Feathers to Fly

Sharks ready to take a bite out of the Falcons.

The conditioning has been tough, the footballs have been out for nearly five months and the preseason is now complete.  Round 1 finally returns to Shark Park and we are thankful the season proper has arrived.

All three grades are well prepared to take on the West Perth Falcons.

Team list vs West Perth

Colts

In season 2014 the Colts will roll out a far younger team than in previous years.  Whilst the recent preseason produced one win for the Colts boys, their development and improvement during the preseason has been encouraging.  The coaching team, led by Mark Foster and including former East Fremantle leader and recently retired Richard Hadley have given this young squad excellent guidance and development.  They will no doubt run out Saturday morning at 9am looking to chalk a “W”

Perth 14.8=92 v East Fremantle 13.11=79

Best; Parish, Bennett, Snadden

Reserves

With the addition of a number of returning servicemen, handy recruits and the improved development of the playing squad the reserves will have greater depth in season 2014.  Their recent win against Perth last week, in the final preseason fixture was testament to that.  After a slow start the boys hit their straps and overran the Demons by 21 points.  Boston Williamson, recruited from East Perth, and Richie Bourne, up from the 2013 Colts’ side, showed excellent speed and skill in kicking 7 goals between them.  With Brandon Ellis taking 6 marks inside forward 50 and kicking 3 goals himself, the forward lines looks promising. Ricciardello, making the move to the backline, provided creativity and run and looks in good early season form. It was fantastic to see a couple of young guns in Jacob Green and Conor Regan collecting handy possessions in the midfield.  Michael Shanahan returns for his third year at the helm of the “twos”  

East Fremantle 14.14=98 v Perth 11.11=77

Best; Williamson, Stokes, Ricciardello, Schleicher, Regan, Green, Bourne

League

The League team have enjoyed an excellent preseason with wins in both games against Subiaco and Perth.  Last week was a dominant performance for the League boys, winning by 87 points.  The midfield depth proved too strong with Dalziell (33 possessions), Tropiano (32), Rory O’Brien (29) and McNamara (25) all winning plenty of the ball.  James Bristow, playing in the ruck, provided plenty of aggression to assist those midfielders.  Just as pleasing was that there wasn’t a heavy reliance on one forward to kick a bag of goals, with 14 individual goal scorers on the day.  The defence has continued on with their form of recent seasons restricting Perth to just 8 goals for the day.  The league squad will be looking forward to the challenge of playing last year’s premiers in West Perth this Saturday, a team that won both times at Shark Park in 2013.  Congratulations to the 4 debutants in James Bristow, Danny Chartres, Jordan Dorotich and Cameron Eardley, with a possible two late inclusions who could also make their debuts, in Boston Williamson and Richie Bourne. 

East Fremantle 21.15=141 v Perth 8.6=54

Best; Tropiano. Dalziell, R.O’Brien, B.O’Brien, Dodd, J.Bristow

Good luck to all our boys his weekend…… Onward to Victory.