WEST V Norwood

Does Tyler come straight back in after a week off?
Do we get Rankine back at all this year?
Can we get a good run with the umpires?

Parella did well against Baulderstone when at Sturt so it's a tricky decision.
It'd be a pretty interesting forward line to see if we ever have Bates, Rankine, Gibson Turner and Karpany in the same team.
We need to win at least one of our next two games to be any finals hope I think.

Hopefully, with the excellent performances by debutants G.Turner and Dunkin and the potential return of Porps, Rankine, Beech, McPherson, Green and Webb, the knee-jerk reaction of "poor recruiting" at the beginning of the season is now laid to rest.

Parella did well against Sturt last week, however I would Play McPherson ahead of him provided he is over his concussion.
McPherson is progressing nicely and I think he should be given the opportunity to return to the league side.
I agree with you Aldo it would be great to have Turner,Rankine,Bates and Karpanny playing together,throw in Beech, Green,Burgess and Middleton and that's a dangerous forward line. It may mean Beechy spends more time in the Midfielder which is an area we lack depth in.

WEST
League
West has regained an important pair of experienced players for its game against Norwood on Saturday.
Former Crows Jono Beech and Jason Porplyzia have recovered from minor injuries to be named in the Bloods’ 23-man squad.
They have been joined by pacy duo Murray Waite and Izak Rankine, together with defenders Josh Ryan and Shannon Green.
In-form goalsneak Zac Bates couldn’t overcome a hip ailment while Dustin Head, Elliot Dunkin and Lachlan Evans were all sent back to the Reserves.

F: B. Turner, Beech, Karpany
HF: Anderson, Middleton, Green
C: Batley, Stevens, Noble
HB: Wasley-Black, Burgess, Hill
B: Agostino, Wilson, J. Ryan

R: Parrella, Keough, Schiller
INT: G. Turner, Rankine, Porplyzia, J. Evans, Waite
IN: Waite, Rankine, Porplyzia, J. Ryan, Beech, Green
OUT: Bates (hip), Head, L. Evans, Dunkin

Reserves
Fairlie, Heitmann, Holliday, Hupfeld, Inglis, I. Johnson, O. Johnson, Kirk, Laube, Lynch, Majok, Miller, Osborn, Peter, Pillion, L. Ryan, Head, L. Evans, Noonan, Dunkin, McPherson.
Under-18
Caruso, Dalgleish, Forbes, Haysman, Gutsche, Horstmann, Earl, May, Hannagan, Rundle, Stakic, Morelli, Patterson, Neumann, Nunan, Westley, Hocking, Moore, Tuckwell, Wakim, Kent, Sinderberry, Wulff.

U/18s play after the league

If we want to play finals, we have to win this game.
Cmon Bloods!!!!

I am bloody furious. Izak Rankine just lost us a really important game of football through his disgraceful, undisciplined & idiotic behaviour on two occasions when we had a free shot at goal. What was he thinking.

He needs to be told in no uncertain terms that that stupidity is totally unacceptable at our club.

I am dumbfounded!!!

Agree 100%
Simply poor by Rankine.
We are undisciplined and it is not good enough.
We got smashed in centre square in the last qtr and the coach took too long to put Middleton in there.
Panos played an unbelievable last qtr.
However, Rankine has probably cost us a win.
He is a super talent but that was poor today!!

What a great game of footy today and sadly a disgrace by Rankine on the reverse free kick. Talented player however not a TEAM FIRST attitude. Have no doubt that Gav will send a strong message to the youngster and he will be dropped next week. Selfish behaviour is unacceptable and he will need to learn the hard way to mature as a footballer. Yes Panos was amazing today but so were West Adelaide. When a game is tight and on the line cool heads need to prevail and team first approach. Disappointing!

Lack of discipline cost us a must win game
Cannot believe what Rankin not once but twice

Lack of discipline cost us a must win game
Cannot believe what Rankin not once but twice

Totally agree with the other posters. Rankine to be UNDISCIPLINED twice is unacceptable and he should be sent back to the rsssies next week if he is available. He was reported early this year as well.

When Brody Dawe was moved into the Ruck in the second half by Norwood he made a huge difference. Panos was brilliant in the the last half as well.

We should have been further in front at half time,however yet again our ball use going inside 50 was poor. We need to find another key forward to help Middleton. To be the second Ruck and also our only key Marking Forward is asking too much. I was surprised Burgesss didn't start Forward or at least moved forward during the match.

To lose a game of footy due to UNDISCPLINED Acts by one player is totally unacceptable.

Wow!!!
We gave that one away.
Some good signs though as I thought we were the better team for most of the afternoon.
A lot of lessons to be had and potentially the game we had to have. This game will galvanise the team, it will bring some self belief that we are a top 5 team and in fact dare I say potentially a top 3!
Rankine...you are special....I believe you will learn from today and repay all of us fans ten times over this season!!!!

Shattered.

Well said billrobs1.

We win that game today and we would be praising Gavin and his players for their significant improvement. Kaine Stevens was outstanding, as was the work of John Noble, especially 1st half. Middleton's form over the past month has been exceptional, not just his marking and goal kicking (finally), but his work in the ruck, bringing the ball down for our rovers etc.

However, when you lose by a point all one can do is think of the moments that cost us most, in particular the 2 set shots that were overturned and the double 25m penalty that cost a goal amongst other disposal and decision making errors.

A game that will haunt us in many ways, both mentally for players to bounce back from next week vs eagles, but also the ladder later in the year.

At 3/4 time I thought to myself this was the highest standard, hardest game I'd seen us play in for some years, and we were 4 goals up. We played some great footy, and made some horrible mistakes.
Our mids couldn't get their hands on the ball in the last quarter though, and the same culprits hurt us each week with their poor disposal.
I thought the first reversal against Rankine was an over-reaction by the umpire. They seem to have a bit of a set against him. But doing it twice was unforgiveable. How about a team rule that if we are in possession we leave our opponents alone.
It's such a frustration - an infuriating loss but there's so much positive in there as well. It's amazing, and a tribute to the coach, but we really don't look too far off the pace at the moment.

A totally infuriating and disappointing loss today, but this team, at full strength, is capable of a top three position. Let us continue to support them strongly for the remainder of the year.

I recomend to all to listen to the coaches recorded interview each week but especialy this week is very honest and astute

Whilst we all tend fairly to look at games week by week i think most of us are missing out on realising that gavin is an extremely good young coach who will end up being rated as one of the alltime great coaches of west adelaide.

Finally, remember what happenned the week after the north flogging and how gavin and the players learnt and responded with passion since ------ god help the team who we play next week as i look forward to the coach and teams response.

While difficult i still believe we will play finals in year 1 of a 3 year team rebuild!

After re-watching the last few minutes on the digital pass, it's clear there wasn't much in Izak's push. Yes it was undisciplined and he should not have done it but the norwood player clearly dived - it was a very poor umpiring decision to reverse that and it cost us a game! I hope the umpires watch that footage so they can realise they got sucked in. There was much more worse that was called play on! Pity the SANFL don't punish players for diving!
OK, that's the rant part over.
We should have won that game convincingly - for the first 3 quarters we absolutely dominated. As Lachlan pointed out, that last kick into our forward 50 is more miss than hit and really hurting us. Strange because around the rest of the ground our kicking has really improved and is generally spot on. Maybe our forwards aren't leading well enough? We still need to kick to our forwards advantage and not just bang it in and hope for the best. If we fix that we will be very hard to beat.
Parrella did well in the ruck, but I think he needs to change his tap work. He was constantly tapping toward the Norwood goals and Norwood took advantage of that, especially in the last quarter - their mids were reading it better than ours and easily picked up the ball without pressure and delivered to the forwards. I don't know why he was tapping in that direction especially when our mids weren't positioned there - it is so dangerous and cost us dearly. It would also be great if he knew how to take a make.
I also think our defenders play too loose - way too often our opponents take the ball from our forward line to a player all by themselves in their forward line for an easy walk in goal. This happened quite a few times against Sturt as well. Maybe this is the price we pay for playing more attacking footy - I would be OK with conceding a few goals like this, as long as we can fix that forward 50 kick and not turn it over so easily to one of their defenders.
I really hope we can keep these kids together for the next several years because they are only getting better and with Gavin's game style it is great footy to watch - I'm pretty confident this team is going to do well and very soon.
Damn, my fingers are sore now.

I as with most supporters yesterday felt gutted with the end result yesterday. Certainly we should have won but for some poor decisions that were very costly. Everyone will learn from this and I feel it will steel the desire to continually improve. Overall though there is much to be excited about our team and it’s continued progression with improvement. Snapshot to this time last year 0-9 and a 128 pt belting by Port. How we have changed. Full credit to Gavin, his coaching and support staff and the players. The rebuild is working and there is much to love about what’s ahead. Watching this team every week in recent years has been challenging to keep positive, but now, there is much to like in the path we are on. GO BLOODS!!

Can't blame Panos for trying to suck the umpire into believing the push was much greater than it really was, but I can call the umpire a fool.

I agree with the comments on Rankine's undisciplined behaviour. He owes supporters an apology and needs to be taught that he has a responsibility to his team.

Random Thoughts.

1. While Rankine stuffed up our last quarter was rubbish.
2. Burgess did little down back and probably needed to go forward.
3. Panos killed us in the last and Keough needed to be used in a lockdown mode.
4. Parrella needs to be taught quickly the hit zones. This is an onballers problem also.
5. Norwood without their ruckman looked lost but adapted.
6. I think we changed gameplan late in the third when we got ontop and paid the price.
7. I don't know why we kick the ball to Karpany in the forwardline like he is key position size.
8. Porps had a few turn overs that hurt us .
9. Rankine is very young and needs time. Lots of pressure on a young player.
10. Lets kick the Eagles next week.

Great random thoughts sc

Pretty much agree, but it is a fact that we are going in one direction only. Commitment, skills, (way to go), and individual player development are positives.