south adelaide season review

[clanger]

I Know there is still two games to go but most fans would already develop a opinon on how successfully this season has been.
i will change this over the next couple of weeks

First point, is the improvement in remaining in the contest for longer periods and matching it with the oppositon which this year was usually 2 half to 3 quarters at most. Only lost 2 games over ten goals the margins in those were 117 and 63 points. (6 games in 2009 over 10 goals)

Second point, with that has come winning more quarters in 2010 so far we have won 26 quarters (23 in 2009) i know that is not much but if the competitve spirit remains and win more games next year this will improve by about 6 to 7 more quarters won.

through this i believe Ron acheived his first aim which was to the lay the foundations by making the club competitve and continue to develop the players to see who can make the grade and so the amount of wins this year was not important.

The seasons of liddle, Horne, O'keefe and Gotch have been brilliant if they are not recurited to the AFL it is a must that the club keeps them. The continue improvement of local players in rolfe, crabb, murphy and the rest of them.

Averaging losing margin in 2009 was 46.5 points in 2010 that is down to 39.3.

Been in winning postions in 9 games in which we have not won at three quarter time not including games in which we let ourselves down with one really bad quarter there has been about 4 games. That leaves about 3 or 4 games we were never in this shows the improvement from 2009. If you disagree with me just say so and i will prove it having been at all games bar three which were shown on tv.

[mighty_tiger_79]

you have mentioned the improvement of a number of players the club has recruited.

In your opinion how many players will the club get rid of at the end of the season?

[clanger]

i reckon the club will get rid of about other 5 to 6 players plus the players who quit the club during the season that adds up to about 11 to 13 changes in the off season.


did dylan joyce leave the club?

[CENTURION]

I want South to improve, unfortunately I feel this season has been a huge let-down, I feel they promised much more than they delivered.

[southee]

I want South to improve, unfortunately I feel this season has been a huge let-down, I feel they promised much more than they delivered.

As a long term South supporter and member I cant argue with that Centurion. I honestly thought we might win 6 to 7 games this year and maybe finish above Port and Norwood (to my suprise they have proved me wrong).
I thought we would finish about 7th or 8th on the ladder in 2010.

The recruits have been what has been holding South up this year and maybe Cockshell in the ruck.

Liddle has been a shinning light. I really hope South keep him and he does not get picked up by the AFL (good luck to him if he does as he is a great little player).
OKeefe, Horne have also been good as they are still finding their feet in the world of SANFL football.

I would have to say some of the local players and senior members this year have been the most disappointing for me.
I wont name names but I think you can figure it out yourself.
They just have not taken that step up to league SANFL football. Hopefully next year (yes...I am using the next year line!!!) they will.
The senior players - some from injury (which cant be helped) and some from form have been at times most disappointing.

I have full faith in what Ron is doing and some very hard decisions will be made for 2011.

We really need to recruit some experienced players with still some of the local talent to make 2011 a successful one.

Next year I will be hoping a finals position as anything else will be not up the the expectation of South Adelaide members/supporters.

[saintal]

2 wins. 1 draw. 15 losses. Hard to get too excited about figures like this. Last Saturday in particular was quite hard to swallow.

But, there does appear to be some light at the end of the tunnel..

7-8 wins would be a minimum expectation for 2011.

A while back I posted my thoughts on the year:


Good

- The first month. four weeks doesn't make a season though.
- Tackling/pressure certainly up on previous years but still with a way to go.
- Have been in a lot of games at ¾ time (but haven’t run games out well). Whilst we haven’t won many, it’s a start..
- Liddle, O’Keefe, Horne and Gotch all proven worthy recruits.
- The ruckwork of Cockshell and McKernan.
- Noticeable improvement from a few of the younger players. Nick Murphy in particular has been very good. Veide shown a bit, and Crate continues to improve. Perrey was good early.
- Blooded plenty of youngsters. Some will make it, some wont.
- Stability with the head coach position.
- Noarlunga crowds are up.

Bad

- One very ordinary quarter most weeks killing us.
- Depth, which hasn’t been helped by injuries.
- Hardly seeing last year’s B+F winner on the park, with the runner up leaving the club. In fact, the back 6 from last year is greatly different (Thewlis and Sandery out most of year, Carlile + Williams leaving)
- Kicking skills still dont punish opposition
- Discipline poor at times but has improved dramatically over the season.
- Have only kicked a score of 100+ twice since start of 2009.
- A few of the younger players improvement seeming to plateau.
- Inability to beat Port.

Ugly

- Unley debacle
- Performances of reserves, who have a lot of 18 year olds, and this has effected the under 18 results in turn.
- Not a huge fan of the guy on the Mic at Noarlunga games.

[Sojourner]

Some good points made above,

I wonder if we asked Ron Fuller what his thoughts are now as opposed to when he first took the job on in relation to what needs to be done to make the SAFC competitive. It would be the first time in a long time that he has had a side finish with the results we have. My reading of him is that he is still quite confident that he has the capacity to do the job, yet its becoming rapidly apparent that a five year contract and plan to turn the club around was not an unrealistic one.

We made a very good decision by the club to get a decent Senior Coach, I feel that the next step of the plan to rebuild the club is to get John Reid into the club as our President. I think that Fuller - Reid will be a good combination at the club and it will give us much more capacity to take the next step and deal with the real issues of recruiting and building up our allocated SFL and GSFL clubs.

[Grahaml]

Fuller's appointment IMHO was wrong, but south now need to stick with him for 3-4 years at least. Give the club a chance to hold onto some players and develop kids. IMHO the greatest issue for the last 10 years at South has been the inability to hold on to players. The best it's been for a while is when Pyman was there for a while they kept a core together. Then he lost the plot (IMHO) and the players all vanished en masse.

As for the players, the new recruits everyone goes on about I think it's a start, but in neither game against the dogs this year did any of those guys threaten the end result. When those guys start to get South in a position to win a game and the opposition are forced to put some work into them, then let's see what we think of them. But until South get some more midfield depth, some more KPP blokes, some leadership and some decent utility players (I know, it sounds like a whole team, but that's the scenario as I see it) we won't see them in that position enough.

To me, the best example South can look at is North a few years ago. They got some blokes at the club from reserves of other sides, some good imports and some local products and started to turn things around. If South get a few players from a few different sources we might see something happen.

One issue I see is the oval itself. It slopes and the wind always blows strongly in the same direction. It just makes such an advantage to the one end the whole game it leads to crap footy IMHO. One team is always busting * to defend for entire quarters. Trouble is, short of moving the oval to a better location, putting up big stands and levelling the oval (all massive projects) I can't see any solution.

And get rid of the clown on the mic. It doesn't add anything and just gets embarrassing if you lose.

[pale ale]

Depth is the biggest problem at the Club by far and getting rid of a few senior players will only make it worse, any half good under 18s are already playing reserves and not a lot to look forward to with whats left Lots of recruits needed and somehow an attraction to getting the best Juniors out there from local clubs

[Freo HeaveHo]

Michael Handby since has left the club i see in a statement on the clubs website

[Pseudo]

Michael Handby since has left the club i see in a statement on the clubs website

no kidding?

One last time:

TWANG!

[Dirko]

Michael Handby since has left the club i see in a statement on the clubs website

[Mickyj]

I'd like to ask a question of the South fans like saintal,Sojourner etc etc.
As an SANFL Fan I know many other SANFL fans would like to know this answer as well.(Please note I'm not looking to have a fight )
From memory the SANFL announced around 18 months ago that an import rule would be incoming .So why did South (I'm not blaming Ron here)go out and buy so many VFL players that would put them over the limit.
With players available that have played SANFL in the amateurs or where-ever .why buy so many and see how many go home in the first year plus you still appear to need to "CULL" a few at the end of the year!!

And before anyone says they are south who'd play for them .Why not change that attitude or culture why not go out and recruit from the seconds or country or where-ever.

Cheers
Mick
Please note as I said not looking for a fight

[saintal]

Michael Handby since has left the club i see in a statement on the clubs website

Disappointing that a club vice captain and long time servant of the club would choose to end things like that, especially only with 2 games to go.

[qwerty]

You can add Ben Warren to that list as he will 'retire' at years end and also a few other players.

South will need to recruit from other SANFL clubs in the offseason as they would have plenty of $$$ to offer and the question will be if the $$$ wins out.

Without recruiting quite heavily it would appear depth may be an issue.

Barry Pilmore from Willunga to coach reserves next year is also the word going around local leagues.

[Sojourner]

I'd like to ask a question of the South fans like saintal,Sojourner etc etc.
As an SANFL Fan I know many other SANFL fans would like to know this answer as well.(Please note I'm not looking to have a fight )
From memory the SANFL announced around 18 months ago that an import rule would be incoming .So why did South (I'm not blaming Ron here)go out and buy so many VFL players that would put them over the limit.
With players available that have played SANFL in the amateurs or where-ever .why buy so many and see how many go home in the first year plus you still appear to need to "CULL" a few at the end of the year!!

Probably MJ because going from the experience of West Adelaide, a 50% return on those that actually stay and make the grade of SANFL footy is a realistic result from extensive recruiting of junior as opposed to senior VFL players. I think we have so far seen four player lost, one to Norwood - Kennedy-Hunt and three returned to Vic.

I do think that the recruting strategy will change this year at South though!

[Mickyj]

I'd like to ask a question of the South fans like saintal,Sojourner etc etc.
As an SANFL Fan I know many other SANFL fans would like to know this answer as well.(Please note I'm not looking to have a fight )
From memory the SANFL announced around 18 months ago that an import rule would be incoming .So why did South (I'm not blaming Ron here)go out and buy so many VFL players that would put them over the limit.
With players available that have played SANFL in the amateurs or where-ever .why buy so many and see how many go home in the first year plus you still appear to need to "CULL" a few at the end of the year!!

Probably MJ because going from the experience of West Adelaide, a 50% return on those that actually stay and make the grade of SANFL footy is a realistic result from extensive recruiting of junior as opposed to senior VFL players. I think we have so far seen four player lost, one to Norwood - Kennedy-Hunt and three returned to Vic.

I do think that the recruting strategy will change this year at South though!

Thanks Sojourner An interesting strategy.Now that has to fall by the way side.I think SANFL recruits to other SANFL clubs will be high on the agenda .South would need to be quick to get quality IMHO.

[whufc]

i think the SAFC will be sweating on the import rule. if they go with the two imports a year South will struggle to rise up the ladder for years. They dont have alot of depth and are probably 3-4 gun recruits away from playing finals.

if the rule is the 8 imports i think south can have an impact if they can recruit more of the quality like liddle horne and okeefe

[holden78]

Pyman didnt lose the plot mate , far from it , just got shafted by a weak Board who listened to some whinging players saying Pyman was too tough , while ex players and club officials didnt like his honest opinion of why the club has been and is so poor ! Fuller is going through the same type of issues so Ive been told and hes some years away from the Pyman era , but the same old people might still be around still up to their old stunts ! As for choosing Fuller , lets be honest , no one really qualified wanted to go anywhere near the joint , hence the 5 year deal Ronny squeezed out of the club . Id like to know why you thought he was wrong though ?

Fuller's appointment IMHO was wrong, but south now need to stick with him for 3-4 years at least. Give the club a chance to hold onto some players and develop kids. IMHO the greatest issue for the last 10 years at South has been the inability to hold on to players. The best it's been for a while is when Pyman was there for a while they kept a core together. Then he lost the plot (IMHO) and the players all vanished en masse.

As for the players, the new recruits everyone goes on about I think it's a start, but in neither game against the dogs this year did any of those guys threaten the end result. When those guys start to get South in a position to win a game and the opposition are forced to put some work into them, then let's see what we think of them. But until South get some more midfield depth, some more KPP blokes, some leadership and some decent utility players (I know, it sounds like a whole team, but that's the scenario as I see it) we won't see them in that position enough.

To me, the best example South can look at is North a few years ago. They got some blokes at the club from reserves of other sides, some good imports and some local products and started to turn things around. If South get a few players from a few different sources we might see something happen.

One issue I see is the oval itself. It slopes and the wind always blows strongly in the same direction. It just makes such an advantage to the one end the whole game it leads to crap footy IMHO. One team is always busting * to defend for entire quarters. Trouble is, short of moving the oval to a better location, putting up big stands and levelling the oval (all massive projects) I can't see any solution.

And get rid of the clown on the mic. It doesn't add anything and just gets embarrassing if you lose.

[saintal]

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/afl ... 5907215731

"There was a bit more to it", according to Handby. A very "South-like" situation unfortunately.

Anyway, the club moves on...

Pyman. That name always opens a can of worms. Rightly or wrongly, he'd lost the players in 2007. Some of the efforts that year were a disgrace.

It will be forever debated what clubs should do in these circumstances. I was against the decision at the time. Pulled out the tape of the 2006 final v Port the other day. It could be argued that he should have gotten more out of that highly talented squad though. Hell, to have half of those names now..

Getting off topic here.