Jump to content

Featured Replies

51 minutes ago, samcantstandya said:

We'll miss out on Ricky Mentha (Melb NGA) if this list is the actual order of players picked. Mentha needs to fall outside the top 40 for us to grab him.

Big if. Unless he has an outstanding season, Mentha is likely to miss on top 40 because of his size. Look at Kynan Brown - he was one of Vic Metro’s best in the national championships and was very good in the Coates Boys League but nobody tried to draft him.

  • 3 weeks later...
 
 

2 hours ago, Pennant St Dee said:

Young Van Rooyen named in WA 16s squad 

I have heard he is the talented one out of the lot??

2 hours ago, Pennant St Dee said:

Young Van Rooyen named in WA 16s squad 

Is it time to push for the brother/brother rule?

22 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

I have heard he is the talented one out of the lot??

He’s very talented, although the big growth spurt in the last two years has seen him virtually miss 2 seasons and he has just played 3 in the WAFL Futures(u/16). With time out and growing rapidly lost mobility but reckon he’ll grow into the body now. Both older brothers mobile for their size.

This is him #86 at the beginning of the clip

https://www.facebook.com/stories/104966548301236/UzpfSVNDOjExMjI4Mjc3MzIyOTcxNDk=/?view_single=1&source=shared_permalink&mibextid=W9rl1R 

 

https://www.afl.com.au/news/1107363/academy-midfield-guns-and-father-sons-on-display-in-loss-to-lions/amp
 

There is seriously good talent in this years draft pool. Lots of mids and Dees should look at adding one with our first available pick.  Whilst we hope it’s a late first round pick, the depth available means I think there will be still a good quality midfielder youngster in the 15-18 range this year.  

WA just named their state 18s, Dan Curtin’s younger brother Cody named, raw but one to watch for 2025

Changes afoot to the bidding process:

AFL clubs will be forced to pay a higher price for star academy and father-son players as part of an overhaul of the draft points system.

And the league is open to pick purchasing where clubs can effectively buy draft picks with salary cap space and trading more than one year in advance.

AFL’s big move to unlock trade period stalemates.


15 hours ago, whatwhat say what said:

Changes afoot to the bidding process:

AFL clubs will be forced to pay a higher price for star academy and father-son players as part of an overhaul of the draft points system.

And the league is open to pick purchasing where clubs can effectively buy draft picks with salary cap space and trading more than one year in advance.

AFL’s big move to unlock trade period stalemates. 

 

Conveniently after Suns have filled the treasure chest with multiple academy players; Lions with multiple F/S in the top 20. 

It is definitely needed. The simple rule of having a pick in the round where the nomination is made avoids a club getting away with a stack of talent (ala Suns). That was an absolute steal for them last year.

14 minutes ago, Gawndy the Great said:

Conveniently after Suns have filled the treasure chest with multiple academy players; Lions with multiple F/S in the top 20. 

It is definitely needed. The simple rule of having a pick in the round where the nomination is made avoids a club getting away with a stack of talent (ala Suns). That was an absolute steal for them last year.

not to mention having to have enough list spaces to use with the amount of picks that you have

when gc17 have 7 picks and only 3 list spaces, with 3 first-round academy picks to come in that they can conveniently cover with the 'value' of their plethora of 2nd and 3rd round picks, it's an absolute farce

On 17/04/2024 at 13:52, Nascent said:

TOP 30 still early days prior to the under 18 National championships

1. Finn O'Sullivan - Oakleigh 

2. Levi Ashcroft - Sandringham (Bris FS) 

3. Josh Smillie - Eastern 

4. Jagga Smith - Oakleigh 

5. Luke Trainor - Sandringham 

6. Sid Draper - SA Sth Adel 

7. Tyler Welsh - SA Eagles (Adel FS)

8. Christian Moraes - Eastern  

9. Harry O'Farrell - Calder 

10. Jonty Faull - GWV 

11. Tom Gross - Oakleigh 

10. Leonardo Lombard - GCS Academy  

11. Ben Camporeale - Glenelg (Carl FS)

12. Zak Johnson - Northern 

13. Jobe Shanahan - Bendigo

14. Taj Hotton - Sandringham 

15. Sam Lalor - GWV 

16. Kade Herbert - SA Eagles

17. Xavier Lindsay - Gippsland 

18. Murphy Reid - Sandringham

19.  Lucas Camporeale - Glenelg (Carl FS)

20. Noah Mraz - Dandenong 

21. Harvey Langford - Dandenon

22. Jack Whitlock - Murray

23. Benny Barrett - SA Sth Adel (Port Academy)

24. Isaac Kako - Calder (Ess NGA)

25. Sam Marshall - Sandringham (Bris Academy)

26.Josh Murphy - Murray

27. Nathaniel Sulzberger - Sandringham/Tas 

28. Tobie Travaglia - Bendigo

29. Phoenix Hargrave - SA Sth Adelaide 

30. Bo Allan - WA Peel 

  • 2 weeks later...

  • Author

Scouting Notes: AFL Academy vs. Footscray

Melbourne’s NGA reviewed here - 

#10 Ricky Mentha (Gippsland Power)
Forward/Wing | 178cm | 04/09/2006

A small forward with great craft around goal, Mentha was again challenged in splitting his time between attack and the wing. The Alice Springs native struggled to get his hands on the ball consistently but got on the end of a couple of passes as the Academy broke from the centre bounce and defensive 50. He marked the ball relatively cleanly and looked to move it on quickly.

I’m going to come out and say that no Yze in the Top 30 should temper expectations on what the kid may or may not be able to do. 

Best of luck to the young fella as it’s not Yze making it to the AFL.

On 15/04/2024 at 10:01, Whispering_Jack said:

IMG_2421.thumb.jpeg.b996c4ba3590f1fb19780a6d0eb79926.jpeg 

A versatile player to look out for in this year’s draft.

My Son played on him last year; he’s very good

 

little paper sais that the talent coming out of wa this year is threadbare: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/draft-wipeout-fears-talent-pathways-wont-cater-for-19-clubs-as-wa-could-prove-canary-in-coal-mine/news-story/73764be1b4e8b785efebf126e7444cfb

Western Australia is bracing for its worst ever national draft as fears escalate that the country’s talent pathways will not be capable of producing enough elite players for 19 AFL clubs.

Several clubs say there is currently not a single West Australian they would select while Tasmania struggles to consistently develop AFL talent. WA typically produces about 16 per cent of the draft pool and had 14 players selected last year.

But that is set for a dramatic fall in a year where Fremantle holds three first-round selections and West Coast is likely to have a top-four pick.

“There’s not enough draftable players for 19 clubs,” one recruiting expert said.

“I don’t think there will be a West Australian legitimately drafted this year – that’s how bad WA is at the moment. It’s the worst year for talent they’ve ever seen.

“There’s not enough kids for 18 clubs at the moment. Some of that could be because kids never got the games into them during Covid. But WA didn’t have lockdown like Victoria did.”


Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

Featured Content

  • GAMEDAY: Rd 16 vs Gold Coast

    It's Game Day and the Demons are back on the road again and this may be the last roll of the dice to get their 2025 season back on track as they take on the Gold Coast Suns at People First Stadium.

      • Haha
    • 546 replies
  • PREVIEW: Gold Coast

    The Gold Coast Suns find themselves outside of the top eight for the first time since Round 1 with pressure is mounting on the entire organisation. Their coach Damien Hardwick expressed his frustration at his team’s condition last week by making a middle-finger gesture on television that earned him a fine for his troubles. He showed his desperation by claiming that Fox should pick up the tab.  There’s little doubt the Suns have shown improvement in 2025, and their position on the ladder is influenced to some extent by having played fewer games than their rivals for a playoff role at the end of the season, courtesy of the disruption caused by Cyclone Alfred in March.  However, they are following the same trajectory that hindered the club in past years whenever they appeared to be nearing their potential. As a consequence, that Hardwick gesture should be considered as more than a mere behavioral lapse. It’s a distress signal that does not bode well for the Queenslanders. While the Suns are eager to remain in contention with the top eight, Melbourne faces its own crisis, which is similarly deep-seated but in a much different way. After recovering from a disappointing start to the season and nearing a return to respectability among its peer clubs, the Demons have experienced a decline in status, driven by the fact that while their form has been reasonable (see their performance against the ladder leader in the Kings Birthday match), their conversion in front of goal is poor enough to rank last in the competition. Furthermore, their opponents find them exceptionally easy to score against. As a result, they have effectively eliminated themselves from the finals race and are again positioned to finish in the bottom half of the ladder.

    • 4 replies
  • NON-MFC: Round 15

    As the Demons head into their Bye Round, it's time to turn our attention to the other matches being played. Which teams are you tipping this week? And which results would be most favourable for the Demons if we can manage to turn our season around? Follow all the non-Melbourne games here and join the conversation as the ladder continues to take shape.

    • 287 replies
  • REPORT: Port Adelaide

    Of course, it’s not the backline, you might argue and you would probably be right. It’s the boot studder (do they still have them?), the midfield, the recruiting staff, the forward line, the kicking coach, the Board, the interchange bench, the supporters, the folk at Casey, the head coach and the club psychologist  It’s all of them and all of us for having expectations that were sufficiently high to have believed three weeks ago that a restoration of the Melbourne team to a position where we might still be in contention for a finals berth when the time for the midseason bye arrived. Now let’s look at what happened over the period of time since Melbourne overwhelmed the Sydney Swans at the MCG in late May when it kicked 8.2 to 5.3 in the final quarter (and that was after scoring 3.8 to two straight goals in the second term). 

    • 3 replies
  • CASEY: Essendon

    Casey’s unbeaten run was extended for at least another fortnight after the Demons overran a persistent Essendon line up by 29 points at ETU Stadium in Port Melbourne last night. After conceding the first goal of the evening, Casey went on a scoring spree from about ten minutes in, with five unanswered majors with its fleet of midsized runners headed by the much improved Paddy Cross who kicked two in quick succession and livewire Ricky Mentha who also kicked an early goal. Leading the charge was recruit of the year, Riley Bonner while Bailey Laurie continued his impressive vein of form. With Tom Campbell missing from the lineup, Will Verrall stepped up to the plate demonstrating his improvement under the veteran ruckman’s tutelage. The Demons were looking comfortable for much of the second quarter and held a 25-point lead until the Bombers struck back with two goals in the shadows of half time. On the other side of the main break their revival continued with first three goals of the half. Harry Sharp, who had been quiet scrambled in the Demons’ first score of the third term to bring the margin back to a single point at the 17 minute mark and the game became an arm-wrestle for the remainder of the quarter and into the final moments of the last.

    • 0 replies
  • PREGAME: Gold Coast

    The Demons have the Bye next week but then are on the road once again when they come up against the Gold Coast Suns on the Gold Coast in what could be a last ditch effort to salvage their season. Who comes in and who comes out?

      • Like
    • 372 replies