VFL AND WAFL

Does anyone know about any news from these leagues

I heard recently Peter Bell playing in the WAFL this year.

The WAFL touched up the SANFL on the weekend.......

shhhhhhhhh

I think both may well be plundered for senior coaches this year

FROM WAFL WEBSITE:


Ross Young claims Sandover Medal

Tuesday, 15 September 2009 01:47




PERTH midfielder and former Carlton player Ross Young was crowned 2009 Sandover Medallist at Perth Exhibition Convention Centre’s Bellevue Ballroom tonight, Monday, Septmeber 14.

Young, who averaged 31 possessions and kicked 15 goals this season, went into the Sandover Medal count as favourite and won with a total of 45 votes – two ahead of West Perth’s Jason Salecic on 43. Claremont’s Luke Blackwell finished third with 34 votes.

Young, 26, had a brilliant season with the Demons, collecting over 30 possessions in 14 of his 20 games and rarely missing a target. He was also leading the Sandover Medal last year before breaking his collarbone in Round 15.

Originally from Victoria, Young played under-18s football for the Bendigo Pioneers and amateur football with the University Blues. He eventually made his way into the Northern Bullants side in the VFL in 2005 and gained a regular place in the Bullants' seniors in 2006.

Carlton selected Young as an AFL rookie with pick 35 in the 2006/07 AFL Rookie Draft and at 23 years of age, he was the first player selected under new rules stating older players could be rookie listed if they had never been through an AFL club system.

Young was elevated from the rookie list before Round 6 of that year as a replacement for Nick Stevens and made his debut against St Kilda but was delisted at the end of the 2007 season. He then moved to Western Australia to play with Perth.

He is the cousin of Hawthorn's Clinton Young and his younger brother Seamus also plays with Ross at Perth.

The Reserves' Prendergast Medal was won by East Perth's Jordan Eastwell and the Colts' Jack Clarke Medal claimed by Perth's Aaron Elari.


LEADERBOARD

45 – Ross Young (Perth)

43 – Jason Salecic(West Perth)

34 – Luke Blackwell (Claremont)

30 – Josh Roberts (Swan Districts)

27 – Brendon Jones (Perth)

26 – Jaymie Graham (South Fremantle)

23 – Chad Fletcher (Subiaco)

23 – Shaun Hilderbrandt (Subiaco)

23 – Phillip Read (Subiaco)





PERTH IS THE TEAM JARMAN COACHES.

MORE FROM THE WAFL SITE, THIS TIME REGARDING THIS SUNDAYS GF (GO THE BULLDOGS!!) :

Captaining premiership the dream for McGrath

Thursday, 17 September 2009 11:22 Chris Pike


TOBY McGrath has done it all in his career with South Fremantle bar captain a premiership and that's what he hopes to do in this Sunday's WAFL grand final against Subiaco.

McGrath has had another terrific year as Bulldogs' skipper and after earning the week off thanks to a thumping 70-point win over Subiaco in the second semi-final, is now fresh and raring to lead his team out onto Subiaco Oval on Sunday.

McGrath began his South Fremantle career way back in 1998, played in the losing grand final of 99 and then found himself on Essendon's list in 2002-03. He didn’t crack it for an AFL game, but has been one of the WAFL's best, toughest and most courageous players since returning.

He won the Sandover and Simpson Medals in 2005 as well as playing in the premiership, has represented Western Australia five times and as captain in 2008, is a life member of the club, is in the WA 200 Club and named in South Fremantle's Indigenous Team of the Century this year.

The one thing left is to captain a premiership and he has that opportunity on Sunday.

"It would be really good obviously and it's what I'm aiming to do. It's not really my one and only focus, but to be at this club my whole career and now be a captain and life member is great, but to be a premiership captain would be even better. It would be really special," McGrath said.

"It's exciting times at the footy club to be in any grand final, but to have both our league and reserves in is really good. The way we were travelling during the year we spoke that we knew we'd play finals, but we made a plan to finish top-two and once that was guaranteed, to finish top to make sure of the home final."

Selection dilemmas come up for any grand final and this time around the Bulldogs need to find room for Jeff Farmer and Peter Bell. McGrath expects both to play, but can't for the life of him think of any in the 22 that thumped Subiaco that deserve to be dropped.

"We've been playing that way for a while and have won nine games in a row now where we haven’t really been beaten in any facet of the game at any stage. We have good players like Peter Bell, Jeff Farmer and Jaymie Graham, but it's everyone else who has stepped up," he said.

"It will be interesting to see who misses out over the next week for Peter Bell and I'm not 100 per cent sure on Jeff, and where the coaching staff is at with him. In my opinion, he's the type of player that should play and there's no reason he shouldn’t apart from not playing for 10 weeks."

McGrath noticed early on in the 2009 season that there was a special feeling amongst the playing group that they could achieve something and believes it's just as important to have that bond together on the field as it is off it.

"The feeling in the team is very similar as much as I can remember of 2005. The players want to be around the club, everyone is happy to come down and it's always good to be at training and together as a group," he said.

"Our social side of things has been great. We've had functions, players get together and we enjoy each other's company, and that shows on the footy field. It was the same in 2005 when we were all good mates."

Since 2005, there has generally been an area of South Fremantle's team that wasn’t quite strong enough to push for a premiership.

At times it was the lack of a key forward without Ryan Murphy after Evan Hewitt and Ryan Webb retired, some key defenders that weren't up to stopping the likes of Brad Smith or lack of a ruckman since the departure of Adam Hay was costly, but there's no such weakness in 2009.

South Fremantle's defence of Sam Hunt, Josh Head, Chris Bossong, Craig White and Kyle Hams stops their opponents and creates enormous drive.

McGrath, Kris Miller, Ray Smithers, Bell, Theo Adams and Daniel Gilmore are great through the middle, Jaymie Graham is the best ruckman in the league and up forward Callum Wilson, Cory Dell'Olio, Paul Mugambwa and Farmer are dangerous.

"With our defence we have a good back six, but have two or three blokes that can step in if someone's not there and it's still our best back six. It's the same in the midfield and up forward," he said.

"Starting with our back-line and having Chris Bossong come in, Sam Hunt there and we've had Josh Head most of the year. We've also had Daniel Gilmore who has his head screwed on right this year and then we've got a full forward as well.

"We did miss Murph the last two years when he wasn’t up and firing come finals time for whatever reason, and it helps to have a structure down the spine like we do this year. Everyone realises there is a good opportunity for our club to create something special and everyone wants to part of it. The guys that do miss out on the league side will at least have the chance to play in the reserves as well."

Despite Jaxon Crabb, Adam Lange, Brad Smith, Troy Longmuir, Craig Smoker and others around the 29 and 30 age mark retiring this season, McGrath is confident he has at least two more years left in him and sees no reason why he shouldn’t keep playing.

"I would have to weigh it up if I got a serious injury of some sort and was out for 12 months, but I reckon I can do two or three more years to get to over 200 games," he said.

"That would take me to about 31, so as long as John Dimmer thinks I'm handy or if there's a coaching change and they want me, I'm happy to play on if it's still going well.

"If they didn’t want me, I'd take it on the chin and move on, I could never play anywhere else unless it's the country or something and I needed some cash. I can't see myself getting pushed out too soon and it will be good to stick around for another couple of years."

AND JUST TO EVEN THINGS UP......AGAIN FROM www.wafl.com.au :

Smith hoping for one last big game

Wednesday, 16 September 2009 16:12 Chris Pike


STAR Subiaco full-forward Brad Smith will play his final WAFL match in Sunday's grand final and is hoping he has one standout game left in him.

Smith has been the best full-forward, and possibly player, in the WAFL this decade despite serious knee injuries and a tough 2009. But the 30-year-old has decided that his career, which began with the Lions back in 1998, will end after his 140th game on Sunday against South Fremantle.

Smith booted 100-plus goals in the 2004, 07 and 08 seasons and currently has 530 for his career, at an average of almost four a game. He has won four Bernie Naylor Medals as the league's leading goalkicker, claimed the 2007 grand final Simpson Medal and has proven himself a big game player.

He is sure that he couldn’t go on in 2010, though, so is firmly focused on trying to finish on a high in an attempt to play in his fourth premiership and then will reflect back on his journey.

"I don’t think I could go around again and if I did next year I don’t think the fire will be in the belly like it has been the last few years. My body is starting to slow down and I think I've got one game, hopefully a good one, left in me and then I can let the other boys take over," Smith said.

"I haven’t really sat back and thought about how well I have or haven’t done, but there were definitely times during the season where I doubted myself. I couldn’t play the way I wanted to, or train the way I wanted and that was frustrating.

"It snowballed negatively, but the support I've had within the club has been great and they let me know as long as I went out and halved my contests and plugged away was good enough, instead of dominating and kicking the six and seven like I used to. I just focused on contesting and competing, and hopefully kicking a couple of snags."

Virtually all of Subiaco's 22 players that faced South Fremantle in the second semi-final were well down as the Lions lost by 70 points. That led to plenty of soul-searching on how to bounce back in the preliminary final against Swan Districts.

Not only did Subiaco return to form and win, but did it in a fashion that will provide confidence of now putting in a strong showing against the Bulldogs in the grand final.

"We had a good chat after the game and then on Sunday morning at training, and then from that point on we focused on Swannies. We couldn’t dwell on South Fremantle, so we trained the house down, stayed out when it was raining hard and we were focused," he said.

"It was fantastic that the boys bounced back and all our core group of players that have done well the last five or six years really stepped up, which is a credit to them. We now go into the grand final with a sniff.

"I thought we outplayed them pretty much the whole game, but they had a 10-minute period where they attacked hard and we were in defence mode. But the boys put their heads over it, tackled hard, kept it in close and ran down the clock. It was just a good all round team effort and it was an arm wrestle, but we feel the better team won on the day.

"One of the boys said we couldn’t go out in straight sets after a lot of the respect we've earned over the last five or six years nearly went out the window last week. We had to bounce back and we did. We go in as underdogs, which suits us fine and the pressure's all on them."

Smith has kicked 52 goals this season, Trent Dennis-Lane 62, Blake Broadhurst 41, David Mapleston 30 and midfielders Chad Cossom, Shaun Hildebrandt and Jason Bristow have done well getting forward, so Smith knows they have plenty of goal scoring options.

"We have plenty of options up forward and hopefully if one of us has a bad day another one can take up the slack. We will need all of them playing really well because South get a lot of drive from the half-back line and they run the gauntlet," he said.

"When the ball is in dispute they will take off and that's something interesting for us in terms of game strategy. Sam Hunt likes chasing kicks and that's fine, but hopefully we win the ball and can have a day out."

With the grand final being Smith, Allistair Pickett and Mapleston's final game for Subiaco, Smith wants to make sure it's no distraction on the rest of the team, or the departing trio.

"It would have been a pity to go out in straight sets and it's going to be my last game, and the last game for a few of us," he said.

"We can't think too much about that, though, or our eyes won't be on the ball. We have to make sure we still do our role for the team and then after we can start reflecting. For now we are all focused on having a crack at South."

Retirements to some of the biggest name WAFL players is certainly the order of the day with Jaxon Crabb, Adam Lange, Troy Longmuir, Craig Smoker and now Smith and Pickett all calling 2009 their last seasons.

Smith and Pickett's bond as a little man and a big man has been outstanding ever since they first paired up with Subiaco in 2003, and Smith is delighted to get to play his last game with the little champ.

"He was one of the first midfielders that I regularly linked up with and he has been brilliant. He could always hit me from anywhere and he's been such a great player," he said.

"I've got no doubt he could have been a successful AFL player, but for whatever reason it didn’t work out. He's held in such high regard around this place and the whole competition. Hopefully we can go out together with another medal, but we'll wait and see."

Smith also had a good bond with some of the other retirees who are around the 29 or 30 age mark, including out-going Swans skipper Lange.

"I played juniors in Langey at under-13s and 14s development squads, state 18s and he's been a good footy guy in WA," he said.

"I said to him after the game well done on a good career and that it would have been nice if he stayed at Subi, but he's been a good servant to his club since coming back from Melbourne."

Will be interesting to see how the new Gold Coast franchise goes in the VFL next season. I think they might struggle early on in the year but should hopefully win a few games before going into the AFL in 2011.

NEWS FOR YOU SARGE.....

Subiaco appoints Waterman

Friday, 30 October 2009 16:09


Subiaco Football Club is pleased to announce the appointment of Chris Waterman as senior coach on a two year contract.
The Club undertook an expansive interview process and selected Waterman, who is an experienced coach in the WAFL system.

Waterman’s experiences as a player at the highest level along with his coaching credentials were major factors in his selection.



Waterman has been an assistant coach with both local AFL clubs and was the WA State coach in 2004. He was also senior coach with Peel Thunder from 2006-2009.

He received the WA Coach of the Year (JJ Leonard Medal) in season 2008.

Subiaco CEO, Jeff Lind, said that it was important for Subiaco to appoint a coach who can develop a high performance culture and has knowledge of the requirements of the WAFL and AFL systems.

Subiaco Football Club congratulates Waterman on the appointment.







X 8

JUST LOOKING THROUGH THE WAFL FORUM AND FOUND THIS POST

I went to the SANFL grand final this year and the atmosphere was electric.

Such a different vibe to an AFL game, I'd totally forgotten what it was like to go to a game between two local teams with even crowd representation.

Naturally the standard of football wasn't as good, but from a spectacle perspective it was far superior to an AFL minor round game (outside of Melbourne).

NOT A BAD WRAP FOR OUR GAME.


X 8

SANFL FTW

JUST FOUND THIS ON THE PERTH FC FORUM (VIA WAFL SITE);

New CEO « on: Thu 24, Sep 2009, 02:07:35 PM »

Perth has just appointed Brian Leys as the new CEO.

Brian played 110 games for Richmond,he then moved to Port Adelaide in the SANFL where he played 91 games and won 4 premierships.

For a more detailed view on the appointment go the PFC web site.

Sounds like a good get.



JARMAN AND LEYS WORKING SIDE BY SIDE, WTF!

X 8

There's a rumour going around about Miekeljohn Port Magpies signing up with Jarman's Demons in the West,anyone heard it???

Also Former Subi premiership player and current Glenelg player Chris Hall joining the Dees.

Only rumours,anyone in S.A heard the same?

Welcome to the forum PerthDemons!

I have heard both rumours, yet dont even remotley have anything confirmed that is the case. Chris Hall returned to the SANFL from the WAFL, so its not unlikely that he would return again with the contacts that he has there. Miekeljohn is rumoured to be unhappy at Port, yet my mail is that Port want to keep him, so I am unsure if they really would let him go or would go as far as making him stand the year out of footy as is also rumoured!

I will be surprised if Mieklejohn returns to the Magpies.