Noel; I think maybe you are trying to convince me that country leagues are of a high standard and therefore ipso facto - country players are good. But as Mark says the playing talent in our metro zone is thin on the ground and it could be said - rather harshly perhaps - that the reason we won the wooden spoon is precisely because we have so many country players who when mixed with average quality interstaters leaves us well short of the standard of our competitors.

I'm not knocking the contribution the country lads make to East Perth (and other WAFL clubs) but it is indeed, as Mark says, the paucity of metro talent that continues to hurt us the most.