Sunday 26/04/09 saw all Wests teams at Allen Park to play Associates. Under 18’s kicked off the proceedings and after having 14 turn up to practice and at least 3 others to come down, it was very disappointing to find only 12 players turn up, being badly let down by their ‘mates’ who decided they were going to do other things on the day. We played the first half with the 12 players against 15 and Associates had another 6 players on the bench so Wests were up against it. By 10 minutes into the 2nd half Wests had lost 2 players to injury so Head Coach, Wayne Gibson decided enough was enough with Soaks leading 52-0 and called it off. The players that turned up showed a lot of guts, courage and determination and if we can get another 5 or 6 players we will have a very competitive side, with a great front row already in place and a very capable backline, we just need 2nd row and loose forwards. I for one am not prepared to give up on this grade as we have some talented players there who are Wests future. I ask all Club members and supporters if they know of a Coach and/or players for this team to let me know ASAP as we need to get this up and running properly very quickly. Under 20’s followed against a fit Soaks side and whilst they were fairly evenly matched went down by 13-3 with Joe Fiso kicking a penalty for their 3 points. Players need to be at training and start molding combinations as this side has heaps of talent but need to play as a team, which will come through practice. 3rds played at the same time on Field 2 and came up against a well drilled Soaks side and they went down 26-10. Try scorers for 3rds was Paul Connelly and Steve Roberts. Player of the day was Dan Broughton. 4ths played after 3rds and stopped Soaks from making it a clean sweep by winning 21-10, with tries to Kim Grace, Brad Downey and Scott Blakeore who also kicked 3 conversions. A good start to the season by 4ths and Rick has a good group of players to put in for him out on the paddock. 2nds followed U20’s on Field 1 and in a very tight game went down by 10-5 with Simon Demergue outsprinting the opposition players from his own 10 metre line to score a great try, however as much as they came close 2nds just couldn’t get another try to possibly win the game. Next week they’ve got Rockingham who forfeited to Wanneroo this weekend in 2nds, so they possibly may not have a game. 1sts went into their game against Soaks knowing that a big improvement was needed from the opening game v’s Cott. Wests, although going down by 41-7 never gave up and matched Soaks in the ruck and maul and although the score was convincing it certainly did not reflect the game as a few missed tackles was all that let in the Soaks tries. This was a mammoth increase in effort over the previous week and I’m sure if we take that into next week’s game v Rockingham, we may come away with a win. Try scorer for Wests was Heremaia TeAute who had a great game and Graham Cooper kicked the conversion. A big improvement on last week guys.