Letter from the Coach

Gday Sharks Fans,

Well the finals series was a turbulent one for all concerned at East Fremantle. What a full on 8 quarters of football we participated in.

Before we get to that, a bit of reflection.

When the new WAFL competition incorporating AFL affiliation was first mooted, many people thought it would be the demise of East Fremantle. We, and Claremont, were supposedly going to lose too many players of AFL status to be competitive. It was said that the loss of our 18 FFC and WCE listed players would have us return to the lower rungs of the ladder. Well, we proved those assessments categorically incorrect in improving in 2014, rather than going backwards.

The Club has never before had to deal with such a player loss. We took it in our stride and continued to develop youngsters like Tyler Chalwell, Mathew Jupp, Sam Read and Jordan Dorotich. We introduced Richie Bourne, Tom Hooker and Brandon Ellis to League Football and werecruited prudently to add James and Tim Bristow, Danny Chartres, Boston Williamson, Brock O’Brien, Bradd Dalziell and Jamie McNamara.

As well, our Reserves made the finals, making us and Subiaco the only Clubs with teams in BOTH grades in the Senior Finals.

In addition, we made our third home final in 5 years.

Of course Premierships are what we aim for, and what our members will ultimately judge our success on, but we hope we’ve given you more to be happy about in recent times than some other clubs in the competition.   We have now made the finals in 3 of the last 5 years, including a Preliminary Final and a Grand Final.

We have won 3 out of 5 finals in the last 4 years. You might want to look at a couple of other clubs’ finals records in that time. There are 1 or 2 surprises there!

For those, lamenting the lack of a premiership, bear in mind the vastly different environment East Fremantle operates in compared to the Glory Days. All off field pursuits including revenue raising is much more difficult than it ever was. Recruiting is more difficult-there’s a salary cap, there’s a points system and we are competing against 1 or 2 clubs with significantly more financial clout. I have lost count of the number of tall forwards we have tried to recruit only to get beaten by clubs offering significantly more than we can muster. And this year, 2 clubs were given 10-12 quality players per week- Peel and East Perth. I can tell you that end of year ladder positions were clearly influenced by when you played both these teams in terms of their available personnel.

We struck EP both times with large numbers of WCE players. When Claremont beat them in the last game, the EP team was unrecognizable from the team that played a week later. Claremont may still have won, but you know what I mean.

I have no doubt we performed excellently in 2014.

The Preliminary final and the manner of the loss may cloud ones’ perspective. We played away, we were playing Subiaco (see recruiting notes above) and we were the underdogs. We lost by 5 points. We had some excellent aspects of play, including winning the Centre Bounces 13-6. Obviously our Goalkicking was well below par. In part, this was due to lacking some poise and composure not only when taking the shot, but in setting up play to enable an easier shot.

Here’s an interesting quote to ponder:

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games.

26 times, I have been trusted to take the winning shot  and missed. I’ve failed over and over  again in my life.

And that is why I succeed.”      Michael Jordan .

So, my message to the staff and players is keep striving, keep working and keep putting ourselves in positions to succeed.

I don’t subscribe to the theory that finishing 3^rd is no better than 9^th. Or that if you don’t win the flag you haven’t been successful.

Yes, I am disappointed we lost on Sunday, however, prior to this, a terrific last quarter against Swan Districts kicking 9 goals 2 to SD 3 points enabled us to record one of East Fremantle’s greatest ever finals victories . Hence the vagaries of performance - 9 goals 2 in one quarter, the very next quarter of football in better conditions; 1 goal 8. If you think you know the answer,  give me a call.

This year we played with commendable spirit and were always competing hard. We had a couple of dark days and to the credit of all staff and players we became more united after these, and gradually built a formidable team ethic. In the fullness of time those astute enough will see the Club has done exceptionally well to navigate its way through an extremely difficult period in its history.

Many people have not received their due credit and this primarily includes the players. The passion, spirit and skill they represent the club with is a credit to the EFFC staff, the players' families, and of course the players themselves. If you are a true sharks fan, I believe the players  provided fantastic entertainment for you.

So, thank you for the support in 2014.

The Staff and Players love being part of East Fremantle.

Go Sharks.

Stephen Malaxos.