TOPIC:

From today's "West"

East Fremantle forward Ryan Lester-Smith is one of 10 WAFL players who will showcase their skills at the State draft combine in Shenton Park on Sunday.

Lester-Smith, the son of 1992 Sharks premiership forward Neil, was nominated by Fremantle last week as a possible father-son rookie draft pre-selection.

The 21-year-old was third on the WAFL goal kickers list with 43 from the first 16 games before he tore a lateral ligament and hamstring tendon against South Fremantle at Fremantle Oval on July 27.

STATE COMBINE NOMINEES *

Brenden Abbott (Claremont), Josh Cuneo (East Fremantle), Brent Edmonds (Perth), Matthew Johnson (West Perth), Tim Kelly (South Fremantle), Ryan Lester-Smith (East Fremantle), Francis Watson (Claremont), Rowen Powell (Claremont), Ian Richardson (Claremont), Willy Rioli (South Fremantle), Thomas Shanahan (East Perth), Ben Sokol (South Fremantle).

Any thoughts on any of these guys?

Brent Edmonds Qin the colts b&f for Perth. Looks to be a good player for the future and will be playing ressies next yer. Needs to put on a bit of weight but if he doesn't get drafted I reckon he will be a 100 gamer for the club

Ta AFL,

Ws wondering who he is. I agree with lots of posters @ Perth though we need to a big back man.

As for the SF blokes . . .

Kelly - Obviously played last half of the year in the league side and did very well. Good ball user and seems to know how to find the footy himself. Could be a chance for a rookie AFL spot and he does have some class.

Sokol - Can't quite work him out yet. Didn't do much at all in the U'18's this year but dominated some WAFL colts games before then. Played mostly reserves footy in the 2nd half of the year at SF and did ok against the bigger bodies. Not tall enough to be a KPP and not agile / quick enough to be a smallish forward type. Hard to put into a category but he does kick goals and has some footy smarts to get the pill as often as he does. Again an AFL rookie spot could be his.

Rioli - Played for NT in the under 18's and SF colts. Has all the time in the world and many tricks but is carrying a few extra kgs and will need to a little fitter I think to play at his best for a whole year. Played as a permanent forward, would love to see him have run through the middle of the ground and use his foot skills that way. Exciting to watch that's for sure.

With McCarthey, Vandeluer (sp), Main, Johnson all in the draft there should be a few more SF fellas added to the AFL system again.

Given the length of time Richardson has been involved at Claremont; surely the recruiters would have a good idea of his capabilities and limitations by now?

58shark wrote:

swan42 wrote:

Freezin wrote: obviously you don't have Garletts best interests at heart then 42.....as long as the kid gets his chance at show casing his skills and earning a decent living playing AFL footy, who really cares who he plays for in 2014, as long as he plays hey?......anyway if he is half as good as most of you SD boys think he is, one would presume Garlett would be playing more AFL than WAFL in 2014, if drafted by WCE or Freo.... don't you think?......

....hopefully WCE give Big Tony a second chance too.....perhaps Freo might....they need some tall fella's!!....no doubt 42 would begrudge Notte earning another AFL shot as well..........it would seem 42 would be happy for Notte and Garletts to rot in the WAFL playing for SDFC, than gain a chance of being drafted by an AFL suitor say like WCE or Freo, .......who cares if they perhaps play a few games for Peel or EP along the way of establishing an AFL careers.....beggars belief, the level of selfishness of some folk these days.

What an absolute joke your comments Freezin. It is people like me and my ilk which support the WAFL clubs. Without our support the WAFL ceases to exist. Under those circumstances where would the likes of Garlett, Notte et al be?

If you are asking me would I prefer Notte and Garlett to play for Swans in the WAFl; the answer is an unambiguous, unreserved, unequivocal and complete YES.

I simply find it very hard to believe anyone could be callously narrow minded swanny. I bet if you were held back from a well deserved promotion at work, you'd scream bloody murder. Yet you want to do the same to a couple of kids because it suits your agenda. Is this fair or is it just SDFC thing? If Tommy Howlett say, was picked up by WCE or FFC, I'd be spewing at losing him, but very happy for him to have a chance at the big time. Unbelievable stuff.

No I am not saying that I don't want the likes of Lobb and Garlett to be drafted to the AFL. They deserve to be given a chance. What I am saying is that given the contempt shown by the WAFC, West Coast Eagles, Fremantle Dockers, the club formerly known as East Perth and Peel Thunder to the WAFL competition I would prefer those players to be picked up by a non-WA domiciled AFL club. I absolutely DO NOT APOLOGISE for not wanting those players to play against Swans in the WAFL due to the host club alignment and no amount of personal insults directed at me will cause me to recant on that stated objection.

swan42 wrote:

58shark wrote:

swan42 wrote:

Freezin wrote: obviously you don't have Garletts best interests at heart then 42.....as long as the kid gets his chance at show casing his skills and earning a decent living playing AFL footy, who really cares who he plays for in 2014, as long as he plays hey?......anyway if he is half as good as most of you SD boys think he is, one would presume Garlett would be playing more AFL than WAFL in 2014, if drafted by WCE or Freo.... don't you think?......

....hopefully WCE give Big Tony a second chance too.....perhaps Freo might....they need some tall fella's!!....no doubt 42 would begrudge Notte earning another AFL shot as well..........it would seem 42 would be happy for Notte and Garletts to rot in the WAFL playing for SDFC, than gain a chance of being drafted by an AFL suitor say like WCE or Freo, .......who cares if they perhaps play a few games for Peel or EP along the way of establishing an AFL careers.....beggars belief, the level of selfishness of some folk these days.

What an absolute joke your comments Freezin. It is people like me and my ilk which support the WAFL clubs. Without our support the WAFL ceases to exist. Under those circumstances where would the likes of Garlett, Notte et al be?

If you are asking me would I prefer Notte and Garlett to play for Swans in the WAFl; the answer is an unambiguous, unreserved, unequivocal and complete YES.

I simply find it very hard to believe anyone could be callously narrow minded swanny. I bet if you were held back from a well deserved promotion at work, you'd scream bloody murder. Yet you want to do the same to a couple of kids because it suits your agenda. Is this fair or is it just SDFC thing? If Tommy Howlett say, was picked up by WCE or FFC, I'd be spewing at losing him, but very happy for him to have a chance at the big time. Unbelievable stuff.

No I am not saying that I don't want the likes of Lobb and Garlett to be drafted to the AFL. They deserve to be given a chance. What I am saying is that given the contempt shown by the WAFC, West Coast Eagles, Fremantle Dockers, the club formerly known as East Perth and Peel Thunder to the WAFL competition I would prefer those players to be picked up by a non-WA domiciled AFL club. I absolutely DO NOT APOLOGISE for not wanting those players to play against Swans in the WAFL due to the host club alignment and no amount of personal insults directed at me will cause me to recant on that stated objection.

I agree with your opinion on wanting our Swans boys drafted to any club other than the 2 WA franchises (not a football clubs bootlace either of them) S42 ..I think you will find our 'ol mate freeze' is sh!t stirring yet again!!

In the 'West' this morning great news for Subiaco supporters in that Kyle Horsely appears to be heading home after his rather harsh ( I thought) delisting from Gold Coast. Not sure when he will be available to play after his knee injury but he would be a great 'recruit' for the Lions. Also in the same story it was mentioned that Nathan Blee would be a strong chance to return to East Perth after being delisted by Port Adelaide, he may want to consider his choice of club. Cam Eardley is also a chance to come back to East Fremantle next year. At Claremont, David Crawford has retired after an illustrious career ( wonder how many finals he ended up playing in?) Andrew Browne and Andrew Foster are still considering their futures. One 'in' for the tiges though is Tom Swift who is looking likely to play in 2014.

Great to have Kyal Horsley back at Subi as I agree he must have been unlucky to have been cut from Gold Coast's list. Obviously not prepared to carry him for half a season while he recovers from his knee injury.

mikeh wrote: In the 'West' this morning great news for Subiaco supporters in that Kyle Horsely appears to be heading home after his rather harsh ( I thought) delisting from Gold Coast. Not sure when he will be available to play after his knee injury but he would be a great 'recruit' for the Lions. Also in the same story it was mentioned that Nathan Blee would be a strong chance to return to East Perth after being delisted by Port Adelaide, he may want to consider his choice of club. Cam Eardley is also a chance to come back to East Fremantle next year. At Claremont, David Crawford has retired after an illustrious career ( wonder how many finals he ended up playing in?) Andrew Browne and Andrew Foster are still considering their futures. One 'in' for the tiges though is Tom Swift who is looking likely to play in 2014.

My favourite memory of David Crawford is when he mongrelled that kick in defence in the dying mins of the 2010 GF allowing Coniglio to swoop on it giving it to Roachy then to Twoms and the resultant goal from Kraks to win