INS AND OUTS

If people think the club does not listen or read this forum start putting all this on the Westies Facebook page.This back and forth and who is to blame is making me bloody dizzy.

I'm thinking the Club, however it is constituted atm, does read this forum. To blame for what, bundy?

At this stage, there is still time and opportunity to gain one or two good recruits, so I suggest we wait just a bit longer before judging.

We'll certainly have more new faces to help our depth, I'd guess.

RODH2 wrote:I'm thinking the Club, however it is constituted atm, does read this forum. To blame for what, bundy?

I really thought you would be smart enough know what i was talking about.You are the only one to question the word blame. Makes me really wonder about you.!!!!!

Looks like the request to be more respectful is going well.

Sorry but that was respectful.

No worries bundy, take it easy, mate!!

All life has never been better,people need to stop stressing Cheers Rodh2

Is the club going to announce any other recruits whether they are from the Amateur league or from other leagues?

I figure the fact we have announced zero signings since the draft means we are now 100% reliant on Santa doing the recruiting and delivering them for christmas?
What a farce.

Sadly, I think Santa will miss Milner Rd this year
I have to agree that it is slightly farcical that we were not able to sign any top line players.
A month ago, our coach said that he was confident the club would have a competitive list for 2020........
I’m not convinced.

So would we be interested in James Boyd from the Eagles? Westies might be the only club he hasn't played for. Around 30 yo but a pretty handy mid fielder with possibly a year or two of SANFL footy left. Gav should have the background knowledge on the guy.

Surely we would be having a look at him!!!
Rumours are that other clubs are interested.
We should have plenty of room in our Salary Cap!

No thanks

Have we Recruited any other players? If so why hasn’t the club notified its members and supporters.

Lachlan wrote:Have we Recruited any other players?  If so why hasn’t the club notified its members and supporters.

Not being a smarty but this is a question for you to pose on the clubs official Facebook website perhaps

I think the answer is NO!!!
No doubt this is the worst off season recruiting that I can remember.

There are a lot of rumours about why our recruitment is poor not just this year but in years gone by, I’m doubting they would be allowed to stay on here, does anybody have any factual reasons what has happened?

I know a few factual reasons (not all) and even though i have previously posted them more than once I am more than happy to do so again mate.

1.  Start with the SANFL's ill conceived Salary Cap that did not let us financially compete with other clubs recruiting offers also as part of this , as Lee pointed out, this cost us a player per year cumulative hence the overall squad was weakened. Quote " IMO, our on-field woes are due to having a restricted cap over the last few years. It effectively meant we were about 5 good players short over 3 years, compared to other clubs."

2.  A previous quote from another poster that I know is correct " I know for a fact that we have put several very good contract offers to many of the players who have been recruited to other clubs. Most of the time their decision has not been based on money but other factors. The highest profile examples of this are Abe Davis & Richard Douglas". As a further example I offer young Slattery where our offer was the same as the Powers except they include $20K AFL coaching contract which obviously we could not match as it came out of our Salary Cap unlike the Power or Crows.

3. There is a factor where some players just do not want to come to a bottom club and I am sure if any of you have the answer to that then the club would love to talk to you.

Have a read of comments/inferences in November SA Footy discussion about RD and you get a good insight into what the lower club is up against --- its not just brown paper bags as a former club CEO once explained to me.

For once this year we actually have Salary Cap available however as I have previously said confirmation of a full Salary Cap was 6 months too late for this years recruiting (believe it or not) and we also still need to compete with the stronger clubs in terms of the add-ons to the player recruiting package (clubs ongoing sponsorship efforts are critical to this area) ---- the days of Apprenticeships and/or Groundsmen jobs is gone.

In discussing the Football Managers Role within the club one needs to understand that that person targets priority areas as directed by the club --- the previous holder was directed to target our relationships with our rural zones and to enhance the quality of young recruits which he achieved. I understand that the new FM will be targeting different areas which includes recruiting so its a bit of a time thing.

I honestly would not want to be one of the club staff trying to attract players and develop new membership in this present time --- I think they do a great job under great stress --- perhaps all Members should take on a goal to bring 1 new Member each to the club.

Rumors spread in the Westonians Bar or other areas by members with personal vendettas or bias are destructive to the club.

There don't need to be any 'rumours' about recruiting. There are none to be had, apart from the facts.

I'll try to give an overview over a few short posts.

The recruiting personnel is much the same this year as last year, where we were regarded as having recruited best of all clubs.

There are separate parts to the committee. First, although all members bring up players' names, 2 members (one is me) concentrate on identifying players. I doubt there is any player recruited to SA this year that we didn't identify, apart from one WA interstate player. Secondly, the two of us spend many, many hours on keeping up with players around Australia, including hours of watching videos. A few posters on here can attest to my knowledge and the other person knows more than me.

......to continue

2.

Once detailed and lengthy discussion has been completed, other members of the Committee, including the Coach and Football Manager are tasked with contacting and approaching identified players. This is where all the factors relating to recruiting are hurdles to overcome.

Finally, the Chairman of the Committee is the Board Football Director.

It is no surprise to me that we're finding it tough this year. There are no past West players delisted from the AFL (next year there may well be 3 or more, or none). The AFL/VFL situation has changed, making it harder to shift players from Victoria. Then the top NEAFL players are commanding and being offered big dollars.

The biggest issue, though, is as I have pointed out on here (and to the Board 2 years ago) that a restricted salary cap would lead to poor performance, which leads to recruits not wanting to play for a bottom team who won 2 games last year.

That is the overwhelming feedback we would be getting, that we're not a destination club.

.......to continue

Finally, a few random thoughts.

First, I'm not up to date with recruiting, as I haven't been able to attend for the last 2 or 3 months, for health reasons.

Secondly, I know that the Coach and Football Manager have travelled extensively and put in huge hours talking to so many potential recruits. I have the greatest sympathy for them and I could understand if Gavin was very frustrated.

Given the lack of success with high profile targets so far, I am sure the Club will look to bolster its depth with new young players.

As oldfella rightly says, rumours kill clubs, so let's not give them air.

A constant theme at Westies is our unerring ability to undermine success from within.

I've always opted to be open with members and supporters, so I hope this helps posters understand why we've struggled to recruit this year.

The facts are, this club has become a basket case on the field.
17 wins in the last 4 years is evidence of that.
We won 2 games in 2019.
Recruiting had to be the priority and we had a full cap to spend.
Our squad is considerably weaker in 2020 compared to 2019.
Very disappointing!

Lee Harradine wrote:

A constant theme at Westies is our unerring ability to undermine success from within.

It seems that way.

What a lot of negativity . I have been a Westies supporter for 69 years and will continue to support them no matter what happens . I just renewed my membership and signed my grandson up as a member .To those complaining and not happy go and follow Norwood .