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14/08/2008
Adversity in life is often hard to overcome, but in the midst of adversity in football there’s often much to look forward to. The headlines in the paper say ‘Port holds off brave Bloods’, but that’s not what your Bloodhound was concentrating on after the game this week. I’m looking forward to next week’s papers headlining a win by those Bloods and I saw a few reasons on Saturday why that is becoming more likely.
What West supporters want to see, apart from a committed effort every week, is the development of a solid, competitive team. As soon as it became apparent earlier this year that bottom place was more of a reality than was a finals position, the Bloodhound has been looking for those players putting their hands up to be part of that future team. It can be taken as read that several quality recruits will be added to our playing list next year, but for now it’s performances on the field that matters most.
Daniel Caire, Greg Rowe and Steven Morris were possibly our best three players last Saturday. An established young player, a battling young fringe player and a youngster starting on the path to establishing a league career. Three different players, representing three very different stages in a player’s football life.
In a miserable 2007 season for West Adelaide, Blood’s supporters took some comfort from the continued development of Daniel Caire as a quality player for our Club. Pace and the ability to penetrate from the mid-field made him an exciting player to watch. Add courage and a high effective tackle rate and we had Daniel pencilled in as a future regular. A pre-season operation to fix his shoulder and the script very definitely had Daniel as a mid-field regular for 2008, ready to go.
Football doesn’t work to scripts and Daniel’s early form was poor. We waited for it to return, but we waited in vain and eventually we had to get to the ground early to see him in action. Players lose form for many reasons – injury and lack of confidence and belief often being important factors. At such times, coaches’ decisions and communications become crucial for players and we saw Daniel return to the league team after only two Reserves games. The Bloodhound checked the mid-field – no Daniel, the forward line – no Daniel, perhaps the bench – no Daniel. What I did see, throughout the game, was Daniel Caire rebounding from a back pocket, carrying the ball across lines and looking every bit like a confident player back in form and a player who wanted to be part of our future.
Greg Rowe played 4 games in 2007. He played 10 Reserves games this year before returning to the League team. The Bloodhound thinks that qualified him to be described by that unwanted term ‘a fringe league player’. Another to have an almost non-existent pre-season, again due to a late shoulder operation, Greg had to earn his league guernsey. It needed several best on ground performances before he could convince the selectors to reward him with a league spot. When it came, it was so well earned that Coach Andy Collins announced it at presentations a week before the game.
Greg has responded with four standout games and has not only justified his selection, but has added a gritty, bottom of the pack, ball winning mid-fielder to our team. He adds plenty more than that, but the Bloodhound thinks he’s lost one thing that won’t worry him, the term ‘fringe league player’. Neutral judges agree and have awarded him the SANFL Star Search award for this week.
Steven Morris is only 19 and just starting on a senior football career. Until this week he’d played seven league games, showing plenty of promise, but like many new players, found it hard to consistently win the footy often enough to avoid a visit or two to the Reserves. What he has undeniably shown though, is that he certainly has the ability to become a tough, hard-running and talented regular league player, with more than a touch of excitement.
When the game started last Saturday, the Bloodhound noted that Steve was matched up on Port’s Mark Dolling, a player who had got plenty of the ball and had hurt us in our two previous meetings. I naturally then got involved in the game, but wasn’t surprised to find that Steve contributed a handy 12 possessions, while restricting his opponent to a meagre 6 touches for the day.
As I left the ground, the disappointment of the result was tempered a little by the knowledge that every week is a week closer to the next win and is another week’s further development towards a winning squad.
To me, that development might now be at least three players closer to reality.
Since my last report, we saw the 25th anniversary of our 1983 premiership. Tinged with a touch of melancholic nostalgia, it was also a happy celebration of not just a premiership team, but also a great premiership team. The overwhelming memory of the day is the lifetime bond that such a team achievement forges between the players involved, a bond obvious to all who attended the lunch and dinner on the day.
Bernie Conlen, Randall Bennett, Roger Luders and Tony Burgess also attended the Friday evening players’ meeting before the game and shared their thoughts and football philosophies with our current players. The Bloodhound managed to attend both that and the reunion dinner and enjoyed every minute of it.
It’s taken David Piasente longer to reach 100 games than he might have thought a few years ago. An inspirational player at his best and Club captain at an early age, his last season or two has been wrecked by injury. In this season, where many of our senior players have found it hard to recapture the form of other days, his football was at the crossroads in many ways, but David Piasente has never been one to take a backward step.
The Bloodhound was just one of many happy to embrace ‘Pia’s’ one hundredth game and to applaud a best on ground performance for the team to which he’s given so much.
Along with the progress of Greg Rowe, Daniel Caire and Steven Morris, the return to form and fitness of David Piasente has added another dimension to the development of our team.
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