Whispering_Jack

Right on cue, the AFL Draft Central 2024 Power Rankings are out. I’ll load them up as they came in -

There are changes coming to the rules relating to NGA access in drafts. AFL proposes change to NGA access for this year’s draft

It was Round 11, 2022 at the MCG when Fremantle came back from a 25 point deficit at half time to beat Melbourne by 38 points. They met again in Round 20 at Optus Stadium and the Demons won by 46 points making it an 84 point turnaround - more if you take into account that half time MCG deficit. At the time, loading by the Melbourne fitness team was raised by many to explain the amazing improvement from one game to the next. So … it … can … be … done

The Herald Sun recognising the quality of our youth:- EIGHT KIDS KEEPING DEES IN FINALS MIX - HERALD SUN ONLINE • Jacob Van Rooyen, 21, who kicked four goals last week then was exceptional in the ruck against Draper. • Trent Rivers, 23, who has peeled off six excellent games in the midfield and has had 29 possessions in successive weeks as well as 15 total clearances. • Judd McVee, 20, who has had another excellent year as a miserly defender averaging 17 touches while kicking at 80 per cent efficiency. • Kysaiah Pickett, 23, who has kicked 12 goals in the past five weeks and 39 total score involvements. • Wingman Caleb Windsor, 19, who has played all 17 games in a year that could be rewarded with the Rising Star and has kicked a goal in each of the past two games. • Koltyn Tholstrup, 19, who has played the last four games for five in total in his debut year and who has only two goals but seven direct score assists in that time. • Andy Moniz-Wakefield, 20, who has played three games as a pacy defender and is averaging six intercept possessions and 14 possessions. • Daniel Turner, 22, who has kicked 11.3 and seven goals in the past four weeks (three against Essendon) as another key forward prospect for the Demons.

Getting close to favouritism in the Rising Star ⭐️

Another Demon from Melbourne’s golden era, Jim Sandral has passed away. Sandral was a member of the club’s 1956 premiership team and only spent two years at the club before he went off to the country at the end of 1957 for a long and illustrious career which stretched well into the mid 60s. Condolences to his family.

I haven’t seen as much of the National Championships and Coates League games as I have in the past but it seems fairly clear to me that there’s one glaring difference between this year and the last. In 2023, it was Harley Reid first and daylight next. At the head of the following pack was Colby McKercher so North did well to snare him, although the lure of Tasmania will soon be a factor with him. Time will tell, but I think Jason Taylor has done well to get Caleb Windsor and Koltyn Tholstrup although I felt at the time that with our draft hand, we could have tried for one more young player from the top 40 players. By way of contrast, 2024 is far more open and there is a plethora of opinion as to who fits into the top dozen players. There are candidates from everywhere putting their hands up so having first pick in this draft won’t be as big a deal on the face of it, as last year. For example, hard nosed midfielder Harvey Langford who appeals to me as the prototypical Jason Taylor selection and who shared the Larke Medal was ranked at only 17 by Davo-27 (see above). The Power rankings and Phantom drafts that come out in coming months are going to be interesting.

To wrap up the final game of the national championships. Scouting Notes: 2024 AFL U18s – Vic Metro vs. Vic Country

Perhaps @binman might wish to expand on this thought and what it might mean for the Dees on Sunday 😀

That blond bloke in the picture is the late Greg Parke, a high flying key forward who sadly passed away in the eve of Melbourne’s 2021 premiership.

15 July 1967 - on this day in 1967, an 18-year-old, 189cm ruckman from Tasmania, Max Walker, made his debut for the Demons on the MCG against the Kangaroos wearing the number 46 guernsey. His 15 kicks, 18 hitouts, 7 marks and goal helped his team across the line by 3 points. He had risen dramatically from the Under 19s to seniors in just over half a season after being discovered the year before in a schoolboy’s grand final. He went on to wear the number 1 in the following season when he established himself in the Melbourne lineup. Walker played 85 games for the Dees by the end of 1972 when he was called up to play in the Australian Test Cricket team. The tangle-footed right arm medium pace bowler was played as a foil for the famed express duo of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson. Although he was trained as an architect, Walker went on to become a popular television cricket commentator, public speaker and author. Walker passed away in 2016.

Clubhouse leader.

Melbourne captain Max Gawn provides update on injury return timeframe

Surely though, they should have called the bloke who kicked the two for the Bombers by the name of “Langdon”, for the sake of inconsistency?😀

I like the cut of Harvey Langford’s jib. He looks to me to be exactly the type of player Goody would want to recruit in the draft.

An exciting finish to the championships:- WATCH: Controversial finish decides National Championships as Larke Medal and MVP winners are revealed Dramatic late penalty hands Metro championship win over Country Vic Metro snatches Under 18 title after siren

The 2024 AFL National Championships decider between Victoria Metro and Victoria Country takes place this morning at Marvel Stadium. Here’s a preview:- PREVIEW | 2024 AFL U18s: Vic Metro vs. Vic Country

I came across this article from the SEN website that doesn’t seem to rate our young brigade at all. It puts us pretty close to the bottom of the pile - perhaps because they haven’t been looking closely at the way the club’s been travelling. RANKING THE YOUNG CORES OF ALL 18 AFL CLUBS IN 2024

Well, they had two goes at it and are at 50%.

True. Most of the time, the spell check didn’t change the name. The spell check operated separately on the title to the thread as well as on the text. No idea why.

Selective spell check in operation

The selection dilemma caused by the injury to Melbourne’s 209cm ruckman Max Gawn leaving him out of the side for the next two to three weeks recalls the panic that spread through the ranks in Simon Goodwin’s first season as coach of the club. It was early in the AFL’s 2017 season when Max, who was the reigning All-Australian ruckman, badly tore his hamstring in Round 3 against Geelong at the Docklands and was facing a lengthy amount of time on the sidelines. Luckily for the Demons, they had a back up ruckman in the person of 203cm Jake Spencer who was in his tenth season at the club spent mostly as second fiddle to Mark Jamar and later, to Gawn. He was called up to face Fremantle giant Aaron Sandilands who amassed 53 hit outs to Spencer’s 15 in the Dockers’ surprise 2 point victory at the MCG. Things did not improve in the following match on Anzac Eve against the Tigers when Spencer was given a bath by Toby Nankervis (56 hit outs to 13) in a game where the Demons gave up a 20-point lead at the final break to lose by 13 in the wake of multiple injuries to their players including one to Spencer’s shoulder as the team’s finals hopes plummeted. Enter 193cm undersized ruckman Cam Pedersen who was called up to the senior side after spending the first five weeks with the Casey Scorpions in the VFL. His first assignment in the role was to take on 203cm Tom Bellchambers. Petersen lowered his colours by 18 to 33 in the hit outs but he fought valiantly as the Demons revived their season with a 38-point win over tomorrow night’s opponents, the Bombers. George on the Outer wrote in Demonland of his round 6 performance: “The return of Cam Pedersen to the side as a replacement ruck worked really well, for while he may have lost the hit-out stats to Tom Bellchambers, it was he who racked up 19 possessions to Bellchambers' miserable 9. Best of all was that he relieved the necessity for Jack Watts to ruck, which resulted in Watts kicking 4 goals when up forward. How we could have used that scenario in the final quarter last week!” Pedersen didn’t dominate the hit out stats by any means - against Adelaide, Sam Jacobs amassed a 74 hit outs but Melbourne won by 41 points. The point was that Petersen contested everything and became an asset around the ground where he played the best football of his career despite being matched against much larger adversaries such as Ben McEvoy, Jacobs, Todd Goldstein and Brodie Grundy. He was also capably assisted by Tom McDonald who was handy when called upon to give him a chop out. By the time, Gawn was ready to return to take his place in the ruck in round 14, the Demons were in fifth place on the ladder. While Pedersen was a handy back up who continued to play some top football, the team was squeezed out of the finals race by the narrowest of margins after the final home and away game of the season. Incidentally, Pedersen who was drafted as a rookie by North Melbourne made his AFL debut in the opening round of the 2011 season in the ruck against West Coast’s six-time All-Australian ruckman Dean Cox after Goldstein was a late withdrawal for the Kangaroos. He acquitted himself quite well in that position and gained the title of his team's "Mr fix-it" but fell out of favour and became a Demon in 2013. His first game was in a forward/ruck role in the club’s disastrous round 1 game against Port Adelaide when he was criticised for ducking when backing back to take a mark. After struggling in 2013 under Mark Neeld, he resurrected his career under Paul Roos in 2014 and went through highs and lows until he was thrust into the Demon ruck in that round 6, 2017 game against the Bombers. These are the teams for that game:- ESSENDON B: Patrick Ambrose, Michael Hurley, Martin Gleeson HB: Mark Baguley, Mitch Brown, Ben McNiece C: Travis Colyer, Zach Merrett, Andrew McGrath HF: Orazio Fantasia, Cale Hooker, David Zaharakis F: Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, Joe Daniher, Brendon Goddard FOLL: Tom Bellchambers, Ben Howlett, Dyson Heppell I/C: Josh Green, Conor McKenna, Darcy Parish, Jobe Watson EMG: Kyle Langford,Brent Stanton, James Stewart IN: Tom Bellchambers, Martin Gleeson, Ben Howlett, Kyle Langford, Conor McKenna, James Stewart OUT: Aaron Francis (rested), James Kelly (rested), Matt Leuenberger (rested),Brent Stanton (omitted) MELBOURNE B: Michael Hibberd, Tom McDonald, Neville Jetta HB: Jordan Lewis, Sam Frost, Bernie Vince C: Jayden Hunt, Nathan Jones, Jake Melksham HF: Christian Petracca, Jack Watts, Alex Neal-Bullen F: Jay Kennedy-Harris, Mitch Hannan, Jeff Garlett FOLL: Cameron Pedersen, Clayton Oliver, Jack Viney I/C: Tomas Bugg, Oscar McDonald, Christian Salem, Dom Tyson EMG: James Harmes, Billy Stretch, Sam Weideman IN: Tomas Bugg, Mitch Hannan, Jordan Lewis, Oscar McDonald, Cameron Pedersen OUT: James Harmes (omitted), Jesse Hogan (family bereavement), Jake Spencer (shoulder), Timothy Smith (lung), Billy Stretch (omitted) Pedersen announced his retirement on 25 September 2018 after 64 games with Melbourne and 16 with North Melbourne. It's a late call to make almost six years after his retirement, but when all is said and done, Pedersen’s role as an undersized ruckman against giant opponents made him a modern day marvel. Here’s hoping that Harrison Petty who is four centimetres taller, can replicate Pedersen’s efforts from seven years ago!