Geeze, the St Kilda and Carlton games really broke a few people. And understandably so. But I was expecting this thread to be pretty up-beat.

I think Culley was good. Yep, the opposition was poor, but he showed he can take a grab in a way very few of our midfielders can. And I'm very much in the @Trident22 boat with his kicking.

He may fade away into obscurity, but I think he showed that when your season is over, you get a chance to experiment - and sometimes those experiments uncover something you weren't expecting.

9 hours ago, Willmoy1947 said:

I call it wrong

Right special, wrong player. It will be Sharp 😂

Haven't felt this way since a player since Harmes.

I love how much this guy loves the club. It might not mean a lot on paper but after the year we've had it means a fair bit to me.

Gone a long way past kolt with that game. Didn't think he would be so strong overhead. Bigger test next week but go jai

Edited August 3Aug 3 by Rocknroll

Culley had 9 kicks and kicked it at 88.9% efficiency against West Coast. Admittedly, it's not a metric I like and such a small sample size means little, but do suggest his kicking was an issue on Saturday is pure drivel.

Is he too slow ? Maybe. Does he lack production ? Possibly. Will he make it ? I don't know. But it was a nice debut for the club. As a tall marking wingman with another preseason under his belt, and another year on from his ACL, he's an interesting prospect.

35 minutes ago, layzie said:

Haven't felt this way since a player since Harmes.

I love how much this guy loves the club. It might not mean a lot on paper but after the year we've had it means a fair bit to me.

It's funny, Culley's game wasn't dissimilar to how Harmes annouced himself at the end of 2015 against GWS in an almost empty Etihad.

Like Culley yesterday, Harmes' aerial game really stood out in the match.

Culley just looks like a footballer. Pure and simple. I hope we keep him rolling in the seniors for the rest of the season.

I’d much rather the club be giving games to the likes of Culley, than players like Hunter or Billings. He’s a low cost investment and the least of our worries in terms of our list build. It looks like he can play potentially multiple roles and may be the type of player you can rely upon without having to outlay too much salary. He did a few good things in terms of his aerial attack on the ball and that adds a point of difference. He may be relied upon to assist in defence and forward in the air and on the ground, having players like him and Langford that can impact aerially off the wing can be a match up headache for opposing coaches.

I only caught the last quarter of the West Coast game (still on holidays abroad and the time zone was not viewer friendly).

This Jai lad looked really handy. Admittedly against weak opposition and he has a point to prove to them. Get some more games into him and a strong preseason and the Dees may have unearthed a handy addition 👍👍

I had no idea he was so tall. Tall wingmen are all the rage in the AFL and having one on our side is a real advantage.

He seems a well-built reasonably mobile tall who attacks the ball.

At the very least he has already added a little layer of the all-important 'selection integrity' to our list.

I enjoyed his game.

I wouldn’t mind having a look at him as a back up ruck option if he has some aerial ability competing against talls.

That way we could pick Jeffo instead of JVR.

It would also give him another string to his bow and give us a different look at stoppages.

Loved his game, looks like a good competitor and damn he can jump and actually catch the ball...we appear to need more like him. Looking forward to seeing him hold his spot.

A wingman/midfielder who is strong overhead is what we need more of, look at the cats, strong overhead across the ground, I think this is a huge area we could improve re recruiting/drafting. A much better dees debut than I was expecting, plenty to work with here.

I think he is more of a midfielder/half forward than a wingman. Strong, rangy, decent skills, good decision maker. Proper footballer.

I'm not going to lie, I was expecting a 5'8 5'9 small kinda player. Guys a man mountain.

Happy for him to play a wing ( and venture inwards 🙄 ) as that allows Windsor to come inside.

Like to see continue for a while

This youngster is pretty quick for a 194 cm.

He moves well and seems to have more confidence given the number of games he's played.

Therefore I am inclined to play him on a flank or perhaps some centre time. Although I would need to see more of him to make the midfield call.

Because of his speed I think it would be a waste to have him play fwd full time.bif so definitely as a CHF.

He has a great leap too. I think as a winger or mid he could spend time up fwd in spells

Keen to hear some other opinions on where to play him.

He's only 22 so will probably get stronger adding to his fwd craft.

He would be pretty handy in the middle with his height and a great link up option out of the backline.

The passage of play where he was being chased by had the coolness to not just bang away was excellent. I'm talking about the one where he hit up Fritta on the other side of the camera/ ground.

He seemed to have no options and with an opponent breathing down his neck he still took a bounce and ran and then delivered it pinpoint to Fritta.

I'm a looking and I'm a liking.

We could do well with another non fwd kicking a couple of goals each game.

This is something we have missed dramatically since 2021.

Then again it would be interesting to see him play at CHF with licence to go wherever he wants.

There's something special about players who do an acl early in their playing days. It gives them a sense of determination. Eagles were mad to.let this bloke go.

And also poor in respect to looking after their players. One injury and they show him the door. Their loss for sure.

2 hours ago, beelzebub said:

Happy for him to play a wing ( and venture inwards 🙄 ) as that allows Windsor to come inside.

Like to see continue for a while

3 hours ago, Robbie On Skates said:

I think he is more of a midfielder/half forward than a wingman. Strong, rangy, decent skills, good decision maker. Proper footballer.

I think he's the sort of player we have been crying out for.

Someone who could play all these roles.

Interesting player.

19 hours ago, At the break of Gawn said:

I had no idea he was so tall. Tall wingmen are all the rage in the AFL and having one on our side is a real advantage.

Ditto and to add to his 194cm he has a great leap

On 03/08/2025 at 11:11, Rocknroll said:

Gone a long way past kolt with that game. Didn't think he would be so strong overhead. Bigger test next week but go jai

Could certainly teach Jvr a thing or two.

I liked Max on MMM this morning. A WCE opponent asked him why it took so long to give him a debut, Max responded “why did you let him go?”

What I liked was the noticeable balance and timing in semi contesting type situations.

On 03/08/2025 at 00:01, roy11 said:

he was only credited with one goal assist - ROBBED

Yes Roy11 his kicks to Max and Petty were Melksham like, definitely 2 goal assists. 👍👏

30 minutes ago, Previously known as LITD. said:

This youngster is pretty quick for a 194 cm

If he was quick he wouldn’t have been delisted from the worst list in the comp.

Pump the brakes.