Royals30; I appreciate your honest assessment and genuine question. While I agree with zmans that there was not a huge difference between 2nd and 9th over the past 2 seasons, I could see that we lacked a dominating big man (a Cox or Turnbull), a prolific ball getting midfielder who broke away from the stoppages (Perry, Wheatley, Chambers) any forward that could kick 60 goals (Wilson, Ridley), and a less than rocksolid defence (we did not have anything like the half-back line of 2000-2002.

In 2007 I agreed with 15 out of 16 pundits who had us down for a bottom 4 finish, I thought 6th. We played some cracking stuff on occasions that year to make the 4 - above my expectations and that of most 'impartial' judges. Before the 2008 season started, we had Agostino injured, Faced having little or no AFL player contribution, Had no ruckman of any standing, lost key players, failed to secure Whyman, etc. As I thought the team's 4th spot the previous year was primarily due to Bewick getting the most out of players,(as first year coaches often do) rather than to any new found levels of skill within the playing group, I predicted a bottom 3 finish for 2009. I hoped for better but when youngsters like Sweet and Macauley, who looked set to become regulars, but failed to fire and Reynolds struggled , McKinley vanished and Webbie, Oliver ans Seal got injured, by mid-season all my hope had gone.

I've seen 7 East Perth Premiership teams - as a young boy in 1958,1959 - and onwards, and watched us lose 9 Grand-Finals from 1960 onwards. This means I've seen 16 Grand-Finals in which The Royals were playing and you can't help but get a feel for quality players when you've seen so many high quality players in the past.

I also tape most WAFL games - even those not involving EP. In this way I keep a level head about the quality of opposition - and I have to say that there are plenty of better quality players in other teams in the WAFL than there is currently at EP. If I was to name the top 50 WAFL players I've seen this year - only 4 would come from EP. Thats not nearly enough if the team is to return to the top. Every other team, bar PFC, has more quality players than we do. { State selection and Sandover Medal votes tend to confirm this}

But I do believe that a coach like Micale can extract something extra from average players, bring the very best out of them and I'm sure there are 2 or 3 players in the current squad who will improve significantly under Micale. But this will only be enough to lift the Club off the bottom, not go all the way to the top. To do that we need quality players to match those playing for our opposition. At least we have a start there in 2009 with 2 or 3 AFL draftees. But I still think we need a further 5 to 7 highly skilled players and it may take 2 to 3 years before we are able to either recruit or develop this sort of number.

The only reason I have said I will hold Noel and Zmans accountable should the Club fail to finish high on the ladder is that they have both blamed Bewick and not the players for our wooden spoon and that the core of the squad is good. If it is that good - and they've dismissed opposing opinion that it isn't good, then, where Dean, me and a few others who are not impressed with the quality of player, can point to this lack of quality as a reason for not finishing high on the ladder in 2009, Noel and zmans cannot fall back on this justification. They will have to logically blame Micale. But somehow I don't think they could bring themselves to do that. If we don't race to the top in 2009, I suspect they will both find excuses in the attitude of the players, or major injury problems, or something to save face on their assessment of 2 things: 1} we have a good squad, 2} we have an outstanding coach. What could go wrong? Well, perhaps the Club can fly to the top. I'd be delighted. But if it doesn't I'll be waiting with interest to hear their explanations.