WEST V Norwood

South's win over Sturt means our finals chances are now probably over. I've watched the last quarter of our Norwood game again and, yes, we shot ourselves in the foot, but the umpires fired a few rounds into it as well.

Key moments by the Umps:
- Middleton runs Nunn down on the wing for a standard holding the ball free which isn't paid, Norwood take the ball forward.
-Noble spoils Gerloff perfectly legitimately on the half back flank. Free paid against him, Norwood goal.
-Rankine is twice tackled high in our goal square, no free. (Interesting.)
-Middleton marks 25 out from goal, straight in front, Talia pushes Karpany in the back quite hard. Rankine retaliates. What should have been reversed was the 25 metre penalty Middleton should have got for Talia's actions, not the mark.

Key moments by us:
- A turn over at half back - Norwood goal.
-Creeping over the mark , then running across it - 2 x 25m, Norwood goal.
-A handball is smothered over the line in back pocket. At the throw in, Glenn blocks Keough so Panos runs free onto the ball and goals.
-Set shot 45m out doesn't make the distance.
-Indecision on the 50m line costs us a shot at goal.
-Rankine needlessly pushes Panos and Noble's free is reversed.
-A clumsy tackle inside 50 costs us an in the back free.

We played a lot of good footy but so many small things might have had a very big impact.

Yes, a very frustrating result after playing some great footy. Even late in the game we were creating scoring opportunities. Our poor decision making cost us dearly.

Still, at the half way point of the season we have a team that is capable of beating any side in the competition and I’ll take that. They play some great footy, make some terrible mistakes so plenty of room for improvement.

And, for once, our depth is looking good.

I think you can only ever judge a coach by asking if he's getting the best out of the players he's got available, and I think Gavin is absolutely doing that.
And by the by, Middleton's kicking has improved out of sight. If a couple of others can follow his example they would become very dangerous players.

I have been clear in my mind since before the start of the year that given the large player turn over in recent years (especially experienced players) that we were in a period of rebuild where juniors blooded last season needed experience plus the need to blood and develop further juniors.

Taking into account the sanfl insane decision to lower the salary cap and to include clearances in the salary cap obviously severely limited the clubs ability to negotiate for key experienced players i truely felt that our recruiting was rather good providing experienced player were available and playing good footy.

It fell apart early in the year with several preseason injuries with associated lack of fitness and long term recovery by several key senior players (example being the porpletia and webby) limited the amount if experience further compounded by some real dumb suspention by key players that leasd to north adelaide mismatch.

Since that time due to the quality of Gavin and his team at all level plus the stepping up by several junior players and availability/match fitness of senior player we have significantly improve and i totaly agree with comment above that we are competative with all other clubs on a week by week basis but do note that where top teams play at thier best then we are still not there yet.

While the optimist in me will hold hope that until mathematically impossible we will make the finals the realistic does agree that the season is probably over in terms of finals so what does the rest of this season require and what is needed for next year.

1.   We need to be more and more competative each game so that other teams will become wary of playing us which will be invalueble next season.

2.   We need to keep resolutely giving league game experience to those highly promising junior player further we need to keep introducing young players showing strong promise in the reserve so they can be judged at league level for true potential.

3. Sadly but absolutely necessary that given the perceived depth and quality in the club is the need to be absolutely ruthless in letting those juniors who are judged as not up to being a league standard player go from the club.

4.   Further tragically those senior players in thier final year of career or those past thier best football be identified and where junior hier apparent has been identified (whilst given aoportunity to retire at league level eg final game) be moved on.

5.   This policy will hasten the development of the team and shorten the rebuild process and should be extended to all levels of the club. IT IS CRITICAL that all supporter understand and embrace these and other club or senior coaches policies further be totally supportive to the approach -- short term pain for long term gain remember how good 2015 felt

6. Finally my thought on recruit ---- primary importance and first priority is the club to make another profit (my mail highly likely) so we can politely tell the sanfl to shove thier salary cap and conditions up thier hairy ar+es so we can again be an active part of key player recfuiting

Looking at key areas

RUCKMAN - even though i tease him i have always agreed with lacklan that we need a quality ruckman however i honestly feel that the two youngsters played at league this year are both going to be league standard quality ruckman further the backups in the reserves will do a job in emergency  --- whilst young Middleton has really stepped up this season as a second ruck and we have an all time great in young webby when available but both these are at the detriment of team needs for quslity forwards which both are ---- Summary, unless you find another mickham or rhen then a first ruckman is not critacal but a quality second ruck/key forward would be nice

CENTRAL PACK -- i may be old fashion but believe a club needs 2 quality centreman and a tough inside skillfull ruck rover (preferably 2 lol) --- we have arguably  the best centre player in the league in stevo and he is backed by young schiller well on the way to being at stevos level back by a strong centre pack group for rotations --- what we and any team lack is a experience tucky or a borchard typeunfortunately these are rare.

KEY POSITION BACKMEN --- whilst i feel we have good key position backmen i am not clear who is ready to step into one of these roles if necessary further i am convinced that the young man presently there will end up tranlating into a full time key forward then i believea key position backman who can go forward is vital -- think Edd Richarsson type.

KEY POSITION FORWARD ---- we have young middleton but i am not convinced that he is a 4 quarter or even whole of quarter involvement type of player as such with no disrespect intended he is a fringe forward not a key forward imo we do have webby who clearly ticks all boxes and is true quality but with the workload and associated wear and tear injuries on his body from rucking this does limit his availability and effectivenes suchit is fair to suggest he also is perhaps fringe at this time --- we clearly need a strong experience fullforward capale of straightenning and controlling forward line movements.

Summary, i believe we need a experience full forward, an experienced key backman and a strong experienced inide ruckrover or teo ----- good luck to the recruiting team as there are not many around and they are being chased by all clubs.

Overall i am satisfied with this season so far and look forward with great expextations and cofidence --- a final must do is extend Gavs contract ASAP lol

Sorry for so long a sermon

We are heading in the right direction that's for sure, however I will reserve further comment until the end of the year.

We are now 2 games plus percentage behind South, therefore it seems very unlikely we will play finals.