Season Review – Reserves

On reviewing the season for the development squad for season 2021, there came a lot of positives and some glimpses for our supporters and members of some future talent that will take our club forward.

Our objective as a coaching panel was to help our boys to become senior ready and for us to try and build a winning culture within the playing group. The playing group needs to be congratulated for the way they bought into the process and the messages that we tried to deliver to them throughout the season. A fantastic group of young men that the club should be proud of.

Throughout the season we had 59 players don the Westies jumper for the reserves, 10 of which were boys that came up from the 2020 Under 18 program. It was exciting to see the boys come into the program and develop their game, with several showing us that they are going to play a big role at our football club. Michael Laudato, Harvey Bock, Hugo Kelly, Kane Sherlock and Tom Faulkner were some of the boys that featured in the squad and will put smiles on our supporters faces for many years to come.

We also had the chance to give some of our current under 18s a taste of senior footy with 6 boys playing with us this year. Dylan McCormick, Harry Lemmey, Antonio James, Dylan White, Luke Young and Cade Kennedy all came in and made an impact, showing us that our future is bright. Even more promising is that there are several others ready to make the transition into the senior program next year.

Along with the young lads we had some boys come to the club from interstate or other clubs around South Australia. Frane Babic, Charlie Allan, Hamish Gordon, Jesse Johnson Lucas Meline, Luke Redfern and Nick Steele all playing a major role in pushing the club further and understanding what it means to play for the West Adelaide Football club by investing in the playing and coaching group.

Throughout the season we played some moments of an exciting brand of football, with some high speed ball movement which in turn gave us some high scores.  Finishing the minor rounds with 9 wins and 9 losses and coming in 4^th on the season ladder. Throughout the season we constantly pushed the message of developing a winning culture and not being afraid to talk about playing finals and the direction in which we wanted to take the club.

Although only playing the one elimination final against Central Districts, we felt as a group we left our season short. The playing group were disappointed with the result and will use this as motivation moving forward into 2022.

An extremely happy and proud moment for our football club to see Ed Allan win the reserves Magarey medal. A reward for a consistent year, he also demonstrated incredible leadership and a want to win games of footy in our program.

On behalf of the development squad program, I would like to thank all our beloved members and supporters for all their support throughout the season. It never goes unnoticed the regular faces you see in the crowds at the early game. Without doubt the most passionate and loyal supporter base a football club could ask for. Our football club cannot be the place we want it to be without you. We as a group understand what it means to play for this football club and hopefully throughout this season some of our up-and-coming young talent has put a smile on your faces and shown you that our football club has some exciting times ahead.

Thank you all

Go Bloods!

Ryan Anderson