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Development The Key For Perth Youngsters

Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - 10:00 AM by Andrew Owen
After turning over more than half their playing list from 2015, many would not have expected Perth to be sitting atop of the colt’s ladder after nine rounds, let alone undefeated.
 
Andrew Ruck is in his first season as colts coach and while he is pleased by his sides start to the season, more pleasing for him and his fellow coaches has been the development of the playing group over the last seven months.
 
“It’s been a good start and there have been a lot of different challenges but it’s been fun and the group are enjoying the challenges that they face each week.”
 
“It sounds probably pretty cliché but we don’t pay too much attention to the scoreboard, it’s more about the development of the players and this is something that we have been keen to reinforce from the start.”
 
“We want to be able to promote as many players as we can from our group to the senior team in the following couple of years and we don’t really want them going up their with too many deficiencies.”
 
To try and correct the deficiencies in different players games, Ruck and his coaching group have implemented ‘craft sessions’ into training after Senior Coach Earl Spalding introduced them at senior training. 
 
“In regards to the craft sessions, as soon as the players get here which is around 5-5:30pm we get to work on their deficiencies.”
 
“Every player has deficiencies and we try to identify these particular deficiencies in our players and spend 15-20 minutes working with them each night.”
 
“Some nights we can have anywhere from six to seven groups, working on all different aspects of the game from contested marking to skill execution and decision making.”
 
“We think this has had a really positive effect on the playing group and by setting some minimum standards when it comes to skill level and training habits, which the players have really bought into, is probably the difference between us winning games and not winning games.”
 
One thing the team will have to adjust to over the coming months is the loss of players to the State 18’s and also to the Private School’s Association.
 
Zac Fisher, Quinton Narkle, John Levien, Gordon Narrier, Anton Scotney and Kristian Morisey have all been selected in the WA squad for this year’s national under-18 championships which will begin next month.
 
If the Demons are to continue their good start to the season they will need others to step up in these players absence.
 
“When you take ten or eleven guys out of your team, most sides really find it difficult and I have found over the last three or four weeks that our depth is quite strong.”
 
“When these players come in we are not expecting the world or asking them to get 20 touches, we are just asking them to beat their man and try and give us a little bit on the rebound and do all the little things that make the good sides good and so far this has been the case.”
 
The Perth colts group of 2016 is very diverse and dynamic with players coming from all over the Demons catchment zones.
 
Northam is home to the Perth Northern Satellite’s Squad.  Here players that are playing colt’s football or a part of the 16’s development squad meet on Monday’s at the Clontarf Academy to recover and train for the week ahead.
 
“There’s probably around 10-12 players that are a part of this squad at the moment working with Jarrod Chipperfield and Matthew Stokes.”
 
"We are using a program called hudl, where we are able to upload vision with feedback from the previous week's game.  This allows the players to sit down and review their vision on Monday."
 
“This saves them from travelling down three nights a week and I know it’s only one night but at the end of the year, one night every week makes a big difference.”
 
With the team not having lost a game so far this season expectations around Ruck’s side are starting to rise.
 
“Externally, expectations and pressures are probably a little bit higher but internally when we do our reviews I keep emphasising to the players that it’s about earning the respect of their teammates that they play with each week.”
 
“I think that at the end of the day if you can earn the respect of your teammates and aim to train as well as you possibly can, then as they progress through the grades this will hold them and the Perth Football Club in good stead.  

Next Game - League

Round 6
Saturday, 04 May
V
2:30 PM at Fremantle Community Bank Oval
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Ladders

Team P W L % Pts
East PerthEast Perth431130.712
Peel ThunderPeel Thunder431129.312
South FremantleSouth Fremantle321124.38
West PerthWest Perth321121.98
SubiacoSubiaco42298.28
PerthPerth42284.18
Swan DistrictsSwan Districts312109.34
ClaremontClaremont41378.64
West CoastWest Coast41356.34
East FremantleEast Fremantle312130.20
Team P W L % Pts
PerthPerth440174.516
ClaremontClaremont440154.516
SubiacoSubiaco422133.98
East PerthEast Perth42296.08
South FremantleSouth Fremantle211112.04
East FremantleEast Fremantle21189.44
Swan DistrictsSwan Districts20272.60
Peel ThunderPeel Thunder30369.00
West PerthWest Perth30342.30
Team P W L % Pts
ClaremontClaremont440155.016
PerthPerth421122.210
Swan DistrictsSwan Districts220117.98
East PerthEast Perth42294.08
SubiacoSubiaco42282.08
East FremantleEast Fremantle211130.84
West PerthWest Perth30285.32
Peel ThunderPeel Thunder30369.80
South FremantleSouth Fremantle20259.60
Team P W L % Pts
West PerthWest Perth550407.820
East FremantleEast Fremantle651183.720
Swan DistrictsSwan Districts642125.616
SubiacoSubiaco642124.516
South FremantleSouth Fremantle73470.412
ClaremontClaremont52398.38
PerthPerth62480.48
Peel ThunderPeel Thunder61554.04
East PerthEast Perth50535.30

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