Elimination Final Glenelg v Eagles Sunday 1st September

Goddsy11 wrote:

whybother wrote:Maybe hedging bets. Put class player in U18s to maybe get a win to advance?

I wonder if Welsh was available as the Crows are not playing.

I mentioned this sometime ago, but the Crows would be trying to protect what they think is their property.

Eagles poorly rewarded by the Crows/SANFL/AFL for loosing Welsh for the entire season.
I think the Eagles got !0 Grand.

Gazz wrote:As most of us were originally a West Torrens or Woodville supporter and finals were scarce let's get along and support the lads. Finals are never a given and we have proved more than capable in patches this season. If we can string some patches together we'll be right. Go Eagles!

Great post. I'm sure both team supporters would not have seen as much success if it had remained as it was.
I'm very happy to have seen the success the Eagles have had.
A WT barracker for 31 years an Eagles barracker for 34 years.

Any news on when the 2nd lot of engraved bricks are being put on the northern stand?? Was meant to be completed by 2nd round this year. $250 per brick and contributors still waiting.

Anyone know who is kicking with wind in 2nd quarter U18??

McFarlane, Menzel and Mawson in the reserves.

U18s won by 3 pts

Sturt 13.2. Eags 12.10

Goddsy11 wrote:Some impressive players in the U18's. Cook is a ball magnet. I think it was the ruckman Hansen. He had a good match up with the Sturt ruckman Dodson who expected a 1st round draft pick.

Was Philippou injured early?

I thought Dodson clearly outrucked Hansen through out the match (32 hit outs - 14). Sturt's centre clearances hurt us.
To his credit when the match was on the line in the last 10 minutes Hansen got three very important hit outs to set us up.
Eagles appeared to be clearly the better team throughout but couldn't put it out of reach. Poor kicking for goal kept Sturt in the game along with their exceptionally good goal kicking. Eventually our team work and weight of possessions overcame Sturt. Jack Cook was excellent at half back, Jett Hasting, Harry Dodd and Kade Herbert were very good contributors.

And now for the League to make it 3 out of 3

As I write this from Adelaide Oval we are 49 points down. Our lack of skill and system over the last couple of months is clearly on display. But the lack of genuine fight is what disappoints most

Bunch of dead set c graders...if scrubs like firns buck and nicolls are still playing next year this club is done

Mickyj wrote:I will admit I left early that was absolutely crap .
I dunno if it’s Jacob’s coaching 
Or lack of decent players

His game plan revolves around an unaccountable attacking style which doesn't work when you have players that are slow and have limited ability

Understand Mickyj but in all my years as a Woodville and Woodville-West Torrens supporter I have never left early.It was also an opportunity to see Thompson, Goldsworthy and Redden walk off for the last time. Thank you lads- 8 premierships between them I think

At least there are the 2020 and 2021 GFs to watch over the break. But those teams were full of class players.

Match played out much like every match (aside from the South anomaly) the past 2 months.

Probably pretty timely as the margins are blowing out with each match.

There can be no question that our team in Round 1 2025 is going to look very different from today. Some forced by retirements whilst Jacob's coaching future will depend on pruning at least a quarter of the remainder who Jacobs gave more chances than most and demonstrated they aren't up to scratch. No point naming them - we all know who these are. Obviously, the three loyal servants won't be there - Goldy, Redden, Thommo. I also heard on the grapevine that Morris won't be there either as he is heading back to Melbourne although I would need someone to confirm this.

So difficult times ahead.

With very good reason it's very easy to get negative at the dark times ahead for the club so I've been looking for positives.

- Fleeton was a very good pickup. He's not the matchwinner our club is crying out for but was solid all year.
- Moore - a bargain pickup. Again ,I had zero expectations for him and there were certainly games were he was well beaten but I thought he handled himself at this level quite well including being perhaps amongst our better players today with his job on McBean.
- Williams - became a more consistent player. Not sure how much growth he has left though so it will be important the club surround him with some blue chip mids to allow him to settle as a mid-tier player.
- D'Aloia - Had a mixed season. A sensational first half and very poor second half of the season. It's easy to fixate on his drop off in form but then I think the bloke is only 20 years old and was become our main midfielder at times. Hopefully he can get fitter over pre-season and the club can surround him with at least two quality mids.
- Ballenden - Basically carried out forward line all season which is difficult given the poor entries we dished out all season. If he could reliably hold those mark's he'd probably be playing AFL so I guess we just have to accept this and be glad we've got him.
- Mackay - a decent enough pickup but similar comments to D'Aloia. Needs to get fitter if he is going to play onball.
- The U18s team - by all accounts there seems to be 6-7 players who at times have shown enough to show they have the potential to be very good long term players at the club. The club will need to balance giving them opportunities in the senior team with stacking too many of them in at once which will affect the team physicality.

So what do we need

1. A ruckman to come into our team immediately and produce from Round 1 (no development kids)
2. A key forward to partner Ballenden
3. A key defender who not only has height but has a big frame to stand his ground (Moore and Fleeton don't have the weight and struggle against the stronger key fowards)
4. 2 quality mids who are ready to go Round 1. Knights has said he's hoping to go around again but he's not the player he was. Sinor is the heart and soul of the club but he's not damaging. D'Aloia isn't ready to carry the workload. Rowe isn't able to play well as a pure midfielder but excels in hybrid mid/forward role

It might be mission impossible but if we can get the above and surround them with elevated U18s then we might be half a chance to rebound next season.

The only more disheartening finals game that I can remember was the 19th man final.

Well summarised Titan2. Astute comments.
Sauce offers promise provided:
. He has the cattle,
. Incorporates a Plan B and C, and
. Makes moves in real time in games.
It’s been said that the bottom 6 of our match day team are not league standard. We must recruit well to reduce this number to 1 or 2 at most.
We cannot rely on our great U18s to dominate at league level. If we do, we will end no higher than 5th or 6th each year. We are becoming a feeder club to the avaricious AFL machine.
We need to recruit a strong Fullback (a Jason Spehr type), a dominant Full Foward (a Michael Wundke type), 2-3 smart midfielders, a seasoned fool-proof Ruckman and 1 reliable HBF.
Spend accordingly or we’ll end up again with players who spend 50% of their time in the league and 50% in the Resies.
The SANFL is our world! We need to recruit and play with that in mind. We want to be the best in the SANFL and win the Thomas Seymour Hill trophy each year.
Enough of this 2nd rate approach!

Headfan wrote:Well summarised Titan2. Astute comments.
Sauce offers promise provided:
. He has the cattle,
. Incorporates a Plan B and C, and
. Makes moves in real time in games.
It’s been said that the bottom 6 of our match day team are not league standard.   We must recruit well to reduce this number to 1 or 2 at most.
We cannot rely on our great U18s to dominate at league level.  If we do, we will end no higher than 5th or 6th each year.  We are becoming a feeder club to the avaricious AFL machine.
We need to recruit a strong Fullback (a Jason Spehr type), a dominant Full Foward (a Michael Wundke type), 2-3 smart midfielders, a seasoned fool-proof Ruckman and 1 reliable HBF.
Spend accordingly or we’ll end up again with players who spend 50% of their time in the league and 50% in the Resies.
The SANFL is our world!  We need to recruit and play with that in mind. We want to be the best in the SANFL and win the Thomas Seymour Hill trophy each year.
Enough of this 2nd rate approach!

Good comments by Titan and Headfan.

It's interesting comments re having winning the SANFL premiership the number one priority. I agree this is what is needed from the senior football department, coach, players etc. A plan and then a buy in.

Fuller was old school SANFL, Godden was old school with a modern coaching approach, Sheedy was a modern SANFL great with a modern coaching approach. There was respect there for what the SANFL competition is. The outlier was season 2019 under Lonergan.

Jacobs last game of SANFL was that awful semi-final loss to Central in 2006. He'd shown a bit of promise that season with some games at league level, but was young and raw and got shown up in that final, and was dropped. He dropped out of the Crows SANFL Finals push when he knew he was leaving the Crows and signing with GWS. He was a very good AFL ruckman and a career player. I'd imagine he'd like to be a career coach.

The Eagles have gone with Jacobs as coach, with very little experience at doing it. It started well, but has ended poorly. That is not a good sign. You'd be looking for improvement, even within season.

A couple of quotes I've found interesting; one was Jacobs saying after this loss to Glenelg:
"The game gave a lot of our players their first taste of finals footy, and I know this will give us a foundation to improve on as we know the level we need to get too."

Glenelg have been pretty poor, only beating South (like we did). I'm not sure that is the level we need to get to. It'd be a few rungs up from that as finals gets deeper. We are miles off it.

And this from an article posted a few weeks ago about coaching from the boundary or the coaches box;
"The same goes for current Eagles coach Sam Jacobs. “Just being new to the caper, I see it better from up there,” the first-year boss said. “Obviously you get that connection point with your players down on the boundary but I feel like I’ve got better control and understanding of what’s happening when I’m up there. I think there will be times when I’ll go down to the bench but for the moment I get really good feedback from my assistants where I am.”

And yet, having said that, he was coaching from the boundary line in the final.

Jacobs would be a good bloke and would be doing his best. He may become a very good coach. Maybe even next season. But, you would hope those in charge at the Eagles would have enough experience to tell whether this is the case and if they believe in him, then onwards and upwards in 2025. However, I'd hope they'd be accountable if they believe they got it wrong and make a call if so. The decision makers at the Eagles will need to summarise quickly and decide whether the current coaching set up has it in them to guide a group of players to the top 3 and beyond. Otherwise mediocrity lies ahead.

Then begin with recruiting players.