West v Centrals

Our faint chance of making the finals makes this a must-win game. Darcy Fort being out helps us, as he stretched us a bit when he went forward last time.
Presumably Rankine and Porps to come in; I'd say Bates and Lachie Ryan to drop out. And maybe another change or two as well.

My Team to play Central

FF Green Burgess Rankine
HF Anderson Middleton Noble
C Batley Stevens Beech
HB Porps Wasley-Black Hill
FB Agostino Wilson J.Ryan

1stR Parella Keough Schiller
2nd R Middleton I. Johnson Anderson

INT Bates I.Johnson Karpanny

In Porps Rankine I.Johnson ( if he is available )

Out Head L.Ryan L.Evans

I wouldn't think Porplyzia will play for a few weeks....

He isn't listed as injured on the SANFL site? If so, then Dunkin should come in.

West Adelaide has regained the exciting Izak Rankine for its must-win clash against Central on Saturday.

After earning his second All-Australian U18 guernsey last week, Rankine has been named at half-back to use his dash from defence.

The McDonald’s SA U18 star has been joined by Brett Turner, Isaac Johnson and Jack Evans in the Bloods’ 23-man squad.

Lachlan Evan and Lachlan Ryan have both been sent back to the Reserves despite West’s impressive win against South in Round 13.



F: Green, Wasley-Black, Karpany

HF: Anderson, Middleton, Beech

C: Batley, Stevens, Noble

HB: Rankine, Burgess, Hill

B: Agostino, Wilson, J. Ryan



R: Parrella, Keough, Schiller

INT: Head, Bates, J. Evans, B. Turner, I. Johnson

IN: B. Turner, Rankine, I. Johnson, J. Evans

OUT: L. Evans, L. Ryan



Reserves
Hupfeld, Waite, Webb, Pillion, Peter, L. Ryan, Kirk, Eastman, Heitmann, L. Evans, Dunkin, Majok, Holliday, O. Johnson, G. Turner, Laube, Osborn, Halkias, Fairlie, Lynch, Hannagan.

Under-18
Caruso, Dalgleish, Forbes, Haysman, Gilbert, Earl, May, Milde, Morelli, Patterson, Rana, Georgiadis, Neumann, Plate, Nunan, Westley, Hocking, Sareen, Moore, Tuckwell, Wakim, Stoddard, Chamberlain, Laudato, Henty-Smith.

Solid win today. Not sure why the mental lapse in third quarters including last week. More importantly very strong final terms in the last 2 weeks keeps the season very much alive. Glenelg also did us a favour today. I'd be happy to repay them with a touch up in a couple of weeks. Great game looming this Friday against Nwd. My word we owe them. Can't wait.

Got the win but far from convincing.
We should have been 8 goals up in the second qtr but we failed to make the most of our dominance.
We leave the door open for teams and Centrals dominated most of the second and third quarters.
It was a good response in the last quarter to keep the season alive but Norwood are in ripping form and we will need a huge improvement from today to be any hope.

What a strange game. First Q we played some of the best footy of our season. If not for poor kicking it could have been a ten goal Q. Terrific skills, precision disposal, open forward line, great stuff.

Second and third Q the precision was still there but we were hitting opposition players on the chest in some of our worst footy of the year. It started when we began to go sideways and backwards rather than kick to a contest and back ourselves. Turnovers, kicking out on the full, falling over, dropping marks, etc. This allowed Centrals back into the game. They kicked 9 goals to our 3 in these 2 stanzas and late in the 3Q hit the front. We had 3 easy set shots in the 3Q for 3 pts and failed to score a major in 30 minutes of disgraceful footy.

Then we dominated the last Q with Mason Middleton taking some wonderful marks and great support from Green (2 goals apiece) and Burgess, Noble, Dustin Head, etc all rising to another level. 6 goals in this Q saw us run out easy winners, 14.18 to 11.5. With double the scoring shots we missed a golden opportunity to improve our percentage which has never really recovered from the Prospect match and could cost us dearly end of season.

Pleasing to see our 3 young indigenous players, Bates, Karpany and Rankine, in the centre for the opening ceremony.

Schiller and Stevens were again our major playmakers. Keough was a strong presence around the packs. Middleton was possibly our best with brilliant marking. Green with 4 and Middleton 3. These 2 took 11 marks each!

The AFL will quickly sort out the flaws in young Rankine’s game. He kicked 4 pts today and was rarely sighted. He’s young and needs to learn to play more of a team game.

The Ressies won again14.6 to 7.8. Webb and Turner 3 goals each.

It's not an easy ride following the Bloods, but we all know that and are used to it.

Our first and last quarters were dominating, with plenty of footy that will take us higher as time goes on, but we saw the opposite through the lethargic second and third quarters.

The pleasing thing this year has been the ability of the coaches and players to fight back from difficult positions and yesterday was another one of those days. Losing a 5 goal lead to be down at the last break is normally pretty hard to come back from, but we smashed the last quarter.

Izak Rankine had a pretty quiet day, as often happens to SA UNder 18 players straight after the Championships, but his lightning give to Chris Burgess for a walk-in goal was wonderful and only exceeded by his solo effort from near the wing in avoiding several Central players and then hitting the post on a difficult shot. A few centimetres away from goal of the century.

Schiller (Josh) was great again, Kaine Stevens is all class, Tom Keough just keeps producing, the backline held tight and some of our players have taken their game to a new level. John Noble is really valuable now, Mason Middleton is the best marking forward in the League and is working hard, Andre Parella is developing nicely and there are green shoots everywhere.

Greeny - 4 goals and terrific, the consummate club man.

We're getting there, but there's still work to do.

Random Thoughts.

1. Great half of football. Second and third quarters were rubbish.
2. Switching the ball for the hell of it does not work for west. Unless you kick the ball like Dunkin in the reserves then don't do it.
3. Great to see our onballers tackling again.
4. Dustin head took a couple of match winning marks yesterday.
5. West kicked it to the dead pocket in both reserves and league consistently.
6. If in doubt just kick it to Middleton. He will mark it.
7. That bald umpire was crap.
8. Well done big Parrella.
9. Greeny was back to his best.
10. We will need a four quarter effort to beat Norwood.

Second Team wrote: That bald umpire was crap.

That bald umpire IS crap.

A good win yesterday, however it was also frustrating to watch at times.
We were the better side and we should have won by a bigger margin.

As a collective I thought our Midfield had a their best game for the year.
Keough played his best game for the year also. For a guy who has never played
in the role until earlier this year, he certainly has become a very consistent player.
It has been a very good move by the coach.

Noble has had a fantastic year, mainly as a high half Forward,however moving onto the wing yesterday I thought he was even a better player and I would play him there for the rest of the year.
Schiller continued on from last week with another all round good performance.
Stevens is an elite midfielder and his goal from a stoppage in the first qrt. near the forward pocket was fantastic. He never plays a bad game.
Green played his best game for the year and it's been a frustrating year for him due to injury.
I hope he plays on next year as he is a very important player for us.

Parella is developing nicely, however I wouldn't be righting young McPherson off who played a couple of very good league games earlier in the year. Unfortunately he has suffered a few injuries of late which have impacted his season. It's important both these Ruckmen stay at the club in the coming seasons as they are both going to play key roles for us if we want to be a force again in the SANFUL

Moving Burgess forward in the last qrt was a good move which allowed Beechie to go into the midfield. As Beech gets fitter it would be great to see him spend more time there.

It's a big game this week against Norwood the inform side of the Comp. We need to play better for longer if we are to beat sides like them.

I forgot to mention Middleton who played well in both first and Last qrt.
He has had a very good season, he would be an even better player if we could find another key Forward from somewhere.

Bottom line.
Games are played over 100+ minutes & if u r in front at the final siren u win. It’s an even comp & sides are going to have good & bad qtrs. Our good ones have been very exciting.

Very happy that it has been us in front at the final siren in the past 2 weeks.
Gavin doing a splendid job.
GO BLOODS!!!!!

Adelaide beat Port, which is helpful.

I think we are a real chance to make the finals this year which I did not think was possible in Gavins first year given the inexperiance we have in our list.
Looking at the fixture South have a hard run home and given there usual fade out toward the end of the season they may not win another game. We however have 2 games where we would be considered a long shot to win being against Norwood and Sturt away. All others we have a good chance to win and would be considered favorites.
I would not expect us to go deep into September this year,but, given where we were last year to get there would be a real achievement and set us up nicely for the next couple of years IMHO.

Hope you’re right TAAARS.

As they say let’s just take it “one week at a time” at this stage & be happy with a much improved season under Gavin.

That bloody Norwood game could be the one that bites us at seasons end. Some of our other losses to the top 4 sides (apart from NA) have been very competitive.