Chelly

Can he take steroids and still be WADA compliant?

GW$ have been given more time to prepare their defence in the Whitfield farce saga. Likely outcome is a wet lettuce delivered over the holidays when everybody's looking away.

One of my favourite players was The Flash who we drafted from the VFL (originally as a rookie). The club has drafted three players this year from that competition and I hope they can have good AFL careers like his. Meanwhile, Aaron has taken up a coaching job at Doveton which is not that far from Casey where two of our rookies were recruited from - Aaron Davey to coach Doveton in South East Football Netball League Good luck Flash!

In that case, you can start spewing now RTG because I've thought long and hard to come up with my first 2017 Phantom Draft. 1. Charlie Spargo (Murray Bushrangers) GWS Academy2. Darcy Fogarty (Glenelg SA) 3. Jarrod Brander (Bendigo Pioneers) GWS Academy4. Jaidyn Stephenson (Eastern Ranges)5. Connor Ballenden (Brisbane Lions) Brisbane Lions Academy6. Sam Hayes (Eastern Ranges)7. Hunter Clark (Dandenong Stingrays)8. James Worpel (Geelong Falcons)9. Jack Higgins (Oakleigh Chargers)10. Jack Powell (Canberra) GWS Academy That makes three early picks available to GWS through the academy system assuming their zone isn't changed to exclude the Riverina District which isn't really being "developed" by the Giants anyway (and note where my picks 1 & 3 are playing). Here is an article about the GWS Academy that might be of interest.

In effect, the two players we drafted weren't on the radar of the so called "experts". Neither of them made it on any of the phantom drafts that I've seen - the picks seem to be left of field. Have we taken risks with our selections?

Agreed and as has been said elsewhere, the club should be telling us why we are taking two category A rookie picks. It's not as if they come at a great cost and if the last rookie picked doesn't make it, what have we lost?

A timely reminder for me to start working on my 2017 Phantom Draft.

No idea who we pick but I want to hear Jason Taylor say when he gets interviewed at the end that he couldn't believe the player was still available at our pick.

Why?

Glacial in comparison to the way it came out immediately on the day the CAS judgement was made in January and announced its contingency plan to top up the Essendon list with players and confirm that in the event that their weakened team finished last, it would still have first pick in the draft notwithstanding the CAS findings.

There are always off season injuries. The AFL site reports on those of all clubs. A good run for all your players at this time of year can set up your season to come. Off season injury list Here's hoping that all on this list make a speedy recovery - "Best and fairest winner Jack Viney will have a delayed start to pre-season after undergoing a hip operation immediately after round 23, while Tom McDonald had surgery to fix an ongoing shoulder problem. Cameron Pedersen also had a shoulder operation before the club re-signed him, while Aaron vandenBerg will look to return from ankle surgery in good shape after it hampered him early last season. He was scheduled to clean out the left ankle once the season finished. Concussion kept Heritier Lumumba sidelined for all but one game after round six but he is expected to be right to go at the start of the year. With Casey Scorpions reaching the VFL Grand Final many Demons will start training a little later than recent seasons. Rule them out for round one: None"

Drew would be an interesting selection. Goes hard at the ball and has been compared to Jack Viney.

I think the club would be comfortably convinced that Wagner deserves a primary list spot anyway. Could you say the same about the players available at 84? If not, better to consider such players in the rookie draft.

Well no ... some think that happened but when the story started doing the rounds some time after the trip it was just that Maxy chucked while on the trip and then it was while in the presence of the players before finally morphing into spewing while he was sleeping. Did it influence why he left the trip? There have been other reasons offered above such as a family illness. Did it influence why he left the club? Since there were $7.2 million other reasons I suggest that if it did then it would have had an infinitesimal effect at best. Not only that but in view of some of the goings on with characters like Toby Greene and more recently the scandals surrounding Lachie Whitfield, if he really cared about his club's cultcha then he would have been out of the place and in the Australian Boys Choir by now. As Saty wisely stated above, if you repeat something often enough, they'll believe you.

Why not? They named today's feature race at Moonee Valley after him.

"Max Lynch was identified at a 2014 trial after coming from a soccer background, he’s done very well to carry the ruck duties for the Rams." TAC CUP | NSW-based Bushies impress at AFL division two under-18 championships

The Giants also have Connor Byrne and Zach Sproule in their academy squad. I don't know how the Giants can fit them all in. That's why I think Lynch might be a gettable proposition.

Well, we bit the bullet and delisted Max King which I suppose had to be done in light of the fact that after three years as a rookie, the Casey selectors ignored him throughout the finals series and played Oscar McInerney instead and left him in their twos. Max King came from the Bushies where they grow them big so why not another Max from out Albury way? Max Lynch is a 200cm, 96kg ruckman from the Murray Bushrangers with the problem being that I believe he's in the GWS Academy (it's another issue altogether as to why an Albury boy needs an academy because our game is pretty strong up there - but hey, this is the AFL and GWS is their love child). I believe that the Giants have a number of draft prospects in this year's academy and they might be under pressure with points in the bidding system if they haven't selected him by the time we get to Melbourne's pick at 47. Anyone know how this works and does anyone know some more about Max Lynch?

Rory Thompson of Gold Coast looks a worthy player to target.

In a very long-winded statement, the Old Xaverians Amateur Football Club has announced the appointment of James McDonald as their senior coach in A section for next year. Congratulations Junior. OX's are the most successful and well run club in the VAFA. It's a real honour.

Not to mention Max.

I agree with all of the above and thankfully, we are past the stage where people will say, "not another Jack Watts thread". However, I know he still has a few critics left here and there and I personally hope he makes it his mission to build on 2016 and improve even further in 2017 and gets the chance to play in finals which are the pinnacle of this sport.

Could there be three Brayshaws in the AFL soon?

Melbourne injury list: round 22 Sam Weideman (quad) – availableJeff Garlett (skin infection) – testBen Newton (knee) – 1 week Heritier Lumumba (concussion) – long-term injury list You can add Mitch King as well, I would suggest.

Peter Maynard was a smallish wing/flanker who played 8 games in 1980-1 and then moved on to Glenelg in the SANFL where he had a long career. He worked at Melbourne a few years ago so I'm sure the red and blue blood still runs through his veins.