Selective recruiting tops up Falcons nicelyFriday, March 21, 2014 - 12:07 PM - by Chris Pike

WEST Perth wanted to add some height with the loss of Frank Stockley, Michael Pettigrew and Josh Mellington coming into 2014, and premiership coach Bill Monaghan likes the look of arrivals Seva Martin, Matthew Spencer and Marcus Adams already.

There was no need for the Falcons to look to make many changes following the 2013 premiership victory with only captain Jason Salecic retiring, Fremantle's Mellington being delisted and Mark Hutchings being forced to play with East Perth while listed by West Coast.

Those are the only three players not at the club in 2014 who played in the premiership and then Frank Stockley wanted the chance to be a No. 1 ruckman so left for Subiaco after winning the WAFL's best reserves player award in 2013.

That meant that Monaghan was very specific on what he wanted to recruit coming into 2014.

When it became clear there was a chance to sign Andrew Krakouer that was an added bonus, but the Falcons focused on an emerging ruckman to fill in for the loss of Stockley and to back up Chris Keunen, and that's where Martin fits in from Subiaco.

The retirement of Pettigrew meant that there was room for another experienced defender to help out Dan Hunt and the emerging Nick Rodda and Shaun Marusic, and that's where former Geelong defender and Swan Districts premiership player Spencer came into it.

And there was also room for a bullocking forward to provide a target to work alongside of Anthony Tsalikis, Matt Fowler, Matt Johnson, Kody Manning and then at times tall targets like Rodda and Shayne Zanetti – which is where former Swan Districts 20-year-old Adams came into it.

Monaghan is happy to be coming into 2014 with the addition of Krakouer, Spencer, Adams and Martin to the West Perth squad that is coming off a memorable premiership victory.

"One of the things that we have been able to do over the last couple of years is build the depth of the players who can play league footy. A lot of that is developing our local kids and we reward players from our zone, but we've also been selective in knowing that there are gaps in our program and personnel," Monaghan said.

"We've been able to add selective recruits to that and we've done that again this year with Andrew coming in and on pure ability he will add to our group, but we've added a bit of size in Sev Martin, Marcus Adams and Matthew Spencer.

"We identified adding some size this year as a real need because Chris Keunen at 30-plus and Dan Hunt probably playing his last season, we are likely to lose another couple of talls over the next year or two. We think that the general balance of our squad is good in terms of local players, but we have found a need just to top up slightly with our talls."

Martin is a 23-year-old ruckman who stands 208cm tall and has played four league games at Subiaco over the past two years, and has dominated reserves games with his tap work.

He arrives as a replacement for Stockley and Monaghan hopes he will eventually take over from Keunen as West Perth's No. 1 ruckman once he is ready to retire.

"We wish Frank the best and he read the tea leaves and knew he was No. 2 behind Chris Keunen and we have a great deal of respect for the way Chris goes about it. Frank's preference was to stay but as a coach I can't guarantee anyone that they are going to get a game so he decided it would be best for his football future to seek opportunities elsewhere," Monaghan said.

"We don’t begrudge Frank for that but what it meant we needed another ruckman and we found Seva Martin outside Subi's 40 list and it was a good swap for us not only because we got a 208cm emerging ruckman to replace Frank, but for the fact that he was free. That was a real bonus for us and Sev has trained extremely well over the summer.

"I know Subi was disappointed to lose him after putting in plenty of time into his development, and he hasn’t reached his potential yet, but as we've said to him we think that at 23 years of age long-term he is going to be a really valuable player for us.

"As long as he is patient and keeps developing, that's all we can ask of him and his form in our pre-season matches and his work rate on the track has been outstanding. We are really excited to have Seva at the club."

Adams had a tremendous year in 2011 where he started in the colts at Swan Districts but ended up playing some impressive league football at the end of the year.

However, he has spent the last two years in the amateurs and now arrives at West Perth ready to make an impact in the forward-line as a strong, powerful presence.

"We expect Marcus to really push for a spot in our Round 1. He is a big body, we know he can play football and he had a really good colts season a few years back that saw him play a couple of league games for Swans," he said.

"He then lost the passion for a little while and was going to take up rugby, but ended up playing amateur footy and we think that with his size, strength and running ability he will be a hard-leading part of our forward-line. He is a contested ball type player and we think that we will push Nick Rodda back more this year, so bringing Marcus on board in the front half will be good for us.

"He still has some learning to do with our structures, but we are confident he will give us everything he's got and in tandem with Kody Manning when he comes back, there will be sides who won't want to be tackled by them. We also had to replace Josh Mellington and Jason Salecic from last year's forward-line so Marcus will help us do that."

Spencer also arrives at West Perth having previously played his WAFL football at Swan Districts, and having also not played in the league since the 2010 grand final win over Claremont.

However, having previously played AFL football with Geelong and with 45 WAFL games to his credit, the 29-year-old is someone Monaghan is more than happy to now have at his disposal.

"He has trained really hard despite a hiccup with a slight calf, but that's to be expected when he has stepped up his training on the last couple of years. But having been on an AFL list for a couple of years and being a premiership player at Swans, he understands the system and knows the work required," Monaghan said.

"He's under no illusions that he has come to a strong club who are the reigning premiers so it will be tough to get a game. Whilst we have added Matthew and a couple of other talls, that doesn’t mean that they are walk up starts.

"What he does do is he probably fills that void of losing Michael Pettigrew and whilst Petters has got genuine leg speed over Matthew, what they are very similar in is their body size, strength, competitiveness and experience.

"We think that is a perfect replacement for Michael who generally played on the bigger bodied forwards like a Josh Smith. Nick Rodda and Shaun Marusic have good size but are still young, so we needed someone with a bit more experience along with Dan Hunt to slog it out with the gorillas and Matthew will provide that."