A scintillating two-point clash between West Coast and Perth may have ended in the Demons favour, but that hasn’t stopped recently assigned WAFL captain Zane Sumich from commending the Eagles’ effort and resilience after Saturday’s match.
After Perth equalised the score – to 23 points apiece – at the half-time break, West Coast broke away to a 14-point lead in the last term, before being overrun by Perth in the final minutes of the match.
The spirited performance shows West Coast’s WAFL development over the pre-season, under new senior coach Rob Wiley and captain Sumich, with faultless fight and plenty to like from the AFL-listed and WAFL-listed players.
“I thought the boys fought out the game really well, despite not coming away with the four points, the effort was there all game,” Sumich said.
“In our Monday meeting Rob was saying he was pleased with the team’s work rate, it was just the finishing punches late in the game we couldn’t quite get.
“I think we’ve got a big year ahead, we had the effort but just needed that will to win late in the game when it got really close.
“We needed that grunt, not just me but the whole team, if we have that correlating with effort it will get us over the line coming into the rest of the season.”
Xavier O’Neill was the Eagles’ top performer on the day, finishing the match with 27 disposals and 10 inside 50s, while Jake Waterman (12 marks, two goals), Brady Hough (19 disposals, nine marks) and Greg Clark (18 disposals, nine tackles) also impressed.
WAFL-listed Josh Browne (23 disposals, six marks) and Ambrose Ryan (15, three) also did some good things with the ball and earned the highly sung praise of Sumich.
“Obviously the AFL-listed boys stood out, ‘X’ was the engine of the midfield, had 10 inside 50s and over 25 disposals, ‘Snake’ was also good in front of goal,” he said.
“Josh Browne also impressed me, he’s a young kid and it was his first game, he’s really improved and his gut running all day saved us a few times.
“He played in a deep defensive role and definitely stopped a few goals back there.
“Ambrose Ryan’s running both ways has also improved a lot, his work rate was amongst the best for the day.”
Despite narrowly missing out on the four premiership points, Sumich says his first game as captain was a success and is looking forward to the team’s first victory of under his leadership.
“It was a good first game to captain, I was excited but nervous, I haven’t captained a WAFL team before,” he said.
“I stuffed up my pre-season speech and the boys had a good laugh, that just goes to show they’re a great team to captain.
“Dad (Peter Sumich, West Coast AFL, 150 games, 514 goals) was out there watching on in the grandstand.
“He enjoys watching WAFL footy and was pretty rapt when I told him I was captaining the side.
“I’m definitely looking forward to the rest of the season.”
