West Adelaide coach Gavin Colville confident Bloods can bounce back next season
West Adelaide has endured a frustrating season, but coach Gavin Colville has plenty of optimism for the future.
West Adelaide coach Gavin Colville has no doubt the club is headed in the right direction and the platform is being built to again become a competitive force.
Despite going into the clash against Sturt at Unley Oval on Sunday on the back of only two wins for the season, Colville is extremely optimistic the club can bounce back next season.
He said a few things had not fallen in favour of the Bloods, including the loss of Will Snelling and John Noble in the mid-season draft, and the club was focused on the long-term future.
“Teams are focused on the finals, we have an eye on the longer term and where we are heading as a footy club,” Colville said. “We talk about opportunity and we have a lot of opportunity to set up the future of the club.
“It was a little move forward last week with the win over North Adelaide. Absolutely, we are headed in the right direction.
“There are genuinely eight to 10 guys who will push up from this year’s under 18 side next year. We have moved on some guys who were not quite consistent with our values and replaced them with guys who are.
“The guys are engaged and training hard so I’m happy where they are at with that aspect. If we can set the foundations right this year we will win more games.”
The Bloods have lost their past seven contests against the Double Blues, while the home side has won 18 of the past 20 battles at Unley Oval.
For the first time this season, the Bloods could go into the game with an unchanged line-up after responding to the hefty loss to Port Adelaide with the win over the Roosters.
“To come out of the Port game and have Jono Beech, Josh Ryan and Brett Turner all gone, we were just pumped to get that win last week,” Colville said.
“Some young guys are getting a go. There are always things that are positive, you have just got to look for them harder.”
Turner’s season has been ended by ankle surgery, while Beech and Ryan are sidelined with a knee and ankle problem respectively.
SANFL ON SUNDAY
Eagles v Central District
Maughan Thiem Kia Oval, Woodville, 2.10pm
Radio: 1079 Life FM
Port Adelaide v Glenelg
Alberton Oval, 2.10pm
Sturt v West Adelaide
Peter Motley Oval, Unley, 2.10pm