By Chris Pike
A POTENTIALLY dominant ruck combination, performing veterans and promising youngsters are giving Subiaco reason to be excited about the second half of the WAFL season.
Subiaco returned to second spot on the WAFL ladder with a 21-point win over Swan Districts on Saturday and could be on top with a win over South Fremantle at Fremantle Oval this week.
A loss to Swans could have seen the Lions slip to fourth and just ahead on percentage of fifth-placed East Fremantle.
That looked likely at three quarter-time after the black-and-whites kicked eight goals to one in third term, but Subiaco finished strongly with nine goals in the last for the crucial win.
Subiaco did dominate the first half, but couldn’t put a score on the board and only led by 24 points at half-time after kicking 2.7 in the second. Coach Scott Watters was disappointed by that and certainly concerned by three quarter-time, but was delighted by his team's response.
"We had a lot of opportunities in the first half to break the game open, but our conversion just wasn’t where it needed to be. We were disappointed with that at half-time, but they are a very good side and got momentum in the third quarter," Watters said.
"They are one of the best sides at running forward of the contest and we didn’t arrest that anywhere near quickly enough. It took us until three quarter-time to readdress a few things and pleasingly we got back to some of the things that were working well in the first half. The guys responded to the challenge and that was great."
Lively forward Trent Dennis-Lane was well held by Luke Pratt in the first three quarters, but stepped up for three goals in the last and Watters was pleased to see him hang in there to contribute.
"He is still learning a lot about the game and has received more attention the last few weeks, but he did keep working and eventually the game broke open for us, and him," he said.
"Sometimes that is the life as a forward and it might not be happening for you, but you can still capitalise quickly and he did that well."
Since making his debut in 2006, Raphael Stack has been in and out of the Subiaco team and has missed all three premierships in that time. However, he is now cementing himself as a running defender after 21 games and his 28-possession effort on Saturday was tremendous.
That hunger of missing the premiership continues to drive him and while he keeps playing with his edge, Watters expects the 22-year-old to continue developing as a quality player.
"Stacky plays hungrily every week and has been in and out of the side, but he's now found his feet as a footballer and has been through the hard education process, and doesn’t want to let that education slip now. Whilst he maintains that edge, he will continue to be a good player," he said.
"He's played over 20 games now and has learnt a lot over the last couple of years. There were areas of his game that he needed to address and it got to a make or break stage with him halfway through last year where unless he made some changes, he wasn’t going to go forward.
"He understands the role he needs to play now a lot better and knows how to play within his limitations and to his strengths. He was terrific, ran really hard and gave us good rebound."
Former St Kilda ruckman Michael Rix was delisted at the end of last season after 29 AFL games and played three reserves games for the Lions before making his league debut.
He was impressive with 44 hit outs and 14 possessions and Watters can't wait to team him with Luke Newick, who has now played two reserves games after being out injured since Round 3.
"He's (Rix) a good player and is a month away from his best footy. It says a lot about a player who can come in still without full match conditioning, and play with that spirit and impact. You don’t have to look far away from his last quarter with seven or eight telling contests and handball to see what he can do," Watters said.
"We are really looking forward to getting him and Luke Newick up and running. Luke got through another reserves game and in his own right is an outstanding ruckman. It gives us something that we've never had and it's extremely exciting. Luke has absorbed an enormous amount of pressure at this footy club and it will be terrific to get those guys working together."
Marc Webb captained Subiaco to its hat-trick of premierships the last three years and while Brad Smith, Aidan Parker and Kyal Horsley have taken over this season, Webb's form has been superb.
He has averaged 24 possessions, had another 32 against Swan Districts and the 30-year-old is playing and leading as well as he ever has.
"The great thing about Webby is that he's healthy this year after battling some injuries last year that made it difficult for him to play at the level he wanted," he said.
"He's been extremely consistent this year and even though he's not officially the captain, his leadership has been as good, if not better, than any time I've been at the club. I'm a huge admirer of the way he goes about it and he's setting a strong standard this year."
It has been a long two seasons for utility Ben Randall and he only made it back for three games last year before missing the premiership and Saturday was his first game of 2009. He played well with 22 possessions and Watters is glad to have him back.
"We threw Randy in a couple of weeks earlier than we would have thought, but that's because we rate him so highly as a leader and one of our competitors," he said.
"We knew that he would stand up and play a role for us, and him going into the middle late in the game gave us some grit and that's when we started to turn it around. I'm just really pleased that he got through his first game and we're looking forward to him building from there."
Subiaco now take on South Fremantle and it's a club Watters is familiar with and Fremantle Oval is a ground he is tremendously fond of. However, revenge for the Round 4 thumping from the Bulldogs is on his mind.
"It's back to Fremantle Oval, an oval I'm very fond of, and I have an enormous amount of respect for South Fremantle as a football club. They touched us up earlier in the year and we will go in underdogs against a really good side, but we are looking forward that challenge," he said.
"We are moving towards our best footy, but still have some areas that we can get better in, and the challenge for our group is to get themselves up and play with that consistency again that they showed against Swans. The West Perth loss was a mental issue and that's not a place that we want to go back to. This is an opportunity for the players to show where they are at."
