Whispering_Jack

The 2024 National Championships get underway this Sunday, with AFL scouts and recruiters set to get an indication of this year's top bracket of talent. AFL Draft: 56 prospects to watch at this year's National Championships

Bit of a clash there.

Perspicacious.

KFW was among the best again for St Bedes Mentone although the team was easily beaten.

Well … um, it could have been worse

Kyah Faris-White played his first game with St Bedes Mentone in the VAFA on Saturday. They lost to Old Haileybury by 53 points with KFW featuring in the best players and kicking a goal. St Bedes Mentone Best Zac Calvez, Matthew Lehpamer, Josh Cowan, Benjamin Murphy, Jack Ferraro, Kyah Farris-White. Meanwhile, Old Haileybury’s Casey list ruckman Jack Bell was picked to play for the Demons but saw vey little action.

Sandy Dragons again proving fertile recruiting ground for AFL

An example of how times change …

Another dissatisfied customer?

Our bottom age NGA prospect for 2025 Tairon Ah-Mu is kicking on playing APS footy for Haileybury. This is from an online Herald Sun article on the APS standouts from last week:- “Ah-Mu, a Year 11 student, was among Haileybury College's best performers in its win over Caulfield Grammar. Already standing over 200cm, there's still plenty of room for the ruck-key forward to develop.” With the APS season under way, some of the stars of the Coates League will be missing over a number of rounds because they have to give priority to their schools. This gives others the opportunity to make their names at this level. The way things are going, Ah-Mu is a potential “Mac Andrew” so here’s hoping that the promised review of the NGA rules allows the non Northern states some scope in nominating for players they nurtured over the years through the system.

This is the report from Callum Twomey on afl.com.au ~ PROJECT TALLS JOIN AMATEUR CLUBS by Callum Twomey TWO DEVELOPING AFL-listed talls have been assigned clubs in the Victorian Amateurs competition for this season in a bid to give them more game time experience.

 Melbourne's Kyah Farris-White will play at St Bede's Mentone and Richmond's Oliver Hayes-Brown will play for Old Ivanhoe in moves designed to give them more opportunities to develop. It gives both the chance to grow as rucks which they otherwise would not get at their VFL sides due to other talls being ahead of them, with the AFL approving the moves. The Category B pair both come from basketball backgrounds – Farris-White played high school basketball in Canada and America while Hayes-Brown is a former Perth Wildcats basketballer. Farris-White played for the Dandenong Stingrays last year and is a 206cm prospect while the 23-year-old Hayes-Brown is 208cm. 

Whether they are selected in their respective VFL sides or play at Amateurs level can be decided week to week depending on player availability. Rivals watch Saint, free agency switch floated, Hawk's trigger If this sounds familiar, it’s because I’ve been advocating this sort of strategy for players like KFW coming out of systems that are outside the usual pathways. KFW appears to have struggled to adapt at this level and I commend the club for this initiative to get the young ruckman up to speed in what is, after all, a very specialised craft in our game.

 St Bedes Mentone are in VAFA Premier B Division which should provide him with some good ruck opposition. They play Old Haileybury tomorrow at Mentone Reserve where he will most likely come across Casey listed ruckman Jack Bell who should provide him with a good test. There are also quite a few solid ruckmen in that division which includes nearby Beaumaris which had a young Collingwood listed player doing his apprenticeship a couple of years ago. This is what I wrote in the Casey thread for the first round vs Box Hill Hawks at the end of March:-

The selectors may have him in mind to play against Carlton on Thursday next week. If he plays for Casey on Sunday, that would only give him a four day break which would be a bridge too far for BBB.

Vic Metro Under 18 squad announced

Cal Twomey has some interesting news on the midseason draft in Rivals keep tabs on Saint, free agency switch floated, Hawk's trigger MID-SEASON PICKS GROW, AFL TWEAKS RULE MORE potential selections have opened up for this month's mid-season rookie draft, with up to 20 spots now vacant as the AFL made a tweak to its eligibility rules. The season-ending knee injury to Port Adelaide forward Sam Powell-Pepper and broken leg to Hawthorn's Sam Butler will now see both clubs be able to activate selections ahead of the May 29 mid-season intake. Plus, Adelaide now has a third potential selection due to the retirement of Rory Sloanethis week. Luke Pedlar's shoulder injury will see him visit a surgeon as well with the possibility of going under the knife. With already three spots, the Crows currently have the most potential picks of any club, with Brisbane (Tom Doedee and Keidean Coleman), Carlton (Jack Silvagni and Sam Docherty), Richmond (Josh Gibcus and Judson Clarke) and North Melbourne (Josh Goater and Callum Coleman-Jones) all having at least two due to long-term injuries. Essendon, Fremantle, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Western Bulldogs and now the Hawks and Power all have at least one list vacancy to partake in the mid-season draft, with Geelong, Greater Western Sydney, St Kilda, Sydney and West Coast currently not having any spots. Further injury assessments on players can be made in the lead-up to the mid-season draft after round 11 which can open up more positions. The AFL also on Wednesday made a change to its eligibility for the mid-season draft, with selection in the Young Guns games, for Western Australia's under-21 side (against its under-18 side) and South Australia's under-20s side (against its under-18s side) now contributing to the minimum of three games players who did not nominate for last year's draft must play to be eligible. Previously, only WAFL, SANFL and VFL senior matches counted towards that total.

Scouting Notes: AFL Academy vs. Footscray Melbourne’s NGA reviewed here - #10 Ricky Mentha (Gippsland Power) Forward/Wing | 178cm | 04/09/2006 A small forward with great craft around goal, Mentha was again challenged in splitting his time between attack and the wing. The Alice Springs native struggled to get his hands on the ball consistently but got on the end of a couple of passes as the Academy broke from the centre bounce and defensive 50. He marked the ball relatively cleanly and looked to move it on quickly.

Just stumbled on this ripper which says a lot about Magpie fans. Sorry if it’s already been posted.

@Tim It’s a yes … and no. Stanley Baldwin was the UK prime minister on 1 January 1924 having taken leadership of the Tory government in May 1923 following the resignation of Bonar Law for health reasons. Nothing suspicious there although it’s an excuse often used by politicians when something’s NQR with the way they’re running things. In this case, it was legit because Law passed away six months later of throat cancer. Baldwin called an election in December 1923, which cost the Tories their parliamentary majority allowing after Ramsay MacDonald to form a minority Labour government and he took power on 22 January 1924, holding onto power until the general election of November 1924. Baldwin’s conservatives won that one which allowed him to form his second government so he was British PM both at the start and the end of 1924. Incidentally, Ramsay MacDonald’s full name was James Ramsay MacDonald but as far as I’m aware, he was not related to the future Demon skipper or the future Melbourne Cup winning jockey.

That’s where this is all leading to but in the meantime, the objective is to develop an interest among our fans in the club’s history while, our current team creates more (good) history for our future generations. I’ll discuss this in future posts as we go through this particular season.

I’d like to acknowledge @supermercado and his fabulous site DemonWiki as a superb source on the history of the Melbourne Football Club.

That’s true because he didn’t make the Herald Sun best players either. He did get a mention in the article about “maturing into a player of high quality”.

Just letting you know in advance, tonight’s match report is entitled “Fritta & Turner”. And for that, I make no apologies.😀

The latest draft order here -AFL Draft Order 2024