Noted that 332 games have been played between these two sides.
But only 67 played at EFTel Oval. I know Perth were based at the WACA for awhile, just interested to know when you moved?

Perth’s traditional home ground was the WACA. We moved to Lathlain Park in 1959 but returned to the WACA for a couple of years in the late 80s ?? I think it was from memory..
Played back at Eftel since.
The club is now 111 years old.

34 - 33 in our Favour isn’t it,Smokey?

Hopefully 35 - 33.We’ve had a slight edge over them in recent times.Like to turn that into a DOMINANCE over our Chief TORMENTER over 100 seasons.

Hope RHYS PALMER doesn’t expect an Easy Ride on Saturday.If I was his OPPONENT,he’d be feeling every tackle from this HARD NOSED ASSASSIN. You’d better rest him Harves.

They will have plenty of youth too, plus McGough, but our fittest, best 22 should do the job. Plenty of others expecting to come into contention later in the year.

Looking forward to the team announcements tomorrow!

GO DEMONS!

The Dog is back in town and can’t wait to take the bitch and pups to the footy again.
Questions to be answered…
Can the Demons cobble together some form of potent forward line capable of taking grabs inside 50?
Once we’ve got it can we kick straight enough to post a winning score? 
Will we see early season fade-outs, costing us matches that haunt us come September?
Has the club grown enough ticker to win all the ‘must wins’ (ie. EP and WP in 2009) and pick up a few prize scalps.
Do we have a ruckman capable of giving us first use of the pill?  How has big Will developed over the summer?
How will the new recruits go?  Have the rest of the list developed enough to improve the team to be competitive against the competition heavy-weights?

Much will be revealed come Saturday.  Bring on the footy.

Go Demons.  End this 33 years of pain.

grassy - 17 March 2010 05:59 PM

34 - 33 in our Favour isn’t it,Smokey?

Hopefully 35 - 33.We’ve had a slight edge over them in recent times.Like to turn that into a DOMINANCE over our Chief TORMENTER over 100 seasons.

Hope RHYS PALMER doesn’t expect an Easy Ride on Saturday.If I was his OPPONENT,he’d be feeling every tackle from this HARD NOSED ASSASSIN. You’d better rest him Harves.

Something like that Grassy - pretty close but EF have the wood on us overall. The Budget on Saturday should confirm.
Still a lot of questions to be answered but I think that we should remain positive and have faith in Jars to develop this group. It may be a work in progress.
Seems like EF may be loaded with AFL players while we may miss out on big Will but should have Smith and Bollenhagan. It is hard to predict what impact AFL players have on the overall stability of the group of 22 who take the field. Hopefully for us the dice will fall our way this week.
I think that we can do ok without Will - Clifford and Kickett can do well enough hopefully to give our midfielders enough ball. If not, Youngy, Army, Cooky, Langy, Elari, Smith and Bollenhagan should find enough ball to put pressure right back onto EF. If Will plays then I think we will be ok.
I would like to see Weazel at FF and Braddock and Rodgers in the final 22. If we have a problem at FB Weazel plays quite tall and can go back when needed. His body strength is a real asset. But I think that we should keep Fergie up forward and Thornton at CHB. and let them settle.
I can’t find a place for Ransted in what looks like a very tall forward line. I would like to fit Florio into the 22 if possible. He is not far away from debuting.
Will be interesting to see where Houghton plays. I do not think that he is ready for league quite yet and hope that the Dockers allow us to bring him along slowly in the ressies.
Whatever, I can’t wait until Saturday.

Good work Smoke, certainly we will have our hands full, this game, and the following 19.

Not too worried about the Sharks AFL’rs, most look like playing for WCE or Freo, or are relatively young like a lot of our guys with only a marginal fitness edge. McGough will make his presence felt most of the day too, but particularly in the hard going at the end!

Kano may get a midfield/wing gig, plus Tendai can be a go to at either end. Until Freddie and Douges are available, apart from Will, most of our talls are untested at League level, but that is what opportunity is all about.

Plenty of grunt with (hopefully), the aquisition of Stanniford, and Braddock surely to be included, and later Spriggah with a few more runs under the belt. Same with Weeze, has done more than enough to be included and kept healthy, will be more than a handfull with just some attention to delivery!

E’nuph........wary of the spies, so no likely line ups.................will leave that to the experts, particlarly the 22 who run out on Saturday!

GO DEMONS!

Why has Sullivan been named in the side when he hasn’t been released to play.
As far as I know.
Even if he is playing, there are no other ruck options in the side. I notice Lindsay is not named for EF so that might not hurt us as much. I’ve never heard of the bloke leading their ruck.

Sharks have named medium tall Lee Steere in the Ruck, in the provisional side released on the WAFL web site. Mind you, taller talls in Griffiths and Young are on the bench, with other talls Warren, Dodd and Weller around the ground.

Surprised Will not released initially, so more surprised he’s now named, certainly needed against Griffiths in the unlucky absence of Clifford, and a bit soon for Kickett. We do have 6 other talls around the Warren size but not renowned Ruck credentials.

Both teams loaded with mid sized & small runners and there will be plenty of running disposals.......essential to hit targets, or at least to the longest contest, better than coming straight back over your head to the guy you just burned off. Sorry, a bit old school!!

Could be as many 6 debutantes for us, from player #1484 on, all are exciting and have earned their spots.

Good Luck to the final 22, and GO DEMONS!

Cheers!

Sorry to sound negative, but little has happened in the last few months to alter the gloomy prognosis I posted a couple of months back. It’s all well and good saying we will go with young home grown players, but you know what that means? Yep, rebuilding. Like it or not, and whether the club admits it or not, we are commencing yet another 3 year plan. There is no way colts players are going to step up straight away, it takes them 2-3 years to find their feet. We have seen that with our players, for example, Siekerka, Lang and Mzungu took at least that long to become consistent players. And by the time they have developed, chances are the likes of Young, Siekerka, Lang, Cook and others will have moved on. Having said that, I do like the philosophy of encouraging home grown players, but we are being unrealistic and frankly unfair to the young players coming through if we expect them to deliver us a finals spot straight up. We still needed another 2 top notch recruits this year. Looking at Bouncedown, in KT and Jones we lost 676 kicks and 186 marks, plus at least 30 goals. I haven’t checked handball stats, but if they had around 150 each, that is a combined 1000 possessions, 50 a game. There is no way Elari, Sneeuwjagt and Humble are going to have anything like that impact in their first year of senior footy.

So going into to the game v EF, we have (in the extended squad) first up or inexperienced WAFL players like Hodge, Humble, Elari, Florio, Warner, Sneeuwjagt and Stanford. We can’t expect too much of them. Then we have players who have yet to prove that they are truly WAFL standard players: Billings, McLernon, Davis (CHF - got to be kidding - I guess that demonstrates starkly our lack of key forward options), and Ransted. Why Ransted isn’t left at FF permanently baffles me. Only 2 years back he had nearly 100 shots at goal. Yes, he goes missing, but we should persevere with him, plus he looks all at sea when he plays elsewhere. Bollenhaven is an unknown quantity and Smith and Will Sullivan still have to show more intensity at WAFL level. We can’t afford another year of Will losing the ruck and returning single figure disposal stats. He has to work a lot harder around the ground and try to look like he cares. We don’t even have the likes of Krueger, Zucconi or Dick to swing into the ruck. So that means we have only 9-10 good, consistent, hardened WAFL players. Of the players due to come in to the side, I think Dene White is unlucky to miss out, Vidot is a good player, and Sprigg will add toughness. But Krueger has produced little over the years (I know he’s been injured) while I’m afraid I can’t see MacDougall having any impact. EF look to have the edge in class tomorrow. I’d love to be proved wrong, but we need colts players to step straight up without missing a beat, we need the solid mid-level guys like Braddock and O’Sullivan to become top tier guys and we need everyone else staying fit and playing to the absolute best of their ability for the whole year. A lot of things have to go right for what is an average and inexperienced squad to have an impact this year and I think finals will prove well beyond us. Most people are tipping a 6-8 finish and I can’t find any reason to disagree with them.

Billy that’s one hell of a pile of negative views all rolled into one. You have even written off players you haven’t even seen yet most likely. We defeated EF both times we played last year and finished above them on the ladder by 1.5 wins and 11%. They have lost many many players and picked up a few. Yes we have lost 3 very good players in KT, Jones and Zucconi but I believe we have a very talented bunch of youngsters ready to step up to league footy.

Most clubs have lost players and ALL clubs blood new youngsters each and every year. I dont know how you come to the conclusion EF look like they have the edge in class. Dalziell and Dodd are 2 handy inclusions but Dalziell with all the talk about his fitness/running ability can’t crack a league game with WC. Ross Young will eat him for breakfast. Troy Cook is very fit and he is not going around again to make up the numbers. To write off your side before the first ball is bounced is showing a complete lack of faith but I suppose only 3 finals appearances in 33 years will do that to some but it’s a new year and there’s no point crying over spilt milk. Give the coach and more importantly these players your support and they wont disappoint. I am sure the fire is in the belly for this player group to prove the critics wrong and I think they just might do that this year.

I also think EF are in a similar boat to us and will be hungry to do well.

but Dalziell with all the talk about his fitness/running ability can’t crack a league game with WC. Ross Young will eat him for breakfast.

we will wait and see DD......considering round 1 of the AFL is next week bit premature there mate

I really can’t see Lee-Steere rucking for long.....from all reports he has done well in the pre season stuff....I reckon Warren, Griffiths and Young will share the duties today.....great to see Perth blood a lot of newbies....should be a good game, both sides look evenly matched thru the midfield.....though I’ll be keen to see how Stevens goes....reports say he is a hard at it youngster who could enjoy mixing it up with Cookiein the middle.....be interested to see how pertyh goes if Young has a quiet one....especially with no Jones and KT as back ups!

Make no mistake that is a damn good side out there, many exciting match ups during the day and should be a ripper in warm conditions. Result even more important as we play Sharks twice more, both away!

Have a look at the Reserves side too, many very unlucky not to be in the first 22 and plenty waiting in the wings, Vidot (hammy), plus a handy few with later starts.

You’re right DD, can hardly wait to see, all 3 games!

GO DEMONS!

Good morning Boys are we all set for another year off footy . 
Sounds like a few of you have got a case of pre game nerves, but thats only passion and thats a good thing , but please BOYS save it for the game .PERTH BY 22 .  SEEYAINTHEPIGPEN .

Watched Dene White play last week i would definately give him a game in the league side before some of the new guys ,the kid had 39 touches last week and doesnt get a look in hope he wont be another player that gets frustrated at not being selected and maybe leaves

staunch - 20 March 2010 11:41 AM

Watched Dene White play last week i would definately give him a game in the league side before some of the new guys ,the kid had 39 touches last week and doesnt get a look in hope he wont be another player that gets frustrated at not being selected and maybe leaves

Dene White is carrying an injury, that is why he wont be in the league side.

We have an excellent forward set up which will be the equal of any in the league with the addition of McDougall in a couple of weeks, I feel that Davis is a bit small for the CHF. Billings isn’t a bad replacement for Zucconi at FB, Ash Thornton is a very talented player who has been working hard to recover from a serious ankle injury and is fitter than ever.

Shame about the negativity on here. Give this team a few games before giving up and spewing venom from the Pig Pen.