Whispering_Jack

So 12 Demons plus a Kangaroo joined forces to take on St Kilda plus 2 Kangaroos in a 12 v 12 match. Highlights - • Braydon Preuss in his first game back (explains why he wasn't really an option for Saturday's game) dominated around the hit-outs. • Mitch Brown scored five of his side’s nine goals. • The delivery inside 50 allowed Brown to do his best work. • Jayden Hunt was excellent – presented at the ball really well. • Joel Smith was probably the other standout down back in the wet conditions. • There's also an update on some of Melbourne’s other young prospects in 2020.

They are playing footy in Tassie where a few draft prospects are showing their wares. Scouting notes and weekly wrap: TSL – Round 5

Looks like the answer is yes.

Zac Williams is the type of player who would add to the mix at Melbourne. The cost might be high but is he a worthwhile target for the club’s recruiters? Clubs circle Giants star, despite five-year offer

I would now like this form translated into a game against a top 8 team rather than a bottom 2 or 3 team.

Picks 13 and 15 respectively in the 2004 AFL Draft

Closing in on 200 AFL games. I hope he gets there.

Recruiters are going to be busy. When the 2020 trade period starts post-Grand Final

But then there’s a score review. Touched. Decision on the scoreboard. Behind. Dees get up by 1 point.

Late in the season, we were ravaged by injuries and we kicked poorly. The end result - a 17 point defeat. Can we improve on that this week? MELBOURNE B Christian Salem Steven May Jake Lever HB Angus Brayshaw Sam Frost James Harmes C Nathan Jones Michael Hibberd Jordan Lewis HF Jayden Hunt Bayley Fritsch Kyle Dunkley F Harrison Petty Jake Melksham Christian Petracca FOLL Max Gawn Jack Viney Clayton Oliver I/C Oskar Baker Jay Kennedy Harris Oscar McDonald Corey Wagner EMG Marty Hore Alex Neal-Bullen Braydon Preuss Billy Stretch IN Steven May OUT Braydon Preuss (omitted) COLLINGWOOD B Brayden Maynard Jordan Roughead Jeremy Howe HB Jack Crisp Matthew Scharenberg Chris Mayne C Tom Phillips Scott Pendlebury Josh Daicos HF Callum Brown Brody Mihocek Travis Varcoe F Jamie Elliott Will Hoskin-Elliott Steele Sidebottom FOLL Brodie Grundy Adam Treloar Taylor Adams I/C Levi Greenwood Jack Madgen Josh Thomas Rupert Wills EMG Tim Broomhead Tyler Brown Ben Crocker John Noble IN Jack Madgen OUT Mason Cox (detached retina)

Wouldn’t it be great if he came of age with his first big bag against his grandfather’s old team with Eddie in the commentary box or the studio reminding us for the nth time about the family history?

I suspect that there’s going to be a fair amount of trading going on when the trade period actually happens. With so many unknowns about this year’s draft selections on top of the large number of academy picks, it might well up as a free for all. The quality of each club’s drafters could well be determined by this draft. In the meantime, picking up Kossie wasn’t a bad outcome for us at last year’s draft table.

What I like about the game today is that we did it with a young side - 3 first year players in their teens in Pickett, Jackson and Rivers plus Swallow who just turned 20. We’ve also picked up a good ‘un in Langdon and Tomlinson adds to the mix. Very much like Port Adelaide last year.

West Coast have been woeful throughout the game but they put on a show for about five minutes and suddenly lead by 11 points. Reminiscent of the last five minutes of the first quarter of round 1.

The leadership group was changed a few weeks ago with the addition of Jake Melksham and Jake Lever. One of them was interviewed in the media and explained that the club wanted an extra leader for the forward line and the backline. Hence, Melksham and Lever will be the two official on field leaders today. It goes without saying that a number of others will be called on to provide leadership to provide a winning outcome.

Thanks for the reminder - it was my only AFL game this year too. That’s good news for a few of today’s players. Jake Melksham and Angus Brayshaw were the standouts and Charlie Spargo was good both up forward and in the middle. Kozzie Pickett was exciting and Trent Rivers and Tom Sparrow showed out. Rhyce Shaw was experimenting with a crazy game plan that involved moving the ball any way but forward and our kicking for goal was pathetic. We need to be on target tonight.

Today’s game against North Melbourne is one of those make or break games for Melbourne. With both Max Gawn and Jack Viney out of the side, others will be expected to step up, be counted and show leadership all over the ground. A couple of weeks ago the pundits were describing them as “irrelevant” but a win today could see the Demons in a position to prove them wrong and remaining in the mix to challenge the top sides as we move towards the business end of the season

The value of good small forwards.

That would be up to the AFL when they prepare the fixture for Rounds 14 to 16.

Wondering if the Tigers reintroduce the squirrel grip in their game with Port Adelaide today?

The thing about future fixture rankings, a lot depends on where the clubs are drawn to play. I hope therefore that Melbourne isn’t sent to play Fremantle in Perth given that it hasn’t had a single instance of true home ground advantage once this year, been moved from hub to hub and has already been sent to WA once to play the Eagles.

Possibly in Round 15 but it doesn’t matter. Every club is going to end up with one bye in 2020. The Essendon v Melbourne game from Round 3 has been designated as the “bye” for both clubs which means they can be drawn against each other in any future AFL round.

The Herald Sun looks at every team’s run home. Looking at the list, I think the top eight will remain unchanged :- THE RUN HOME FOR YOUR CLUB 1 PORT ADELAIDE Played 10, 32 pts, 144.7% TO COME Richmond Geelong Hawthorn Collingwood Essendon North Melbourne Sydney 2 ST KILDA Played 10, 28 pts, 123.0% TO COME Geelong Essendon Brisbane GWS Giants Hawthorn Melbourne West Coast 3 BRISBANE LIONS Played 10, 28 pts, 117.9% TO COME Western Bulldogs North Melbourne St Kilda Carlton Collingwood Gold Coast Sydney 4 RICHMOND Played 10, 26 pts, 123.4% TO COME Port Adelaide Gold Coast Essendon Adelaide Fremantle Geelong West Coast 5 GEELONG Played 10, 24 pts, 122.2% TO COME St Kilda Port Adelaide Adelaide Essendon Richmond Sydney Western Bulldogs 6 WEST COAST Played 9, 24 pts, 114.8% TO COME Carlton Hawthorn GWS Giants Essendon North Melbourne Richmond St Kilda Western Bulldogs 7 GWS GIANTS Played 10, 24 pts, 104.7% TO COME Sydney West Coast Adelaide Carlton Fremantle Melbourne St Kilda 8 COLLINGWOOD Played 10, 22 pts, 112.5% TO COME Adelaide Melbourne North Melbourne Brisbane Carlton Gold Coast Port Adelaide 9 W. BULLDOGS Played 10, 20 points, 92.2% TO COME Brisbane Adelaide Melbourne Fremantle Geelong Hawthorn West Coast 10 ESSENDON Played 9, 20 points, 88.7% TO COME Gold Coast St Kilda Richmond Geelong Hawthorn Melbourne Port Adelaide West Coast 11 GOLD COAST Played 10, 16 points, 101% TO COME Essendon Richmond Carlton Brisbane Collingwood Hawthorn North Melbourne 12 MELBOURNE Played 9, 16 points, 100% TO COME North Melbourne Collingwood Western Bulldogs Essendon Fremantle GWS Giants St Kilda Sydney 13 CARLTON Played 9, 16 points, 97.6% TO COME West Coast Fremantle Gold Coast Adelaide Brisbane Lions Collingwood GWS Giants Sydney 14 HAWTHORN Played 9, 16 points, 86.6% TO COME Fremantle West Coast Port Adelaide Adelaide Essendon Gold Coast St Kilda Western Bulldogs 15 NORTH MELB Played 10, 12 points, 88.1% TO COME Melbourne Brisbane Collingwood Fremantle Gold Coast Port Adelaide West Coast 16 FREMANTLE Played 9, 12 points, 84.6% TO COME Hawthorn Carlton Sydney GWS Giants Melbourne North Melbourne Richmond Western Bulldogs 17 SYDNEY Played 10, 12 points, 78.2% TO COME GWS Giants Fremantle Brisbane Lions Carlton Geelong Melbourne Port Adelaide 18 ADELAIDE Played 10, 0 points, 55.1% TO COME Collingwood Western Bulldogs Geelong Carlton GWS Giants Hawthorn Richmond

Knightmare’s analysis of a difficult draft to analyse. 2020 AFL Draft: Who's still playing, top prospects, clubs holding the aces

The winning streak comes to an abrupt end. Round 16, 1964 Melbourne vs Essendon Saturday 8 August Venue: MCG Attendance: 70,385 B Crompton Massey Tas Johnson HB Anderson Williams Leahy C Dixon H Mann Watson HF Vagg Groom Kenneally F Jacobs Bourke Adams Foll Wise Barassi Rov Townsend 19/20 Emselle McLean Things were going well at half time for the Demons in Ron Barassi’s 200 game milestone as they were in full command with a 5.5.35 to 2.5.17 lead and early in the third term that advantage was turned to 31 points after two goals from Hassa Mann. However, the sluggish Bombers came to life when Ken Fraser broke Don William’s shackles and before a crowd of over 70,000 proceeded to cause a major upset. They reduced the deficit to only nine points at three quarter time, kept the Demons scoreless in the final term and kicked the only goal of that period to fall in by a mere two points. The end of Melbourne’s winning streak was soured by a confrontation between Norm Smith and umpire’s adviser Harry Clayton over the Coach criticising umpires during matches. Melbourne 2.2.14 5.5.35 7.6.48 7.6.48 Essendon 1.2.8 2.5.17 5.9.39 6.14.50 Goals Jacobs H Mann 3 Watson Best H Mann Dixon Adams Williams Barassi Jacobs Reserves Essendon 8.12.60 defeated Melbourne 7.13.55 Goals Carlson Leitch 2 Slade Vearing Wood Best Rowe Leitch Vearing Under 19s Melbourne 8.10.58 defeated Essendon 6.9.45 Goals Osborne Schultz 2 Minton-Connell Pritchard Russell Wight Best Russell Pritchard Adams