Whispering_Jack

Nothing much to report on the injury front except for the fact that Jayden Hunt is advancing well with his rehab and looks likely to be back sooner rather than later. Also, it’s interesting that Marty Hore is now on the list of the players who are out for the rest of the season. There’s a veiled hint from Darren Burgess in there that the VFL season is done and dusted if there’s no use in continuing with his season. Injury Report | Smooth sailing for finals

After the “Last Hurrah” comes another book touching the history of the club. Very timely as we embark on the finals to read about a man who was captain coach of the 1926 premiership team and a lot more ~ Sir Albert Chadwick biography released by MCC

I turned 15 in the middle of 1964 and by that time, I had been a supporter for almost 10 years. In 1954, Father Christmas presented me with a tie that had a Melbourne footballer on it and lo and behold, I was a fan for life. We won 6 flags in the next 10 years. I couldn’t get a ticket to the ‘64 grand final but managed to get invited to the Channel 2 studios where I watched it in an auditorium on black and white screens with about 100 others, almost all of them local aged care residents. The one grand final that I made it to was in 1960 when it rained from start to finish and we held Collingwood to the lowest score ever in a grand final - 2.2.14. When I got home, I had to work in the family milk bar in the northern suburbs selling Heralds and Sporting Globes to disgruntled Pies fans. My recollection of winning grand finals was the feeling of happiness and euphoria, one that I hope we’ll all be experiencing in a little over a month’s time.

It was back in Round 12 during one of Victoria’s Covid19 lockdowns that the two clubs had to find refuge in the western suburbs of Sydney where Gladys reigned supreme and things were safe and sound in the State of New South Wales for everything except footy teams from Brisbane. Melbourne can pick and choose where to play next week (subject to no unforeseen circumstances arising and when does that ever happen these days?😀) but it won’t be at Giants Stadium. THE TEAMS MELBOURNE B: M. Hibberd 14 S. May 1 J. Lever 8 HB: C. Salem 3 H. Petty 35 A. Brayshaw 10 C: T. Sparrow 32 C. Petracca 5 J. Hunt 29 HF: J. Jordon 23 T. McDonald 25 C. Spargo 9 F: B. Fritsch 31 L. Jackson 6 A. Neal-Bullen 30 Foll: M. Gawn 11 C. Oliver 13 K. Pickett 36 I/C: J. Harmes 4 J. Melksham 18 T. Rivers 24 S. Weideman 26 Emerg: O. Baker 33 T. Bedford 12 J. Bowey 17 M. Brown 38 In: O. Baker Out: Ed Langdon (concussion) BRISBANE LIONS B: J. Prior 20 H. Andrews 31 B. Starcevich 37 HB: D: Rich 10 M. Adams 24 G. Birchall 14 C: D. Zorko 15 L. Neale 9 H. McCluggage HF: C. Ah Chee 4 J. Daniher 3 L. McCarthy 11 F: D. McStay 25 E. Hipwood 30 C. Cameron 23 Foll: O. McInerney 46 J. Lyons 17 M. Robinson 5 I/C Z. Bailey 33 K. Coleman 18 R. Lester 35 D. Robertson 2 Sub: R. Mathieson 36 Emerg: C. Ballenden 38 T. Fullarton 21 J. Madden 42 In: R. Lester L. Neale Out: T. Berry (omitted) J. Madden (omitted)

In all modesty, this has to win Post of the Week!!!

A few years ago at this ground, we were dominating them and we were this far ahead of them only to lose on the last kick of the day. You never give up.

I don’t think this was a good look for the game Naughton on notice as Bulldogs blow shot to seal double chance

That aged well.

Richmond are really tumbling badly. They are a shadow of the team they were early in the season.

The waiting game is over. There’s one more win to go before we reach the summit. Bring it on!

They would need a good memory to remember the detail. I certainly don’t but I’m fairly certain that the knock on him at the time was that he wasn’t big enough to hold down a spot at AFL level. Hence, he was overlooked by all clubs in the National Draft and had to wait for the 2004 Pre Season Draft to be picked at 3 by the Blues. At the time we had a fairly decent Indigenous small forward speedster named Aaron Davey who came into the team a year before Eddie, had a decent 10 year career and retired at the end of 2013. Shows how resilient a footballer Eddie turned out to be!

The impression that I got from him on Mac Andrew was somewhat different. Taylor says that Andrew was at our very first (NGA) training session at 14 but was still very much a raw prospect prior to Covid. He wasn’t involved in any major programmes such as the Vic Country squads although he did some work with the Dandenong Stingrays and it’s only this year that he’s made significant growth. It sounded to me as if Taylor and the club weren’t taking all that much credit for his recent improvement. As to the changes in the rules, he said he hadn’t been involved in the politics but he felt that there might have been a bit of a knee jerk reaction in the decision-making. He said the AFL might have taken into consideration whether players had been involved in academy programmes before removing access to them. The impression I got was that because the club hadn’t been so heavily involved in Andrew’s development over the years, he was philosophical about the prospect of losing him. At no time however, did he say one way or the other whether he thought Andrew would go top 20. On Taj Woewodin, he said he was a terrific young man who was making significant improvement in his midfield craft after previously playing off half back (and might also play forward a bit). The club has spoken with him and although the (Covid) situation has blocked attempts to get him over here, he’s in the WA Under 19 squad and the club will closely track his progress. Reading between lines, I think we will be drafting him in November.

No. This is an incident that happened outside an officially sanctioned game so doesn’t come under the MRO framework. Therefore, it gets dealt with by the league’s football operations officer and his team. At the moment, Andrew Dillon is standing in on that job. I believe he has a legal background so I wouldn’t be surprised if that means there is some mediation going on in the background and a result notified soon enough. Earlier in the week, I was thinking that the club might rest Max Gawn for the final round if the Bulldogs beat Port Adelaide (meaning that we couldn’t miss out on a top two placing). That eventuality might have allowed for Majak to be picked at least as an emergency in tonight’s squad so that he could take on the Cats. We’ll know soon enough if that’s going to happen.

It’s Barrie Vagg, not Barry BTW

There were two NAB Boys League games at the weekend comprising Round 16. These are the top five points scorers from the round. I think in the circumstances, there’s every chance that the competition might be nearing a close as far as the regular season is concerned. BENDIGO PIONEERS v GEELONG FALCONS 165 points – Mitchell Knevitt (Geelong Falcons) 138 points – Sam Conforti (Bendigo Pioneers) 128 points – Lachlan Kidd (Geelong Falcons) 115 points – Harley Reid (Bendigo Pioneers) 111 points – Cooper Whyte (Geelong Falcons) GIPPSLAND POWER v GREATER WESTERN VICTORIA REBELS 166 points – Nick Hodgson (GWV Rebels) 147 points – Luis D’Angelo (Gippsland Power) is 146 points – Mitchell Moschetti (Gippsland Power) 142 points – Ben Hobbs (GWV Rebels) 120 points – Kai Lohmann (GWV Rebels) Understandably, there was little change to the leader’s board with Demon NGA Andy Moniz-Wakefield in 24th place.

On 3AW Matthew Lloyd listed 8 players who should figure in trade discussions- • Geelong’s Charlie Constable and Quinton Narkle; • Western Bulldogs’ Mitch Wallis, Pat Lipinski and Ed Richards; • Richmond’s Mabior Chol; • Adelaide’s Tom Lynch and • Melbourne’s Sam Weideman.

Home and away season done and dusted. The AFL has announced that due to the evolving nationwide lockdowns, the VFL home and away season has been concluded effective immediately.

Would be interesting to see how the AFL deals with this. Collingwood have been ambiguous about the injury to Cox and when it was incurred. Jack Hawkins caused a Saints opponent to be subbed off last week but wasn’t sanctioned. On the subject of sanction in the case of a penalty, Daw is currently eligible to play for Melbourne this week so if he’s penalised say, two matches, would this week count?

North Melbourne has won the wooden spoon and with it comes the first pick in the National Draft. In this case, the Kangaroos are almost certainties to pick up South Australian midfielder Jason Horne-Francis. INDICATIVE DRAFT ORDER (after Round 22) ROUND ONE 1. North Melbourne 2. Adelaide 3. GWS Giants 4. Gold Coast 5. Hawthorn 6. Carlton 7. St Kilda 8. Richmond 9. Fremantle 10. West Coast 11. Essendon 12. GWS Giants 13. Sydney 14. Brisbane Lions 15. Western Bulldogs 16. Port Adelaide 17. Richmond 18. West Coast ROUND TWO 19. Gold Coast 20. North Melbourne 21. Adelaide 22. Hawthorn 23 Gold Coast 24. Hawthorn 25. Carlton 26. Richmond 27. Richmond 28. Fremantle 29. West Coast 30. Geelong 31. Geelong 32. Sydney 33. Melbourne 34. Collingwood 35. West Coast 36. Geelong 37. Adelaide ROUND THREE 38. North Melbourne 39. Collingwood 40. Collingwood 41. Richmond 42. Melbourne 43. Gold Coast 44. St Kilda 45. Richmond 46. Collingwood 47. West Coast 48. Essendon 49. GWS Giants 50. West Coast 51. West Coast 52. Melbourne 53. Essendon 54. Geelong 55. Gold Coast ROUND FOUR 56. Hawthorn 57. Adelaide 58. West Coast 59. Gold Coast 60. Port Adelaide 61. Carlton 62. St Kilda 63. Hawthorn 64. Adelaide 65. West Coast 66. Gold Coast 67. GWS Giants 68. Sydney 69. North Melbourne 70. Western Bulldogs 71. Port Adelaide 72. Port Adelaide 73. West Coast ROUND FIVE 74. North Melbourne 75. Adelaide 76. Collingwood 77. Gold Coast 78. Hawthorn 80. St Kilda 81. Richmond 82. Fremantle 83. West Coast 84. Essendon 85. GWS Giants 86. Sydney 87. West Coast 88. Western Bulldogs 89. Port Adelaide 90. Geelong 91. Melbourne

Chris Connolly - see The Front Bar thread.

Farewell Eddie Betts

When are you guys going to get the composer of your theme song “Come on Demons” on your programme?

I’m very impressed by my finals system. Week One Footscray v Williamstown Southport v Casey Demons Box Hill Hawks v Geelong This also gives three of the AFL’s top four teams the necessary reserve backup to go into a finals series. Could someone please send the idea to the AFL for approval?

Here’s one:- Week One: (Semi Finals) 1 v 6 2 v 5 3 v 4 All three winners and highest placed loser go into Week Two which is Preliminary Final Week. The winners of the Preliminary Finals go into Week Three and the Grand Final. This would be perfect for the AFL as it would involve them having only six finals to arrange to close off the season.

My information is that this draft will primarily be a midfielder’s draft with some very good footballers in the top dozen or so. Obviously, Horne-Francis and Daicos are the two obvious prospects for top honours but there are a number of other potential quality players in that mix who could be celebrated in the near future as midfield guns. If we were to trade up to get into the first round of the draft, I hope we have our eyes on a good running midfielder. You can never have too many of them.