SA Footy

Aerie wrote:Templeton was a positive. McGregor was a good pick up. Thought Ainger actually did ok in terms of presenting. Just struggles if he doesn't mark it. I think two talls is enough, so don't need to replace Grocke as such, but need a mobile Westbrook/Inkster/Treeby type as 3rd target.

Ruck and midfield speed is the most obvious problem to fix. Simply won't get anywhere with current rucks. Borholm showed no improvement as year went on and is handy back up at best.

Accountability and desperation missing. It needs to be decided if Godden can get this back in to the playing group, although it really should be player driven.

Hall, Goldsworthy, Appleton, Batley etc. will decide if this Eagles team will be a strength or whether it slips.

If Ainger/Wundke/Boyd attitude not first class then make the call to cut losses and build again.

2011 was a once off miracle that is pretty hard to replicate. Eagles need to lay foundations again and be patient, either with or without Godden in charge.

Anyone who shifts club due to $$ is always going to be under closely scrutiny. If you are paid big $$ there should obviously be higher expectations. You had better perform and have a good attitude. As noted by many on here quite a few of our money men came from South or at one point were with South. They have had varying degrees of success:

Parry – an outright success who took his game to a new level with us. Arguably the most important player for the eagles during the time he was with us.

Wundke - I can’t fault the way Wundke has played this year for us this year. With limited opportunities he has done what has been asked. Started slow but picked up as the season went. I’ve no idea what his attitude is but it looks like he puts in on the field.

Ainger – Has had some great games for us but these have more than been outweighed by some absolute shockers. Gets to most of the contests for us but drops most of his marks. He’d definitely be in my side but I don’t reckon he can ever be the eagles’ key forward as he is soft and too often plays for frees. For the money he was paid to come to our club he has been in poor investment.

Boyd – He seemed to be a much better player at both Centrals and South than he has been for us. Certainly he got a tonne more of the ball. Perhaps that was because at these other clubs there were other quality midfielders ensuring he didn’t get tagged every week like he currently does for us. I’m not too sure. But that aside, paying a midfielder big $$$ who averages only about 20 possessions a game is not good enough. Furthermore, his possessions are almost entirely junk. Dinky little kicks around the corner, sideways passes etc. Big questions about his onfield attitude as well.

So all up we’ve got two good picks and two duds. Getting only 50% of our big expenditure recruiting correct is a little concerning when we have so little other prospects at the club.

I wouldn’t have thought the eagles would have too much spare money to throw around for next season given our excess splurges in recent seasons. I suppose having Powell and Grocke retire may alleviate some pressure. Others – like Lane – who are expected to leave would be on peanuts.

Reading what Godden had to say in today's rag was somewhat disturbing.
We understand thinking about the disconnect between the level achieved in the two lower grades and his league side for the last 3 years, but really league level is miles away from ressies nowdays ala AFL verses SANFL/ WAFL.
Let's hope the footy dept. doesn't go off on a witch hunt for answers as to why most of the lads coming through are " average/ no impact types". Good mature players will always make young lads look second rate, apart from the ones that will go to the AFL level.
This club has struggled partly because of what Godden said about Powell, how he's a top notch bloke, a real gem! That's so true as anyone would know having met Powelly.
But here's the rub, onfield he's been past it for a few years so leaving him to do circle work during a league game is exposed by every team especially the AFL ones! He's the nicest best bloke you could hang out with but the opposition eats him up with their work off him.
He fit's Godden's style of footy as he'll get his head kicked off every time, every game no matter what, but the Eagles don't have the hard at it mature types that are needed to execute Eagle's footy and Godden needs to acknowledge the young lads need to be surrounded by those types in larger numbers than the few we have had. Jarrad trys to be vocal but for the most part there's little verbal demands being dealt out.

Leadership????

holden78 wrote:Reading what Godden had to say in today's rag was somewhat disturbing.
We understand thinking about the disconnect between the level achieved in the two lower grades and his league side for the last 3 years, but really league level is miles away from ressies nowdays ala AFL verses SANFL/ WAFL.
Let's hope the footy dept. doesn't go off on a witch hunt for answers as to why most of the lads coming through are " average/ no impact types". Good mature players will always make young lads look second rate, apart from the ones that will go to the AFL level.
This club has struggled partly because of what Godden said about Powell, how he's a top notch bloke, a real gem! That's so true as anyone would know having met Powelly.
But here's the rub, onfield he's been past it for a few years so leaving him to do circle work during a league game is exposed by every team especially the AFL ones! He's the nicest best bloke you could hang out with but the opposition eats him up with their work off him.
He fit's Godden's style of footy as he'll get his head kicked off every time, every game no matter what, but the Eagles don't have the hard at it mature types that are needed to execute Eagle's footy and Godden needs to acknowledge the young lads need to be surrounded by those types in larger numbers than the few we have had. Jarrad trys to be vocal but for the most part there's little verbal demands being dealt out.

Leadership????

Another point of for Godden & Co is the Eagles poor record with Magarey Medal ( midfielders medal) counts for the last few years.
Powell & Co don't rate too well compared to the other mids in the comp yet are so over-rated by our footy dept.
Godden needs to acknowledge he's got this badly wrong...... Lewis/ Goldy & Kane aren't up to it in an average team; their great front runners though

I think you will find Boyd has carried O P throughout the year and it got worse
during the latter part of the season.

Jackal wrote:I think you will find Boyd has carried O P throughout the year and it got worse
during the latter part of the season.

Yeh he did look to be suffering while playing, but it was so hard to tell what with the Eagles midfield a collection of B grade hacks and out of date clubmen!
Boyd is part of the solution.
Let's make this real simple shall we..... this mess get's turned around with Godden changing the centre of the park.
Boyd, Rowntree , Jarrad, McGregor, Appleton and Allmond is a solid mix of starters and backup players, but Lewis, Goldy, Kane, Poole & Schwarz are either too slow or not good enough.
Can Michael Godden admit to over-rating his mids and making the brutal call on a few who are just happy to be league footballers.
The Eagles just don't play with real passion anymore, too many young selfie types to play the way Godden likes his football to be played; solution is in the recruits!

I'll pay credit where its due, you certainly don't hold back holden78.
Sounds like the entire Club needs work, Admin & Football Departments.

holden78 wrote:

Jackal wrote:I think you will find Boyd has carried O P throughout the year and it got worse
during the latter part of the season.

Yeh he did look to be suffering while playing, but it was so hard to tell what with the Eagles midfield a collection of B grade hacks and out of date clubmen!
Boyd is part of the solution.
Let's make this real simple shall we..... this mess get's turned around with Godden changing the centre of the park.
Boyd, Rowntree , Jarrad, McGregor, Appleton and Allmond is a solid mix of starters and backup players, but Lewis, Goldy, Kane, Poole & Schwarz are either too slow or not good enough.
Can Michael Godden admit to over-rating his mids and making the brutal call on a few who are just happy to be league footballers.
The Eagles just don't play with real passion anymore, too many young selfie types to play the way Godden likes his football to be played; solution is in the recruits!

Agree with much of it, but Goldy is a good Sanfl player.

Reflecting on some of the comments here re the Eagles, I would wonder how many times in the last 15 years that they have missed the SANFL finals? I would suspect not very often if not at all! They have been a very strong club over a long period of time not unlike Central District who have also seen success over a similar time span.

WWT still managed to make the finals once again this season and there is no real suggestion that they will not be there next season.

I can understand the frustrations of West Torrens people about the club losing traditional areas to West Adelaide. Yet I put it to you that the SANFL worked hard to ensure that the areas around the SANFL clubs home grounds would be retained. History shows that WWT chose Woodville over Thebarton and moved the club in that direction, along those lines giving WWT traditional Port Adelaide territory makes more sense than allocating it to West Adelaide who have no connection there whereas Woodville very much does.

As for Godden, not many clubs would sack a coach that took their league side into the finals, I suspect that he would be given another season based on this year's performance.

My concern for WWT is not unlike some of the other SANFL clubs and that is the state of the books and how they stand in relation to the promises made to them by the AFC and PAFC in terms of increased income streams? Sacking coaches, getting the best players out of the VFL and so forth comes back to that issue. I hope that WWT have been able to break even this season, I recall that plans to renovate the club and expand the training facilities have been put on hold due to financial issues. It is my observation that this problem if it is a problem is the one that has the potential to do the club real damage as opposed to recruiting and coaching staff.

Sojourner wrote:Reflecting on some of the comments here re the Eagles, I would wonder how many times in the last 15 years that they have missed the SANFL finals? I would suspect not very often if not at all!

Once, 2008.

Sojourner wrote:History shows that WWT chose Woodville over Thebarton and moved the club in that direction

I'm not sure it chose to 'move the club in that direction' as such; I mean, they had to pick one or the other for a base.

RB wrote:

Sojourner wrote:History shows that WWT chose Woodville over Thebarton and moved the club in that direction

I'm not sure it chose to 'move the club in that direction' as such; I mean, they had to pick one or the other for a base.

Woodville had the better facilities at the time is the reasoning?? Thebarton was tired and needed upgrading for footy.

Back to on field, history shows that the loser of the EF in recent times goes backwards the next season. A lot of work to be done at Oval Ave if that is to be stopped.

heater31 wrote:

RB wrote:

Sojourner wrote:History shows that WWT chose Woodville over Thebarton and moved the club in that direction

I'm not sure it chose to 'move the club in that direction' as such; I mean, they had to pick one or the other for a base.

Woodville had the better facilities at the time is the reasoning?? Thebarton was tired and needed upgrading for footy.

Back to on field, history shows that the loser of the EF in recent times goes backwards the next season. A lot of work to be done at Oval Ave if that is to be stopped.

As I understand it was because West Torrens owned the clubrooms at Thebarton and were able to sell them, whereas the council owned Woodville's clubrooms. Cash injection could be had by selling West Torrens clubrooms and moving to Woodville.

Anyway, doesn't matter now. Woodville-West Torrens is a new club which will now represent the Woodville and Port Adelaide area and retain the blue and gold colour and name of West Torrens (for now).

I guess it is the price you pay if you decide to merge.

PS. Sojourner - Glenelg also takes half of old West Torrens land. Not just West - which had already taken Thebarton when the last zone was drawn up. I think most accepted Thebarton being moved to West, but losing the Henley area and coast all the way to Trimmer Parade is a bit far removed.

Sojourner wrote:Reflecting on some of the comments here re the Eagles, I would wonder how many times in the last 15 years that they have missed the SANFL finals? I would suspect not very often if not at all! They have been a very strong club over a long period of time not unlike Central District who have also seen success over a similar time span.

WWT still managed to make the finals once again this season and there is no real suggestion that they will not be there next season.

I can understand the frustrations of West Torrens people about the club losing traditional areas to West Adelaide. Yet I put it to you that the SANFL worked hard to ensure that the areas around the SANFL clubs home grounds would be retained. History shows that WWT chose Woodville over Thebarton and moved the club in that direction, along those lines giving WWT traditional Port Adelaide territory makes more sense than allocating it to West Adelaide who have no connection there whereas Woodville very much does.

As for Godden, not many clubs would sack a coach that took their league side into the finals, I suspect that he would be given another season based on this year's performance.

My concern for WWT is not unlike some of the other SANFL clubs and that is the state of the books and how they stand in relation to the promises made to them by the AFC and PAFC in terms of increased income streams? Sacking coaches, getting the best players out of the VFL and so forth comes back to that issue. I hope that WWT have been able to break even this season, I recall that plans to renovate the club and expand the training facilities have been put on hold due to financial issues. It is my observation that this problem if it is a problem is the one that has the potential to do the club real damage as opposed to recruiting and coaching staff.

Good post Sojourner.
Some of the issues that have been raised have been discussed here since Fuller was there, especially speed through the midfield.
Our recruiting over the last couple of years has been "all-in" and to not deliver, especially this year, has to be judged a failure, both on and off field IMO.
Recently we've gone towards the big names in recruiting and recycling average league footballers, whereas before that we seemed to recruit players with better character either from interstate or capable players not getting a league game eg Grocke. This served us and Centrals well, and, to give Fuller his due, is something he tried to bring to South, and it appears to now be bearing results.

Sure, a lot of clubs would have like to have our last 15 years, but it seems to me sometimes clubs live off the memories of certain momentous flags and occasions, eg Sturt's '76 flag up until 2002, Norwood's 1984 flag right up until the last couple of years (even despite their 1997 win), Glenelg back-to-back, the Eagles 1993 flag (which was why finally winning in '06 was great). In all this time Port and Centrals just got on with the business of winning again and again. Our 2011 flag was deservedly recognized as a great win, but we can't live off that day any longer.

Aerie wrote:

heater31 wrote:

RB wrote:

Sojourner wrote:History shows that WWT chose Woodville over Thebarton and moved the club in that direction

I'm not sure it chose to 'move the club in that direction' as such; I mean, they had to pick one or the other for a base.

Woodville had the better facilities at the time is the reasoning?? Thebarton was tired and needed upgrading for footy.

Back to on field, history shows that the loser of the EF in recent times goes backwards the next season. A lot of work to be done at Oval Ave if that is to be stopped.

As I understand it was because West Torrens owned the clubrooms at Thebarton and were able to sell them, whereas the council owned Woodville's clubrooms. Cash injection could be had by selling West Torrens clubrooms and moving to Woodville.

Anyway, doesn't matter now. Woodville-West Torrens is a new club which will now represent the Woodville and Port Adelaide area and retain the blue and gold colour and name of West Torrens (for now).

I guess it is the price you pay if you decide to merge.

PS. Sojourner - Glenelg also takes half of old West Torrens land. Not just West - which had already taken Thebarton when the last zone was drawn up. I think most accepted Thebarton being moved to West, but losing the Henley area and coast all the way to Trimmer Parade is a bit far removed.

The council owned the land but Woodville f.c. owned the building and were debt free up to the marriage with WTFC!

Jackal wrote:I think you will find Boyd has carried O P throughout the year and it got worse
during the latter part of the season.

I understand that he has the same problem he had at South and Centrals.

DOC wrote:

Jackal wrote:I think you will find Boyd has carried O P throughout the year and it got worse
during the latter part of the season.

I understand that he has the same problem he had at South and Centrals.

Egoitis

Bounce of the ball wrote:

DOC wrote:

Jackal wrote:I think you will find Boyd has carried O P throughout the year and it got worse
during the latter part of the season.

I understand that he has the same problem he had at South and Centrals.

Egoitis

Tough to get over that ... Quite debilitating unfortunately

southee wrote:

Bounce of the ball wrote:

DOC wrote:

Jackal wrote:I think you will find Boyd has carried O P throughout the year and it got worse
during the latter part of the season.

I understand that he has the same problem he had at South and Centrals.

Egoitis

Tough to get over that ... Quite debilitating unfortunately

Well Godden's squad has plenty of shrinking violets who are more than happy to clock up league games without being too fussed about results!

He's been playing hurt so I'll back that in as a trait that the Eagles clearly don't have enough of along with LEADERSHIP, Slick Genuine Midfielders and a gamestyle that worries opponents!

Michael Godden, why wasn't one of our younger talls been tried this season after the forever injured Heinjus went down? ( Grocke could play anywhere as the comp standard is so average!)

Why couldn't we come up with an original setup like eg. having Wunke and Allmond setup and STAY at the goalsquare area ALL game? What's the worst that opponents could counter with? 3 onto the 2? If they stay that deep then it's our 16 onto their 15 down the field right?

Sometimes why not flood the halfback line from the centre bounce and have a wave that gets on the ball real quick moving goalwards, rugby style; that's easily practiced without much work.

Ruck Ainger as Bomber is backup material anyhow, and with the amount of marks he drops we are playing without an effective CHF anyway!

Finally, is there anyone at Oval Ave that has the guts to question Godden and his last 3 years? And if there is, have they then the guts to ask questions of him he will absolutely not like but needs to face up to because his prediction of our premiership window being now is so wrong that it clearly shows ( 1 ) his reading of his squad is poor ( 2 ) he's lost that squad ( 3 ) offers the opposition little to worry about ( 4 ) denial re. the midfield the last 3 years has killed off this club's momentum after 2011's Flag triumph

WWTs woes have been well documented in the previous posts....
here is another problem....
..they have 3 players who would command almost 50% of their salary cap
...2 of those players barely train....because they are injured...the dreaded OP
2 of them have had patchy form all season.. ie hot and very cold, not much in between.

personally I think the rest of the playing group have had a gutful lof them and it showed the way they played last week. rant over.

Bring back Ronnie.