All quiet on the Western front
Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 10:32 amDoes anyone know if West Adelaide are to announce any further player signings this side of Christmas? With their administration closing for the Christmas break this Friday it seems that not a great deal of information is forthcoming about potential new recruits into the side. With the Rookie draft done and dusted, it would not be unreasonable to expect some discussion of potential players to be signed. Currently the club has recruited 4 players and yet has lost 9 leaving a deficit of 5 players from the 2010 list. Jack Carter looks to be a pretty good signing, yet after the chase for Eagleton and Tiller I do wonder if the club will continue to target the marquee style player to build up their list as opposed to the usual offering of players that want to play in the SANFL.
Perhaps the reason for the interest in their recruiting strategy is simply the sheer pressure the club can expect to be under in 2011 to be a part of finals footy. Their Senior Coach took the club to a three year plan which finished at the end of the season. West did not make the finals, yet clearly had their best year in terms of playing competitive footy and just missed the finals, albeit by having to rely on other sides to lose for them to gain the place. Its unlikey that WAFC members are going to be happy about another season finishing outside of the five, which could in turn bring the tenure of their Senior Coach into question from some parties.
Clearly everyone can be an observer and an arm chair expert on the coaching strategy of a rival club and it may well be way off the mark, yet my observation was that Westies did the best in the areas of defensive strategy and used it well to win games, yet fell down in the attacking area and goal kicking, some may say that a better ruckman is needed, yet I am not sure they were beaten any worse than any other club in this area as opposed to their goal kicking which cost them several games IMO. Hence I would expect the club to be looking fairly closely at recruiting into their forward line, yet again in that area it all seems to be pretty quiet on the Western Front!
WEST:
In: Ben MaCreadie (Casey Scorpians VFL), Steve Bailey (returning), Jack Carter (returning from Collingwood), Sam Agars (Central / Tanunda)
Out: Chris Chubb (retired), Simon Munn (retired), Wade Champion (retired), Jeremy Rowe (retired), Tom Langford (left club), Myles Krakouer (returning to Vic), Bronik Davies (returning to Vic), Bradley Helbig (Richmond), Luke Davis (Essendon)
Perhaps the reason for the interest in their recruiting strategy is simply the sheer pressure the club can expect to be under in 2011 to be a part of finals footy. Their Senior Coach took the club to a three year plan which finished at the end of the season. West did not make the finals, yet clearly had their best year in terms of playing competitive footy and just missed the finals, albeit by having to rely on other sides to lose for them to gain the place. Its unlikey that WAFC members are going to be happy about another season finishing outside of the five, which could in turn bring the tenure of their Senior Coach into question from some parties.
Clearly everyone can be an observer and an arm chair expert on the coaching strategy of a rival club and it may well be way off the mark, yet my observation was that Westies did the best in the areas of defensive strategy and used it well to win games, yet fell down in the attacking area and goal kicking, some may say that a better ruckman is needed, yet I am not sure they were beaten any worse than any other club in this area as opposed to their goal kicking which cost them several games IMO. Hence I would expect the club to be looking fairly closely at recruiting into their forward line, yet again in that area it all seems to be pretty quiet on the Western Front!
WEST:
In: Ben MaCreadie (Casey Scorpians VFL), Steve Bailey (returning), Jack Carter (returning from Collingwood), Sam Agars (Central / Tanunda)
Out: Chris Chubb (retired), Simon Munn (retired), Wade Champion (retired), Jeremy Rowe (retired), Tom Langford (left club), Myles Krakouer (returning to Vic), Bronik Davies (returning to Vic), Bradley Helbig (Richmond), Luke Davis (Essendon)
.