WHYALLA FOOTBALL LEAGUE

The Whyalla selectors have chosen a good and well balanced squad to compete in this week's Mortlock Shield at Port Lincoln on Saturday and Monday.
Unfortunately the squad will be missing a few players due to work commitments and at the time of going to press the selectors are undecided on whether they will be adding to the list.
The players left in the squad are: Phillip Hillman (Central), Luke Seymour, Chris Beaty, Alistair Thomas, Nathan Wohling and Josh Ackland (all North), Waylon Nielsen, Ryan Burgess, Damien Hanneman, Greg Fiebig, James Vanhoof and Justin Grund (all Roopena), Ray McIntosh, Matthew Perry, Ryan Baker, Reggie Reid and Gavin Jonker (if fit), Johnathon Kroll, Geoff Appleton, Lee Ringland, Anthony Malcolm, Andrew Hoffman (W/Bay) and Aaron Smith, Shannon Winders, Ben English, Simon Nowak, Scott Norman, Michael Kellett and Matthew Holmes (all Westies).
Due to Whyalla being an industrial city, we will never be able to pick our best team with many players working shift work and being unable to get time off work, but the selectors have come up with what I believe to be a good crop of young and experienced players that will represent our city with pride.
New combined coach David "Freddy" Freeman is quietly pleased with the squad and with his vast experience in football is looking forward to the challenge.
Although he knows very little about the quality of the opposition, he has brought a new system to the team and we will see if it works for them on the weekend.
The squad trained on Wednesday night and no doubt the selectors may make a few late changes especially if a few more players become unavailable.
Umpires coach's interesting fishing adventures
Everyone in Whyalla knows how much umpires coach Willy Sleep loves his fishing, but last week he took it to the extreme as he went out fishing with South Whyalla player Jimmy Martin.
When he jagged a big snapper he accidently also jagged the fish into Martin's leg causing him to go to hospital and miss Friday night's game against North Whyalla.
Willy's brother Grant Sleep, who coaches South was not amused as he already had about seven or eight players out through injury and the last thing he wanted was to have another player missing.
Meanwhile other brother Jock, who is football manager of Roopena, has banned all his club's players to go out fishing with his brother.
Local under 14 compete in Port Augusta
Whyalla won one from three games in the annual under 14 carnival played every year at Port Augusta with the opponents being Port Augusta, Northern Areas Association and Port Pirie.
In game one Whyalla met the NAFA side and went down 1.2 to 6.7, while in game two they put up a better performance losing by 9 points to Port Augusta with the scores being 5.3 to 6.6.
Whyalla performed much better in their last game easily defeating Port Pirie by 51 points, with the scores being 9.3 to 1.0.
Westies Max Manners kicked five goals in the three games, while Lourens Victor from South won the medal as best player for Whyalla.
Marron/Azzopardi Cup
Every year Central and West Whyalla play for the Peter Marron/ Mark Azzopardi Cup, which is in honour of two great players from both clubs.
Both players played over 300 games for their respective clubs, played in premierships, captained the clubs and represented Whyalla in combined games on numerous occasions.
While they would have both been disappointed at the result of the game, they would be very proud of having a contest named in their honour as both of them are real legends of Whyalla football.
In fact if the Whyalla Football League ever gets a hall of fame these two players would be among the first chosen to be made legends of Whyalla football.
Player milestone
Last week saw Jeff Ewings of Roopena play his 250th club game for his beloved Roos.
Jeff played all his junior football with Roopena and made his senior debut in 1994.

Mortlock Shield results:

Game 1: Whyalla 4.4 (28) lost to Great Flinders 6.8 (44)

Game 2: Whyalla 4.3 (27) lost to Mid West 8.13 (61)

WEST WIN AGAIN!

West 15.15 (99) d Weeroona Bay 6.8 (44)

Other results:
South 26.18 (174) d Central 4.4 (28)

SPENCER GULF LEAGUE vs WHYALLA FOOTBALL LEAGUE

Spencer Gulf 22.8(140) d. Whyalla 9.8(62)

It may look like the WFL is not strong as it has not beaten any other League Representative side this year, however the WFL often has to field sides with players who are not tied down to OneSteel on the weekends, leaving many of out best players home in Whyalla.

DRAGONS WIN!

Results for Sat 27th:

Roopena 26.13 (169) d. Central 4.6 (30)
North 16.14 (110) d. Weeroona Bay 8.7 (55)

Sun 28th:
West 18.6 (114) d. South 10.9 (69)

ANOTHER WIN FOR WEST WHYALLA!
West 16.11 (111) d. Roopena 5.9 (39)

Other results:
South 13.11 (89) d. Weeroona Bay 9.10 (64)

NORTH TOPPLE WEST.
North 11.6 (72) d. West 10.9 (69)
Former West Adelaide forward N Prokopec kicking 2 goals for North.

Other results:
Roopena 9.9 (63) d. South 5.9 (39)

DRAGONS BREATHE FIRE AGAIN WITH A WIN!
West 19.14 (128) d. Central 4.3 (27)

Other results:
North 18.21 (129) d. South 10.3 (63) - N Prokopec: 5 goals.

proker looks to be in pretty good form good on him

TIGERS EDGE OUT DRAGONS BY SMALLEST OF MARGINS.
Weeroona Bay 12.8 (80) d. West 12.7 (79)

Other results:
North 16.10 (106) d. Roopena 11.8 (74) - Prokopec kicking 6 majors.

West v South on Saturday, August at Bennett Oval 2.20pm.
South Whyalla will be regarding this week's round 14 game against top of the table West Whyalla as a mini final as they strive to stay clear of fifth placed Weeroona Bay in the race for that vital fourth spot.
With the Bays recording a surprise win over the Dragons last week it really puts the pressure on the Demons as they are only two points clear, but their advantage is the big percentage lead they have over the Bays.
Three weeks ago must pundits would have been saying that the Dragons could have gone through the season undefeated, but losing two games in the past three rounds have brought them back to the field.
The Demons were very good in their demolition of the Roosters last weekend, but were put under little pressure.
The Dragons will not give them the same latitude and it will be interesting to see how the Demons handle it as they will have to get used to it as all their remaining games will be played under finals atmosphere.
Although there are no panic stations at Dragon land just yet, they must be wondering whether the young lads can handle the long season and their lack of experienced players could tell on them come finals time.
There is a bit of doubt on the availability for the rest of the season of their most experienced player Anthony Manfield who has moved to Roxby Downs with employment.
However, I am led to believe that he will definitely be available come finals time.
Last week saw the return of a few players from injury for the Demons and they would have really appreciated the run as it was a good work out for them.
But this weeks game will be very different as the Dragons will certainly be out to prove to all that they are the real deal.
The Dragons have a much better attack than the Demons and their defence is the best in the competition, while both mid fields are very strong with the difference between the two sides being which one gets the early breaks.
Everything points to this being a great game of football, with the Demons fighting for finals survival with the Dragons wanting to show to all that the minor hiccups of the past three rounds are just that and they desperately want to finish in top spot.
It will be a great game of football to watch with Westies to get home in a thriller by 10 to 15 points.

WEST BACK IN THE WINNERS CIRCLE.
West 15.11 (101) d. South 8.5 (53)

Other results:
Roopena 22.8 (140) d. Central 6.5 (35)

150 GAMES FOR LOCAL LEGEND ROB SHIRLEY.
Born and bred local Robert Shirley is set to reach his one-hundred-and-fiftieth Australian Football League game this Saturday.
If all goes to plan against the West Coast Eagles, this will make him the fourteenth Crows player to make it to the 150 milestone.
For the 29-year-old local legend, making it to this career point was “a special feeling”.
He has put the hard yards in since he was a young Whyalla lad, but never thought he would come this far.
“I didn’t at any stage think I’d get there,” Shirley said.
He said it was always a milestone just to reach 100 games, but slowly but surely he accomplished his goals.
Adelaide Crows’ coach Neil Craig has witnessed Shirley’s AFL dedication, who said he was a great role model for other club members.
“He has had to work very hard over many years to get to this milestone and he’s been able to handle a lot of disappointment along the way,” Craig said.
“Not many players survive for a decade at a club and he’s done it the hard way, being delisted and then put back on the rookie list before getting another chance on the senior list.
“That takes a lot of courage, to keep pushing yourself up there for selection when the easy option would be to say it’s too hard.”
Craig said this year hadn’t been easy for Shirley either, as there were times when he was out of the side when he thought he should have been playing.
“But he loves the challenge of being given a big job for us and in recent weeks that has certainly been the case, and he’s been pretty important for us,” Craig said.
Craig, along with Shirley’s other coaches were evidently strong motivators in his career.
But those who had been there from junior to senior were the ones he owed it to the most.
“I owe a lot to mum and dad and my family for a lot of their support,” Shirley said.
He said they always gave up their time to drive and fly him to Adelaide, while still living in Whyalla.
From his friends and family’s motivation, came a drive for Shirley to do his best.
“You really want to make the most out of yourself,” Shirley said.
This weekend may feel a little bit different while running down the race, but Shirley said the objective was still the same - to go out and play the team style.
Although it has been more than 10 years since Shirley left Whyalla, he still follows his home team “Northies” and gets the weekly results.
Shirley said he had not been home for some time, but certainly planned to come back to Whyalla in the off season.
“I very much miss home and miss the family, but it’s a part of life,” Shirley said.
Shirley has one brother Andrew who still lives in Whyalla and one sister Georgina who lives in Adelaide.

WHYALLA'S PROUD OF SHIRLEY.
It's not only the Crows who have Robert Shirley to be proud of, but also his hometown of Whyalla who knows him only too well as an honourable sportsman.
He began his career playing for North Whyalla juniors when he was about seven years old.
He grew into the local black and white team thanks to his dad Paul Shirley, who played for North for 17 years.
It was always Shirley's dream to make a career of football and his dad even had the proof.
When interviewed by the Whyalla News Shirley's dad pulled out an old school book page from when he was eight years old.
On the page Shirley wrote his thoughts were "when I am the best football player" and his aspirations was to be an "expert at football".
So Shirley got himself on the right track to do exactly that.
He played 16 games of senior football in Whyalla including 10 in 1996, four in 1997 and two in 1998.
Shirley's first senior coach was John Harris who recently gave the Whyalla News an insight on Shirley's debut senior footy year.
Harris said he always saw potential in Shirley to at least make it to the South Australian National Football League,
He said there was certainly one main strength in Shirley.
"Definitely his ability to run," Harris said.
"He had really good constitution, he could run all day and he would work hard."
He said Shirley started off as a defender on the half back line and progressed into midfield.
This was when Shirley was about 16 years old and to now see him 13 years on and doing so well has made Harris proud.
"No doubt it's a pleasure to see all kids go on to SANFL or AFL especially," Harris said.
He said it was "really good" to see him survive and reach the milestone in AFL and it just went to show that working hard led to good things.
Shirley's other senior coaches were Shane Grimm and Jack Blackwell.
But to get to where he was today, it didn't just take good performance in his local team.
At just 14 years of age, Shirley was frequently taken to Adelaide to play for the Woodville West Torrens.
He was selected for their development squad and awarded their scholarship for the most promising junior at the time.
He also represented the State national championships under 16 side coached by Russel Ebert and was then selected for the State under 18 squad.
But to move onto bigger and better things, Shirley needed to progress further.
So he moved to Adelaide in 1998 and played a full season in the SAFNL for the Woodville West Torrens senior side.
From this he was recognised and drafted to the Adelaide Crows in 1999.
Shirley also played 97 games for the Woodville West Torrens senior side.
For Shirley's dad to see him now make it to 150 games, was obviously an extremely proud moment.
"Not only because of what he has achieved but because of the way he has applied himself to do the best he is capable of," Paul said.
He said his son played the game "tough and with courage", his value was his "hard ball gets and tackling in the packs and his team approach to 'one percenters'".
"His strongest skills are his clean ball handling, short vision reflex handball in tight situations, and his single minded discipline and athleticism to enable him to contain the effectiveness of his opponents," Paul said.
Paul knew his son had achieved his childhood AFL dream and now looks to his ultimate football aim, which is to play in this year's premiership team with the Adelaide Football Club.
Shirley is now eligible for life membership.

Titanic struggle expected at Memorial Oval.

A titanic struggle is expected between top team West Whyalla and fourth placed North Whyalla in their all-important round 16 clash at Memorial Oval on Sunday.
Westies have gone off the boil in the past five weeks, losing three games and will want to prove to supporters that the display of good form early in the season is not behind them.
On the other hand, North has been quite consistent - apart from that little hiccup against the Bays two weeks ago - and easily defeating Central last week.
Westies will want to win this game to stay on top of the ladder as the Roos breathe down their necks, while North will want to win for the confidence boost, coming into the finals in two weeks time.
Once again, much will depend on the clash between Dragons' full back Aaron Smith and North's full forward Nick Prokopec, with Smith having the better of him last time.
The Dragons double teamed him last game, and I am sure that North coach David Freeman will not let that happen this game as he has other options up his sleeve.
Both teams are fairly evenly matched with good players all over the ground.
As always with the games between these clubs, the result will depend on who gets the early breaks.
With both teams wanting a win as finals are just around the corner it will be a real arm wrestle, with little in class and skill separating the two teams.

WEST CONTINUE WINNING WAYS

West 13.10 (88) d North 7.8 (50)

Other results:
Weeroona Bay 30.12 (162) d Central 11.7 (73)
Roopena 13.17 (95) d South 4.9 (33)

Go the dragon pack members. ROAR ROAR ROAR.