EARL SPALDING REFLECTS ON HIS FIRST TWELVE MONTHS IN CHARGE WHILST KEEPING AN EYE ON 2016

2015 isn’t a year that will be remembered fondly amongst Demon supporters.

The team only won two games for the season and finished bottom of the ladder for the fourth time in the last decade.

Perth coach Earl Spalding though is positive that the groundwork laid this season can help the club move up the ladder in the years to come.

“The last twelve months has been a big learning curve in terms of getting to know the players and we have got some games into the younger guys so hopefully they can step up even further next season.”

One of those young guys that Spalding speaks about is Jared Bell.  Before this year Bell hadn’t played a league game, by the end of it he had played 19 and has been spoken about as a potential AFL draftee.  His performances culminated in him finishing third in the best and fairest and being awarded the Doug Buckingham Memorial Trophy for most promising player.

Cody Leggett (14 games in 2015), Brent Edmonds (11), Scott Doncon (11), Kurtis Chester (10) and Reid Polak (7) were other players to taste league football this season and all showed signs of development as the year went on.

Leggett also won the Vince Pendal Award this year while Chester claimed the Greg Brehaut Medal for best player in the development side.

With so many young players already at the club and a new group coming out of the colts system now, Spalding says it is important that these players continue to strive for improvement and this all depends on how hard they want to work heading into 2016.

“I think in the past some guys are happy just being league players and not striving to be the best player they can be and this is something that we are certainly trying to change.”

“We need to make sure that the players keep driving themselves and want to keep improving.”

Early indications are that the team want to do just that with players having taken it upon themselves to already get back into training in the hope of improving the clubs fortunes in 2016.

“The players obviously need a mental break but there’s already a lot better numbers in the gym and they’ve already started their own training group which has been pleasing to see.”

After changing their game style numerous times throughout the season Spalding admits that this is an area where the players must improve and will be heavily focussed on during preseason.

“We changed our game style probably three or four times throughout the year away from what we wanted to do at structures, stoppages, kick ins and even our ball movement to a lesser extent.”

“We just didn’t think we were capable of doing what we wanted to do.”

“The challenge for us is to be able to keep progressing this and have a better understanding from a coaching point of view as to when we think they are ready to progress to the next level and how far they can go without pushing too far.”

“We need to be mindful that they are still a young group and we have to keep our finger on the pulse in terms of what we think they can take onboard.”

Recruiting has long been a hot topic amongst Demon supporters and Spalding admits that there are holes in the list that need filling if the team is to improve next season.

“There is a big hole in the ruck.  We think Christian Eyres will keep improving but short term we can’t afford to have our centre half back doing our ruck work for six weeks because we have got nothing else.  We need to find a ruckman pretty quickly.”

“We are also lacking in key forwards and that will be a focus for us as well.”

“We are pretty confident that we have enough room for definitely three new players in terms of points and salary cap but we are just finding the right ones.”

“It’s easier said than done to go and recruit and you try to speak to as many guys as you can.”

Spalding believes though that the club doesn’t just want any players coming through the door.  He wants them to be quality people that can nurture and teach a young playing group as well as being able to perform their roles on the football field.

“We have made a bit of a pact that we are going to chase quality citizens as well as quality people.  I think that this is really important with the young group that we have got going through.”

“There has been a big turnover of player personnel in the last three years and in particular last year there was a big exodus.  We don’t want to go through that every second year so it is important that we find the right people.”

After last preseason we heard some players saying that it was the hardest they had done while at the club and Spalding promises to turn it up another level again this year.

“I think the guys were saying last year it was the hardest preseason that they had done, well that will be the second hardest after next year.  We will up the ante again with our running.”

“Once again we will be working on skill development and ball movement development pretty early on as well.”