1 hour ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Geez Kako came as advertised.

Good to see Essendon use up their unsustainable accuracy card in a practice match.

Interesting to watch him...and will be over his career.

Doesn't appear overly quick, gets to the right positions though & uses it well.

Looked like a goal kicking Caleb Daniel to me.

9 hours ago, DiscoStu17 said:

I liked the way Kako always gave the football back to the umpire. If it’s good enough for basketball…

So crazy I thought the exact same thing. Looks to be a sensible kid and interviewed very well for a first timer. 

1 hour ago, KozzyCan said:

Teams don't defend much in practice matches and sometimes just fully experiment so the results are totally meaningless.

Positional changes, player roles and performances of new recruits is the reason to watch them.

True. It's good there are practice matches. I kinda agree with your last sentence. But it's more the teams that know this info and a sample of one is often insufficient . If an opposition player is unfit, sick or injured they can make a player look way better than they are. It can even work the other way where a much-improved defender makes a forward look inexplicably ordinary (but will end up doing that all season). I know there's a correlation of sorts between pre-season form and the real one. But often it's hard to know which bits correlate (even for the teams' brains trusts)

Lmao, this is why I hate practice matches. You have [censored] teams like Essendon playing like prime Brisbane Lions of the early 2000’s, and it gaslights people, the media into thinking they are going to be good. 

As if there isn’t enough flip flopping from “experts” 😂

Edited February 25, 20251 yr by VNightCityLegend

This is another example of AI taking over.

Absolute Idjits get sucked in every year by practice match form.

12 hours ago, whatwhat say what said:

he wasn't in the draft tho, not really - he was in the peptides' academy 

you can see why they were prepared to trade us their pick so we couldn't nominate him

hopefully marcus prassad is as promising for us as he is for them

Exactly. Aside from brief patches of Tippa form and fitness Essendon haven’t had good small forward in a long time. Part of the reason why they’ve been no good. The AFL pretty much gave them a priority pick allowing Kako access at the 11th hour.

Jason Taylor’s even commented that it used to be a position he thought he could find at the back of the draft and now rates supremely highly. Hence our interest in Kako. 

4 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

... Part of the reason why they’ve been no good. The AFL pretty much gave them a priority pick allowing Kako access at the 11th hour.

DeeSpencer, could you please elaborate a bit more on the effectively priority pick? I'm not following that.

12 minutes ago, Left Foot Snap said:

DeeSpencer, could you please elaborate a bit more on the effectively priority pick? I'm not following that.

The afl made a last minute back flip allowing academy players like Kako to go to clubs in the top 40 picks again.

Essendon then trade their first rounder to us for next years first and a huge swag of other later picks. Then Kako fell in the draft because teams agreed not to bid on him. Then they got the further discount in bid matching.

That entire benefit means as long as we aren’t top 4 next year they’ll likely have picked up Kako for stuff all cost wise. It’s an incredible help for a side.

10 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

The afl made a last minute back flip allowing academy players like Kako to go to clubs in the top 40 picks again.

Essendon then trade their first rounder to us for next years first and a huge swag of other later picks. Then Kako fell in the draft because teams agreed not to bid on him. Then they got the further discount in bid matching.

That entire benefit means as long as we aren’t top 4 next year they’ll likely have picked up Kako for stuff all cost wise. It’s an incredible help for a side.

Thanks. I didn't realise that's what you meant, I thought something else might have happened too. Appreciate the clarification. 

Edited February 26, 20251 yr by Left Foot Snap
Wasn't finished.

Moving right along …

48 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

The afl made a last minute back flip allowing academy players like Kako to go to clubs in the top 40 picks again.

Essendon then trade their first rounder to us for next years first and a huge swag of other later picks. Then Kako fell in the draft because teams agreed not to bid on him. Then they got the further discount in bid matching.

That entire benefit means as long as we aren’t top 4 next year they’ll likely have picked up Kako for stuff all cost wise. It’s an incredible help for a side.

why didn't any other teams put a bid for him if he was supposed to be good, to at least make essendon pay a fairer price? 

3 minutes ago, Whispering_Jack said:

Moving right along …

That Richmond side is shocking

3 minutes ago, adonski said:

That Richmond side is shocking

You're not wrong.  I reckon Casey Demons would roll them.

6 minutes ago, Whispering_Jack said:

Moving right along …

J.Howe: number and age pretty soon going to be indistinguishable...

45 minutes ago, daisycutter said:

why didn't any other teams put a bid for him if he was supposed to be good, to at least make essendon pay a fairer price? 

Melbourne traded with Essendon so that took pick 6 and 11 out of the equation.

St Kilda did a nice favourable trade with Essendon right before the draft started, so that took care of 8 and 10 (9 was a saints bid on Lombard).

Richmond didn’t bid at 7, probably a fraction early. Didn’t bid at 12, eventually bid at 13.

3 teams had every live pick between 6 and 13, made it pretty easy to make sure he slid.

1 hour ago, adonski said:

That Richmond side is shocking

It’s actually a lot better than the bush league squad they assembled last week.

No Prestia. Did he get another soft tissue injury walking from his car to the ground? 

Just now, Demonland said:

I think it’s 

Is it wrong to wish crisp does a calf, hamstring or a concussion injury?

1 hour ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

No Prestia. Did he get another soft tissue injury walking from his car to the ground? 

Hurt his achilles at training

N Daicos after half a pre season still a jet. 

Carlton watching the Tigers in preparation of Round 1

1 hour ago, Demonland said:

Carlton watching the Tigers in preparation of Round 1

i wouldnt be too confident if i was carlton, they have even more injuries then them and growing inj list everyday