Recruited from the Geelong Falcons with pick No.56 at the 2008 NAB AFL Draft, Bucovaz was initially aligned with Claremont, where he battled injury and struggled to excel in his debut year.
He has been a key player for East Fremantle this season, and the 19-year-old was rewarded with this week’s WAFL player of the round award.
Youngsters Zac Clarke and Jesse Crichton were also impressive, while senior players Byron Schammer and Steven Dodd continue to produce consistent football for their WAFL clubs.
Ahead of this week’s fixtures, senior development coach Simon Lloyd shared his WAFL notes with fremantlefc.com.au.
West Perth 6.10 (46) lost to Claremont 17.9 (111)
Byron Schammer
Byron played forward and onball and finished with 30 possessions in a hard-working performance. He spread really well from stoppages and reacted to free kicks really quickly, which is something we keep an eye on. He won plenty of contested possessions and read the ruckman extremely well. It was an even four-quarter performance from Byron.
East Perth 16.15 (111) d Subiaco 15.13 (103)
Hamish Shepheard
Hamish played centre-half forward opposed to experienced defender Darren Rumble and didn’t have a great deal of impact. He covered the ground well and used the ball effectively with his 13 possessions; we just need him to get involved a little bit more often. He laid some strong tackles, one of which resulted in a goal for his team.
Zac Clarke
Zac rucked against Michael Rix, who got the better of him earlier in the season, and took the chocolates this time around. He looked lively from the start and his centre bounce work was good. One of his greatest assets is his athleticism and he ran hard to some very good spots. He was one of East Perth’s best players and took some good marks in the last quarter when the game was on the line.
South Fremantle 14.10 (94) lost to Swan Districts 17.13 (115)
Ryan Murphy
Ryan started full-forward and competed really well in the air, taking two strong contested marks early. He kicked 4.1 playing quite deep. We know he plays really well when he’s stationed deep in the forward line, now we’d like to see how he goes up the ground a bit more.
Clayton Hinkley
Clayton started in the middle and changed through half-forward and the wing in a solid game. His positioning was very good early at the centre bounces and he was able to push his opponent under the ball. He showed real purpose with his tackling and his clearances and kicked a 40m goal in the second quarter. He was running and making the play, which is what we want to see from Clayton.
Clancee Pearce
Clancee started at half-forward and mixed up starting positions between wing and high forward. We really wanted to see Clancee up forward and he started well, getting a couple of early inside 50s. He had eight possessions before colliding with a teammate and being concussed. He came back on but wasn’t seeing it as well as he should have been, so that ended his day. We’ll be watching to see how Clancee goes up forward.
Michael Walters
Michael started on the wing, occasionally went forward and was in the middle for a couple of centre bounces. He started with great intensity and played with real purpose off the wing, beating his opponent on most occasions. He had three inside 50s that all resulted in goals and had six tackles. His second half wasn’t as involved, but he had a really good game all round.
East Fremantle 26.17 (173) d Peel Thunder 5.11 (41)
Ben Bucovaz
Ben played half-forward, onball and deep forward kicking seven goals and giving a couple off as well. He was very smart with his positioning in attack and used his body really well. He booted four of his goals in the last quarter and benefited from getting front and square. He had it 18 times and took five grabs, so a lot of his goals were when he was on the move.
Chris Hall
We’ve been instructing Chris to break the lines and run and carry and he did that a number of times, showing that he is really coachable. He had six inside 50s and showed some real intent with the 50-50 balls. He played with a lot of confidence in the first half and took a number of running bounces.
Steven Dodd
Steven played onball, half-back and wing finishing with 32 possessions and a goal. When he did play onball, which was a different role we wanted to see him in, he had plenty of it, amassing 10 possessions in the second quarter and earning a tag from that point on. He looked dangerous when he went forward and really took his work rate to another level when he was tagged.
Jesse Crichton
Jesse played wing, half-forward and back and earned a lot of his own ball with Peel under the pump. He had a really good balance of winning his own footy and also receiving it on the outside. He’s always on the move, rarely walks and his defensive pressure is great. Jesse worked really hard in a team that lost by 132 points and didn’t drop his head at any stage.
