WAFL watch: Grover impresses
Antoni Grover pushed his claims for a senior recall after returning from a knee injury, while Michael Walters and Clayton Hinkley shone
Swan Districts midfielders Michael Walters and Clayton Hinkley were also impressive, while Scott Thornton continued his comeback playing for Swans’ reserves side due to South Fremantle’s bye.
Youngsters Joel Houghton, Justin Bollenhagen and Hamish Shepheard were left out of last week’s matches as the club manages their fitness, while Ryan Murphy and Brock O’Brien are having injuries assessed. Byron Schammer travelled to Brisbane as an emergency.
Ahead of this week’s fixtures, senior development coach Simon Lloyd shared his WAFL notes with fremantlefc.com.au.
Subiaco 12.10 (82) d East Fremantle 9.15 (69)
Antoni Grover
Antoni has worked extremely hard through his rehab program and he played very well in his first game back. He demonstrated strong positioning in contests and read the play well off half-back. He provided strong rebound and was very clean with his hands in the air and below his knees. He got better as the game went on.
Chris Hall
Chris played half-forward, onball and on the wing and kicked two goals. He tested No.1 at the 2008 draft camp in the beep test, so he’s got great endurance, and he looked his best when on a wing. He has a bigger body now, we just need to continually get games into him.
Ben Bucovaz
Ben played half-forward and his all-round pressure was very good. Tackling is something we’re reinforcing with all of our forwards and Ben laid eight tackles on the weekend. By his standards he didn’t have as strong a game as he has in the past few weeks, but we’ve been pleased with his progress.
Swan Districts 18.15 (123) d East Perth 16.12 (108)
Michael Walters
Michael’s playing some very consistent football and he was one of the best on ground again this week, playing mostly at half-forward and on the wing. He won a lot of contested ball, both at ground level and in the air, and he was running as good as we’ve seen. His work-rate was solid all day and as a result he took 10 marks, mostly out in space, and laid six tackles.
Clayton Hinkley
Clayton started midfield on Brent Cowell from East Perth and did a good job to nullify him. He was one of Swan Districts’ best until he received a cork to his knee. His contested work was really good, he won a lot of hard balls and really took the game on when he had the footy, taking a couple of bounces. He hunted the footy and used the ball well by hand.
Clancee Pearce
Clancee started the game really well, but faded by his standards after the first quarter. He found a lot of the footy in the first term, having nine touches, and he worked really hard and played intelligent football. He spread well from the contest and worked hard to get front and square on one occasion to kick a good goal.
Scott Thornton (reserves)
Scott picked up 29 touches and was very smart with the spots he ran to in his second game back from injury. When he had time and space he used the ball very well and he broke a lot of lines. He’s progressing very well and we expect he will play league football this week. Swan Districts were very happy with the way Scott played, which says a lot about him.
Zac Clarke
Zac played in the ruck with a couple of short stints forward and matched up on experienced ruckman Llane Spaanderman, who probably had the better of him. The positive for Zac was that he pushed hard and got in good positions defensively. He also altered his ruck work when Spaanderman got on top of him, so he was thinking about his game.
Claremont 22.9 (141) d Perth 12.10 (82)
Casey Sibosado
Casey played back against David Crawford for the first half and beat him convincingly, in our opinion. He went to centre half-forward at the start of the third term and then went back again in the last, again on Crawford. While his team was convincingly beaten, he was one of their better players and one of their best defenders. He’s really showing something down back.
Tim Ruffles (reserves)
Tim copped a heavy knock early in his second week back but did enough to get through. He looked good when he had the ball and was very clean. He played mainly on the wing with a stint at half-forward, playing 75 minutes. We expect him to be completely up and running by the second half of the season.
Peel Thunder 16.17 (113) d West Perth 11.6 (72)
Jesse Crichton
Jesse played in a number of positions, forward, midfield and back, and caused a number of turnovers through his pressure and closing speed. He continually plays in a selfless manner and covers for his teammates. He has improved offensively, but it was one area that wasn’t as strong on the weekend. Having said that, it was one of his best games defensively.
The views in this article are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the club.