West v Central Round 15

WEST
West Adelaide is poised to give a former Panther his club debut against Central on Saturday.
Nippy midfielder Connor Fairlie (22, 174cm and 72kg) has been named to start in the centre square after crossing over to play with his brother Patrick Fairlie in the first half of the season.
Connor Fairlie, who played 12 League games for South, has been joined in West’s 23-man squad by Kyle Kirk, Conor Noonan and key defender Josh Ryan, who has been listed at full back.
Former Redleg Lyndon Hupfeld will miss a fortnight with a hamstring strain while Jack Evans will be sidelined for the rest of the season with a knee injury.
League
F: Kirk, Cleeland, Schmidt
HF: Karpany, Thilthorpe, Willsmore
C: Batley, C. Fairlie, Waite
HB: Hill, Keough, Levicki
B: Agostino, Ryan, Dunkin

R: Parrella, H. Haysman, K. Stevens
INT: Noonan, May, Laube, Wasley-Black, P. Fairlie
IN: Kirk, Noonan, C. Fairlie, Ryan
OUT: Hupfeld (hamstring), J. Evans (knee)
Reserves
Anderson, G. Turner, R. Stevens, Inglis, Gallaway, Lynch, Wooldridge, L. Evans, Majok, Caruso, Morelli, S. Bentley, Groom, Morrish, Gutsche, Rana, Chamberlain, Sinderberry, Nield, Moore, G. Haysman.
Under-18
Jolly, Desira, Ebert, Pridham, O’Connor-Dawkins, Craig, Hahn, Boughen, Westley, Iuliano, Bailye, Young, Roberts, Fielke, Sherlock, Heitmann, Van den Berg, Nield, Kennedy, Gilbert, McArdle, Stakic, Sareen, Henty-Smith, Groom, Boylan, Talbot, Nunan, Hannagan.

This week the game will be played mostly between the EARS.
It is our best Available 21 against Centrals best Available 21.

When the players line up at the start of the day they need to have the mindset that they are better than their opponent on a one on one basis. They need to believe in themselves, believe in each other, believe that the team mate that they kick to will win the contest and the more that they do that the more belief comes over the group.

Confidence is the most underrated ability that anyone, Player or in life, can have.

We have all seen players that have less ability than others around him but continually plays well, he is the one with confidence and belief that he will succeed. The Team will succeed but everyone needs to buy into the whole package.

The 3 B's,
Believe
Believe
Believe

I have a feeling that with a lot of youngsters wanting to impress and along with their enthusiasm. The bloods to get up by 14pts.

Shutting down Fort and Menzel up forward could be key. Menzel's a tricky match up because he's a very good mark one on one.

Joke

So on top of our appalling skill level we can't even match other teams for fitness. It does make you wonder what's going on at our club. That last quarter was utterly abysmal and utterly predictable. We are without doubt the worst team in the comp. Again.

Centrals were down to 1 on the bench going into the last qtr.
What an insipid last qtr!!!
Barely went inside 50 and didn’t score!!!!
Hill on Menzel was a poor match up!!!

Hill on Menzel was a shocking decision, Menzel was always going to be too big and good overhead for him.

Another very disappointing performance.
To once again be out scored in the last qrt is unforgivable.
We are the worst side in the SANFL.

The Coach was furious after the game and so he should be, to give up a 16 point lead against a very ordinary side shows us where we are as a Football club.

Once again we failed to score in a qrt of football and this has happened on a number of occasions this year.

The last 4 years have been unacceptable and our list simply isn’t up to SANFL Standard.

Our Recruiting Committee have a massive job on their hands to find quality league players that want to join our club. I wish them all the best.

Our Recruiting Committee have a massive job on their hands to find quality league players that want to join our club. I wish them all the best.[/quote]

Amen!

The real wonder is how we can lead the opposition by 3 goals with a quarter to go without Snelling, Schiller, Middleton, Bates, Beech, Turner, Noble, Johnson and others who started the season. That's a remarkable effort, duplicated in other games this year.

Against that, our last quarter was just not acceptable. It continues a regular pattern that has been consistent throughout the year. Do we look unfit because we're unfit, or because the will can't be maintained? Or is the ability to fight back not there because we're not fit?

Whatever it is, it has made the difference between a reasonable season with what we have and the disappointing season we actually have had.

So a game write up has to be about the first 3 quarters only, as the last quarter is a different, and more pressing problem.

We played pretty well and could have led by more with better decision making. On the other hand, Central had many more scoring shots, accentuating how accurate goAl kicking remains the most underprepared part of our game.

Chris Schmidt was effective under pressure and made the right decisions, Dunkin was effective and progressing towards an AFL rookie spot, Willsmore delivered effectively under stress and kicks straight for goal on the run and Riley Thilthorpe had the AFL scouts searching for superlatives for their 2020 draft reports. Good to see Jack Agostino play well and Patrick Levicki and Keelan Laube kick nice, running goals. I also thought Connor Fairlie made a nice debut and offered something different.

A bye next week, probably at a good time. There are problems to be solved.

We struggled to find the right match up for Troy Menzel, a class player and also struggled to get and stop effective centre clearances.

We played well for 3 quarters. We still haven't won a last quarter, whether the circumstances were extreme or irrelevant. That's a huge worry that the Football Department will no doubt address as a matter of urgency.

I went to presentations, to show support, along with the faithful. Gavin was frank about where we're at and it was good to hear CEO Ben Hopkins reiterate the club's support for Gavin.

This year we recruited Snelling, Schmidt, Levicki, Willsmore and Cleeland on a very restricted salary cap.

Having lost so many players, there is scope to recruit well again and that is in full swing.

I hope the SANFL realises how counter-productive this short-sighted policy is. It's a crowd-dwindling, unfair, illogical and punitive policy with no upside whatsoever.

To count transfer fees in the cap also, while not counting them in other clubs' caps is indefensible, IMO.

While we have a competition where 1 player on an opposing team is paid more than our entire team and we lose our two best players mid year for no compensation, I will continue to fight for a full cap, whether that is well received or not.

I know the Board and President are trying hard to get the SANFL to change this decision and I support them 100% in their efforts.

Football is why we exist and premierships is why a football club should exist.

Lee,

Your last post is spot on.

Lee Harradine wrote:I went to presentations, to show support, along with the faithful. Gavin was frank about where we're at and it was good to hear CEO Ben Hopkins reiterate the club's support for Gavin.

Well done Lee and other supporters who went to presentations I presume this includes the President, Vice President and all Board members ?????

I was at Presentations and to say the mood was somber is an understatement.

All Players were embarrassed by the last Quarter debacle and every player that i spoke to apologized for what happened. Does it make it better - No, will it make them better - No. What it will do however is make them come out and try harder next time they get the opportunity. Remember the last time we had a similar embarrassment awhile ago against North (a 20 goal flogging yes but this was just as embarrassing) they boys responded with a win.

We can all sit here and be Keyboard Crusaders and pot the team (and rightly so at times) but still we have to look at the positives at this time of year.

Levicki and Willsmore there back half of the season have been excellent and now the emergence of Thilthorpe, the continual improvement of players like Waite, Dunkin and also a few from the Development side are progressing nicely.

Sure we haven't got a lot of cream at the Top of the Glass but the Glass it is not completely Empty either.  

Lets stick together and pull through the hole we are in.
Go The Bloods.

Mikeme,

I fully support your comments especially "We can all sit here and be Keyboard Crusaders and pot the team"

IMO, based on 30 years in the West Adelaide footy rooms the on field performances clearly reflect the great issues of concern at hand but it is just as clear they do not reflect lack of effort, desire or other issues in any way relating to player or coach performance ----- I find comments attacking the coaches and players to be personally offensive!

The situation we find ourselves in clearly are external to the side on the field -- specifically, the reduced salary cap, the unfair inclusion of transfer fees in the salary cap (not done to other clubs), the decision not to spend up to the reduced salary cap all which limits the recruiting efforts by the recruiting team which IMO has recruited well under these limitations.

To this we need to add the top level players that we have lost unexpectedly due to retirement, unexpected AWFULL (sorry AFL) draft with NO assistance or ability to recruit to cover the loss and also most importantly the unavailability of or limited top level players due to injury or suspension (GRRRRRR) during the season.

The net result of this affects the on field performance in several ways ------ Firstly whilst we have blooded some real good kids we are very lacking in numbers of experienced senior quality footballer to guide and protect these kids -------- Secondly the very limited number of experienced senior quality footballer we have (Skipper, Stevo, Chris) are busting their guts during the game but at the end of the match due to not being able to have a realistic rest/recovery during the game just run out of legs in the last quarter ------- Next year becomes even more of a concern when one looks at our list and realizes that several of our senior players are in the final stages of their careers - RECRUITING IS CRITICAL.

I do not subscribe to what some suggest that we just are not fit enough rather I strongly believe that the existing players are giving all they have got but are dropping out of the game due to factors mentioned in the preceding sentence.

A final point is that the responsibility for these issues directly belong to the President and his Board to rectify and need to reconsider their direction of finance first with footy second, THEY NEED TO FIND THE RIGHT BALANCE AND QUICKLY!. Whilst noting that the Football Director is only one voice on the Board and that he is a fantastic long serving and highly respect member of the westies family given the entire salary cap debacle has occurred under his watch it is hoped that his replacement is much stronger in pushing the needs of the football part of the organization!