Trial Teams for tomorrow night

West Adelaide is set to unveil star recruits Zac O’Brien and Trent Stubbs in Friday night’s trial match against Norwood at City Mazda Stadium.

The Bloods have split their senior squad into two teams, which will each play half of the six-term contest under lights from 6.30pm.

Former Brisbane Lion O’Brien and ex-Collingwood rookie Stubbs have been named in the Second Half side which also features captain Chris Schmidt and star on-baller Travis Tuck.

‘’We’re really excited to see Zac O’Brien and Trent Stubbs play as they have been training really well on the track,’’ West football manager Andrew Marks said.

Twin brothers Lachie and Josh Ryan will also don the red and black for the first time while two 17-year-olds – Alex Stidiford and Josh Smithson – will also test themselves against mature bodies.

Sudanese utility Chol Majok – who played for Flagstaff Hill in the Southern Football League last year – will line up in the First Half side alongside star veteran Jason Porplyzia.

‘’Jason is looking really good, he’s had no issues at all during the pre-season which is great,’’ Marks said.

Several Bloods will be rested for the early hit-out including experienced defender Daniel Caire and key forwards Daniel Webb and Justin Hardy.

Premiership pair Aaron Fielke (hip) and Adam Hartlett (knee) are also being nursed back to peak fitness after undergoing off-season surgery.

‘’It will be great to see all of our new players and to just get a gauge on everyone’s fitness levels,’’ Marks said.

‘’We can also put into practice our set plays and kick-ins to see how that is progressing.’’

Entry to the match is free with barbecue and drink facilities also available.

West

FIRST HALF SIDE
Ferraro, Munn, Albanese, Burgess, Coates, Fitzpatrick, Green, Harris, Haysman, Jaensch, Jennings, Johnson, K. Stevens, L. Evans, Majok, McPherson, Noonan, Pillion, Porplyzia, Rodman, Smithson, Stidiford, Taheny, Wong.

SECOND HALF SIDE
Cua, L. Ryan, Silverlock, Stubbs, Agostino, Cameron, Favretto, Hill, Holliday, Hopton, Inglis, J. Evans, J. Ryan, J. Stevens, Klemke, Langcake, Male, Nelson, O’Brien, Schiller, Schmidt, Tuck, Vick.

Looks like we are playing lots of young ones to ease Aldo's concerns.

aldo russian wrote:Do you think they're legitimate concerns ST?

Not really. There is about 70 at training and 40 of them are 17 to 21. Think we have lots of good kids coming through.

What happened to O'Brien tonight? Was looking forward to seeing our new recruit.
Stubbs looked good after a slow start and could be a great Beechy replacement.
Both the reserve rucks did well and it was good to see Jack Evans and Favretto take their opportunity. New player Murray Waite also shows some class and has great pace.

[quote="Second Team"]What happened to O'Brien tonight? Was looking forward to seeing our new recruit.

Is he resting up in case he gets a phone call from Essendon??
They still have 3 spots available.......

Aldo, that's what the next 8 months are for. We'll know more then.

Walked away quite happy with the hit out last night. Very impressed with McPherson and Stubbs. The young African lad as well.

Both teams had a lot out so you can't take much out of the game, but I reckon we'll be around the mark again.

I agree with ST. I was impressed with both trial games. Some new players that I had not seen before showed promise and some of the juniors and some of the younger players that have played some reserves games showed real improvement. One that caught my eye was young Josh Stevens.

Gee it's become the ST love fest

Not sure if you saw the trial last night Aldo but if you did you would have been reassured, at least to some extent.

The first trial involved most of our younger brigade and they looked impressive. A tall ruckman called Tyler McPherson, a Travis Tuck lookalike in Tom Taheny, Josh Albanese was dangerous around goal and Murray Waite looked promising. Who would have thought a few years ago we would have seen a couple of kids from Africa rucking against each other in a game of footy. Young Chol Majok did some good things although he still has a way to go.

Shannon Green was carried off with what looked to be a injury to his left leg.

It was disappointing that Zac O’Brien didn’t play in the second trial but Trent Stubbs looked very good. He displayed some great skills in heavy traffic. Agostino will slot into the senior team and Harry Vick was busy. Peter Nelson did most of the ruckwork but the youngsters, McPherson and Majok helped out after playing in the earlier game.

Considering it was 5 February our ball movement was pretty good. We rely on a quick passage and play on style and our skills under pressure stood up well. We played 2 pretty even teams whereas Norwood played a much stronger team in the late match but as both clubs had so many players on the sidelines results are meaningless.

It remains unclear as to where our goals will come from as we will miss Beech and there are no obvious replacements although Middleton didn’t play last night. Someone has to step up and kick 40-50 goals for us this year. Young Josh Holliday is possibly an option for a forward flank but a big and strong marking forward would be useful.

Backline options are a little more plentiful with Agostino, Favretto and Klemke staking claims.

Wasley-Black was having some dobs during the breaks, looked good but was favouring his left hand.

Our coach has a proven record of bringing through young kids and there seems to be a few around. Maybe some of our older players should be feeling nervous!

I hope that stupid new out of bounds rule isn't going to be used for the regular season games.

aldo russian wrote:

Second Team wrote:

aldo russian wrote:Do you think they're legitimate concerns ST?

Not really. There is about 70 at training and 40 of them are 17 to 21. Think we have lots of good kids coming through.

Which 3 of those 40 would replace Porplyzia, Hartlett and Tuck at the end of the year without us slipping backwards?

Who knows. We could have Beechy and Keough back by then and O'Brien could be a champ if still around. We won last year and we could win again this year. Now that we have a progressive game plan the sky is the limit. We could be dominant for years to come.

West Adelaide officials were impressed with a host of youngsters following Friday night’s trial matches against Norwood at City Mazda Stadium.

Satisfied the Bloods narrowly won both three-term contests, football manager Andrew Marks said midfielders Oliver Johnson and Nick Favretto put their hands up for League selection after strong showings from the centre square.

Tom Fitzpatrick was another to catch the eye while recent recruit Murray Waite, who only arrived in Adelaide on Friday afternoon, displayed plenty of dash.

‘’It’s hard to say how much league football he will play in his first year but Murray certainly showed plenty of leg speed which was promising,’’ Marks said.

Newly reappointed skipper Chris Schmidt, Jason Porplyzia and Travis Tuck got through the contest unscathed, regularly providing a touch of class.

Former Collingwood recruit Trent Stubbs impressed with his overhead marking inside attacking 50m before being cleared of concussion after a knock to the head.

Goalsneak Shannon Green has been cleared of structural damage after copping a hit to his shin.

Thanks for the update, Thiele, thought Friday night was a great night for Westies and the coming season!

Interesting training tonight.
After watching slow boring stop start crap training under Collins for years we now have a structured fast paced 2 hrs of near non stop sweat and effort. This fitness guy is a gun and Marks coaches are very organized and clear with what they want. Hallelujah.
Good to see O'Brien back at training tonight. This guy is all class and will be the recruit of year.

Good news, can't wait to see Zac O'Brien, big wraps on the guy.

Amazing how often the commentators were talking about anything except what was happening.

WEST
West Adelaide will welcome back talented utility Tyson Slattery when it tackles Port at City Mazda Stadium on Friday night.
Slattery, who last lined up for the Bloods in the 2013 Preliminary Final, spent 2014 travelling overseas and last season playing with Marion in the Southern Football League.
‘’It’s great to have someone back who has played juniors here and knows the culture of the club – he has fitted back in straight away,’’ West football manager Andrew Marks said.
The Bloods will rest a host of star players including captain Chris Schmidt, veteran Jason Porplyzia, Aaron Fielke, Shannon Green, Daniel Webb and recruit Trent Stubbs.
Former Brisbane Lions midfielder Zac O’Brien will don the red and black while Jamie Hampton, the younger brother of Crows signing Curtly, is named to play at League level against the Pies.
Impressive teenager Jack Agostino will miss with a slight hamstring strain.

League
O’Brien, Hardy, Silverlock, Helbig, Tuck, Stevens, Caire, Haysman, Willits, Middleton, Slattery, Schiller, Hampton, Vick, Schott, Favretto, Johnson, J. Evans, Waite, Ryan, Burgess, Noonan, Turner, Karpany.

Reserves
Pillion, Wong, Jaensch, Smithson, Crump, Cua, Munn, McPherson, Ryan, Taheny, Dolling, Langcake, Fairlie, West, Majok, Holliday, Scott, Albanese, Stidiford, Fitzpatrick, Male, Cameron, Stevens, Inglis, Noble

Reserves from 4.30
League at 7.10

It’s hard to understand exactly what the Westies coaching ‘brains trust’ were hoping to achieve from tonight’s trial against the Port Power Reserves.

The contest was spiteful, brutal and lop-sided, The opposition played many AFL players and they came up against a Bloods team made up of a handful of senior players and a group of kids eager to impress against opponents who were stronger, faster and used to playing several levels higher. Last year the young Sudanese kid Choi Majok was playing at Flagstaff Hill and tonight he’s chasing the likes of Polec, Jay Schultz, Alipate Carlisle, Kane Mitchell, Aiden Young and John Butcher around the park (he caught a few of them!).

We kicked the first 3 goals in quick time but could only manage one more goal in the final 3 Qs while the PPR kicked 18. Final score PPR 18.11 WA 4.9.

Hardy, Willets, Tuck, Stevens, Silverlock, Haysman and Zac O’Brien played most of the game. Caire and Helbig only the first half. Middleton was named but didn’t play.

O’Brien impressed. Got plenty of touches, was a part of our first 3 goals and had his jumper ripped from his back in a brawl in the first Q. Tuck battled against the odds up forward. Hardy played back all night and his highlight was a wrestle with Butcher that resulted in the bearded one kicking the next 2 goals. Tyson Slattery looked well short of a run. He may be spending time in the gym but he needs match practice and will struggle to get into the senior team for the first game in 3 weeks time.

Harry Vick and Tom Schott looked impressive, Jamie Hampton did some good things and Ken Karpany showed promise. At the start of the last Q our backline included Hardy, Chris Burgess, Connor Noonan, Tim Pillion and Lachie Ryan. At one point Jack Evans was standing John Butcher – a classic mismatch in size, strength and experience. Get the picture?

Wed need to put tonight behind us and get some of our more senior players out of mothballs and into some serious footy.

Erin Wasley-Black was the runner. Tom Keough watched the game. Will Snelling didn’t play for PPR but at least he sat in the Bloods box in the stand.

In the Reserves we ran out winners 15.6 to 9.14.

The Reserves had many good players. Stidiford, Holliday, Smithson and several others were very good. John Noble looks a very likely type also.

I wasn't as downbeat as B&R about the main game. Hiven the mismatch in standard between the teams, I thought we battled hard and learned a lot. Our turnovers from some of the less experienced players were costly, but the game was several levels above what many had experienced before, as B&R said.

Of the new players, Kenny Karpany was tidy and Tom Pillion did several nice things, including a good goal.

Ryan Willits, Trav Tuck and Justin Hardy were good (those 2 goals by Butcher were when Hardy was off the ground).

Good to see Tom Keogh in the rooms after the game.