FootyGoss :: All the Latest AFL and WAFL Breaking News

A plan for Peel in 2012

by Brendan Leicester

DESPITE suffering their sixth loss by 100-points or more this season, Peel Thunder football manager Marty Atkins believes the club will be a WAFL frontrunner in the next couple of years.

The Mandurah based club, which has never made a finals appearance since joining the league in 1997 is on the brink of receiving its seventh wooden spoon in 13-years.

However, Atkins sees light at the end of the tunnel, with plenty of emerging talent and a “great coach” in Trevor Williams to carry them through for the next few seasons.

“Make no mistake, we’ll be pushing to play finals by 2012,” he said.

“When we look to the future it’ll be the young guys like Chris Luff, Rhett Mason, Bradley Holmes, Brodie Filo and Jacob Williams that can help us to our first finals campaign.”

But Peel’s 124-point loss to West Perth last Saturday at Arena Joondalup reaffirmed the club’s status as the whipping boys of the competition.

“You’ve got to wonder about Peel’s willingness to play away from Rushton Park,” South Fremantle premiership midfielder Kris Miller said on SportFM yesterday.

“I think clubs are now starting to feel that if they only beat them by 40-points, then they might believe they let slip a chance for a percentage booster.”

Ironically, the last time the ‘Dogs played Peel they won by 30-points.

Peel seemed to switch off midway through the first quarter, allowing West Perth to kick eight unanswered goals to end the term, before letting the Falcons notch up the tonne in the second.

“Trevor spoke to the boys at half-time, and basically spelled it out that (both) our performance and the amount we were losing by was unacceptable,” Atkins said.

“If you come down to Peel and watch us train, you wouldn’t know that we’re getting beaten so badly, we’ve still got good numbers on the track and they understand where we’re at and what we’re trying to build.”

Atkins also pointed out the amount of experience was lacking, particularly in the forward line.

“The game against the Sharks they had Spangher, Green and Dodd running around in the backline, and had a combined total of 549 games of AFL slash WAFL experience, but the six blokes they were playing on had 19.”

A win against East Perth at Bendigo Bank Stadium on Sunday will lift Peel off the bottom of the ladder, but they will have to do it without talented forward Bradley Holmes.

The 21-year-old was ruled out for the rest of the season with a hamstring injury.

Meanwhile, reliable on-baller Brendon Jones was sent for scans today to determine the extent of his pelvis/hamstring problem, which forced him to withdraw from the game against West Perth.

" alt="Article image" />