crack as every other club has and will continue to do. The only way to stop heavy recruiting from WAFL/WAAFL and other SWFL clubs is too lower the points system cap. at the moment it sits at 40 points which effectively means a club can go out and recruit 6 wafl players and fall under the cap (if they can afford too). 34 points seems to be more than enough to encourage the development of local talent and then still top up with 4 WAFL quality players if required. with the cap at 40 points the wealthier clubs are going to be the ones who prosper which will make it harder for the clubs in smaller towns that dont have the revenue that other clubs may have.
Take nothing away from what Eaton have done, they have got themselves in a position to have a crack at it and have recruited as the points system has allowed them too. Lots of people screaming poor over what Eaton have put together but if clubs agree to lower the points cap it will encourage more of a "local" competition.

Lions Pride, i am glad that you are amused mate as it looks like you just looked up Sportingpulse and threw some names on a screen.

If you actually new something then you would know Daniel Davis is a local player who went to Eaton and now has returned, and Robson probably just came across to get a league game,as Eaton have lost a number of 2nd tier players.

Jetta's left Busso on their own accord, and Busso have the depth to cover them, their fathers also played for the Bulls back in the day.

Clem Jetta from Bunbury has come across for his nephews and is probably +40 and plays reserves.

Luke Morabito (Peel reserves) & Daniel Italiano (i do not know) have not played a game this year.

Your old mate Graham Jetta played on Permits to have a run with his family and is a Swannies player.

So I will not bother listing your players as i do not know enough about them but it is very obvious that you are not happy about sitting on the bottom of the ladder and are looking at any excuse to justify that position. With the enormous local base you have maybe you should be looking at putting more work in there?

Points reduction and salary caps could help, but unless the SWFL publish each teams points I cannot know for sure whether 34,35 or 36 points would work.

See you Round 18

Trav

Trav, thankyou for your feedback on what you think HBL should be doing. Im sure the club will take it on board. Position on the ladder isnt important this year as they are doing exactly what you suggested - putting time into the junior base and getting league games under there belts instead of getting quick fixes. The rewards from this exercise will be shown in the coming years - much like Eaton and South Bunbury have put time into their local colts boys giving them exposure. HBL has been up and about since '06 where they have played in 4 League granfinals winning 2 of them, 5 Reserves grandfinals winning 4 of them and winning the Colts premiership last year. i would say this has been a fairly successful era. Every club has to rebuild a list at some stage and replace the stalwarts that have carried the club through a successful era.

Now back to the original conversation, i was just pointing out that people in glass houses shouldnt through stones. Eaton have recruited well from a WAFL and SWFL level with money that some other clubs probably dont have the luxury of but i guess that comes from clever marketing by the people at board level there. Who is to say that the Cormack boys and Kelly and who ever else may have come from another club did so like the Jetta boys to your club "on their own accord". Until the salary cap is lowered clubs will continue to prop up their local list with players from the WAFL and other SWFL clubs. Im not sure if the SWFL will ever publish the average points that each club is using. From memory Bulls sit around the 40 mark, Eaton the same, Collie are around the 34 mark and HBL is around 25. Obviously clubs at different stages with different aims will have higher or lower points but its not that hard to sit down and work out a teams points. 4 points for a WAFL player, 3 points for a player from another SWFL club and 1 point for a local, for every year of service to the club the player drop a point until they become a 1 point player.