Whispering_Jack

There are a lot of aging players at Geelong but very few of them are putting up their hands to retire so where do they fit Danger, Selwood (from WCE) and Henderson in their salary cap?

So there will be two weeks of sheer madness in October

During the week I was a guest at the annual Carlton v Collingwood Peter McCallum Clinic breakfast and sat on Nathan Buckley's table. I was going to wear my red and blue MFC tie but thought better of it, not wanting to offend my host, a very passionate Magpie fan who stumped up big bucks for the table with Bucks. The coach himself was very friendly (even when he discovered who I support) and generously gave a couple of fantastic autographs for two members of my grandson's junior footy team celebrating their 50th games (they're mad Pies fans). The whispers I got unofficially were that Collingwood is heavily into GWS's Adam Treloar (a story that's been doing the rounds for a couple of months) and Brisbane's James Aish. However, the big news from some well connected Carlton fans was that irrespective of who coaches them next year, you can expect a clean out with Henderson and Yarran off elsewhere and a large number of players to be dumped from the list. The big story from a number of different sources is that the Blues are assured of securing Jake Carlisle who definitely wants out of Essendon and is virtually committed to Carlton. While I remain wary of recruiting anyone from Essendon who might be tainted by the WADA proceedings, I think Carlisle would otherwise be a good pick up for them although he would come at a cost - possibly draft picks obtained from trading Henderson and/or Yarran.

Here's a player whose name keeps coming up but rarely among the absolute top echelon of the draft and yet the comparison with Jordan Lewis makes him an interesting possibility ~ Rhys Mathieson. According to this preview, Mathieson will "probably never be in that absolute A grade" but he's a ready made player. We don't know at this stage what Melbourne will do with its first pick but this bloke sounds like he might be of interest.

Lever looks a player.

Reckon we might have played Richmond at Waverley in one of those night series games they used to have in the 70s & 80s - like the Escort Cup.

Reports tonight that Adelaide is in the hunt to sign Alex Keath, as the Victorian cricketer weighs up his sporting future. Keath played for the Murray Bushrangers in the TAC Cup and was a Gold Coast selection in its initial squad chosen more than a year before their introduction into the AFL but chose cricket ahead of football but seems to have fallen out of favour with the Victorian Bushrangers and is tipped play cricket this summer in South Australia. There is a Demon connection because Keath has played his club cricket with the Melbourne Cricket Club.

Footy Record from Robbie Flower's debut game v Cats when Swan kicked 8 and Tilbrook booted 6:-

I think it's fair to say that for the first time since this thread started that the MFC's stocks are higher than the Australian Test XI's.

The abiding memory I have of Jim Tilbrook was in his first game at Waverley when he kicked a couple of long goals in the wet on a day made for low scoring. When he ran out on the ground in his Melbourne jumper, I pictured an S on his barrel chest and a red cape flung over his back. He looked like Superman. Unfortunately, like many who went after him, his career went downhill after game 1.

Yep. I think he was a Johnston with a t and was recruited very young with the future in mind back in the late 50s or early 60s but never quite made it beyond the reserve grade. Terry Johnston: Demonwicki Melbourne was particularly strong back in those days and hence, a lot of good players who otherwise might have made it but didn't. One of them was a bloke called Brendan Rice who these days is a property valuer. I met him at a luncheon quite a few years ago and the story about him is that he was an up and coming quality key defender who broke down with a knee injury in about 1962 and never played again. These days an arthroscopy would probably repair the damage and the player would be back in a few weeks. Two others were the Minton-Connells from Tasmania who were fantastic players in the ressies but they couldn't break into the seniors, Mike a CHB because we had players like Doc Roet and Ray Groom ahead of him and Adrian a ruckman who also suffered a knee injury. One of them was the father of Simon Minton-Connell who later played for Carlton and one or two others. Unbeknown to any of us at the time, they were also cousins of Peter Hudson and I believe that had they made the grade with us, then Huddo would have signed with us instead of Hawthorn. We also missed out by a year on the Matthews brothers and Mike Moncrieff when our local zone was changed. So imagine a Melbourne with Sheedy, Hudson, Leigh and Kelvin Matthews and Mike Moncrieff in the late 60s and 70s - perhaps the Norm Smith curse might not have happened.

Phil Rhoden was a few years ahead of me when I arrived at Melbourne University in 1967 and already a legend with the Uni Blues where he was runner up in the VAFA B & F a couple of years earlier. I remember seeing him in the law library early on and because he was balding and looked much older, I thought he was one of the lecturers. I had a modest sporting career at school but it didn't stop me from trying. I joined the Athletics Club that was coached by the legendary Franz Stampfl stacked with champions including Ralph Doubel who won the 800m gold equalling the world record at the 1968 Mexico Olympics. Anyway, I was no good at that so I decided to try out for the inter faculty law team. At the first (and for me it was the only) training session, about 50 blokes turned up and I learned that a handful of them were also training with VFL teams (Mike Green actually played in Richmond's premiership team that year), quite a few VFA players as well as members of the Uni Blacks and Uni Blues team. Anyway, I didn't last - those blokes were too big, too strong and too rough and I ended up playing a much lower standard for the Italian club (as a guest) against the Classics club which was highlighted by shortened games and a great wine and cheese tasting in the aftermath. It was at the inter faculty try out that I noticed the stocky bald bloke who wasn't much taller than me and wasn't a law lecturer after all but 21 year old Rhoden who was tied to Richmond but soon to be cleared to Melbourne. Co-incidentally at around the same time we cleared Kevin Sheedy to Richmond and given their respective careers in football and the fact that we were about to witness a golden era for the Tigers and a half century drought from the Demons, I'll leave it to you to work out who got the better of the dealing there. Rhoden might not have looked like a footballer but you could tell at training that he was good. He was outstanding the following year with the Melbourne reserves, winning the Gardiner Medal but only played three senior games. His kicking was his forte and just as good as the great Bob "Tassie" Johnson if not better. He was the type of player who had what Jack Dyer (bless him) would describe as being a "prodigerous kick"! I remember clearly one of his kicks for the ressies on a wet day on the MCG. He gathered the ball in a back pocket and, running along the flank he booted it in the direction of Ross Dillon who had started his lead at full forward and marked near centre half forward. The ball had covered 80 metres. You don't often see that sort of thing these days but Rhoden did it regularly - it was just a pity that he was unfashionable as a player and rarely got the chance to play at senior level. He went on to play for the Zebras in the VFA and was briefly on the MFC Committee. The game was so much different at all levels back in those days. The highlight was the social side - especially at uni when you finished your training runs with a good old fashioned pub crawl.

Here's an interesting preview of the forthcoming exchange period which covers free agency and the trades ~ Staying or going? This year's AFL exchange period previewed

For Essendon, Hird and the players, it's just another brick in the wall called "comfortable satisfaction".

That's what this seems to be suggesting - Draft mailbag: How weak is this year's draft? (even if it has no content at the moment) If it's true, how do you think it will affect the club's recruiting strategies?

No mention there of Max King and Dean Terlich both of who came off injured at Casey last week?

Everybody's favourite back in the day - and she died relatively young. Sad.

The problem with that proposal is we don't know what chemical would be required to dissolve them with given that we don't know what they've already ingested.

Well, following the success of Ed and company's unintelligible commentary of the Melbourne v Collingwood Round 18 game, it seems that the AFL is following suit for all Round 19 games - All R19 games to be broadcast in a foreign language

AFL prospects on trial in Melbourne

You should have asked me that question eight weeks ago.

In all modesty, how's this for a prediction:- WELL GET THEM NEXT TIME by Whispering Jack Move over Nostradamus.

The MFC players' stats:- Rohan Bail 17 disposals 12 kicks 5 handballs 2 marks 8 tackles 81 dream team points Jack Fitzpatrick 19 disposals 11 kicks 8 handballs 10 marks 77 dream team points Mark Jamar 1 behind 14 disposals 11 kicks 3 handballs 47 hit outs 84 dream team points Matt Jones 29 disposals 25 kicks 4 handballs 5 marks 13 tackles 145 dream team points Jay Kennedy-Harris 6 disposals 3 kicks 3 handballs 9 tackles 48 dream team points Max King 2 goals 1 behind 6 disposals 5 kicks 1 handball 2 marks 1 tackle 41 dream team points Jordie McKenzie disposals kicks handballs marks tackles dream team points Ben Newton 2 goals 1 behind 21 disposals 14 kicks 7 handballs 1 mark 6 tackles 93 dream team points Aidan Riley 29 disposals 13kicks 16 handballs 2 marks 13 tackles 121 dream team points Christian Salem 1 goal 14 disposals 8 kicks 6 handballs 1 mark 5 tackles 65 dream team points Jake Spencer 12 disposals 6 kicks 6 handballs 5 marks 2 tackles 32 hit outs 84 dream team points Dean Terlich 1 goal 9 disposals 7 kicks 2 handballs 1 mark 2 tackles 39 dream team points Jimmy Toumpas 1 goal two behinds 15 disposals 7 kicks 8 handballs 3 marks 7 tackles 79 dream team points Mitch White 18 disposals 12 kicks 6 handballs 3marks 1 tackles 62 dream team points

There is at least one more Foxtel replay of the game this week - we should lobby them to ensure that we get the non Eddie commentary - it might be a novelty for the execs at the network but it makes watching the replay a PITA.

Plough's TAC Cup Future Stars selections for this week:- 1. Brisbane - Jacob Weitering 2. Gold Coast - Joshua Schache 3. Sydney* - Callum Mills 4. Carlton - Aaron Francis 5. GWS* - Jacob Hopper 6. Essendon - Darcy Parish 7. Melbourne - Darcy Tucker 8. St. Kilda - Rhys Mathieson 9. Port Adelaide - Harley Balic 10. GWS* - Matthew Kennedy 11. Collingwood - Charlie Curnow 12. Brisbane* - Ben Keays 13. Adelaide - Ryan Burton 14. Geelong - Kieran Collins 15. Western Bulldogs - Sam Weideman 16. North Melbourne - Harry McKay 17. Richmond - Riley Bonner 18. Hawthorn - Kieran Lovell 19. Brisbane* - Eric Hipwood 20. West Coast - Callum Ah Chee * Academy bid I have a feeling that Melbourne will finish ahead of St. Kilda by year's end and get pick 8 which it might well finish up trading.