10 minutes ago, Dee Boys said:

If many at other clubs couldn’t believe WCE let him go, why didn’t they pick him up when he was available to every club for nothing? It took a last minute injury to AMW before the window closed even for us to throw him a lifeline after he’d spent the whole summer training with us.

Pretty myopic to criticise the McAdam acquisition who has clear major upside but also injury risk, and at the same time decry Culley for being ordinary. Sometimes you gotta take a risk to get reward and sometimes it doesn't work out.

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by old55

7 minutes ago, old55 said:

Pretty myopic to criticise the McAdam acquisition who has clear major upside but also injury risk, and at the same time decry Culley for being ordinary. Sometimes you gotta take a risk to get reward and sometimes it doesn't work out.

Not criticising us picking him mate. For now he’s best 22 and that’s a terrific result for an injury replacement player.

Was just responding to the poster saying several other clubs couldn’t believe he was cut and were after him.

2 minutes ago, Dee Boys said:

Was just responding to the poster saying several other clubs couldn’t believe he was cut and were after him.

Quote it...

What gets lost in the wash is that McAdam can actually play.

I can recall he was instrumental in a shock 1 point win over the Dogs at Ballarat in 2022 with a couple of goals, some contested grabs and a clever pass which set up a goal.

He averages 1.4 goals a game which is prorated at 32 goals a year if he ever managed to play a full season. Most clubs only have about 4 players on their list who have managed a 30 goal season.

Whilst he's out of sight /out of mind and likely won't make it as a Dee (if you're a betting person) , I can see a world where he and Kozzie could case a few headaches together next year.

1 minute ago, Robbie On Skates said:

Quote it...

I did…

2 hours ago, Dee Boys said:

Sorry but you’re delusional if you think he gets a game at those teams. He’s on the fringe of our best 22 and we’re a bottom 6 side.

Saying West Coast’s list manager should be sacked on account of letting him go is also bizarre. We were the only club interested in him after they cut him and even after training with us for the entire pre-season he was still overlooked for Henderson who hadn’t even trained with us, and he only got a call up very late after AMW did his knee.

He’s a serviceable AFL footballer but once we improve I think others will go past him and he won’t be best 22. That’s ok.

Let’s agree to disagree and move on. Hope you’re proved right and he’s got a premiership medal around his neck one day.

What’s your beef with Culley Dee Boys, he showed a lot last year and is showing that he has done the necessary preparation to have a great preseason. To my mind it is not rocket science.

Our bottom 6-8 players last year were our weak link, Jai is 6’4” tall, he is relatively fast for a big man, he can take a great grab and can play, mid/fwd/wing. If he can remain fit, healthy and continue to work hard he will ease one of our bottom players out of the side and I hope that he does.😁

19 minutes ago, Cranky Franky said:

At the time of leaving the Crows it was widely reported that the Adelaide fitness staff & SM didnt see eye to eye about his fitness levels. And he only averaged 14 games a year while at the Crows.

He came to his first pre season at Melbourne in pretty average shape & subsequently had a poor first year.

I would have expected someone with his record to come back on the first training day even if he is not contracted to do so.

Show some initiative, just walk the boundary & meet people.

He might be a great person but he's delivered nothing so far & the signs aren't good.

The signs WERE good just before he sustained that injury.

The “widely reported” stuff about him at Adelaide - one side of the story, btw - is history now.

People can and do change; especially when they’re at a club that’s a better fit.

Edit: Matty Whelan is an unsung hero at our club. We are blessed to have him taking care of our indigenous boys, truly blessed.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Ghostwriter

3 minutes ago, DeeZone said:

What’s your beef with Culley Dee Boys, he showed a lot last year and is showing that he has done the necessary preparation to have a great preseason. To my mind it is not rocket science.

Our bottom 6-8 players last year were our weak link, Jai is 6’4” tall, he is relatively fast for a big man, he can take a great grab and can play, mid/fwd/wing. If he can remain fit, healthy and continue to work hard he will ease one of our bottom players out of the side and I hope that he does.😁

Mate no "beef" whatsoever. I just don't think he's quite as good a footballer as some others obviously do, for reasons I've gone into ad nauseam. That's OK! I'm sure there are other players that I rate more highly than others do.

Anyway it's draft night, let's revisit this topic in 5 years time!

3 hours ago, Demonland said:

Lek means small in Thai, so for me that would be a 'silent but deadly' kind of situation.

1 hour ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Value is pretty much based off on field performance, and on that value @Dee Boys is correct that his value is fairly low considering he was delisted by one of the worst teams we have seen over the last couple of years to Melbourne being the only real club that was interested him over the summer... so yes, his value is fairly low.

In saying that, personally i see the potential in Culley because he has great flexibility and his athletic profile is built for today's game. I do wonder if King sees similarities to Ollie Dempsey in Culley for that wing position. If it's not in the midfield then there is certainly potential to be a 3rd tall roaming forward with his strong aerial game.

Thought this thread was about training, start your own thread about Culley

2 minutes ago, Viscount Cardwell said:

Thought this thread was about training, start your own thread about Culley

Concur!

4 minutes ago, Viscount Cardwell said:

Thought this thread was about training, start your own thread about Culley

We're talking about how Culley is going at training, with a few reminders of his worth. You...?

If Culley has been given #13, I suggest that is an indication of how the club values him!

2 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

The signs WERE good just before he sustained that injury.

The “widely reported” stuff about him at Adelaide - one side of the story, btw - is history now.

People can and do change; especially when they’re at a club that’s a better fit.

Yeah, while it could easily turn out that McAdam, as an over-30, ends up consigned to the VFL by year's end the current silly-season criticism is too much. The guy hails from rural WA, has played interstate for yonks, barely played in 23 and 24 and then finally with a great preseason under his belt he misses all of 25 after all that build-up with a big injury. He could have retired months ago, disgusted with his lot. The guy probably has the patience of Job. I wouldn't be surprised if there were coach discussions and they just about insisted he use every second of his break away from football! Hold if on the criticism at least until a few upcoming training sessions are done.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Go Ds

3 hours ago, Dee Boys said:

No idea who that is but ask yourself whether he’d get a game at Brisbane, Geelong or Gold Coast. Or in our 2021 team.

The top sides he’s not getting a look in.

Bruce Reville just played in a flag. If he can do it so can Culley.

I have my doubts on Culley, he has to be really sharp defensively or he’ll keep getting caught out for pace.

But he also did about 1 in 3 sessions last year then got injured. He looks fitter already this year.

And it’s all hypothetical anyway. Who cares about who is in our best team if we’re good again. The more important thing is getting better.

12 minutes ago, waynewussell said:

If Culley has been given #13, I suggest that is an indication of how the club values him!

Jordie McKenzie!

26 minutes ago, waynewussell said:

How did Wet Coke let this man go?

He literally just fell in our lap.

Thanks for the training reports. They seem to reinforce the idea of quick transition and changed my way of thinking about positional football. Apart from the centre bounce with 6x6x6 the emphasis is on speed between the arcs (unless you want to control the tempo). We went from half forward to high half forward to both half forwards being high and generally playing as extra wingmen. This in turn mean your half backs were going with them, also like wingmen. Certainly our centre bounce 3 will be much quicker with a combination of pickett, windsor and Rivers at least some of the time. Excluding the ruckman, we've gone from 3 midfielders on the ground and 2 on the bench to 9 on the ground and 4 on the bench. With JVR so much less weight and more mobile it seems that we will play the extra ruckman with Heath 40% ruck, 20% forward and 40% bench. Max 60% ruck, 20% forward and 20% bench. With so much marking targets up forward, its hard to see how other sides will intercept mark against us. Love to know if this fits in with match Sims at training or going too far.

6 minutes ago, stinga said:

Love to know if this fits in with match Sims at training or going too far.

I see the match sim working on fast ball through the middle and into a congested forward line, and to create a congested contested backline. Both movements having them run hard to the contest, and chase that fast ball.

The extra bench player will be interesting, but it is tough to see how they will use them, when looking at the sim.

The training squad continues to get bigger.

First look, there was Max Gawn and right beside him was Max Heath (he matched up well against our captain in the sims). Gawn pushed himself in the runs.

Steven May looking in good nik, abdominal muscles are tight. Spent quite a bit of time after drills, encouraging and instructing others on an individual level. Got burnt by Caleb Windsor, but who hasn't when trying to corral.

Jake Melksham had the biggest smile all through the session. I think he missed them all. Still a smart player, stepping, selling the candy, moving well.

CJ continues to rehab, plenty of running, the same with Jack Henderson.

AMW participated in some drills, first group action for quite some time, then went to light duties.

No Brody Mihocek.

Jack Steele has joined the main group.

They had them running again. It looked like they went through a few of the mental and physical barriers.

Harry Sharp has them all chasing him.

Drills had them in a keeping-off handball game with heavier tackling. Another was two kicking games. The object of one was to find the loose player with either a small hit up or getting it over the back of the defense (out numbered 9 to 5) within a 50 by 25m area. The other had them spread from outside the fifty and finish with a shot on goal. The defense did well if they could slow the offence down.

The talls had a one on one contest for the high mark. By the end they were marking, as earlier the contest regularly became halved.

Jed Adams is looking good.

Steven King has a soft spot for CJ, often talking to him. Tom Sparrow is in the same boat. King is an observer of the training. If they muck up the structure or get caught out from the plan, he will immediately pull them in and explain the situation (very proactive).

Rivers ran the sims today.

The sims were less frantic. Plenty of hugging the boundary, and then hitting the forwards on leads.

Most of the players played in the positions as expected.

Matt Jefferson and JvR doing well, leading directly at the kicker.

TMac looked good, moving well and making the right decisions down back.

Christian Salem who “slows time” when he has the ball, very clean and smooth.

Harvey Langford continues to get even better.

Koltyn Tholstrup notices all the players. The rest were drinking when Heath was left out there to finish set shot during a sim. He made his way to tap him when he goaled. Leadership written all over him.

Jake Bowey, Xavier Lindsay and Bailey Laurie are going about it well. All very humble personalities.

Harrison Petty will be a big improver, he is training well.

Ricky Mentha Junior needs Kossie with him. Appeared a little low in energy and couldn't get into “it”.

Kade Chandler looked good, fit, strong and boisterous.

AJ is going about it well, using his strength and is putting his learnings in place.

Still a few more to join in, they are looking professional and the buzz is on.

19 minutes ago, YesitwasaWin4theAges said:

How did Wet Coke let this man go?

He literally just fell in our lap.

As a big bodied mid they wanted him in the middle, but viewed him as too slow and not able to read the ball quick enough to make up for the lack of pace.

He played a handful of games before doing his ACL, which kept him out for close to 12 months.

When he came back Harley Reid was there and given WC already had a few other big bodied types he couldn't get back into the side.

From what I've seen so far I don't see the issue with his speed.
He is certainly not "slower than an average ruckman" as some Eagles fans have suggested.
Off the mark he actually looks quite quick. He can obviously take a grab, looks pretty clean below his knees and kicks ok.

So I'm not getting it either.

Maybe WC just couldn't figure out how or where to play him?

2 hours ago, Dee Boys said:

Ben Brown kicked 190 goals in three seasons, not really sure he's a valid comparison. He absolutely would've got a game at Richmond alongside Riewoldt before Tom Lynch arrived!

Completely agree about your champion team call. All I'm saying is I don't think he's quite good enough to be a role player in a top team. People arguing he'd get in Brisbane's side ahead of the likes of mids, wings and forwards like McCluggage, Ashcroft x 2, Bailey, Cameron, Rayner, Neale, Dunkley, Lohmann, Berry etc have lost touch with reality. Some people think he'll get there in future. If you're one of those people then terrific! I have my doubts, that's all.

As I said, I hope I'm wrong!

You're right, Culley wouldn't get a game ahead of those players, but you didn't mention Sam Marshall who played 11 games in 2025 for Brisbane and looked lost everytime I saw him, especially in the GF. Just a kid yes and may turn out better than Culley, but in a premiership year, Brisbane played someone who looked lost out there. Bruce Reville is another who may have a cult following, but hasn't shown a whole heap. Every team, no matter how good, will need the battlers and developing players to contribute during sucessful seasons. Culley is tracking very nicely to be, at a minimum, a good AFL level honest battler, but may end up more than that.

1 hour ago, Viscount Cardwell said:

Thought this thread was about training, start your own thread about Culley

Considering my comment got deleted I'll start again.

I didnt start the Culley discussion at all

Learn to read first before throwing accusations out [censored]