May as well start of with the biggest signing in D3 so far (and you have heard it here first - wait 3-8 minutes for it to be posted elsewhere )
Hope Valley would like to welcome home former Valley junior and Hawthorn triple premiership player Paul Puopolo!
paul puopolo.jpg
Hoping he can attract the extra quality players we'll need to be competitive in D3
good to see these AFL players returning to their home clubs, can only be beneficial for the clubs
Also extending, just thinking off the top of my head that next year will have Trengove, S Gray, R Gray??, S Edwards???, J O'Brien, J Petrenko, J White, L Johnston, M Grigg, B McKenzie, A Forster, T Milera and P Puopolo all running around.
Seems like the highest number of ex-AFL players all running around at once in years. Great news for the AdFL (and arguably reflective of the continued decline of the SANFL)
May as well start of with the biggest signing in D3 so far (and you have heard it here first - wait 3-8 minutes for it to be posted elsewhere [emoji38] )
Hope Valley would like to welcome home former Valley junior and Hawthorn triple premiership player Paul Puopolo!
paul puopolo.jpg
Hoping he can attract the extra quality players we'll need to be competitive in D3
dont we always hear it on SA Footy first before other pages pinch the news
May as well start of with the biggest signing in D3 so far (and you have heard it here first - wait 3-8 minutes for it to be posted elsewhere [emoji38] )
Hope Valley would like to welcome home former Valley junior and Hawthorn triple premiership player Paul Puopolo!
paul puopolo.jpg
Hoping he can attract the extra quality players we'll need to be competitive in D3
dont we always hear it on SA Footy first before other pages pinch the news
This news is still exclusive to SA Footy.net.....
best footy media page in Australia, if it happens its published here first
Poppy was brilliant at Virginia this season, he makes everything look like it's happening in slow motion, he's tremendous for the young lads to be around and learn from, his ability to avoid a tackle and free the arms to enable a handball is as good as I've seen.
He brings the young lads into the game, his knowledge of the game is exceptional and loves to pass on advice to the young lads, my son was lucky enough to rotate through the centre with him this season at 16 years old, he learnt more from the experience than he has in all of his previous years.
I was never much of a Poppy fan previously but gee did my thoughts change this year, great get HVFC.
Lightning McQueen wrote:Poppy was brilliant at Virginia this season, he makes everything look like it's happening in slow motion, he's tremendous for the young lads to be around and learn from, his ability to avoid a tackle and free the arms to enable a handball is as good as I've seen.
He brings the young lads into the game, his knowledge of the game is exceptional and loves to pass on advice to the young lads, my son was lucky enough to rotate through the centre with him this season at 16 years old, he learnt more from the experience than he has in all of his previous years.
I was never much of a Poppy fan previously but gee did my thoughts change this year, great get HVFC.
That's what a few of my mates from Two Wells said about him.
They didn't think he was quite as dominant on field as maybe they thought he would but they believed that was because he was so team orientated and ensure it wasn't the 'poppy' show and that he was passing on his experience to the other guys. They reckon all the blokes from Virginia lifted around him......(so did the opposition players though
Their glad his not playing for Virginia as they will much a lot weaker for his departure.
whufc wrote:Their glad his not playing for Virginia as they will much a lot weaker for his departure.
They're* he's* will be much / or will be a lot*
Mate i spend enough time at work worrying about the written language.....this is escape from that rubbish.
I must say, your use of his instead of he's gives me conniption fits, but I know it's my OCD kicking it, I struggle with abbreviated words too
Your lucky im not in here writing OMG, BRB, FFS, WDYT, PLS, SOZ, TY.......its the only language my daughters talk to me in
Funnily enough my first ever job was as a journalist. English didn't come naturally to me so i spent pretty much every second of my day making sure all my grammar was correct.....i now don't give two shits about it when I'm writing at a non professional level.
Also throw in a lot of my posts are made from my phone and I care even less
Lightning McQueen wrote:Poppy was brilliant at Virginia this season, he makes everything look like it's happening in slow motion, he's tremendous for the young lads to be around and learn from, his ability to avoid a tackle and free the arms to enable a handball is as good as I've seen.
He brings the young lads into the game, his knowledge of the game is exceptional and loves to pass on advice to the young lads, my son was lucky enough to rotate through the centre with him this season at 16 years old, he learnt more from the experience than he has in all of his previous years.
I was never much of a Poppy fan previously but gee did my thoughts change this year, great get HVFC.
That's what a few of my mates from Two Wells said about him.
They didn't think he was quite as dominant on field as maybe they thought he would but they believed that was because he was so team orientated and ensure it wasn't the 'poppy' show and that he was passing on his experience to the other guys. They reckon all the blokes from Virginia lifted around him......(so did the opposition players though
Their glad his not playing for Virginia as they will much a lot weaker for his departure.
Now I know you're lying
He was pure class whenever he got the ball.
Virginia were a young developmental side, they missed Big Nik up forward and played a heap of 17-20 year olds, they played some great footy and finished about where they should've, the loss against HWE @ Lochiel shouldn't have happened, it would've had them finish 5th. Poppy did a lot of the workload.
I almost ended up BOG on Two Wells footy trip a few years ago in Darwin.
I was up there by myself on a work secondment when they had their end of year footy trip there the week of the WC/COL GF.
I knew a few who had played cricket at Atco the summer before and met up with them for a drink on the Friday night. Very quickly became part of the end of year trip.
Great bunch of lads a very very very very wild weekend.
Bluedemon wrote:Unley have picked up Jake Sutcliffe who played at SPOC this year, also Skeet Manuell who had played Sturt 18s
Sutcliffe is a big pick up if he can stay fit. Can kick goals from outside 50. The Maid must have run out of talent. Manuell played Sturt Reserves in 21
Former AFL star Paul Puopolo signs with Adelaide Footy League club Hope Valley for 2023 A three-time AFL premiership player has joined his old local SA footy outfit in another huge offseason move, saying he wants to give back to the club.
Daniel Renfrey October 6, 2022 - 11:27AM The Messenger
A three-time AFL premiership player has moved back to his junior club for the 2023 season, adding to a slew of local SA footy signings to begin the offseason.
Former Hawthorn and Norwood star Paul Puopolo – who just spent a year at Virginia in the Adelaide Plains Football League – signed with Adelaide Footy League division three club Hope Valley on Wednesday.
The 34-year-old forward spent multiple years at the Demons as a teenager and said he felt it was time to return after experiencing SA country footy.
“I’ve been a city man my whole life and I wanted to experience country footy,” Puopolo said.
“There were so many great people at Virginia who have become good friends and I enjoyed my time there but it involved a lot of driving to the club and back to Adelaide – missing out on some family time.
“I’ve got some mates at Hope Valley and there’s that sense that I want to give back to the club for helping me in my career so I thought it was probably the right move to make.”
Puopolo’s move marks a major signing for Hope Valley, the Demons winning promotion to division three by making the division four grand final last season.
The experienced and skilful small should complement imposing key forward Daniel Nobes perfectly and is also planning on making a significant impact off the field.
“I want to keep enjoying my footy and while the team is strong on the field I want to keep playing my part off the field as well, especially when it comes to being able to mentor guys.
“It’s a different aspect of footy and you get a lot of enjoyment out of helping people improve whether it’s as a player or as a person.”
The Demons will be pitted against some of the Adelaide Footy League’s best talent in 2023, a challenge Puopolo is looking forward to.
He believed his return to the club could help it to remain in the division and compete for finals.
“Moving up to a new division is never easy and I think if we can compete for and make finals that would be a fantastic achievement,” he said.
“We’re not expecting to go out and win it all straight away but I think we can continue to build from here and if I can help them to progress in any way I’m going to do it.”
Puopolo becomes the fourth ex-AFL player to sign with an Adelaide Footy League club in the last week, following Mitch Grigg to Athelstone, Luke Brown to Tea Tree Gully and Josh Glenn to Golden Grove.