On 04/08/2025 at 13:07, Ethan Tremblay said:

Same here, and 72kg’s. I think I was basing this assumption from his ‘headshot’ only. I didn’t realise he was such a sexy beast of a man.

Culley is a huge get for us. He will be a star.

We may have a player here.

Something tends to happen when he has it

1 hour ago, VoiceOfReason said:

Culley is a huge get for us. He will be a star.

Agree. Nothing against Jack Henderson but a bit staggering that he got chosen before Jai. Take it though.

2 minutes ago, higgsy75 said:

Agree. Nothing against Jack Henderson but a bit staggering that he got chosen before Jai. Take it though.

Tend to agree. Jai is a much more versatile player as well. He can truly play anywhere and make a decent fist of it.

Speaking of Hendo? Where's he been? Played an ok first couple of games then fell off the face of the earth.

2 hours ago, adonski said:

I definitely have a bit of a "man crush" on Jai Culley. 🤣

The young fella can play!

Couldn't get a regular game and was cut from the list at the Eagles...

Now looks like a solid AFL level contributor with attributes that add unpredictability to our mix both in the contests and up forward.

I suspect he would also be another person not keen on getting Adam Simpson as coach!

Pump the brakes guys, it’s only been two games. He was delisted by those bastions of judgement and exquisite player development, West Coast, so clearly he’s no good. Just you wait, the reality bus is coming!

Sorry, was just testing out what it’s like to have absolutely no sense of occasion or ability to enjoy minor happy moments in a thoroughly crapola season. I don’t like it much so I’ll stick to enjoying his next few games of development and letting whatever is going to happen in the long term, happen.

11 minutes ago, Little Goffy said:

Couldn't get a regular game and was cut from the list at the Eagles...

Now looks like a solid AFL level contributor with attributes that add unpredictability to our mix both in the contests and up forward.

I suspect he would also be another person not keen on getting Adam Simpson as coach!

Why?

Simpson didnt delist him..

If anything, Simpson actually gave him a decent crack at senior level.

6 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Why?

Simpson didnt delist him..

If anything, Simpson actually gave him a decent crack at senior level.

Fair enough. I tipped to the smart{@} side for a cheap smirk. It would seem just from the old stats that he was one of those unfortunate young players who got stuck being subbed in and out and getting just a few chances here and there.

His entire footy story doesn’t make any sense to me. Looks really really good. What’s the catch?

8 minutes ago, Bang Bang Bang said:

His entire footy story doesn’t make any sense to me. Looks really really good. What’s the catch?

It seems plausible to me that he’s required education and development before he hit his straps as a player, and West Coast gave up before he reached that level. Even the Casey watchers seem to indicate he hadn’t really been a selection threat until quite recently.

Just speculating though. Maybe someone who knows his actual story better might have info.

1 hour ago, Nasher said:

It seems plausible to me that he’s required education and development before he hit his straps as a player, and West Coast gave up before he reached that level. Even the Casey watchers seem to indicate he hadn’t really been a selection threat until quite recently.

Just speculating though. Maybe someone who knows his actual story better might have info.

Maybe he just needed to pull on the jumper of his childhood club to feel the passion?

In all seriousness though I think it's one of the biggest flaws with the AFL and pathway systems. It is all set up to try to unearth the next star, not collect the best 414 players in Australia (23 players per team each weekend).

I think that AFL lists are probably the best 270 players in Australia, plus a bunch of journeymen and developing kids. It's possible that high percentage of players 271-750 are not on AFL lists, which means they don't get the fitness and conditioning and have no prospect of making it.

If you aren't drafted at 18, you fall so far behind draftees in terms of development and conditioning that it is rare to make it later on. I'd love to see more invested in the 50-100 players who don't get drafted each year.

Expand the rookie list. Let those kids play VFL or even the next level down if they aren't up to it and are just working on fitness.

Similarly, expand the reserves list so that the VFL level comp (or officially the reserves) can be made up of the next best players in the country, where those players can be training full time for fitness and the standard of reserves is much higher. Surely playing against the best would fast track development of elite juniors?

1 hour ago, Nasher said:

It seems plausible to me that he’s required education and development before he hit his straps as a player, and West Coast gave up before he reached that level. Even the Casey watchers seem to indicate he hadn’t really been a selection threat until quite recently.

Just speculating though. Maybe someone who knows his actual story better might have info.

He did his ACL and afterwards West Coast delisted him. I think it happened in his first year and they decided to not give him a second year. Their loss!

6 hours ago, DeelightfulPlay said:

He did his ACL and afterwards West Coast delisted him. I think it happened in his first year and they decided to not give him a second year. Their loss!

According to wikipedia: mid-season draft in 2022, ACL in 2023 and delisted end of 2024. So he was on the list 2.5 seasons, of which he was available to play about 1.5.

Fair to say they chucked in the towel pretty quickly with him.

9 minutes ago, Nasher said:

According to wikipedia: mid-season draft in 2022, ACL in 2023 and delisted end of 2024. So he was on the list 2.5 seasons, of which he was available to play about 1.5.

Fair to say they chucked in the towel pretty quickly with him.

Recently overhead comment from the west "BUGGER"

On 05/08/2025 at 06:43, dees189227 said:

Max was saying on mmm yesterday morning a wc player said to him on the field, how come its taken you so long to play him, max replied with I can't believed you desisted him.

So Max Why did it take us so long to play him???

11 hours ago, higgsy75 said:

Agree. Nothing against Jack Henderson but a bit staggering that he got chosen before Jai. Take it though.

I think they are quite different players. Personally, I think Hendo has better skills and footy IQ, but Culley has impressive athletisim for a huge body and a bit of X factor about him.

I thought Hendo looked good for his first few games, then seemed to fizzel. Might be one of thoses player that's a gun at VFL level, but not quite good enough for AFL.

Edited 12 hours ago12 hr by Rodney (Balls) Grinter

11 hours ago, higgsy75 said:

Nothing against Jack Henderson but a bit staggering that he got chosen before Jai. Take it though.

I think they became obsessed with filling the Alex Neal-Bullen role. Fair enough - but they haven't found a replacement yet.

55 minutes ago, Kent said:

So Max Why did it take us so long to play him???

Because if Culley was to play, Spargo, Laurie, Kolt, Sparrow, Sharp would've had to miss and Goody had his club

1 minute ago, Deez21 said:

Because if Culley was to play, Spargo, Laurie, Kolt, Sparrow, Sharp would've had to miss and Goody had his club

Laurie????

Jai looks so good out there and is easily keeping his spot, that says to me that we're onto something and you can clearly see it with him that he has come to play and brings a lot to our team. Very happy with him getting his shot and very clearly playing well and keeping that spot in the team.

9 hours ago, Nasher said:

It seems plausible to me that he’s required education and development before he hit his straps as a player, and West Coast gave up before he reached that level. Even the Casey watchers seem to indicate he hadn’t really been a selection threat until quite recently.

Just speculating though. Maybe someone who knows his actual story better might have info.

He started the year playing as a pure midfielder. I think the idea was because of his size, throw him in at centre bounce. However, he didn't really excel in this role - no burst from stoppage and rushed his disposals.

So they shifted him to wing/half forward and he was able to use his strengths a lot more, high work rate, aerial marking, and able to sneak forward to get a goal.

We also had Lindsay performing very well on the wing for most of the year which made it harder for Jai to break into the team.