TOPIC:

Here's the team for tomorrow.  Good to see Clark back and also Foley although no Kyron Hayden, Kentfield, Savigni, Lockyer, Rohde, Schofield, Kitchin, Braut just to name a few.

Also, Wagonwheels will have his work cut out against big Jones.  It could be a long day at the office as EP looks pretty much full strength.

FF 27 Campbell Henderson 18 Ben SOKOL 34 Jordan FARAONE
HF 15 Wil HICKMOTT 10 Jack MAYO 53 Benjamin GOLDING
C 4 Jake STERGIOU 12 Greg CLARK 56 Judd Kelman
HB 28 Connor FARAONE 51 Zac Sadowski 11 Marlin Corbett
FB 23 Noah ASH 31 Henry Berenger 8 Angus DEWAR

FOLLOWERS
55 Jacob Wagenknecht
13 Liam HICKMOTT
22 Luke FOLEY

INTERCHANGE
39 Jaimon ALONE
44 Corey BELLOUARD
14 Ryan BORCHET
38 Keeshawn COOK
41 Kody Eaton
40 Ky Franceschini
19 Rory Murison
49 James Sullivan

 

Really impressed with what I saw today. I left at 3/4 time and obviously EP banged on a few with the strong wind blowing towards the tech school end but with a 9 goal lead going into the last, I guess they could be forgiven for taking the foot off the pedal a bit.

Clark was superb and the Hickmott's prolific but it was a couple of young guys who did their chances of a round one spot in the seniors no harm at all. Foley, very good, young Franceschini ferocious, Campbell Henderson did well and also thought Eaton and Wagonwheels weren't embarrassed by man mountain Scott Jones.

Someone mentioned on another thread that we might be a bit slow this season... well you don't need leg speed to move the ball quickly and we certainly ran the ball at pace through the middle using feet and hands.

I also liked the move of Borchet into the midfield. Thought he adapted pretty well and should be persevered with as he could turn into another Nick Martin type.

All up a good performance from a side missing 8 or 9 from its best 22.

Cheers for the summary BC. Did Henderson play in Borchet’s usual position up forward? How did Corbett look? Good to see our rucks did well

I saw the last quarter and a half. Didn't recognise a lot of players. The stand out was Clark. Too big and strong. Mayo was less on the fringes. Looked stronger and important. Henderson looked the part at full forward 

DG wrote:

Cheers for the summary BC. Did Henderson play in Borchet’s usual position up forward? How did Corbett look? Good to see our rucks did well

DG...Henderson played as a half forward with Mayo at CHF and Sokol a bit deeper in the square.  Borchet also spent time as a deep forward but then went into the ruck for a period and spent time up the ground through the midfield.

I was really impressed with our mids against quality opposition. I'd like to see the clearance stats as I think we probably won it even though big Jones won most of the ruck taps.  Throw Kitch, Hayden, Schofield into the midfield rotations and I think we're looking pretty good in that department with Pridda obviously making a difference.

We still bombed into the forward 50 a bit too much for my liking but reckon it was better than last season.

There were some real encouraging signs today mainly around game plan and skill execution.

Good start to preseason not that you can take much from results here but thought we strung together some good passages of play during the game with East Perth still looking rusty! 
Was impressed with Clark and Foley’s work in the centre square throughout the game and they will definitely improve our midfield from last season. Yonungster Ky Franceshini and Campbell Henderson both stood out and looked like they belonged in this side. Marlin Corbett did some nice things and Borchet without his trademark mullet looked rejuvenated. Only downside was Wagenknect sustaining a leg injury in the third quarter. Not sure what happened but he hobbled off and didn’t reappear from midway through the quarter. 
q1 3.5. 0.3
q2 7.8. 4.6
q3 12.12. 4.8
Final S 13.14   EP 10.9

3 goal each to Borchet , Sokol and Henderson 1 each Mayo, Foley J Faraone, Wagenknect. 

Went along with very few expectations given so many first choice players were rested and from all reports, the ferals were pretty close to full strength, but was pleasantly surprised by the performance. The strong breeze straight down the ground did have a big influence, we really did the damage in the 3rd qtr and put the game to bed. Took the foot right off the pedal in the last plus the Ferals are too good a team to lose all 4 qtrs. While big Jones dominated the throw ups, our mids had the best of it for 3 of the 4 qtrs, Clark was clearly BOG with a dominant performance all over the ground, his ability to break tackles and feed to the outside runners was very important. Well supported by the Hickmonts Alone and especially Foley, who I expected would take Heals spot at halfback. Delivery to the forwards was much improved from last year but still plenty of work to do in that area. Others have covered some of the youngsters and imports who all contributed. Add Kitch, Hayden, Kentfield, Savigni, Rohde, Lockyer, Braut & Schoey to that team and we are looking ok, but the ruck will be an issue all season. must say that Wagons, Eaton and Borch did provide a good contest but never really trouble the man mountain Jones. next weeks scratchy up at Bogundean will be interesting given Swans cleaned up Joondy up at Joondy.

I stay after the game and watched the first half of the futures and can see why that programme has only lost 1 game in 4 years. These boys are slick fast skilled disciplined and fierce at the contest, plenty for the club to look forward to.

There was one lad for the EP futures who stood out, their ruckman #22 I think, must be 2m tall already and the best young tall I have seen for a very long time, quick, mobile and highly skilled in all aspects of the game, I'm sure every AFL scout has their eye on him. If WC and the Dorks have academies, they need to get this lad into the system asap.

Was sitting near Schoey senior who mentioned that we wont see Taj until maybe round 3 or 4. Apparently has a very bad hammy. Real shame as he adds real class, pace and goal scoring to the mids group, but important that they dont rush him back. If the team can repeat yesterdays type of performance on a regular basis, his unavailability wont be felt so much.

I was surprised to see the inclusion of the rediculous SANFL and WAFLW last touch out of bounds rule included. Did I miss an announcement from the WAFC about this? Hate that rule almost as much as the "Stand" rule, hopefully it's just being trialled and wont be carried into the season proper, but usually a trial means it will be implemented given the powers that be dont like their stupid ideas not being implemented.

I find the stand rule ugly, but possibly effective. I'm not sure. I hate deliberate. Last touch yesterday had one advantage: less throw ins on the eastern wing which are hard to see much of as a spectator on the western side. The game moves a bit quicker. I do like the boundary throw ins, though. Something gladiatorial about them. Overall,  I think it's not worth the change. 

Picked up my membership today and was chatting. Heard Hayden is out for a few weeks.