Demons Looking To Improve In 2016

It hasn’t been a great last couple of years for Perth.  Having only been able to notch five wins from 40 games the Demons have been aggressive on the recruiting front, in a bid to try and play finals for the first time in 18 seasons.

League Coach Earl Spalding pin-pointed a lack of experience in the playing group at the end of last season and this is something he and the football department have looked to address in the offseason.

“We identified last year we were a very young group and even some of our senior players hadn’t played a lot of senior footy really.”

The first player to sign on was former Richmond and Adelaide ruckman Angus Graham who has played over 100 games at AFL and State League level.

The next was Clint Jones who has played 149 AFL games and 84 WAFL games.  He is a two-time best and fairest winner and a premiership player at his former club South Fremantle and is coming off an impressive season with VFL side Sandringham.  In 2015 Jones won the Best and Fairest at the Zebras, finished second in the J.J. Liston Trophy and was named centre in the VFL team of the year.

Soon to follow Jones’s signature was one of his former teammates at St Kilda in key forward Spencer White while Peel Thunder’s Laine Wilkins and South Fremantle’s Stephen Mills both decided to change clubs in search of more opportunities at Perth.

The Demons also recruited Kristian Cary from North Albury in Victoria and Taran Etto from Western Sydney Magpies in Sydney as well as having former players Julian Jacobs and Aaron Zucconi return to the club.  Combined these players have added roughly 600 games of AFL/State League experience to the team.

“Clint will bring a lot to the table with his experience and sets the example for everyone else to follow with just how hard he works.  Already even our senior guys are learning off him and he has been fantastic.”

“Angus will hopefully give us first hands in the ruck more often than not and be able to go forward and have an impact as well.”

“Spencer will give us a tall target up forward to kick to and that’s something we haven’t had at this club for a while.  He’s only young in terms of his development and maturity but we are really happy he is on board.”

“Laine is a fantastic kid and has got really good outside speed.  We realised last year we didn’t have any great outside players.  In Laine we have someone who we can get the ball to on the outside and use it and so far he has been really important in that area.”

“We played Stephen as a ruckman against South Fremantle and he did alright there.  We have also used him as an outside mid as he can really kick the ball and is not a bad runner.  I think he gives us a bit of flexibility around the ground.”

“Kristian has been building since arriving just after Christmas and once the practice matches against opposition started he has certainly stepped up and looks to be an exciting player for us.”

“Taran runs really hard and puts his body on the line.  He’s a guy who is pretty easy to like with the way he goes about his football.”

“Julian has got great running power.  You probably don’t notice it when you’re watching the game but certainly when you are watching it back on video it’s startling how many contests he gets to and how hard he works.”

“Having an experienced bigger body down there in Aaron it’s been able to allow a Brent Latch and David Johnson to play freer roles down back.  He’s only played one full preseason game so far so the best of him is yet to come but you can’t underestimate how important it has having a player down back with his experience and body size.”

In addition to the new recruits, the coaching staff has also been working hard with the players on the training track to try and address some of the issues that plagued the team in 2015.

“Last year our structures fell down and we were forced to play a lot of one-on-one footy which we weren’t too keen on.”

“This preseason we are certainly making inroads into fixing things from last year in terms of our structures around the ground and ball movement.”

“I’ve certainly seen some signs that these areas have improved over the last couple of weeks.”

“Against South Fremantle I thought our ball movement was fantastic however we didn’t get reward for effort and that’s something we have got to improve on, especially against the better sides.”
 

Over the last three seasons there has been plenty of players leave the club.  This off season has been no different with Chance Bateman, Chris Billings, Daniel O’Sullivan, Jarryd Morton and Mitch Morton no longer at the club.  Other players to depart are Daniel Arangio, Blake Borrett, Michael Florio, Brett Hodge, Joel Kalajzic, Joel Leeson, Scott Moore, Kane Ransted, Kelvin Lawrence, Ben Power, Haydn Tanner and Matt Welburn.

Last season Spalding and the football department made the decision to concentrate on youth with 16 players making their debuts for the Demons.  Spalding admits that while not all of these players will go on to be a success it’s given the ones who have the will and desire to push on a taste of league football.

“Out of those 16, some are going to fall by the wayside.  That’s just a part of life when you are coming from as far back as we are.”

“But it’s given them a taste and some of those guys have really stepped up this year and will continue to improve.”

“The good thing about where the club is at the moment in terms of the playing group is they’re not tolerating anything less than 100% from their teammates.”

“When you have got that happening you are a chance of not only continuing to improve but becoming a successful side and it’s up to us to nurture that.”

With 16 debuting last year there are sure to be a couple more this season.  According to Spalding players such as Zac Fisher, Corey Byrne and Matt Taylor all have the ability to play senior football in 2016.

“Zac Fisher is going to be really exciting.  Because of his age and size and the fact that he is still eligible to play colts, we have to be mindful of how we expose him to league football but he is a really exciting prospect.”

“Corey Byrne has played the last two practice matches in the league and he certainly hasn’t looked out of place.”

“Matt Taylor unfortunately hasn’t played any of the preseason games because of a shoulder injury but is someone who has a big future ahead of him.  He uses the ball really well and he’ll certainly get an opportunity at some stage to play league footy this year as long as his body holds up.”

Before the preseason started in November last year I spoke to Spalding and he mentioned how the numbers on the training track and in the gym were a significant improvement from the same time 12 months prior, even though training for the 2016 season hadn’t officially gotten underway yet.

This was all being driven by the leadership group which consisted of Captain Dene White, Aidan Tropiano, Liam McKenna, Brent Latch, Michael Sinclair, Jared Bell, Jarrod Irons and Julian Jacobs who was only added to the group a couple of weeks ago.

“Football Manager Tyson Beattie identified seven guys originally to be a part of our leadership group.  A few of them were obvious choices and some were a bit from left field in terms of not that they wouldn’t make a good leader but were they ready.”

“Someone like a Jared Bell who has only played one year of senior footy but has grown into the role of a young leader and like the rest of the group has earned the respect of his teammates.”

“It’s really important from my point of view that these standards are driven by the playing group.”

“They need to really understand what it takes to be a success individually and collectively and I am certain that they have a better understanding of this now than they had last year.”