West v Norwood trial.

It's only a trial, but I was pretty happy with West's effort on Friday night against Norwood.

Norwood had a few out, in particular James Allan and Sam Baulderstone, whereas West had more than a dozen regulars not playing and stood up well.

New recruits Andrew Hayes (looking very fit and certainly very effective), Kaine Stevens and Richard Newell all contributed well, Ben Fisher fitted back in nicely and the engine-room of Tuck, Schmidt, MacReadie and co all got plenty of the footy.

A new style was evident and it was nice to see the ball in West's forward line with plenty of targets to kick to and often 18 Norwood players flooding their backline. Nothing wrong with that at all, it's standard fare now from most sides.

Newton looked terrific early, but wasn't sighted much after Kurt Thompson was switched onto him.

It will be interesting to see just how much Norwood miss the host of players missing from last year.

It was West's first outing and some nice signs.

As I didn't concentrate on the Norwood players so much, how did their fans see Callum Bartlett's game?

(Big Phil, you were there, how did you see the trial from an independent viewpoint?)

PS: Richmond Oval looked magnificent, comfortably the best ground in the SANFL now, I'd say.

I agree with you on the trial report R&B but the lighting is terrible, not up to standard IMO.

I might take my spot light with me this week, seriously the lights are very dull from a spectators point of view, and sitting in the Grandstand it is nearly impossible to tell who has the ball when the play is on the far side of the ground.

Agree with you about the lights, testy.

I asked a player about it and there's no problem from their point of view, but I couldn't pick up players on the other side of the ground either.

Yeah agree. Lights were poor and so was the catering. Only 2 sausage rolls were left about 20 mins before the main game started and there was no other hot food. Catering has been poor for a number of years for our trials unfortunately.

Yes, agree. Especially with such a great BBQ...

The sausage roll I got at 1/2 time of the ressies was stone cold...