EXCITING YOUNG TALENT EMERGING AT WEST PERTH

A SIGNIFICANT reason why there weren’t big changes of player personnel required heading into 2018 at West Perth was the club backing in the youth coming through with coach Bill Monaghan particularly keen to see what Connor West, Tyrese Miller, Liam Tedesco and Sam Rotham can produce.

Looking at the West Perth squad picked to take on Claremont for the 2018 WAFL season-opener at HBF Arena on Saturday and you can clearly see the strong work done by the Falcons in producing local talents who go on to become tremendous league footballers.

That includes captain Aaron Black, triple Breckler Medallist Shane Nelson along with Kody Manning, Jay van Berlo, Andrew Strijk and Luke Meadows.

So there's no reason for the Falcons to not continue to back in their home grown talent and local players which will certainly again be the case throughout 2018.

For Round 1 against Claremont, that already sees rising players like Zac Guadagnin, Nathan Alexandre, Tyson Moulton, Connor West and Sam Rotham all in the mix to play.

That's not only exciting for West Perth in 2018, but for the future as well and that's why Monaghan is looking forward to what lies ahead for the Falcons.

West is one player expected to become an elite WAFL footballer if indeed he doesn’t end up in the AFL before long.

Tyrese Miller is another who is certainly talented enough to make his mark as a WAFL league footballer while Rotham has shown encouraging signs to do that previously and could take on an even bigger role in the Falcons back-line in 2018.

And one player who is a new arrival to West Perth that Monaghan is particularly excited about is Liam Tedesco.

"Connor West is a terrific young fella and was probably unlucky not to be rookie-listed. He's come through our colts system and played State 18s last year," Monaghan said.

"We think he is going to be a really good player for a long period of time should he not get drafted so I would expect him to play some senior footy. We've got another young kid, Tyrese Miller, who is an exceptionally talented player. 

"He has to work on his efforts and repeat efforts, and how hard he works off the ball, but he's a left-footer playing in our front half and has more talent than most guys at our club. They are two good young players we've got coming through the system.

"Sam Rotham is training really well and has played some league footy previously before some injury concerns. And we have a young fella called Liam Tedesco who played State 16s but decided he didn’t really enjoy playing footy and went to play with his mates at Wanneroo. 

"He has come back and at 19 years of age is an absolute beast. I don't want to put too much pressure on the kid but he has probably been the standout of the guys who have come to the club.

"We expect him to play a lot of senior footy. He is a really solid kid, runs well and those sort of guys need to step up. They're all local kids and we hope they play a lot of senior footy."