2016 Report – League coach Todd Curley

WE made a lot of improvements in a lot of areas during the 2016 season to go from winning eight games to 15, playing finals for the first time, playing three finals and winning one.

In that first final against West Perth, we were really good and then against Subi we were really good for two and-a-half quarters but it was just the last 15 minutes of the third quarter that let us down. Then we got jumped against Peel and fought our way back in to still be a chance early in the last quarter but couldn’t take our chances again.

Upon reflection we still have a pretty young group and we think it was a step in the right direction in 2016. The challenge now is to come prepared to work hard again and make it another year in 2017 where we reach finals first of all and give ourselves a chance.

Once you qualify for finals you are always as good a chance as anyone else to have a crack at going all the way, but we knew it was always going to be a challenge of beating that Peel team in the preliminary final. We were still confident that at our best we could beat them and we had done that during the year with their Fremantle players. But clearly we weren’t at our best on the day and against a team that talented, you have to be at your best.

To finish in that fashion was a bit disappointing but we only had one bye after the mid-point of the year and that game was our ninth in-a-row since our last bye in Round 17. Whether that had anything to do with it or not, I'm not sure, but it didn’t help. Still, if you said this time last year that we would win 15 games, play three finals, win one convincingly and be competitive against the two grand final teams, then we definitely would have taken that.

Even though a lot of our players have played finals at colts and reserves level before at the club, but this was the first chance for most of them to play finals at league level and that will prove a great learning experience for them. We were able to get a lot of wins on the board early to qualify for finals fairly early and then attack the top two spot. It was a really good year but we are back to square one now and everyone will be trying to improve, like us, to chase Subiaco and Peel.

One thing we've been really strong on as a club is that we want to bring South Fremantle players back to the club after they have an opportunity in the AFL. We want to provide the environment to give them another chance and Blaine Johnson, Dylan Main and Mason Shaw had strong years. Blaine was hampered by a little bit of hamstring trouble in the second half of the year but they all had a strong impact, and Tom Vandeleur is someone who can really jump up further in 2017 along with our other younger guys like Dragovich, Donaldson and Tyson Pickett.

We defended pretty well throughout the season which was good. I thought as a group we missed Adam McIntosh after he broke his leg because he gives us so much flexibility and leadership. Unfortunately Adam Guglielmana hurt his hamstring late in the year too. But Josh Pullman was fantastic for us going back into that key role and our backs were pretty strong, but when you win 15 games generally a few things go right.

Marlion Pickett had an amazing year as well. Sometimes we catch ourselves laughing at the things he can do in the coaches' box because some of it is pretty special. He has really grown as a person too over the last 18 months. He is a real leader now especially with the Indigenous boys and he has really helped Tyson come on in leaps and bounds. He has gone from a talented, quiet member of the group to someone who is really confident with his place and is quite comfortable now to speak up. We obviously relied on him a fair bit but some of the defensive stuff he does for us might get overlooked because of what he does with the ball, but defensively he is a pleasure to coach.

We targeted the recruiting of Shane Hockey for a reason and he was fantastic. We certainly felt our other young midfielders learned and developed a lot just from seeing how he worked and by being around him. We think most of our young group will provide most of our development and growth now going forward because of that experience.

One of the most pleasing things to see is that the players have taken on the responsibility that it is their group and club, and their career so what they get out of it is what they put into it. Our leaders really stood up this year to drive the group and the younger players went along with them. There seemed to be a mood at the whole club that everyone was there for the right reasons and to work hard, and the focus was all on the team. Things generally go right when that is the case so we will look to continue that.

All of our staff do a mountain of work and they are a great support to me, and a great support to the players who do a great job. Collectively we work as an entire coaching group and that includes those who work in the reserves and seniors, and linking into the colts. We are strong with the player group that there is no one player more important than the next and we value everyone's input, and it's exactly the same with the coaching group.

Moving forward, we have worked hard on building the way we want to play so that won't change a lot but we will look to improve facets of it. There has been quite a lot of change to our list over the past two years but we think the majority of our players will now stay together for 2017 and hopefully the little taste they had of finals footy this year will drive them to want to play more and more, and improve more and more.

On a personal note, it was a great finish to the year to see the Western Bulldogs win the AFL premiership. It was a fantastic game as well and it's just fantastic for the supporters of the club and the people who volunteer, and have worked there for a long time. To be able to go back to the function after the game and see all those familiar faces that were working so hard when I was there who are still there, and to see them enjoy a premiership was very enjoyable.

Todd Curley
Senior Coach