Whispering_Jack

Most of us missed (and for good reason) this but on Friday night in Adelaide, a young player stamped himself on the football scene. Jason Horne-Francis kicked three goals and shone in a losing team in the SANFL Preliminary Final. He’s been going neck and neck with Nick Daicos for the # 1 draft mantle and probably got his nose in front. Jason Horne-Francis stars in ‘electrifying’ SANFL prelim performance for South Adelaide

Sequel?

Premiership (1955, 57, 59) winger Ian McLean passed away in 1965 at the age of 35. He had retired at the end of 1960 and his passing at a very young age was devastating news.

AFL great Greg Parke dead in Grand Final tragedy High flying Demon key position forward Greg Parke sadly passed away today after a long illness. He came to the club in 1968, four years after Melbourne won its second-last flag to date. He added excitement to our forward line with his stick fingers and combined with another key forward Ross Dillon in giving us hope during some dark times. In his first season at the club he finished the year with more Brownlow Medal votes than any other Melbourne player. In 1970 he took 238 marks, the most in the league that season and he holds the AFL record for most marks in a game. In 1972, he topped Melbourne's goalkicking with 63 goals. However, he went to Footscray in 1974 and then crossed to Norwood in the SANFL before finishing with Fitzroy in 1977. Parke played 119 games with the Demond and sadly died on the day that two of his former teams met in the 2021 AFL Grand Final.

We’ve just passed the Chris Sullivan line.

I was at the MCG early on 25 September, 1971 at this very minute when the Melbourne Under 19s were on their way to a premiership victory over Essendon. The team had beaten the Bombers in the Second Semi Final and they repeated the dose by 13 points in the Grand Final. Peter Williamson was solid in the ruck, Ian McGuinness starred up forward with six goals and rover Peter Dilnot took a screamer and kicked three majors. The Under 19s produced a number of future senior players - Ross Brewer, John Cumming, Peter Dilnot, Geoff Harrold Stephen Kerley, Ian McGuinness, Kevin Moore, Laurie Queay, Kim Smith and Peter Williamson. However, despite the fact that there was a lot of promise packed into the side, only Brewer and Kerley became regulars and the latter transferred to South Australia relatively early in his career. Melbourne 6.2.38 11.6.72 13.9.87 18.15.123 Essendon 3.4.22 7.7.49 12.11.83 16.14.110 Goals McGuinness 6 Dilnot 3 Brewer Harrold Taylor 2 Anderson Cumming Williamson I stayed the whole day at the MCG and used the time between the 19s and the seniors to study up for my forthcoming final year Uni exams and then watched the Hawks win their second flag (they’ve won another 11 since then). Peter Hudson kicked a few goals and finished equalling the record of 150 goals in a season but his usual accuracy for goal eluded him and he butchered the opportunity to hold the record on his own.

Taj is playing in a Preliminary Final for East Fremantle Colts but these are the teams for tomorrow’s curtain raiser WA-SA TEAMS: Young guns to light up Grand Final day Western Australia v South Australia at Optus Stadium, 1pm AWST / 3.00pm AEST WESTERN AUSTRALIA B: F. Gorringe, J. Busslinger, L. Michael HB: J. Avery, J. van Rooyen, S. Gilbey C: B. Hough, K. Dittmar, A. Jones HF: K. Harbour, J. Amiss, L. Paton F: E. Benning, L. Polson, J. Stretch Foll: J. Broadbent, M. Johnson, J. Tunstill I/C: O. Armstrong, K. Bevan, C. Bourne, R. Farmer, Z. Fleiner Emerg: D. Curtin, J. Draper, G. Julian SOUTH AUSTRALIA B: Z. Becker, J. Parish, M. Litster HB: A. Draper, O. Adams, B. O'Loughlin C: L. Rayson, H. Harrison, N. Wanganeen-Milera HF: C. Kennedy, L. Cooke, W. Spain F: H. Lemmey, J. Lukac, I. Dudley Foll: O. Steene, M. Liddy, S. Linke I/C: A. D'Aloia, L. Grubb, H. Jackson, M. Michalanney, J. Owens Emerg: C. Beecken, B. Calvett, H. Stagg, L. Whitelum

2021 WAFL Colts MOTR: Finals Week 2 – East Perth vs. East Fremantle

Thanks for coming back and bringing your support. Cheers!

True but this only applies when Melbourne is playing against Essendon in Victoria. When playing outside of Victoria, earthquakes that happen outside Victoria trump the little ones from Victoria. In 1964 there was a giant earthquake in Alaska. That's outside Victoria so we win on Saturday night.

The earthquake's all good. Just what we needed to get rid of the Norm Smith Curse. I was at school in 1964 when the Alaskan earthquake struck and it was a doozy. Coincidentally, our teacher was out of class for a little while and we were mucking around near his equipment at the back of the room when one of us slipped and banged on the shelf which caused the needle of his baragraph to go crazy. Teacher came in, saw the graph and spent the rest of the day bragging to the staff that he'd captured the earthquake on his equipment. There was also an earthquake in Buchan, East Gippsland in 1964 so I always connect the year with earthquakes. This is now the icing on quake!

Yes - Supermercado is the author!

JKH was before his time. These days he would be a chance to get a game.

Retired yesterday 'I’ll always be a proud Lion': Ruckman retires after eight-year career To suggest that Andrew might not reach the level of Nic Nat but could become a Tom Nicholls or Archie Smith type has to be pure satire on Knightmare’s part.

Not entirely. They do have a good list so a decent coach who commands respect from the players could get them up to speed relatively quickly.

At this time in 1964, this was the song that was top of the hit parade ~

Of course, the scenario that I provided was based on us having to match a pick in the top ten. There’s still the possibility that he could be nominated in the late teens. We couldn’t match such a bid under this year’s’ rules but who knows what we might have done if it was open bidding? As I’ve said - it all depends on what our viewpoint on him is. On Brander, I have no opinion of him but I think there’s another thread for that discussion.

Very early in his career Jacob Mollison worked for a bank and I met him at a property settlement. He didn’t quite let on that he supported Melbourne but mentioned he thought there was a family connection. Perhaps he was being diplomatic but I have to say that I’ve never felt that he was biased in our favour or against which suggests to me that he’s a very good umpire. Razor Ray is fine but I think he’s been ruled out because he missed the two preliminary finals. Stevic’s good - take your pick of the others. At that level they’re all pretty good.

I don’t recall Ed Langdon or Angus Brayshaw’s names being called out much either, if at all. They are fundamental to our games. Langdon, in particular, should catch the eye. The problem is that the way the game is played these days, the Brownlow is made for midfielders and bad luck if you’re a defender.

Agree … and yet Chris Doerre, an ESPN draft “expert” who ranks him at 9 (see my post above) specifically refers to him as a “project” player. I want to make it clear, I am not knocking Mac Andrew - what I’m saying is that he’s a talented player with an excellent upside and could amount to a regular AFL ruckman at some time in the future but the hype we’re receiving from some quarters is well over the top.

Bob, I hope Clarrie wins the Brownlow tonight (and the Norm Smith on Saturday night) but if he doesn’t, I hope for your sake that Parrish doesn’t win it. 😀

Whether or not it’s our “bad luck” depends on how highly our recruiters regard Andrew. Cal Twomey's latest Phantom Form Guide puts him at #9 which means that if he was picked at that number under the old rules, Melbourne would have had to come up with 1469 points less 20% = 1175 points. We currently hold picks 33, 42, 54 & 91 which are collectively worth 1178 points which means we could have just squeezed him in if we wanted to match the bid, leaving our first pick in the draft at notionally around 72. It also means we would have to have gone into points deficit (affecting our hand in next year’s draft) in the event that another club nominated Taj Woewodin in say, the middle of the draft and we wanted to match that bid. We also have promising NGA Andy Moniz-Wakefield who will probably go late in the draft or rookied. Still, we would have to be prepared for a bid for him, even if it’s not likely. Of course, the above doesn’t take into account the likelihood of us improving our draft position through trading out players but where would we be left on that score if we were serious contenders for Adam Cerra and if not Cerra, where would we be in terms of list management if we wanted to pick other players we had our eyes on? At least we would have a very skinny project player who, according to Chris Doerre who also rates him at #9 on his latest You Tube (released yesterday Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAjYGjloLY4&t=1944s) will start as a KPP due to his current physical limitations but might eventually make it as a ruckman and be a Tom Nicholls or an Archie Smith type. Would anyone fancy heavily mortgaging the farm and forgoing other more immediate needs so that we can maybe have a Tom Nicholls or an Archie Smith running around in 2024 or 2025?

Taj Woewodin’s team East Fremantle Sharks won their Colts final yesterday. Taj finished with 19 disposals which was slightly on the low side compared with his recent output in the mid 20s. It’s going to be interesting to see what impact an interstate challenge match between WA & SA during ongoing finals series for both states.

Sadly, the Norwood Redlegs dropped out of the SANFL premiership race yesterday, losing the First Semi Final to South Adelaide. In the WAFL the red and blue (but not Demons) West Perth play in their final this afternoon.

The skies blazed in red and blue colours 57 years ago today … https://www.afl.com.au/ondemand/highlights/677626/grand-final-fever?episode=6/