Trial Games Results/Updates

Well, what a difference a week makes.

West, under justifiable criticism for a poor performance last week, were never really threatened by last year’s premiers today. After comfortably winning the Reserves trial, with league regulars Birss and Willits dominating, Taite Silverlock getting plenty of the football and Nick Westhoff kicking 4 goals, West repeated the dose in the main game.

Although Parry dominated the hitouts, West took the ball away from the clearances more often than not. Fortunato Caruso, usually a crumbing small forward, played on-ball and was comfortably best on ground. Along with Chris Schmidt, he continually gave West first use more often than not and they had a number of willing helpers. Crows hopeful, Brad Crouch, won the ball inside on many occasions and, although he turned it over a few times, he gave the Bloods an inside presence that had been missing. With Nat Caruso to come back after an outing in the Reserves today, West should improve in this area as the season progresses.

James Ezard, whose form had dropped off towards the end of last year, was his old self, taking the game on and causing damage. Tyson Slattery, whose effort in defence last week had been poor, showed the benefit of a game under his belt to be a dangerous forward, finishing with 4 goals. New Essendon recruit, Michael Still, also took some strong grabs and looked like being a good forward target.

Apologies for this being written from a Bloods point of view, but Eagles fans would justifiably regard this as only a trial and they would be right not to make too many judgements from today’s effort. For them, Grocke was dangerous all day, but didn’t have his kicking boots on.

Some other things noticed during the day was that City Mazda Stadium was in perfect nick and I’d be pretty sure the scoreboard has never been operated by a Hall of Famer and multi Club B & F winner before , as Mark Mickan looked after it today. The only sour note for West was the report of Adam Hartlett for striking and a free kick count which again was heavily against them at 30-15, despite them controlling the game most of the day.

With Brad Fisher to return next week, no doubt along with Ryan Willits, Ben Fisher, Nat Caruso and Shane Birss, the week ahead looks somewhat more promising than it did this time seven days ago.

redandblack wrote:Well, what a difference a week makes.

West, under justifiable criticism for a poor performance last week, were never really threatened by last year’s premiers today. After comfortably winning the Reserves trial, with league regulars Birss and Willits dominating, Taite Silverlock getting plenty of the football and Nick Westhoff kicking 4 goals, West repeated the dose in the main game.

Although Parry dominated the hitouts, West took the ball away from the clearances more often than not. Fortunato Caruso, usually a crumbing small forward, played on-ball and was comfortably best on ground. Along with Chris Schmidt, he continually gave West first use more often than not and they had a number of willing helpers. Crows hopeful, Brad Crouch, won the ball inside on many occasions and, although he turned it over a few times, he gave the Bloods an inside presence that had been missing. With Nat Caruso to come back after an outing in the Reserves today, West should improve in this area as the season progresses.

James Ezard, whose form had dropped off towards the end of last year, was his old self, taking the game on and causing damage. Tyson Slattery, whose effort in defence last week had been poor, showed the benefit of a game under his belt to be a dangerous forward, finishing with 4 goals. New Essendon recruit, Michael Still, also took some strong grabs and looked like being a good forward target.

Apologies for this being written from a Bloods point of view, but Eagles fans would justifiably regard this as only a trial and they would be right not to make too many judgements from today’s effort. For them, Grocke was dangerous all day, but didn’t have his kicking boots on.

Some other things noticed during the day was that City Mazda Stadium was in perfect nick and I’d be pretty sure the scoreboard has never been operated by a Hall of Famer and multi Club B & F winner before , as Mark Mickan looked after it today. The only sour note for West was the report of Adam Hartlett for striking and a free kick count which again was heavily against them at 30-15, despite them controlling the game most of the day.

With Brad Fisher to return next week, no doubt along with Ryan Willits, Ben Fisher, Nat Caruso and Shane Birss, the week ahead looks somewhat more promising than it did this time seven days ago.

Cant argue with what RED and Black wrote .Think both Bock(he started as number1 ruck again today) and Parry won the hit outs .Like last week this week number 1 on ballers started off the ground or in other spots .
Think both seconds and league had spiteful moments .Starting with number 24 for west in the seconds sitting on Byron Sumner and landing punch after punch. Why none of the six umpires could take control today is beyond me .Eagles weren't blameless either, so no one one get up in arms .
My 2 questions for my westies mates why have that useless scoreboard , did they see u coming.You cant sugar coat it or hide the fact guys .It was said the insides were older than what was told to the club!!
Second and more importantly why FLOOD.You guys had the eagles on toast but your entire team swarmed into the Eagles forward line .Why ?

Thankfully it was a trial game in march !!!

PS
Dont get excited over beating the Eagles seconds different year but the same result .Just watch number 27 he should be in the league team shortly kicked most of the score.

Courtesy of Baldy on Redlegs forum...End of 3rd Qtr

Nwd 71 SA 51

Regards
JAS

Final score courtesy of a post on the Legs FB page...

NFC 14.9.93, SAFC 9.4.58

Regards
JAS

A very entertaining game at Kilburn today. The oval was in good nick, well up to league standard and both sides looked to play open. attacking footy. 18 goals each speaks for itself. I was impressed with the way North ran the ball from defence and through the midfield. They looked sharper, perhaps from having a run last week. From a Sturt perspective, we were happy with the way our boys kept at it and were able to fight back and take the game up to North. Some of the things that Maloney is working on came up OK. Others still need work. But overall It was an acceptable first hit out for us. Better players for Sturt as I saw them. Thomson, Kurtze, Anderson, Fraser Evans, Jenkins, Littler, Miles, Boyle.

watched the first three quarters of the North v Sturt match today & both teams used it as a trial, the first term was played at great speed with tenacious play from both teams, after the first term north runners got on top, north forwards did play a lot of the time behind their opponents although Boras was very good (i reckon he kicked at least 5) i didn't have a sheet with the players names but number 18 (tall lad) for north was good as was Gallman, Ryswyck & Alleway played well given what he's gone through over the summer & he was first up for a while, as for Sturt i thought number 4 had a good game, 41 bobbed up as did 3 or 4 others, Slick played a half in the twos as he had a prior engagement....considering North had about 6 or 7 first pick players out they could be the dark horse this year, as for Sturt i don't think they'll be as bad as some people think

I endorse everything that bayman has just said except to add that Sturt were missing even more regular players than North.

How did Mason Middleton go yesterday R&B?

He's playing in the Under 18's at City Mazda in an hour or so, Phil.

I'll be off shortly to watch him.

PS: You wouldn't have recognised Westies yesterdy from the side you saw last week

Maggies looked great should be the big improvers in 2012. Dominated centrals ruck and gave our midfielders first use of the footy all day.
How many times did we hit the post yesterday ???

Millsy wrote:Maggies looked great should be the big improvers in 2012. Dominated centrals ruck and gave our midfielders first use of the footy all day.
How many times did we hit the post yesterday ?

Could be the real deal I think

therealROSSCO wrote:

Millsy wrote:Maggies looked great should be the big improvers in 2012. Dominated centrals ruck and gave our midfielders first use of the footy all day.
How many times did we hit the post yesterday ?

Could be the real deal I think

Come on people, some perspective please. Round 1 last season, West Adelaide belted Central District in a game for premiership points, and look how things ended up. This was a trial game, nothing more, nothing less. If Port Adelaide are going places, they need to prove it in premiership matches, not trial games.

True, but I won't be tipping against them

Adelaide Hawk wrote:

therealROSSCO wrote:

Millsy wrote:Maggies looked great should be the big improvers in 2012. Dominated centrals ruck and gave our midfielders first use of the footy all day.
How many times did we hit the post yesterday ?

Could be the real deal I think

Come on people, some perspective please. Round 1 last season, West Adelaide belted Central District in a game for premiership points, and look how things ended up. This was a trial game, nothing more, nothing less. If Port Adelaide are going places, they need to prove it in premiership matches, not trial games.

Round 2 actually, but agreed.

Eagles U16s def West u16s
Eagles u18s def West u18s

Ewok wrote:Only a trial but from what I saw in the last qtr of the ressies and first half of the league Port looked 5 wks further along in their season development. Better drilled,looked fitterand played with some system,West flooded which made it hard for their forwards when they spent a fair chunk of their time up on the wing and didn't appear to have much idea on what to do coming out of their backline. West appeared to lack spirit/interest in the contest and were very disappointing,but with half their team missing it's a big hard to judge too much at this early stage. Looks like the maggies may have picked up a pretty useful full forward in Wilson, and if they use Thurgood as their lead up forward as they did today and have Harder and a resting ruckman up forward they could cause some teams a few headaches.The surface at Alberton was in superb nick,better than I've seen in a long time.

Nearly a carbon copy of last week, the maggies looked a million dollars and the opposition looked very poor. But as with last week half the side was missing so still far to early to make any real judgement. If he could continue last years form this season, and if his trial game form so far is anything to go by he will, Luke Harder is in for a very big year. He's a cracker of a player, hard,tough and takes a good grab.If the maggies do improve as most think they might he may well end up in the top few come Magarey night

I agree about Harder, he's a top player.

On the West 'flooding' issue, it's interesting that they kicked 15.12 yesterday with a better team than the week before.

Last season they kicked some big scores early in the season, then really struggled when they lost several players.

I think the evidence is mounting that my theory that flooding isn't pre-planned, but merely a reflection of how the game is going, isn't far off the mark.

as much a i love the Port Magpies trial match results i think its a little early for me to get excited, from what i hear the dogs had most of their regular side out and Ports where pretty much at full strength (or close to it)...but still i think they will push a lot of sides this season and im hoping they can win 10 - 12 games and even sneak into the top five............from what i read the club will be very disappointed if they dont.......

full credit to them they have really started to rebuild (from the situation a couple of seasons ago) not only attracted what appear to be some quality recruits but have also picked up some good coaching staff including Beinke, Paul Evans, Brett Chalmers and Brian Leys (in a off field management role)...the signs are good but proof will be in the pudding............

It might only be trial games but I think Port has recruited very well. Thye seemed to have recruited players to cover some of their deffiencies.

Players such as Wilson, Cockshell, McKenzie & Achee are all handy plaers that will see Port pushing for a finals berth

agreed Lachlan and throw in the other two recruits Brain and Haren....things are starting to look better......

Haren is a Port Junior before being picked up as a rookie, so hardly a recruit.

He's still a recruit if he wasn't at the Magpies in 2011 which was the case.

Does any Port follower know the extent of Oliver Tweeddale's injury.

It didn't look good.

He trained a few times with Westies.

MightyEagles wrote:Haren is a Port Junior before being picked up as a rookie, so hardly a recruit.

So then Sumner and Harding aren't recruits for your mob either than, yeah?

FOOTYfollower wrote:He's still a recruit if he wasn't at the Magpies in 2011 which was the case.

Spot on he spent a season or two with Sydney Swans and has been recruited back to Port Magpies, therefore that make him a recruit...