2nds WAFL Watch - 2025 Edition

[HoneyBadger35]

How did ____ go on the weekend?

Why not consult the Alesana Player Video Database.

Resource - Player Video Database

Putting this into a spreadsheet for convenience. 2024 is still there in a tab on the bottom of the sheet. I'll update this as much as I can throughout the year. The All Stars game and our match sim against Richmond are now up.

www.bigfooty.com

 

[CountryLad]

The Good

McCarthy on debut really good. Looks ready made for AFL.

Chesser played well considering it’s his first for the year. 6 tackles to halftime.

Bazzo was solid down back continues to improve.

Batman’s best game, still a long way to go but credit to him he had some moments today.

Hall good stats.

Gross okay a few highlights in his game.

HJ okay, makes good decisions just needs to find more of it.

Bad

Champion didn’t turn up

Davis very quiet. Was he off for a large chunk maybe emergency for AFL?

Greggo not having as much impact down back as in the midfield. Wasn’t terrible just expect more.

Hall got plenty of it just struggled to impact. Can be prone to being a turnover merchant.

 

[BeornJ]

I am so thoroughly unmoved by Clay Hall as an AFL option, but he’s just had 29 and two, he has to get his return this week surely.

Nah don't think so, wasn't in the named squad for tomorrow

 

[Carbine Chaos]

I definitely think I'd prefer McCarthy's kicking and line breaking coming out of our AFL backline than whatever Maric is currently doing.


Get him in.

Did you watch McCarthy's presser?

Bloke idolises Maric, the amazing defender.

 

[Grumpyshades]

Chesser was good considering it was his 1st game of the season
Did the hard stuff all game (unlike some of his team mates)

 

[Kegs15]

McCarthy was great. Exactly what was advertised, and showed why we would have picked him up over other state-level players with similar stats - just looks like he has it, is proactive with good skills and from seeing him play a full game you get a sense his ceiling is pretty high.

This isn't a slight on Newton - kid hasn't even played a WAFL game for us yet, I would love for him to do well and generally don't mind us taking as many swings at unearthing new talent as we can. But gee I dunno - it was the second round in the MSD, fairly low percentage chance of someone picked there making it past the 6 month contract and our tight-ish list cull at the end of the year, feel like a genuine dominant state-level mid like Parfitt or Brew would be a bigger net positive for us over this half of the season, even if they didn't play an AFL game. Newton may contribute well at WAFL level but he's also 19, he's likely in the same category as our existing 19 year olds where without adequate support from older bodies he won't get to show his stuff.

Our young players are just screaming out at this level for a teammate to rack up 35 touch games and lift the floor of the midfield battle a little. Grego/Hall/Davis/Johnstonwould be the 4 in particular I think would really really benefit from an older and better player to carry them a little, let them develop without having to carry as much of the slack. And those 4 are in that may/may not make it group that unfortunately our WAFL side has pushed towards 'may not' in past years. Add Chesser to that, hell add our tall forwards and backs, a dominant mid can be so massive for a talented but young team. Think we could have got better value out of the boost to the development of all of these guys, than whatever the percentage chance Newton makes it. Hope he does well and proves this feeling wrong.

 

[WCE_2007]

Notes:
McCarthy's an absolute freak. Every touch is so clean and impactful. Breaks lines, gains territory. Gun. Put him in a side where teammates will mark his lace out bullet chips and wow.

Clay Hall: 29 touches, clearance beast though as usual needs to tidy up his disposal and composure. Developing well for our pick 38.

Chesser: First game back. Smashed expectations (Which were understandably tempered) with 22 touches and 3 inside 50's. Provided a good exit from the back half, and ocassionly a little run. One really special long kick up the wing comes to mind. Will become more impactful with each possession as he regains game fitness and experience.

Tom Gross: Little Gun. Robbed of shot on goal in the 4th. Very fast, nimble and composed. He'll continue to develop into a beauty.

Livingston: Though he played a great game today. Started on absolute fire, and cooling down a little continued to impact the game with some excellent contested marks. Personally didn't pay much attention to him when drafted, mainly due ot the amount of rucks we already have but is really impressing. Couldn't be doing too much more for his age.

Barnett: Speaking of rucks played one of his better games for sure. Missed his mark in the last but heart the commentators go off. It better be in the You tube highlights. For his sake hopefully he continues this development because there will be a squeeze for list spots soon, and he has to date been reasonably unremarkable. It a big man though and they take time.

Rawlinson: Been very meh this year, though thought today was his best game so far. Had 16 touches and a goal which might be a career high? Probably not but still noticed him more than other weeks.

Rhett Bazzo: Took some good marks. Played alright in that respect. Can get found out when he drifts off his man.

Shanahan: Also took some good marks, and used the ball well by foot. I think I understand why the coaches want to play him back (longterm benefit)... But we really needed another forward presence today, left too much Livingston.

Hamish Davis: To be honest never really notice him that much, but always racks up possessions. Today he had 11 but I think might have been take out of the game early - probably emergency for tomorrow.

Champion: I'm sure has a very bright future, but quite today. Impactful with the ball, though doesn't get much of it.

Final Note: Despite our AFL listed players going pretty alright we consistantly get burned by the top up's, or they themselves make little fumbles, which cost oppertunites. The amount of times McCarthy his a kick, to have it dropped and our foward momentum stall was really painful. Looking forward to watching Newton Play soon.

 

[FKASC]

McCarthy was great. Exactly what was advertised, and showed why we would have picked him up over other state-level players with similar stats - just looks like he has it, is proactive with good skills and from seeing him play a full game you get a sense his ceiling is pretty high.

This isn't a slight on Newton - kid hasn't even played a WAFL game for us yet, I would love for him to do well and generally don't mind us taking as many swings at unearthing new talent as we can. But gee I dunno - it was the second round in the MSD, fairly low percentage chance of someone picked there making it past the 6 month contract and our tight-ish list cull at the end of the year, feel like a genuine dominant state-level mid like Parfitt or Brew would be a bigger net positive for us over this half of the season, even if they didn't play an AFL game. Newton may contribute well at WAFL level but he's also 19, he's likely in the same category as our existing 19 year olds where without adequate support from older bodies he won't get to show his stuff.

Our young players are just screaming out at this level for a teammate to rack up 35 touch games and lift the floor of the midfield battle a little. Grego/Hall/Davis/Johnstonwould be the 4 in particular I think would really really benefit from an older and better player to carry them a little, let them develop without having to carry as much of the slack. And those 4 are in that may/may not make it group that unfortunately our WAFL side has pushed towards 'may not' in past years. Add Chesser to that, hell add our tall forwards and backs, a dominant mid can be so massive for a talented but young team. Think we could have got better value out of the boost to the development of all of these guys, than whatever the percentage chance Newton makes it. Hope he does well and proves this feeling wrong.

That would last only a year though and then they would bail

 

[WCEswift]

Gross grego and hall with sparks should have been the mids none of this half back shit

 

[15yearmember]

Feel like Hall is the type of mid we ahve been missing at AFL level, just someone who can win a hard ball and accumulator type. Would have him next up in front of Gross.

Good hit out for Chesser on managed minutes, probably his best WAFL game, team high clearances and tackles.

McCarthy needs to come in next week for Cole and Bazzo to come in for Maric. As expected McCarthy looked a level above WAFL as is the case when we bring in a guy through Mid season draft from another program (make of that what you will).

The fact that he’s an adventure every time he gets the ball in terms of both decision making and execution and an absolute liability running back the other way and has no pace or hurt factor at all seems problematic to me.

 

[Dom sheed pocket]

The fact that he’s an adventure every time he gets the ball in terms of both decision making and execution and an absolute liability running back the other way and has no pace or hurt factor at all seems problematic to me.

Are you talking about Hall?

He's certainly not the complete package, but he has what almost everyone else lacks at both AFL and WAFL level and that's just an ability to rack up the touches. We function on such low disposal numbers at both levels, even through the midfield. Someone who can accumulate th ball and distribute (by hand) would be very helpful.

 

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

Id like to see McCarthy in after a few more weeks. Hopefully can play out the last 8 games

 

[Alesana]

View attachment Barnett mark.mp4

 

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

The fact that he’s an adventure every time he gets the ball in terms of both decision making and execution and an absolute liability running back the other way and has no pace or hurt factor at all seems problematic to me.

The fact we keep asking a defensive style of midfielder to run forward of the ball is our issue, not Clays. Our inability to use him as a pure extractor who plays on the defensive side of the game thereafter continues to baffle me to this day.

It feels like we play to his weakness just cos the WAFL team requires it from him. Playing a youngster out of position to benefit the WAFL side just shows what a failure this abomination is

 

[TOA.]

I definitely think I'd prefer McCarthy's kicking and line breaking coming out of our AFL backline than whatever Maric is currently doing.


Get him in.

Let's just see McCarthy do it at AFL. I'd hazard a guess Maric would look half decent in the limited pressure of the WAFL. I personally think Maric suffers from the very limited run and offence we have through the middle and he often has limited clear options, so has to invent things more than someone in a good team with a better game plan that allows for free players. McCarthy may have the same issue.

 

[Bleedblueandgold]

View attachment 2330520

Incredible looking mark.

 

[UseR2006]

View attachment 2330520

From the one good game Barnett has given us in 3 years.

 

[eagles rule]

HJ has really good outside work and good agility, i'm just not sure where he fits into this side. Probably on a wing or on HB but he's behind a few at the moment.

He’ll be lucky to be considered as depth if he doesn’t try and excell a little ..
He’s behind Bo Allen,Chesser ,Gross ,Hall ,Grego ,Davis , Champion and now McCarthy plus Newton..

 

[eaglevision]

Let's just see McCarthy do it at AFL. I'd hazard a guess Maric would look half decent in the limited pressure of the WAFL. I personally think Maric suffers from the very limited run and offence we have through the middle and he often has limited clear options, so has to invent things more than someone in a good team with a better game plan that allows for free players. McCarthy may have the same issue.

If runners like Chesser and Ginbey can work hard on the spread and get into space in the middle of the ground and the wings McCarthy will look like rolled gold and it will do wonders for our ball movement/transition. Based on a sample size of 1 the only player who will compete for his role is Garrison Kenh in a few years. Cole or Maric should be out of the side to face North Melbourne.

 

[Alesana]

Full replay against Swan Districts here

 

[Dom sheed pocket]

Let's just see McCarthy do it at AFL. I'd hazard a guess Maric would look half decent in the limited pressure of the WAFL. I personally think Maric suffers from the very limited run and offence we have through the middle and he often has limited clear options, so has to invent things more than someone in a good team with a better game plan that allows for free players. McCarthy may have the same issue.

I'll never cease to be amazed at how creative people get and finding ways of explaining away short comings of players they happen to like.

Maric's kicking in the back half has just been very average. Unless it is a kick in he doesn't get involved in one- two plays, he rarely gets high up the ground to use his kicking outside of D50. For a rebounding hbf he is incredibly static and bland with his ball use, and too often he directly turns it over and the ball goes straight over his head for a goal- I could cop that if we were getting some value out of his ball use, but we're really not.

Even when Gov was taking Kick in's we were getting bang for buck from those then when Maric took over.

 

[Spanna_]

Haven't had many opportunities to watch the WAFL Eagles so far this season, but from what I saw today the gap between the top-ups and the AFL-listed players is far too great; it's no wonder the side has been dismal for the past few seasons. How are we meant to get development in our younger players when the side they're playing in is virtually non-competitive week after week? It has been said heaps, but I feel like splitting the players all up with WAFL clubs where there are experienced, seasoned footballers to learn from has to be the way to go for the future.

If you want to go down another option, I know Perth insist on standing alone, but an alignment with them makes the most sense if the football club still wants to keep all the players together. Throw the cheque book at them, make it happen.

Having said all that, I liked McCarthy's game. He is going to be a very handy inclusion to the senior side and will add some much-needed dash and skill coming out of defence.

 

[Monocle]

View attachment 2330520

Was that Tom Barrass ... ???????

 

[WCEswift]

Probably the best games ive seen from chesser and barnett

 

[HoneyBadger35]

The fact we keep asking a defensive style of midfielder to run forward of the ball is our issue, not Clays. Our inability to use him as a pure extractor who plays on the defensive side of the game thereafter continues to baffle me to this day.

It feels like we play to his weakness just cos the WAFL team requires it from him. Playing a youngster out of position to benefit the WAFL side just shows what a failure this abomination is

He has consistently shown a lack of interest in defensive work at AFL level too. I’m not entirely sure where he gets the tough nut reputation from, I would say he definitely treads water instead of committing more than our other midfield kids.

That’s not to say that there isn’t merit in a pure extraction role, and agree that asking too much of him is going to exacerbate his current shortcomings while he still learns the game. I think if you get 29 and two, you should be rewarded so I hope he comes in.

I just think that there’s a few of us starting to wonder about what exactly Clay Hall does to an AFL standard.

 

[Dark Sharks]

Nup I'm all aboard Hall.

The bloke just lacks polish, he needs to be surrounded by some quality players so it's not left up to him to make the ball movement decisions. Unfortunately he gets the total opposite of that in the WAFL and is surrounded by potatoes, which I reckon makes him look worse.

See ball, get ball and he's fine. He's still only in his 3rd year as an AFL footballer, against rock hard seasoned men.

29, 5 tackles and 2 goals is all you can ask a bloke to do. That's quality numbers at this level.



Unfortunately I see a fair bit of #whatsthepoint with him now as McQualter seems quite keen on only having one of him or Graham in the side.