Whispering_Jack

2017 TAC CUP GRAND FINAL GEELONG FALCONS v SANDRINGHAM DRAGONS Etihad Stadium Sunday 24 September, 2017 at 7.35pm GEELONG FALCONS B: 17. C. Stephens, 43. J. Jaska, 26. J. Walters HB: 30. O. Brownless, 39. C. Idun, 19. M. Ling C: 13. E. Floyd, 38. J. Worpel, 22. S. Walsh HF: 7. H. Benson, 46. A. Garner, 8. E. McHenry F: 4. G. Miers, 41. T. McCartin, 1. L. Noble FOLL: 49. D. Hollenkamp, 42. C. Parish, 16. D. Handley I/C (from): 11. M. Chafer, 44. S. Conway, 40. H. Elliot, 5. J. Henderson EMG: 31. C. Cartledge, 12. B. Cockerill, 27. C. Francis, 9. F. O’Gorman 23P: 36. C. Sprague IN: F. O’Gorman, B. Cockerill, C. Francis, C. Cartledge SANDRINGHAM DRAGONS B: 2. G. Nagle, 33. H. Persson, 37. B. Smith HB: 6. C. Constable, 70. B. King, 74. N. Murphy C: 22. Q. Montanaro, 8. W. Walker, 10. A. Styles HF: 15. A. Jarnestrom, 30. H. Mclean, 5. S. Williams F: 1. L. Harris, 61. M. King, 20. K. Owens FOLL: 29. J. Amartey, 9. A. Brayshaw, 11. H. Brayshaw I/C (from): 3. L. Barrett, 24. S. Cameron, 13. J. Gorman, 12. J. Hille, 25. M. Lohan, 28. I. Morrisby, 26. S. Sofronidis, 7. A. Trusler 23P: 58. A. Richards IN: N. Murphy, S. Cameron, M. Lohan, I. Morrisby, S. Sofronidis OUT: E. Newman (suspended) An interesting item on the Brayshaws.

Scouting notes from last weekend. The grand final this Sunday is being televised live by Fox Footy Channel.

There are lots of reasons why teams fall short of the mark and miss out on the finals and blaming injuries for that outcome is never a popular one where offered. I'm not suggesting that injury alone was the excuse for Melbourne missing out on the finals by such a narrow margin as the 0.5% by which it fell below the Eagles in percentage but when I look at the player review series currently running on Demonland, it really puts the club's problems in focus. So far, the players with guernsey numbers 1 to 12 have been covered and it would be fair to say that many of the players in this group are among the most significant components of the entire team list. They've all either missed a large part of the season to injury or other issues or, as was the case of players injured later in the season, missed blocs of games together. I think it would also be fair to say that in almost all of those instances, the form of the players in question dropped off significantly compared to their pre injury form. I'm not an expert in player conditioning but I am suggesting that the combination of the above factors, together with the fact that the list is still relatively young, contributed to the team's sluggish end to the season where there were periods during games when it bled goals to the opposition. That happened in virtually every game in the last third of the season in various forms (Port Adelaide and St Kilda - leads of 6 to 7 goals were largely reined in; the first quarter v GWS, the last v Brisbane) leading ultimately to the lack of effort and non-existent tackling pressure in the opening quarter v Collingwood. I thought we were cooked after the GWS game and indeed, that's how it turned out. We were a slow train wreck waiting to happen. When you consider that Richmond, now playing off in a preliminary final, have had few injuries and currently have one very fringe player on the injury list, it's quite sad to consider our fate (especially since we almost certainly would have beaten the Tigers earlier in the season when we finished with virtually no bench for rotations). So here we are:- 1. Jesse Hogan - season destroyed by everything but the kitchen sink. Managed to show some form with 6 goals in Round 22 but couldn't see out the first half of the next game. 2. Nathan Jones - missed several weeks after starring in that difficult period leading up to the Bulldogs game when injured. Skipper's influence and experience missed badly. 3. Christian Salem - missed four weeks after injury in the game against West Coast (also suspended twice during the season). 4. Jack Watts - missed four weeks after doing a hammy v Bulldogs. Form dropped off badly after he returned to the point where he spent two games in the VFL. 5. Christian Petracca - there's always an exception to the rule (played all 22 games). 6. Jordan Lewis - crucial three game suspension in Round 2 and we lost all of the games he missed. 7. Jack Viney - surgery after coming off the game v Swans and apart from the first half of his return game, Hardness and leadership missed in those crucial rounds, particularly at the end. 8. Heritier Lumumba - retired due to concussion issues, didn't play and AFL rules meant he couldn't be replaced on the list. 9. Jack Trengove - played two games. The injury that afflicted him occurred a few years ago but it put paid to his realistic chances of a return to his early form. 10. Angus Brayshaw - concussions kept him out for most of the year. 11. Max Gawn - All Australian, missed half a season with a hamstring injury and was understandably never able to play at his best. Virtually needed another pre season but there was no time. 12. Dom Tyson - injured during the Swans game and missed a few games to coincide with the time when half the midfield was missing. If you look at some of the above individually, you might say that injuries are part of the game and that's true. But taken as a whole, the above scenario hurt us badly and certainly by more than 0.5%, especially given that a few depth players to be covered later on, failed to get a game at any level during the season. That's why I envy the Tigers who will be playing off on Saturday night for a grand final spot with their best possible team on the ground - something that's been a feature with them for the entire season.

19th September, 1964 Neil Crompton (#5) kicks the goal that seals the premiership. Ronald Dale Barassi's last game for Melbourne (and Bluey's too). How much longer to wait for the next one?

INDICATIVE DRAFT ORDER (after the second week of the finals) ROUND ONE 1. Brisbane Lions 2. Gold Coast 3. Carlton 4. North Melbourne 5. Fremantle 6. Collingwood 7. St Kilda (received from Hawthorn) 8. St Kilda 9. Western Bulldogs 10. Melbourne 11. Essendon 12. Brisbane Lions (received from Port Adelaide) 13. West Coast 14. Sydney 15. Richmond 16. Richmond (received from Geelong, via Carlton and GWS on-trades) 17. Adelaide ROUND TWO 18. Brisbane Lions 19. Gold Coast 20. Geelong (received from Carlton) 21. North Melbourne 22. Gold Coast (received from Fremantle) 23. Greater Western Sydney (received from Collingwood) 24. Gold Coast (received from Hawthorn) 25. Greater Western Sydney (received from St Kilda) 26. Western Bulldogs 27. Melbourne 28. Essendon 29. Port Adelaide 30. West Coast 31. Sydney 32. Hawthorn (received from GWS, via Carlton on-trade) 33. Gold Coast (received from Richmond) 34. Geelong 35. Adelaide ROUND THREE 36. Collingwood (received from the Brisbane Lions) 37. Gold Coast 38. Carlton 39. Western Bulldogs (received from North Melbourne) 40. Fremantle 41. Brisbane Lions (received from Collingwood) 42. Hawthorn 43. St Kilda 44. North Melbourne (received from Western Bulldogs) 45. Melbourne 46. Essendon 47. Port Adelaide 48. West Coast 49. Sydney 50. Richmond (received from Greater Western Sydney) 51. Richmond 52. Geelong 53. Adelaide ROUND FOUR 54. Collingwood (received from the Brisbane Lions) 55. Fremantle (received from Gold Coast) 56. Carlton 57. St Kilda (received from North Melbourne, via Western Bulldogs on-trade) 58. Fremantle 59. Collingwood 60. Hawthorn 61. St Kilda 62. North Melbourne (received from Western Bulldogs) 63. Greater Western Sydney* (original pick No.15 slides down after 1000-point penalty) 64. Melbourne 65. Essendon 66. Port Adelaide 67. West Coast 68. Sydney 69. Greater Western Sydney 70. Richmond 71. Geelong 72. Adelaide * The Giants will lose their first pick as a result of the 1000-point penalty placed on them due to the Lachie Whitfield affair. PICKS ACQUIRED FROM LAST TRADE AND DRAFT PERIOD Future Picks (2017 AFL National Draft) St Kilda has Hawks' 1st round pick Carlton has Geelong's 1st round pick Brisbane has Port Adelaide's 1st round pick GWS has St Kilda's 2nd round pick Gold Coast has Richmond's 2nd round pick Geelong has Carlton's 2nd round pick

http://m.afl.com.au/video/2017-09-18/u18-magpie-greats-nephew-a-draft-bolter

TAC Cup 2017 Geelong Falcons 2.4 3.6 9.12 13.14 (92) Dandenong Stingrays 2.1 5.6 6.9 7.11 (53) GOALS: Geelong Falcons: Noble 3 Miers 3 Handley 2 Chafer 2 Sprague Parish Benson Dandenong Stingrays: Nanscawen Bedford Davies - Uniacke Clark Bowman D'Arcy Bayne BEST: Geelong Falcons: Jaska Worpel Stephens Walsh Parish Benson Dandenong Stingrays: Clark Bowman Davies - Uniacke Clavarino DeWit Bateman TAC Cup 2017 Oakleigh Chargers 1.2 3.3 9.3 13.5 (83) Sandringham Dragons 1.3 6.6 10.8 14.9 (93) GOALS: Oakleigh Chargers: Higgins 3 Hewitt 2 Whitehead 2 Rowell 2 Roughsedge O'Neill Reeves Richards Sandringham Dragons: H Brayshaw 2 Jarnestrom 2 Trusler 2 Williams A Brayshaw Newman Walker Amartey Owens Styles King BEST: Oakleigh Chargers: Rowell Roughsedge King Richards Troiani Stacker Sandringham Dragons: A Brayshaw Smith King Amartey Styles H Brayshaw The grand final will be played on Sunday night at the unusual time of 7.35pm

Good win Dragons. Next week's grand final against Geelong Falcons looks like being a great contest.

And it's a ripper at three quarter time with the Dragons leading by 11 points. I would be happy if the club could add A Brayshaw and Seb Williams to its midfield mix, the latter would probably only cost a rookie draft selection.

And thanks to KC. You deserve a Burraburger before you head off home.

Well done Casey - let that be a prelude to bigger and better things to come for the Demons next year.

The annual Young Guns game is on today at Port Melbourne (they're calling it Fortburn Stadium this year) at 11.30am. Players who might not necessarily have had a full opportunity to show their wares in the TAC Cup and other competitions are given an opportunity to stake their claim for the AFL Draft. The most famous Young Gun is Jayden Hunt who played in the equivalent of this game three years ago.

The first week of the TAC Cup finals saw the best four teams safely into Preliminary Final week. Here are AFL Central's 2017 TAC Cup Scouting notes: Finals week 1 focusing on some of the better players on the weekend, with an emphasis on the 2017 draft eligible players. TAC Cup 2017 Oakleigh Chargers 5.3 8.4 13.8 15.14 (104) Northern Knights 1.1 3.4 3.6 4.10 (34) GOALS: Oakleigh Chargers: Wooller 3 Hewitt 2 Thompson 2 Stanford 2 Roughsedge Longbottom Harte Troiani Stacker Richards Northern Knights: Naish Penrith Petruccelle Gillard BEST: Oakleigh Chargers: Longbottom Williams Roughsedge Richards Wooller Day Northern Knights: Harman Coffield Federico Binion Dreher Lentini Dandenong Stingrays 1.0 2.1 7.5 14.7 (91) Eastern Ranges 4.4 9.9 10.10 11.12 (78) GOALS: Dandenong Stingrays: D'Arcy 3 Hamill 2 Nanscawen 2 Bonar Hustwaite Williams Davies - Uniacke Bowman Bayne Plumridge Eastern Ranges: Mynott 2 Rouget 2 Ross 2 Garner Brown Doreian Hirst Stephenson BEST: Dandenong Stingrays: Davies - Uniacke Clavarino Clark Davies Bateman Bowman Eastern Ranges: Stephenson Doreian Moore Garner Lynch Brown Geelong Falcons 4.6 7.6 10.8 16.11 (107) Gippsland Power 3.1 3.1 3.2 3.4 (22) GOALS: Geelong Falcons: Noble 3 Miers 3 Walsh 2 Sprague O'Gorman Handley Worpel Benson Chafer Henderson Garner Gippsland Power: Stephenson Mosquito Duursma BEST: Geelong Falcons: Floyd Ling Walsh, Henderson Miers Noble Gippsland Power: Beck Leslie Quigley Duursma Stephenson Masterson Sandringham Dragons 2.2 9.6 15.8 19.11 (125) Murray Bushrangers 3.3 6.4 8.5 11.8 (74) GOALS: Sandringham Dragons: Walker 4 H Brayshaw 3 Harris 2 M King 2 A. Brayshaw 2 Jarnestrom Williams Trusler Constable Morrisby Nagle Murray Bushrangers: Barzen 2 Garoni Oakes Donaghey Langlands Wilson Walker Hicks Bice Warner BEST: Sandringham Dragons: Jarnestrom, Montanaro, Amartey Owens Walker Hille Murray Bushrangers: Paton Langlands Donaghey Murray Vandermeer Walker The weekend's highlight for me is the game between neighbours Sandringham Dragons and Oakleigh Chargers.

The Thai place. Reputation for being on the cheap side so if we want to attract classy people to the feast like BBO, Biffen and your good self OD, we have to take that step up and provide a classier venue. Now that the Gat's been sold and all but forgotten, I don't suppose it's once sumptuous dining facilities are available?

I think there was some news about him having a bout of ill health about ten years ago. Hope he's OK now.

Seeing that Mr. Redleg appears not to be engaged in one of our courtrooms today, perhaps it's time to start organising our now biannual post season dinner. As reported recently, Wongs of Elsternwick have closed their doors after almost 60 years but a new Chinese food establishment has opened in its place Yuchu. Could you chew that over and start organising please?

INDICATIVE DRAFT ORDER (after the first week of the finals) ROUND ONE 1. Brisbane Lions 2. Gold Coast 3. Carlton 4. North Melbourne 5. Fremantle 6. Collingwood 7. St Kilda (received from Hawthorn) 8. St Kilda 9. Western Bulldogs 10. Melbourne 11. Essendon 12. Brisbane Lions (received from Port Adelaide) 13. West Coast 14. Sydney 15. Richmond 16. Richmond (received from Geelong, via Carlton and GWS on-trades) 17. Adelaide ROUND TWO 18. Brisbane Lions 19. Gold Coast 20. Geelong (received from Carlton) 21. North Melbourne 22. Gold Coast (received from Fremantle) 23. Greater Western Sydney (received from Collingwood) 24. Gold Coast (received from Hawthorn) 25. Greater Western Sydney (received from St Kilda) 26. Western Bulldogs 27. Melbourne 28. Essendon 29. Port Adelaide 30. West Coast 31. Sydney 32. Hawthorn (received from GWS, via Carlton on-trade) 33. Gold Coast (received from Richmond) 34. Geelong 35. Adelaide ROUND THREE 36. Collingwood (received from the Brisbane Lions) 37. Gold Coast 38. Carlton 39. Western Bulldogs (received from North Melbourne) 40. Fremantle 41. Brisbane Lions (received from Collingwood) 42. Hawthorn 43. St Kilda 44. North Melbourne (received from Western Bulldogs) 45. Melbourne 46. Essendon 47. Port Adelaide 48. West Coast 49. Sydney 50. Richmond (received from Greater Western Sydney) 51. Richmond 52. Geelong 53. Adelaide ROUND FOUR 54. Collingwood (received from the Brisbane Lions) 55. Fremantle (received from Gold Coast) 56. Carlton 57. St Kilda (received from North Melbourne, via Western Bulldogs on-trade) 58. Fremantle 59. Collingwood 60. Hawthorn 61. St Kilda 62. North Melbourne (received from Western Bulldogs) 63. Greater Western Sydney* (original pick No.15 slides down after 1000-point penalty) 64. Melbourne 65. Essendon 66. Port Adelaide 67. West Coast 68. Sydney 69. Greater Western Sydney 70. Richmond 71. Geelong 72. Adelaide * The Giants will lose their first pick as a result of the 1000-point penalty placed on them due to the Lachie Whitfield affair. PICKS ACQUIRED FROM LAST TRADE AND DRAFT PERIOD Future Picks (2017 AFL National Draft) St Kilda has Hawks' 1st round pick Carlton has Geelong's 1st round pick Brisbane has Port Adelaide's 1st round pick GWS has St Kilda's 2nd round pick Gold Coast has Richmond's 2nd round pick Geelong has Carlton's 2nd round pick

The writing was on the wall for Hulett when the club preferred a number of VFL listed players ahead of him for their finals match against Richmond at the weekend.

I'm usually right up with the TAC Cup but not do much this year due to other commitments but that competition entered its finals phase this weekend. The best source of information on the web is AFL Draft Central which has some great scouting notes and previews here, here, here and here. The TAC Cup website also previews the games here. As always my support is for the Sandringham Dragons who won last year's flag and provided a raft of draft picks. This year, there are some MFC family connections at the club with brothers Hamish and Andrew Brayshaw and Seb Williams, grandson of Demon premiership great Don Williams.

This year - as with most - there are quite a few potential draftees who spent all or part of the season on the injured list. This always affects their draft position as we've seen with the likes of Joel Selwood who was picked sixth in his draft year when recovering from an ACL. Likewise, Jake Lever was once considered a top three prospect but he spent his draft year also recovering from knee surgery as did Max Gawn. There are a few likely types on the injured lists right now. Names like Darcy Fogarty, Charlie Spargo, Cal Coleman-Jones and Adam Cerra on the draft injured list and there's a level of intrigue about where they will end up. As Geelong's gutsy selection of Joel Selwood showed, sometimes taking an educated risk pays off.

The standard of the game in Adelaide never reached any great heights and I must confess that like many around here, I shudder every time Ollie Wines bursts through a pack and kicks a damaging goal. The words "Dimitri" and "Toumpas" immediately thrust themselves inside my cranium and I have visions of our Jimmy out there on the field and they give me an automatic hour long migraine. That's why I'm delighted the umpire stuck it right up the Port Adelaide fans and awarded that penalty for around the neck, at the one time highlighting the stupidity of the official rule interpretation that was apparently ignored and awarding the game to the Eagles. Now, I no longer have to watch Ollie/Jimmy again (at least till next year) and I hope the Weagles now go on to do a Footscray and end up beating Adelaide in the granny just to teach them a lesson for tanking in Round 23.

Kennedy was said to be close to getting a game until he was involved in that incident after the Box Hill game that caused him to be suspended.

Disappointing that Spencer, King and Weideman hardly took a grab.

Funny, isn't it? Last year Casey faltered at the last step when it ran into the Bulldogs - a club that was riding on the crest of a wave ... and today, Richmond.

As I watched last night's game, I couldn't help but think of that three-game horror stretch covering rounds 3 to 5 where but for injuries and suspensions we should have beaten both of these sides and Freo in the middle of that period. Despite the issues we were having at the time with important players missing, we had the measure of all of those sides at various times in those games. Leaving aside the obvious wouda, shouda, couda element, it shows how that time might have become a springboard for us to be where Richmond are now. There's often a fine line between success and failure in this sport; Hogan and Lewis' indiscretions and Maxy's hammy delineating one side of that line. We had a bad year with those aspects of our game and we fizzled out a month or so before finals. I think that what happened in those early rounds and our physical and mental condition at the end will all be looked at in the planning for 2018.