2020 West Adelaide chat

Post away for all things Bloods here.

The lack of recruiting at our club for season 2020 is alarming.
From our 2019 squad we lost a heap of players including -
Snelling, Beech, Noble, Burgess, Schmidt, Middleton, Wasley- Black and Bates amongst others.
We have yet to sign ONE A grade player for 2020.
As a member of the club, I am really disappointed like many.

Burgess was drafted the year before but I agree with your point. Hard to see where our improvement is going to come from.

Wolf Pack

I agree with you 100% our recruiting has been extremely disappointing given we had a significant amount of money in our salary.
I think it’s going to be a very long season.

Because of a disgraceful zone allocation until 2 years ago, there are few juniors coming through.

Add the SANFL salary cap restriction, a masterpiece of bureaucratic stupidity, which 'saved' $40K and cost vastly more than that, West are in some difficulty.

The players and coaches will give everything they've got, but the salary cap issue has cost us 3 - 5 good players and that takes time to catch up.

I understand the difficulties the club has had BUT I still cannot believe that we couldn’t find one or two A grade recruits.
Let’s be honest, I could count on one hand the amount of West players that would get a game at another SANFL club.
I’m sure the players will give everything but the reality is we are destined to finish last again.
As I’ve said before, the club wants us to pay our membership fees, spend money at the club etc etc but they have failed to give supporters any hope for 2020.

I feel for West's plight from all of these conspiring injustices.
Would a rough guesstimation be that it has set things back 3-5 years in terms of the ability at a proper tilt at the flag?

And we would be somewhere about 3 years into that maybe?

I honestly don't know how all the clubs continue plugging their faith in the sanfl administration. The only thing that keeps them quiet is the promise of continued dollars all to allow the wheels to keep rolling.

Can anyone mount a case that the sanfl has any ideas about how to promote a fair, impartial and positive product for the good of footy in SA?

I've dealt at close hand with the SANFL, Chambo.

There are a lot of good people there, but at the top level I can't mount a case at all to answer your last sentence.

Your second last sentence is correct.

Your third last sentence is answered by saying most of the clubs have no faith in the SANFL, IMO.

You have to question if West Adelaide really want the AFLW matches at Hisense Stadium this season.

I went to the AFLW trial match yesterday, and they had one canteen open that was only selling drinks, with patrons directed to the bistro for food, who were only selling toasted sandwiches. I get that it's a trial match, so I understand that you would provide limited catering accordingly, but to provide pretty much nothing for the spectators is unprofessional. A mate that came to the game opted against stopping somewhere on the way for breakfast so he could get something at the ground (and in turn, investing in a local club). He ended up going to Vili's after lunch because of the lack of catering at the ground.

They also had no scoreboard operating, and did not provide access to the timekeepers room, resulting in the Crows having to provide an air horn for the game.

It was a very poor first impression the club gave AFLW fans, and I hope they lift their game for the 3 AFLW matches they'll have. If they don't want the matches, I'm sure there will be plenty of other clubs who'll gladly have the matches.

West Adelaide's catering efforts for AFLW matches continues to be farcical.

Yesterday, the kiosk and BBQ were opened, but the club forgot to provide tills for the outlets, resulting in the BBQ operating cash only and the kiosk to delay trading.  Thankfully the AFC have provided a number of external caterers.

I hate to say this, but I hope Hisense Stadium never hosts AFLW matches in future seasons following the poor spectator experience West Adelaide have provided fans this AFLW season.

The BBQ and Canteen has always been Cash only

Thiele wrote:The BBQ and Canteen has always been Cash only

They took EFTPOS last season, and in the first AFLW match this season (and the canteen took EFTPOS once yesterday once they got their till).

Brucetiki wrote: Thankfully the AFC have provided a number of external caterers.

Hi mate and thanks for feedback on EFTPOS as I was not aware that it was available in the BBQ or Kiosk and am very pleased to hear this as I rarely carry cash in my pockets.

Part of your comment quoted above is not correct as the AFC aren't involved in the catering at all rather I believe the external caterers are/were provided as part of the Westies catering plan for the occasion.

Given that both the BBQ & Kiosk staff open well before the bulk of the crowd arrives and I presume identified very quickly that they did not have a till then they would have chased this up with the relevant club person.

So my question is how long did this remediation take? I was not there but does any one know how long. While a mistake obviously, perhaps a storm in a tea cup

I attended the AC V CA match and arrived just after half time
It is the first AFLW game Ive attended

My observations
First thing I noticed was that the ground was in magnificent condition
I walked around the oval twice, trying to find someone I knew
To my surprise not one person
That prob meant a new era of different people attending these matches
What I did notice is the amount of young kids that attended
It was certainly unusual too hear a few young girls barracking in a vociferous manner
There were kids sections with amusements
There was a wheelchair only section
There seemed to be enough vans and food outlets from what I saw
There were people lined up at the BBQ outlet
I didnt eat , but the BBQ at Richmond Oval is perhaps the best when I attend SANFL matches

It was a great atmosphere and it was announced that 7,000+ people had attended
Post match the oval was full of boys/girls/men/women having a kick
There certainly was an abundance of young girls having a dob

From what I observed, Richmond Oval is definitely an excellent venue to stage these games

Why has it taken so long for a womens national football league ?
It would have been nice to have this comp starting about 40 years ago , when I was a young single bloke ...

Scrappy wrote:It would have been nice to have this comp starting about 40 years ago , when I was a young single bloke ...

That might be why they held off ...

Scrappy wrote:I attended the AC V CA match and arrived just after half time
It is the first AFLW game Ive attended

My observations
First thing I noticed  was that the ground was in magnificent condition
I walked around the oval twice, trying to find someone I knew
To my surprise not one person
That prob meant a new era of different people attending these matches
What I did notice is the amount of young kids that attended
It was certainly unusual too hear a few young girls barracking in a vociferous manner
There were kids sections with amusements
There was a wheelchair only section
There seemed to be enough vans and food outlets from what I saw
There were people lined up at the BBQ outlet
I didnt eat , but the BBQ at Richmond Oval is perhaps the best when I attend SANFL matches

It was a great atmosphere and it was announced that 7,000+ people had attended
Post match the oval was full of boys/girls/men/women having a kick
There certainly was an abundance of young girls having a dob

From what I observed, Richmond Oval is definitely an excellent  venue to stage these games

Why has it taken so long for a womens national football league ?
It would have been nice to have this comp starting about 40 years ago , when I was a young single bloke ...

I have considered going to watch the AFLW at Richmond oval
Being a local the biggest down is car parking .
Cars started parking out the front of Richmond oval at 8.30
My street next to the oval was full up by 10 to 10.30
And the cars were stretched to the west Torrens library
I’d assume some would’ve parked at the home maker centre and walked across south road.
Other than the car parking I couldn’t see any other issues

I haven't been and I won't go because of parking
I'm a member of the club and I am not allowed to use the members carpark
Bit rough on members