West Adelaide v East Fremantle Foxtel cup Grand Final

Webb has accepted the one-match ban. McGough has accepted an invitation to join Actors Equity.

Flag No.9 wrote:Webb has accepted the one-match ban. McGough has accepted an invitation to join Actors Equity.

now come on there a minute Flag No 9, McGough was NOT ACTING he just fainted   

bayman wrote:

Flag No.9 wrote:Webb has accepted the one-match ban. McGough has accepted an invitation to join Actors Equity.

now come on there a minute Flag No 9, McGough was NOT ACTING he just fainted   

In that case he should accept an invitation to have his blood pressure checked.

Despite some ill-informed criticism, I'm pretty sure that would have been the biggest crowd to a Foxtel Cup game, as it eclipsed the attendances at the two previous Foxtel Cup Grand Finals.

A Great crowd very proud of those who turned up to give the side support.  

I think the crowd was about 1600 to 1700, 95% Westies.

Flag No.9 wrote:

bayman wrote:

Flag No.9 wrote:Webb has accepted the one-match ban. McGough has accepted an invitation to join Actors Equity.

now come on there a minute Flag No 9, McGough was NOT ACTING he just fainted   

In that case he should accept an invitation to have his blood pressure checked.

i like that, very clever    

All's well that ends well
But what if it did not?

West Adelaide appeared to be out of  legs after a 3 day break.
One more accurate kick for goal by EF and the visitors win.
That's when the subject of a short break gets scrutinised.

Foxtel has to be commended for putting up attractive prize monies , but should the welfare of the players be taken a bit more seriously?

Foxtel have the Tuesday night slot for whatever reasons , perhaps its a higher viewing audience on that night , I wont elaborate on that.
What I will say is the players deserve a lengthier break between local league games and a Tuesday night

I ask the question , purely from a players perspective
Should this game have been played this weekend, considering the importance of a Grand Final.?
Would a Sunday night night game been a better option for the players?
An 8 day break, and no other footy being played in the AFL [after the twilight game has finished]
The players fresher, and perhaps better players chosen instead of being rested ?

From what I saw a fresher fitter West might have won this game by 40+ points, instead they almost lost

EF also had a 3 day break and had to travel, so their preparation was less than perfect as well
But invariably at this time of the year the South Australian teams are
more likely to play in wetter game conditions in the local comp, saturday's ,than the Western Australian teams
This means South Australian clubs are disadvantaged to a degree

Seems to me a 7-8 day break would = the best team invariably winning

Maybe it could be better managed by the SANFL.

Today we had 3 Byes', Glenelg, West and Norwood.

My immediate memory doesn't let me remember if Glenelg played in the Fox cup,

Lets say they did, would not it have been a bit of foresight by the SANFL to set a bye the week before the Foxtel Cup GF If Norwood or say Glenelg or West made it to the GF they would have had a weeks rest to freshen up even, taking into account of the travel that may have been needed.

Scrappy, i agree with what you posted, there wasn't enough days to recover from the previous game which of course was Saturday, especially after playing in heavy conditions. The Grand final should have been played on the Thursday night instead of Tuesday...that would have given West and East Freo 2 extra days to recover. I mentioned this to a few West players after the game and all agree that 2 extra days rest would have been beneficial.

if West were worried about the limited time between games i'm sure they could have asked for the game to be played friday night rather than on the Saturday & no doubt the league would have granted that wish

They may have and been refused.

Nathan Bassett was concerned about 3 day breaks for these games.
I can tell you he was genuinely concerned over the players welfare.
So much so that quite a time before NW played EF it was always his intention to rest several senior players.

That Norwood ended up picking virtually a seconds team for the EF game , ends up being no surprise at all.

Whilst NW copped a fair bit of flack over the team they picked, it sincerely had the best interests of the players at heart beats true

I've never had a problem with Bassetts plan for the Foxtel Cup, but I think West whilst they perhaps haven't been as drastic with their "resting" process, need to be complimented on the depth of their list, and particularly the size of players, many of whom have seen reserves action this year.

Scrunch wrote:I've never had a problem with Bassetts plan for the Foxtel Cup, but I think West whilst they perhaps haven't been as drastic with their "resting" process, need to be complimented on the depth of their list, and particularly the size of players, many of whom have seen reserves action this year.

The Bloods were totally different last year when travelling to Perth to play Claremont, taking a very undermanned side that was properly thumped by over 100 points, I think we learned a lesson from that and picked stronger sides in our appearances in this years Foxtel cup.

Last year's trip to Perth was a great night or two out ruined by a game of footy.

Gee I have seen photos of some lovely people holding the cup

redandblack wrote:Last year's trip to Perth was a great night or two out ruined by a game of footy.

I remember the footy wasn't that good, but i can't remember if the 2 nights out were great..