Whispering_Jack

Positive ID.My informant tells me he's put on weight up in Sydney.

TAC Cup Future Stars - Top 20 rolling draft 1. St. Kilda - Christian Petracca 2. Melbourne - Angus Brayshaw 3. GWS Giants - Peter Wright 4. Brisbane - Patrick McCartin 5. Western Bulldogs - Jake Lever 6. Carlton - Jayden Laverde 7. Gold Coast - Paul Ahern 8. Collingwood - Darcy Moore 9. Adelaide - Sam Durdin 10. West Coast - Jarrod Pickett 11. Richmond - Liam Duggan 12. Fremantle - Kyle Langford 13. Geelong - Caleb Marchbank 14. Gold Coast - Lachie Weller 15. North Melbourne - Ed Vickers-Willis 16. Port Adelaide - Hugh Goddard 17. Hawthorn - Tom Lamb 18. Sydney - Isaac Heeney 19. Essendon - Clem Smith 20. GWS Giants - Corey Ellis

So I was sitting in the old Gardiner Stand at Visy Park watching the TAC Cup Preliminary Final with Melon22 and over to our right was the GWS entourage including SOS and a really fat bloke who I'm led to believe is getting paid $120k pa for sitting around watching kids playing footy. (apologies for the grainy picture but my Iphone camera isn't up to standard ASIO issue)

Well, don't blame me - I gave it a massive plug on the Mitch Clark tread last night but it doesn't seem to have attracted any more customers.

San Francisco 49ers (1-0) 28 - 17 Final Dallas Cowboys (0-1) YES!

So I missed the start of the season. Damn. Why have the 49ers looked poor over the pre season and why should it matter? Carlton used to always look bad in practice matches, then turn things around completely in the real stuff.

From Knightmare of bigfooty:- Christian Petracca (VIC – Mid/Fwd) Height:186cm, Weight: 92kg, DOB: 04/01/1996 Recruited from: Eastern Ranges Draft range: 1-3 Best position/role: Rotational midfielder/forward. Strengths: Front half talent –Petracca can play both deep in the front half as a marking target and off a forward flank to a high standard when playing forward. Deep in the front half Petracca provides strong scoreboard impact and is an imposing marking presence with his 1v1 strength, overhead marking ability, marking on the lead and superior ability to read the drop of the ball. He can deep in the front half also win the ground ball. Petracca can also play off a forward flank and have a big impact, he can on a forward flank accumulate the footy in bunches, do damage with his footskills, present as a strong marking target, provide strong scoreboard impact and push up the field. Midfield talent – Petracca is an improved midfielder this year having improved his endurance and decreasing his skinfolds. He’s got a nice mix between inside and outside game. He’s a very good contested ball winner and stoppage player and these areas of his game can continue to improve given his size and strength. He’s a strong ground ball winner. He’s also got a rare power to him not only with his strength to bully guys inside the contest but some real explosive power where he can burst through a contest, come up with the ball and break away from the contest at speed. He’s also got excellent evasiveness and can sidestep guys and burst away with some real explosiveness. Outside the contest Petracca shows that he can find the footy but also use it really well utilising his damaging footskills and vision allowing him to find damaging targets up the field. Scoreboard impact – Forward or through the midfield Petracca provides strong scoreboard impact and is capable of kicking multiple goals and breaking games open with his scoreboard impact in any given game. Strength and power – Not many 92kg midfielders going around and even fewer with the explosiveness and power of Petracca. He wins his own ball and can either burst through the contest or run around you with ease. He stands up through tackles and has the strength through his core and hips, he can shrug tackles and give a strong don’t argue. In the 1v1 contests he can take advantage of anyone who isn’t key position sized. Versatility – Petracca because he can play not only through the midfield but also on a forward flank or deep in the front half as a marking target gives you options and this versatility should also help him receive on any team immediate senior games. Footskills – Has an excellent mix between footskills hitting his targets around the ground with consistency, vision allowing him to find some really damaging targets in great position, decision making with his ability to choose the right options but also he’s got the finishing ability and set shot goalkicking to allow him to provide the scoreboard impact. Marking ability – Few if any medium size types have the marking ability of Petracca. He’s got the 1v1 marking ability, contested marking ability and ability on the lead to take his marks and he’s got the strength overhead to take them consistently. He also reads the drop of the ball exceptionally well and uses his body well in the contest allowing him to effectively protect the drop zone making him incredibly hard to defend particularly if he can isolate a smaller player defender deep in defence. Weaknesses: Endurance – His endurance is building and has improved significantly this year to an extent where he can now play full games through the midfield but if he hopes to eventually become a full time midfielder further work is still required. Skinfolds – Like with his endurance his skinfolds have reduced but his skinfolds still appear relatively high and also need to decrease. What I expect will improve: I expect Petracca to continue to improve his contested ball winning and stoppage work and take that area of his game from good to eventually excellent. I also expect his endurance and skinfolds to improve. Whether his endurance and skinfolds improve to an extent where Petracca will be played as a full time midfielder that is the question I still have. Who he can become? I anticipate Petracca to develop into a player largely similar to Dustin Martin but without the personal issues. I see Petracca mostly playing as a damaging forward flanker who will at times push deeper into the front half and will split his minutes between playing through the front half and midfield with those midfield minutes increasing as his endurance improves. When will he be ready to play? Petracca is season one, round one ready to play. He’ll start off season one mostly playing in the front half and by season two or three likely play more a split between forward and midfield minutes. How to best utilise him? Petracca today is best utilised in the front half because he’s just so damaging forward of centre. The hope will be that he becomes more a midfielder but I’d look for him to split his minutes between the midfield and front half long term. Interpretation of his numbers: Petracca well and truly has the performances on the board and is one of if not the best performed player in this draft class based on his form these past couple of seasons through the TAC Cup and U18 championships. He’s finding the footy but also providing heavy scoreboard impact at both levels which such suggests he’ll provide both a strong immediate impact at AFL level but also that he will become one of the best to come out of this draft with those high production power midfielders who can provide heavy scoreboard impact of strong value to teams.

Well that would be obvious from reading this thread alone.

Never ceases to amaze me that despite that fact that we've won so few games over the past few years, the supporters remain proud and stick to the club. The fact that close to 900 supporters turned up at a club function like this in times like these for the club is amazing.

Dead set. I turn my back for five minutes and you guys are turning this thread into Playboy Magazine.

Let me guess. You've been to a comedy show tonight and were so impressed that you decided to try your hand at writing some funny stuff yourself?Keep working on your routine.

We haven't had a phantom draft for a little while so here's one from bigfooty's Chris25:- Round 1 1. St Kilda - Patrick McCartin (193cm, 95kg forward from Geelong Falcons, VIC) 2. Melbourne - Christian Petracca (186cm, 92kg midfielder/forward from Eastern Ranges, VIC) 3. GWS - Jake Lever (192cm, 84kg defender from Calder Cannons, VIC) 4. Brisbane - Angus Brayshaw (187cm, 86kg midfielder from Sandringhan Dragons, VIC) 5. Western Bulldogs - Peter Wright (203cm, 102kg ruckman/forward from Calder Cannons, VIC) 6. Carlton - Liam Duggan (183cm, 76kg midfielder from Western Jets, VIC) 7. Gold Coast - Lachie Weller (181cm, 71kg midfielder from Broadbeach, QLD) 8. Adelaide - Sam Durdin (197cm, 87kg defender/forward from West Adelaide, SA) 9. West Coast - Jarrod Pickett (180cm, 68kg midfielder from South Fremantle, WA) 10. Collingwood - Darcy Moore (199cm, 93kg defender/forward from Oakleigh Chargers, VIC) 11. Richmond - Paul Ahern (181cm, 77kg midfielder from Calder Cannons, VIC) 12. North Melbourne - Jordan DeGoey (187cm, 82kg midfielder from Oakleigh Chargers, VIC) 13. Port Adelaide - Tom Lamb (192cm, 83kg forward from Dandenong Stingrays, VIC) 14. Fremantle - Hugh Goddard (196cm, 93kg defender/forward from Geelong Falcons, VIC) 15. Geelong - Jayden Laverde (189cm, 82kg midfielder/defender from Western Jets, VIC) 16. Gold Coast - Caleb Marchbank (193cm, 85kg defender from Murray Bushrangers, VIC) 17. Hawthorn - Corey Ellis (185cm, 76kg midfielder from Western Jets, VIC) 18. Sydney - Isaac Heeney (186cm, 82kg midfielder from Cardiff, NSW/ACT) 19. Essendon - Jackson Nelson (187cm, 80kg midfielder/defender from Geelong Falcons, VIC) 20. GWS - Josh Glenn (179cm, 78kg midfielder/defender from Central Districts, SA) Round 2 21. St Kilda - Alex Neal Bullen (182cm, 77kg midfielder/defender from Glenelg, SA) 22. Melbourne - Billy Stretch (181cm, 70kg midfielder from Glenelg, SA) 23. GWS - Jeremy Finlayson (195cm, 84kg forward/defender from Hills Eagles, NSW/ACT) 24. Brisbane - Kyle Langford (190cm, 73kg forward/defender from Northern Knights, VIC) 25. Western Bulldogs - Peter Bampton (182cm, 83kg midfielder from Norwood, SA) 26. Carlton - Reece McKenzie (196cm, 100kg forward from Northern Knights, VIC) 27. Gold Coast - Brayden Maynard (186cm, 88kg midfielder/defender from Sandringham Dragons, VIC) 28. Adelaide - Declan Hamilton (183cm, 68kg midfielder/forward from Port Adelaide, SA) 29. West Coast - Oleg Markov (186cm, 69kg midfielder from North Adelaide, SA) 30. Collingwood - Connor Blakely (186cm, 81kg midfielder from Swan Districts, WA) 31. Richmond - Clem Smith (178cm, 67kg defender/midfielder from Perth, WA) 32. North Melbourne - Connor Menadue (188cm, 69kg midfielder from Western Jets, VIC) 33. Port Adelaide - Damien Cavka (184cm, 79kg midfielder from Calder Cannons, VIC) 34. Fremantle - Brenden Abbott (185cm, 92kg midfielder/defender from Claremont, WA) 35. Geelong - Daniel McKenzie (183cm, 77kg midfielder/defender from Oakleigh Chargers, VIC) 36. Hawthorn - Tyler Keitel (194cm, 86kg forward/defender from East Perth, WA) 37. Sydney - Jack Steele (186cm, 82kg midfielder from Belconnen, NSW/ACT) Round 3 38. St Kilda - Ed Vickers Willis (190cm, 82kg defender from Sandringham Dragons, VIC) 39. Melbourne - Dean Gore (183cm, 86kg midfielder from Sturt, SA) 40. GWS - Harrison Wigg (179cm, 74kg midfielder/defender from North Adelaide, SA) 41. Brisbane - Matthew Hammelmann (197cm, 86kg forward from Morningside, QLD) 42. Western Bulldogs - Zaine Cordy (192cm, 80kg defender from Geelong Falcons, VIC) 43. Carlton - Dillon Viojo Rainbow (185cm, 80kg defender from Western Jets, VIC) 44. Gold Coast - Caleb Daniel (167cm, 66kg midfielder from South Adelaide, SA) 45. Adelaide - Matthew Goodyear (185cm, 77kg midfielder from Calder Cannons, VIC) 46. West Coast - Alec Waterman (183cm, 89kg midfielder from Claremont, WA) 47. Collingwood - Lukas Webb (186cm, 80kg midfielder/forward from Gippsland Power, VIC) 48. Richmond - Keenan Ramsey (193cm, 86kg defender/forward from Port Adelaide, SA) 49. Essendon - Cory Gregson (175cm, 72kg midfielder from Glenelg, SA) 50. North Melbourne - Jaden McGrath (179cm, 73kg midfielder/defender from Bendigo, VIC) 51. Port Adelaide - James Rose (186cm, 78kg forward/midfielder from Sturt, SA) 52. Fremantle - Brenton Payne (193cm, 76kg forward from Western Jets, VIC) 53. Geelong - Christian Buykx Smith (193cm, 82kg defender from Gippsland, VIC) 54. Hawthorn - Jarrod Garlett (177cm, 73kg midfielder/forward from South Fremantle, WA) 55. Sydney - Abe Davis (193cm, 90kg forward/defender from UNSW-Easts, NSW/ACT)

You just jinxed the Aussie cricketers with that number. Lost overnight to Zimbabwe.

My grandsons' junior footy team plays and trains next door to where the Dragons train and I've had the opportunity to see Brayshaw train on a couple of occasions. I also saw him train with Melbourne earlier this season as part of the work experience training week for AIS players and I agree without hesitation, that he could step into an AFL side without much trouble in the early part of 2015. If Petracca's supposed to be even better we could have an interesting dilemma at draft time.

Zimbabwe's cricket team seems to be travelling no better than its economy. If the Aussies keep this up (ie big hitting in the first ODI) it won't do their confidence any harm.

Can we start the countdown to the national draft now?

Can't fit in a trip to the snow OD?

I had Paella for dinner at a restaurant on Thursday night and got food poisoning as a result. Obviously an omen for Sunday's game because living through that was worse than the food poisoning.

It is and your protest will fall on deaf ears here as much as it would anywhere else on Demonland.

That has to be the most charitable evaluation of this thread that I've ever seen!

It's a mere hop, step and a jump from Romsey to Craigieburn. There should be no excuses for missing Jesse Hogan's return and you'll have ample time to make it to the G for the first bounce at 3.20pm. Not many people can say they watched the Casey Scorpions and the GWS Giants in the flesh on the same day. Now, here's your big chance. If you go you can be our official correspondent because KC's a doubtful starter on account of the fact that he hasn't been able to start the Kingswood for the last few days and it's a long drive from Cranny to Craigy. The only reason I can think is that the AFL and the Bulldogs want their reserves players to watch the games the seniors team's involved in later in the day so as to give the appearance that there's actually a crowd at their game. It makes for a better look on Foxtel.

Well ... it's quite possible that Freddie might have given up on his dream of ever playing AFL but what worth would a Demonland Trade and Draft board be if his name wasn't mentioned in dispatches?

Phantom draft form guide: August update

Big Cannon a draft delight

An article on draft prospect Angus Brayshaw who played his junior footy in the South Metro Junior Football League with Hampton Rovers.