2025 Season The Preparation

Titan2 wrote:For anyone feeling a bit of nostalgic watch Luke Beecken doing what he does best in Brisbane's VFL final today.

https://x.com/VFL/status/1832290248522338494?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1832290248522338494%7Ctwgr%5E320a3d329e38f49a0b80241dfaa79a00a991d574%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.afl.com.au%2F

When you think we had a player like him regularly doing these kind of things for us in the first half of the season it's no wonder our team was able to slot some early wins. His absence in the second half the season was sorely felt.

"Titan2" it makes you cry watching Beecken's dash.
The turnover within teams nowadays is incredible (never used to happen in the old days).
It was amazing we could manage to hold enough good players and go back to back (20 & 21)

I'm praying we can get some long termers out of this group of U18s.

Charlie West hasn't had a great finals series so let's hope he doesn't get drafted.
Surely with Weckert, Cooke, Wheare, West, Ballenden, Boyd and Lukac we can find a bit of tall fire power.

We urgently need runners in the league team. Jet Hasting and Harry Dodd are good runners and Kade Herbert works hard all over the ground.

Just saw some stats for Mitch Hardie. In the VFL he has averaged 29.5 disposals, 6.2 clearances and 5.2 tackles in his 17 VFL games. He also kicked 12 goals.

Wimpy, In your post above ".....Surely with Weckert (named 5 others).... find some tall fire power". I suggest only 3 of your 6 named may offer that and we do need to recruit, at least, one tall forward "firepower".

Premiers wrote:Wimpy,   In your post above ".....Surely with Weckert (named 5 others).... find some tall fire power".  I suggest only 3 of your 6 named may offer that and we do need to recruit, at least, one tall forward "firepower".

Three out of six is a start.
I thought Boyd in the reserves yesterday was very poor, I just can't see him making it at league level.
U18's full forward Jack Gray looked interesting, 4 goals five behinds. Strong body work and good hands but boy oh boy his kicking was very indifferent, he most probably doesn't fall in to your category of players with a chance to make it at league level because of his kicking.

Correct about Jack Gray. At 185cm, with no athletic leap, he's going to be too short for a league full forward spot. Then, re a "small" forward pocket, poor kicking sadly might rule him out. And he plays FF in the U18s as a focal marking option rather than a speedy, crumbed so doubts whether he could make the transition - I hope he can. I recall Josh Morris was a gun FF in the U18s but at 187cm and Hawthorn recruited him with the intention of developing him into a HFflanker which failed - he remained too much of a leadup only flanker from his FF habits.

I see Centrals got done by Norwood by 59 points today.

Centrals proved to be a 2 goal better side than us during the season.

So maybe our 75 points belting to Norwood the other week was as expected

wimpy wrote:

Premiers wrote:Wimpy,   In your post above ".....Surely with Weckert (named 5 others).... find some tall fire power".  I suggest only 3 of your 6 named may offer that and we do need to recruit, at least, one tall forward "firepower".

Three out of six is a start.
I thought Boyd in the reserves yesterday was very poor, I just can't see him making it at league level.
U18's full forward Jack Gray looked interesting, 4 goals five behinds. Strong body work and good hands but boy oh boy his kicking was very indifferent, he most probably doesn't fall in to your category of players with a chance to make it at league level because of his kicking.

Cooke looked ok as well I thought.

Aerie wrote:

wimpy wrote:

Premiers wrote:Wimpy,   In your post above ".....Surely with Weckert (named 5 others).... find some tall fire power".  I suggest only 3 of your 6 named may offer that and we do need to recruit, at least, one tall forward "firepower".

Three out of six is a start.
I thought Boyd in the reserves yesterday was very poor, I just can't see him making it at league level.
U18's full forward Jack Gray looked interesting, 4 goals five behinds. Strong body work and good hands but boy oh boy his kicking was very indifferent, he most probably doesn't fall in to your category of players with a chance to make it at league level because of his kicking.

Cooke looked ok as well I thought.

You are right "Aerie" Cooke is one of my favourites, had him on my list, just forgot to include him. Thanks.

I thought will Pearse played very well in the reserves hopefully he could have a good preseason and push for a league return next year he played as a on baller. Lukac played very well to if he keeps fit he will be a straight in for redden. we will have to recruit a tall defender for Thompson I was hoping for Bruce to replace him but he is retiring a key forward to replace Menzel will be good to but would love to see Boyd have a big preseason and be fit next year he was starting to show something to the end of the year he didn’t have a preseason really as he had back surgery

As expected, the Club has now advised that Josh Morris is moving to Melbourne to be closer to his Partner. Pity, he showed a lot for us this year.
Also Josh Mawson and maybe this is why he couldn't cement a league berth this year despite showing enough in my opinion, maybe he flagged it early like Ryan Bruce did and wasn't selected for this reason.

Looks like we'll have our usual high rate of movement again this year (like most SANFL Clubs nowadays).
7 so far and 4 of which played in our last game :

1. Goldy
2. Thomo
3. Reddo
4. Bruce
5. McFarlane
6. Morris
7. Mawson

Will Knight continue on or will he be Number 8 ??????

I would say the BS about sauce on SA footy isn’t happening 
He didn’t get a bite from any eagles fans

Mickyj wrote:I would say the BS about sauce on SA footy isn’t happening 
He didn’t get a bite from any eagles fans

AM Bays or Spargo - both are Dick Heads.
Silence from the Eagles fans would be killing them.
I've stopped using SA Footy for this reason. Waste of time.

The Barton wrote:

Mickyj wrote:I would say the BS about sauce on SA footy isn’t happening 
He didn’t get a bite from any eagles fans

AM Bays or Spargo - both are Dick Heads.
Silence from the Eagles fans would be killing them.
I've stopped using SA Footy for this reason. Waste of time.

Agree with you "The Barton" I don't post on "SA Footy" anymore.
You got it in one with the two biggest dickheads.

wimpy wrote:

The Barton wrote:

Mickyj wrote:I would say the BS about sauce on SA footy isn’t happening 
He didn’t get a bite from any eagles fans

AM Bays or Spargo - both are Dick Heads.
Silence from the Eagles fans would be killing them.
I've stopped using SA Footy for this reason. Waste of time.

Agree with you "The Barton" I don't post on "SA Footy" anymore.
You got it in one with the two biggest dickheads.

Actually I’m with both of you on this one haven’t posted much at all on there this season .
Posted even less on talking footy another Glenelg fan would attack me on every post so thought not worth it

I believe the Eagles have spoken to a Glenelg player whose father played for the Eagles (not Stretch).

wimpy wrote:I believe the Eagles have spoken to a Glenelg player whose father played for the Eagles (not Stretch).

I believe scouring other SANFL Clubs for players is a key element of our recruitment strategy for 2025.

Will this give us anything better than we've currently got though?
We'd be looking to target players like Jordan Moore who was languishing in Glenelg's reserves.
Kobe Ryan from Westies would be nice !

wimpy wrote:I believe the Eagles have spoken to a Glenelg player whose father played for the Eagles (not Stretch).

Campo x 2 ? If not drafted?

If it's the one I'm thinking of, I'm not getting overly excited.
No better than what we've currently got, but he will add some depth that we badly need.

The Barton wrote:If it's the one I'm thinking of, I'm not getting overly excited.
No better than what we've currently got, but he will add some depth that we badly need.

You've most probably latched on to the one.

It's going to be hard to extract any good players from other league clubs. I'd be looking at some of the top up players at the crows and power.

Until names are known it’s hard to judge who we might be looking at.

But generally players who are plugging away in the Reserves for other clubs are there for a reason i.e. they are not at the standard required. Recruiting such players should be rare and exceptional because very rarely do these players excel and suddenly become capable League players simply by moving clubs. From the Eagles perspective, the only player I can recall in the last 15 years who successfully made the transition was Lewis when he switched from the Bays to the Eagles. Moore has been ok in his first season but I think the jury is still out.

I would much rather the Club focus on giving opportunities to our juniors aged 17-20 years who potentially have some upside (even if not showing it quite at this moment) rather than bringing in players aged 21+ from the Reserves of other clubs who have been plugging away for 3-4 years and have no growth left.

If this results in our Reserves getting belted from time-to-time due to the youthfulness in our team then I am willing to cop it. No point in our Reserves making the finals regularly if the team isn’t carrying anyone with promise to become regular League players. The absolute worse outcome is if these players we bring across just become list cloggers in the Reserves.

From my perspective, we have 22 players in our U18s team who are playing in the Grand Final on Sunday. 1-2 of these players will probably get drafted next year and won’t be with us. Perhaps a ¼ of the team are under-agers who will still be eligible for U18s next season. So that’s approximately 15 players from our U18s team on Sunday who will still be available to our club and should be playing Reserves next season (if not higher) on account of their potential. If you were to throw in Lukac, Pearce (maybe Boyd on reputation only) who were in the Reserves that’s a starting Reserves team of 18 for next season. On top of that, add a couple of additional kids from the Country leagues to round the squad off. This gives you an idea of the huge List turnover from a Reserves perspective that is needed.

I didn't see much of the reserves this season but did watch the last 2 reserves games and thought that Wollogorang showed a bit and has pace which is rare at the eagles these days. Skill level looked good as well.

MichaelScott wrote:I didn't see much of the reserves this season but did watch the last 2 reserves games and thought that Wollogorang showed a bit and has pace which is rare at the eagles these days. Skill level looked good as well.

Whybother will have heard me say I think ( Headfan maybe to ) this player should or could play on the wing .
I could be wrong though

He's definitely improved since I first saw him in the under 18's. Could go okay on the wing or that quick back pocket player that we don't have. I'd give him a go straight up in the trials nest year.

MichaelScott wrote:He's definitely improved since I first saw him in the under 18's. Could go okay on the wing or that quick back pocket player that we don't have. I'd give him a go straight up in the trials nest year.

We have nothing to lose if we do I think he’s improved since his knee or leg injury.

MichaelScott wrote:I didn't see much of the reserves this season but did watch the last 2 reserves games and thought that Wollogorang showed a bit and has pace which is rare at the eagles these days. Skill level looked good as well.

Mish has been around a few years now.
He played all but 1 game this season and whilst he isn't a big accumulator of possessions playing in the back pocket, his disposal is generally pretty good and he does alot of stuff that probably goes unnoticed. His is big upside is that he runs all day...quickly, he strikes me as the type of player that Ron Fuller would have plucked from obscurity for a big game during his time. (a'la Scott Freeborn, Chris Martin, Matty Stokes).

I think the following players are all worth hanging on to also.
Jordan Tilbrook
Bailey Arthur
Noah Angove (92% efficiency for the season)
Callum Fairall
Isacc McGrath
Brody Mair
Patrick Toole
Deakan Jackson (played 19 games this year after a couple of years wrecked by injury, was playing some good footy towards the end of the season also has a bit of pace)
Jack Boyd (ruckmen don't grow on trees)

Sad to see Brucey go, never got back to his best after the suspension after the game at Richmond last year.