south v sturt at noarlunga

[come&getit]

Not a bad first hit out of the year. Our recruits looked promising. I know its a long way off but finals are a possibility with the improvement shown.

[panthers 2008]

You would hope finals are a possibility every year,and this year I am hoping to see finals action for the panthers,BUT we have a long way to go and it is hard to gauge how well we really did in one trial match.
True a couple of the new recruits did well, especially Makenna and Bradley(Cockshell did not do all that much).I suppose in trials its looking deeper into the list to see who can come up to meet the higher standard.
As a team we are looking for last years younger players to show some improvement for this season,and for some of the new recruits to the club to be pushing for league selection.We need a more cohesive team with more depth than last season.For most of last season we had a good run with injuries,and we were still exposed for a lack of depth so we really do need quite a few players to step up and fill the void at certain times during the season.
I am looking forward to seeing us have a run against the bays,and maybe after we play them and the roosters the following week we will have a better idea of how the side looks.(especially with a full strength team)
Bring on round one against the bloods!!!!

[MST]

Not a bad first hit out of the year. Our recruits looked promising. I know its a long way off but finals are a possibility with the improvement shown.

I think you are drawing a long bow there c&g. I saw the trial and my overall impression was that both sides looked very rusty, showed only flashes of intensity and as a spectacle it wasn't much to look at. South left their line up pretty well alone for most of the day, whereas Sturt chopped, changed and experimented all day. Chambers (who looks well short of a gallop) playing for a time across half forward is a good example of this.

Both sides will obviously improve over the next few weeks but if I was asked to make a judgement on both sides' prospects in 2009, I would say Sturt will make the five if the side plays to it's potential but South will again finish in the bottom two. Clay Sampson will get some improvement from his players and the attack on the ball was good at times but they don't have the quality across the ground to trouble the good sides.

As a Sturt supporter I was keen to see how a couple of the new faces performed and to that end I was relatively pleased. Payne showed some class at different times, Button will offer good versatility at both ends of the ground, Vassel got plenty of the ball and if the decision making and disposal is tidied up will be a handy inclusion and Bode will be better for the run.

[oldblueeyes]

Not a bad first hit out of the year. Our recruits looked promising. I know its a long way off but finals are a possibility with the improvement shown.

I think you are drawing a long bow there c&g. I saw the trial and my overall impression was that both sides looked very rusty, showed only flashes of intensity and as a spectacle it wasn't much to look at. South left their line up pretty well alone for most of the day, whereas Sturt chopped, changed and experimented all day. Chambers (who looks well short of a gallop) playing for a time across half forward is a good example of this.

Both sides will obviously improve over the next few weeks but if I was asked to make a judgement on both sides' prospects in 2009, I would say Sturt will make the five if the side plays to it's potential but South will again finish in the bottom two. Clay Sampson will get some improvement from his players and the attack on the ball was good at times but they don't have the quality across the ground to trouble the good sides.

As a Sturt supporter I was keen to see how a couple of the new faces performed and to that end I was relatively pleased. Payne showed some class at different times, Button will offer good versatility at both ends of the ground, Vassel got plenty of the ball and if the decision making and disposal is tidied up will be a handy inclusion and Bode will be better for the run.

I understand that South did not play a number of their "better players" in this trial whereas Sturt were at near full strength. So for Sturt to make the five in 2009 "potential " will obviously will have to play at his very best

[MST]

From what I could see, the only "better players" missing from the South line up were Warren and Torney. Clay Sampson did little tinkering with his line up, Parry rucked for most of the game, Boyd played most of the game and the interchange gate was, in comparison with Sturt, very quiet.

True, Sturt were near full strength as far as the personnel that were involved but the difference was we ran 30 players across the four 20 minute quarters and therefore the likes of Sheedy, Crane, McGlone, Chambers and Kurtze played only a half of football. We rucked a young kid, Aaron Davey, for the whole last quarter, into a howling breeze, and still only came up half a kick short. Couple that with the experimental nature of Luke Norman's coaching moves and "potential" will be sure to improve markedly over the next few weeks. The likes of Coad and Nelson will make a pretty big difference to our make up as well.

Very few Sturt supporters would be too concerned with the outcome with trial number one.

Feel free to PM me if you would like a wager on who will finish higher on the ladder.....

[whatcha got there?]

We rucked a young kid, Aaron Davey, for the whole last quarter, into a howling breeze, and still only came up half a kick short.

Do you mean Adam Davey MST?