Whispering_Jack

I suppose that after the last two or three seasons when the club spurned the upper reaches of the draft, I haven’t delved as deeply into the draft pool as in the past. I taped the games on Foxtel and watched a limited number of highlight reels which, because of their nature, don’t excite me all that much. I admit that I did watch the Dylan Stephens’ highlights which impressed me and, if available and picked at #10, I wouldn’t be upset. I’ve only glimpsed at Luke Jackson and Brodie Kemp’s highlights, remember Rowell, Anderson and Young from the Australia v Casey game and watched the NAB Boys League Grand Final. So now that the club’s draft position has been clarified and we look like having two picks in the top ten and one close to the middle of the second round, I’ve decided to look more closely at the footage available of the real national championship games to get a feel for those touted to come to us in the draft. I have started with the Round 2 game between Vic Country and Vic Metro shown on Foxtel in early June. The game featured the now Gold Coast bound pair of Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson who unsurprisingly were the best players for their team. The former stood out for his dominance in contested possessions - the latter for his classy clearance work and tackling. I don’t think I need say more other than that it’s a pity from our perspective that the AFL changed its tack and decided to go full on with draft assistance for the Suns after burying the Demons when they were just as, if not more, needy five or six years ago. Anderson would have been an ideal pick for us at 2 but that’s enough crying over spilt milk. Despite the fact that the two stars were in the Metro team, the Country boys edged in front just before half time and won an interesting contest by a couple of goals. Their best player was Hayden Young playing off half back who won the possession tally (close to 30) and was excellent rebounding out of defence with his rapier like left foot and strong intercept marking. His teammate Lachie Ash, also impressed with his dash out of defence. Both are definite high end draft potential in the range of our selections. The other player who impressed me was Country midfielder Caleb Serong who also is a top 10 prospect who looks like he could also play as a small forward. Sam Flanders was also a solid contributor who took my eye a bit but I think he’s a bit too much like a number of our inside mids (I wouldn’t discount him but he might have to be in the Patrick Cripps class to sway our recruiters given who we have there). Brodie Kemp also played in the match, mainly deep in defence and didn’t really stand out. He must have improved considerably in later games and before his ACL to have gained his current status. The Metro team had a solid key forward in Josh Smith who kicked a few goals in the first half but faded out later and, on reflection, I don’t think he’s in our top 30 range. I hope to catch up with a couple more games over the weekend and to see if I can work out why we seem so enamored about Luke Jackson ahead of Tom Green and whether Kemp should be in contention.

And now that the delisted free agency window has closer, it’s time for the AFL Drafts ...

Is there any news yet on Clarrie’s shoulder?

This is now where we stand - PRIMARY LIST 1. Oskar Baker 2. Toby Bedford 3. Angus Brayshaw 4. Bayley Fritsch 5. Max Gawn 6. Mitch Hannan 7. James Harmes 8. Michael Hibberd 9. Marty Hore 10. Jayden Hunt 11. Neville Jetta 12. Nathan Jones 13. James Jordan 14. Kade Kolodjiashnij 15. Ed Langdon 16. Jake Lever 17. Oscar McDonald 18. Tom McDonald 19. Steven May 20. Jake Melksham 21. Alex Neal-Bullen 22. Aaron Nietschke 23. Clayton Oliver 24. Christian Petracca 25. Harrison Petty 26. Braydon Preuss 27. Christian Salem 28. Charlie Spargo 29. Joel Smith 30. Tom Sparrow 31. Adam Tomlinson 32. Aaron vandenBerg 33. Jack Viney 34. Josh Wagner 35. Sam Weideman 36. National Draft Pick 3 37. National Draft Pick 10 38. National Draft Pick 28 39. (Reserved for Rookie Upgrade or Harley Bennell) 40. (Reserved for Rookie Upgrade or Mitch Brown) ROOKIE LIST: CATEGORY A 1. Kade Chandler 2. Kyle Dunkley 3. Jay Lockhart 4. Corey Wagner ROOKIE LIST: CATEGORY B 1. Austin Bradtke

A raft of draft pick swaps. Adelaide gives Picks 28, 49 and a Future Fourth Round Pick to Fremantle in exchange for Pick 22 and a Future Third Round Pick Melbourne gives Pick 8 to Fremantle in exchange for Picks 10, 28 and a Future Fourth Round Pick Brisbane Lions give pick 48 to Collingwood for a future Third Round Pick The selection table now looks like this:- WHO HAS WHAT PICKS? Adelaide Crows: 6, 22, 23, 37, 45 Brisbane Lions: 21, 29, 34, 71 Carlton: 9, 43, 57, 70, 85 Collingwood: 35, 48, 62, 74 Essendon: 31, 33, 61, 64, 65, 88 Fremantle: 7, 8, 49, 58, 69, 79, 83 Geelong Cats: 14, 17, 24, 36, 93 Gold Coast Suns: 1, 2, 15, 20, 78, 90 GWS Giants: 4, 40, 59, 60, 80, 94 Hawthorn: 11, 42, 50, 54, 63, 73, 87, 92 Melbourne: 3, 10, 28 North Melbourne: 26, 27, 30, 47, 84 Port Adelaide: 12, 16, 18, 52, 55, 66, 67, 68, 72, 86 Richmond: 19, 38, 39, 41, 56, 75, 77, 95 St Kilda: 51, 82, 100 Sydney Swans: 5, 25, 32, 44, 76, 81 West Coast Eagles: 46, 91, 108 Western Bulldogs: 13, 53, 89

Cal Twomey’s Phantom Form Guide: 2019 Phantom Form Guide: November update Knightmare’s updated Phantom Draft updated for the first three rounds

A third swap of picks - Hawthorn give up pick No.30 as part of a deal with North Melbourne, receiving picks No.50, 73 and a future second-round selection in return. The selection table now looks like this:- WHO HAS WHAT PICKS? Adelaide Crows: 6, 23, 28, 37, 45, 49 Brisbane Lions: 21, 29, 34, 48, 71 Carlton: 9, 43, 57, 70, 85 Collingwood: 35, 62, 74 Essendon: 31, 33, 61, 64, 65, 88 Fremantle: 7, 10, 22, 58, 69, 79, 83 Geelong Cats: 14, 17, 24, 36, 93 Gold Coast Suns: 1, 2, 15, 20, 78, 90 GWS Giants: 4, 40, 59, 60, 80, 94 Hawthorn: 11, 42, 50, 54, 63, 73, 87, 92 Melbourne: 3, 8, 97 North Melbourne: 26, 27, 30, 47, 84 Port Adelaide: 12, 16, 18, 52, 55, 66, 67, 68, 72, 86 Richmond: 19, 38, 39, 41, 56, 75, 77, 95 St Kilda: 51, 82, 100 Sydney Swans: 5, 25, 32, 44, 76, 81 West Coast Eagles: 46, 91, 108 Western Bulldogs: 13, 53, 89

Now that’s what I call a phantom draft!

Patrick Cripps was drafted at #13 in his draft year (2013). These are the players selected ahead of him - 1. Tom Boyd 2. Josh Kelly 3. Jack Billings 4. Marcus Bontempelli 5. Kade Kolodjashnij 6. Matthew Scharenberg 7. James Aish 8. Luke McDonald 9. Christian Salem 10. Nathan Freeman 11. Dom Sheed 12. Ben Lennon Who was best available?

In another swap of picks, Adelaide gains pick 6 and GWS' future 1st round pick and in return GWS receives pick 4 in the draft. The selection table now looks like this:- WHO HAS WHAT PICKS? Adelaide Crows: 6, 23, 28, 37, 45, 49 Brisbane Lions: 21, 29, 34, 48, 71 Carlton: 9, 43, 57, 70, 85 Collingwood: 35, 62, 74 Essendon: 31, 33, 61, 64, 65, 88 Fremantle: 7, 10, 22, 58, 69, 79, 83 Geelong Cats: 14, 17, 24, 36, 93 Gold Coast Suns: 1, 2, 15, 20, 78, 90 GWS Giants: 4, 40, 59, 60, 80, 94 Hawthorn: 11, 30, 42, 54, 63, 87, 92 Melbourne: 3, 8, 97 North Melbourne: 26, 27, 47, 50, 73, 84 Port Adelaide: 12, 16, 18, 52, 55, 66, 67, 68, 72, 86 Richmond: 19, 38, 39, 41, 56, 75, 77, 95 St Kilda: 51, 82, 100 Sydney Swans: 5, 25, 32, 44, 76, 81 West Coast Eagles: 46, 91, 108 Western Bulldogs: 13, 53, 89

Port Adelaide and Brisbane have engaged in a daring pick-swap, which sees the Power hand over their future first-round selection. They have sent it alongside picks 29 and 71 in exchange for picks 16, 52, 55 and 72. Power and Lions engage in daring pick swap The selection table now looks like this:- WHO HAS WHAT PICKS? Adelaide Crows: 4, 23, 28, 37, 45, 49 Brisbane Lions: 21, 29, 34, 48, 71 Carlton: 9, 43, 57, 70, 85 Collingwood: 35, 62, 74 Essendon: 31, 33, 61, 64, 65, 88 Fremantle: 7, 10, 22, 58, 69, 79, 83 Geelong Cats: 14, 17, 24, 36, 93 Gold Coast Suns: 1, 2, 15, 20, 78, 90 GWS Giants: 6, 40, 59, 60, 80, 94 Hawthorn: 11, 30, 42, 54, 63, 87, 92 Melbourne: 3, 8, 97 North Melbourne: 26, 27, 47, 50, 73, 84 Port Adelaide: 12, 16, 18, 52, 55, 66, 67, 68, 72, 86 Richmond: 19, 38, 39, 41, 56, 75, 77, 95 St Kilda: 51, 82, 100 Sydney Swans: 5, 25, 32, 44, 76, 81 West Coast Eagles: 46, 91, 108 Western Bulldogs: 13, 53, 89

Harmsey on the selection panel?

Going by the way the AFL sold the news of its draft concessions to the public (GCS taking two best mates from Victoria to limit the go home factor) I think it would be highly unlikely that the Suns would depart from the script of selecting Rowell and Anderson with 1/2.

I’ve tried to find one particular clip of Robbie at Windy Hill one day when he took the ball from the back pocket, linking up with teammates through great running and passing all the way down the wing and ending in a spectacular goal. It was shown on the following morning on the World of Sport panel and was the best goal I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, we were a pretty ordinary side in those days and often given little time in the media. I’m assuming the footage has been lost. Pity.

I was of the same view for much of the latter part of the season. Petracca was finally showing signs of maturing and even leadership on the field and a great deal of it was possibly going unnoticed because of the team’s circumstances. It’s so much harder to fire on a week by week basis when the team is unsettled and so many of the important components of the team are on the sidelines. He now appears to have passed his next test by coming back in good shape and raring to head into another pre season campaign. If his mid sized teammates all bring that mindset into 2020 it will represent a major contrast to how the team came into 2019 - they were an underdone and tired looking outfit from the start as evidenced by their failure to score in the opening game v Port and they were often blown away at the end of games. Tracc is one of those who is leading the way at the moment.

Ok - let’s stay on topic (MFC training) in this thread and in future training threads please.

The maximum list size is 47 which figure includes up to 3 Category B rookies. You don’t draft Category B rookies - you select them if they fit the criteria. The discussion about drafting is limited to the primary list and Category A rookies of which we can have a total of 44 (currently at 39).

Not training until after the drafts.

I don’t know how that’s possible without further delistings (unlikely) as we have 35 on the primary list and 4 rookies making 39 of a possible 44.

I’m not sure if this is serious. We only have a limited number of vacancies (5) to go into the draft with and one has been set aside for Harley Bennell. If we are chasing Brown then it might be a sign that things aren’t working out with Sam Murray.

The permission to train list is back (but there’s nobody on the list training at Melbourne Adelaide James Matthews (McLaren) Carlton Josh Deluca (Carlton) Lukas Webb (Western Bulldogs) Fremantle Hugh Dixon (Fremantle) Tom North (Fremantle) Gold Coast Josh Schoenfeld (Gold Coast) Hawthorn Darren Minchington (Hawthorn) North Melbourne Tom McKenzie (North Melbourne) St Kilda Angus Schumacher (Carlton) Bigoa Nyuon (Dandenong Stingrays) Sydney Jake Bartholomaeus (Sydney Uni) Jai Florent (Sandringham Dragons) Ryan Hebron (Werribee VFL) Aidyn Johnson (Port Adelaide) Jack Maibaum (Sydney)

OK, OK - just testing everyone’s awareness.

According to the club’s website - TrainingTimes Upcoming AFL training sessions Date: Friday 15 November Start time: 10.30am Location: Gosch's Paddock However, based on past events, there’s still every chance training will be on tomorrow.

Since we drafted Finlayson and Langdon specifically to play on the wing, it might get very crowded there with Sparrow.

One piece is never enough - you have to see him in colour too. This is from 1984 -