Whispering_Jack

Q2 & Q3 2.11 6.6 The difference is right there but let’s not take anything away from either side. The Dogs had too much strength and experience - Lobb alone has 160 AFL games under his belt and Harmes has 153 AFL games and a premiership. Fullarton and Schache were the only currently listed AFL players in Casey’s team. * I think I prefer what Casey showed today in terms of future players despite the loss. * to be clear, these two were the only MFC listed players out there with AFL experience.

Don’t tell Dazzle.

Interesting that the Box Hill Hawks just beat Geelong VFA by 34 points at GMHBA Stadium with two ruckmen from last week both out (presumably in the lineup for the Easter Monday game). Ned Reeves played for Box Hill as did Finn Maginess who was close to BOG with 27 touches today.

On top of that, two of their AFLW players were done this week for drug use. Shocking culture at Sydney going back decades to Swans player Dale Lewis’ 2002 statement that 75 per cent of AFL players had tried illicit drugs. The Swans’ culture should receive saturation coverage in the media over the next week. And Wicks isn’t the only Swans player not to get a game this weekend. They have a bye.

The Herald Sun article is about the alleged fallout from an end of year trip by the team from Brizvegas to Vegas the city. It contains a hell of a lot of innuendo and very little fact about messages that have leaked out of the team’s WhatsApp group with the suggestion that the boys might have played up a little. Bottom line is the opening paragraph of the article by Sam Landsberger: ”Brisbane Lions have denied a split in their playing ranks despite holding a crisis meeting as the club deals with ongoing fallout from an end-of-season Las Vegas trip.” In other words, they’re saying that what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. So, it appears that three games into the third or fourth round of the season, Melbourne might not be the only club that has deep seated cultural issues (don’t panic, I’m being facetious).

The Dandenong Stingrays’ 198 bottom aged Melbourne NGA prospect, Tarion Ah-Mu had another good day kicking three goals in a 14 disposal, 5 marks game. He also had 9 hit outs in the team’s loss to the Gippsland Power. Their other Demon NGA member Corey Giliam kicked two goals in an otherwise quiet performance. For the winners, Ricky Mentha had a quiet day, failing to bother the scorers and picking up 11 touches.

When Carlton kicked their first goal, they had 11 kicks, 10 handballs and 6 free kicks.

Has Jack Bell left? He was included on the Casey list that was issued just before the start of the season.

Let’s just stick with the hypothetical and not touch anything under investigation. This is what happened when two Collingwood players were tested positive for a substance banned by WADA.

He’ll get a week and the Tribunal will accept Collingwood’s plea that it was a football act that Pendlebury couldn’t avoid and that it be downgraded to low impact (despite Neale collapsing and suffering bruising). 😎

Does anyone remember the days when every VFL and VFA ground was near a train station?

Coming up - the Sandringham Dragons vs Oakleigh Chargers game should be a ripper. Match of the round. In the Gippsland Power vs Dandenong Stingrays game the main event will be National Academy stars Xavier Lindsay and Demon NGA, Ricky Mentha. The former is described by central.rookieme.com as “a polished left-footed midfielder” while the latter “is a small forward with match-winning capabilities.”

Not so sure that all locals in Caulfield disagree with Melbourne being based at Caulfield Racecourse. My understanding is that for Melbourne to get into the precinct, it also has to cater for local community groups and there are such groups happy to locate there as well. Any argument that the development is going to "reduce green space in the area and shut the community out" is spurious because, as I understand it, part of the master plan for the precinct involves the removal of a large number of buildings which previously housed stables and the like. They, in turn, will be replaced by some buildings and plenty of attractive green spaces for community use. As a resident of the area, I say bring it on ...

This, from Rookie Draft Central Tairon Ah-Mu 
Ruck/Forward | 198cm | 06/06/2007 Stats: 10 disposals, 3 marks, 2 goals Ah-Mu started the game in strong form, booting the game’s first two goals with towering marks inside 50. Whether holding his ground under a high ball, owning front position, or going back with the flight, the bottom-ager proved difficult to handle aerially. That translated to his ruck craft, pinch-hitting to win a team-high 12 hitouts.

The schedules for this year’s Marsh AFL National Championships have been announced. The 2024 AFL National Championships – U18 Boys will be played from Sunday, May 26 to Sunday, July 14.

Casey Demons are back at their fortress this Saturday afternoon with everything pointing to a tough day at the office. Add the well documented injuries to players at AFL level to the need to preserve some extra bodies because of the five day break between the MFC’s two Adelaide games and you have the recipe for another disappointing outcome for Casey. On the brighter side, it will give some younger players an opportunity to perform at this level and to test their mettle.

Surely Hugh McCluggage and Oliver Florent might be worth a look?

Unlikely that other clubs are going to go after anyone on this list although Marty Hore is one who could potentially attract interest if he continues on his current trajectory. He is definitely a much improved player over the one who left the club at the end of 2021. Probably of more interest to Demon fans is the list of free agents from the 17 other clubs.

Yes - it’s probably a little early and the placings are a bit skewed because of the fixture … but people are already speculating, so here are the current picks with points attached to each ~ ROUND ONE 1 West Coast Eagles (3,000) 2 Hawthorn (2,517) 3 North Melbourne (2,234) 4 Fremantle (2,034) received from Collingwood in 2023 5 Richmond (1,878) 6 Adelaide (1,751) 7 Brisbane Lions (1,644) 8 Essendon (1,551) 9 Gold Coast Suns (1,469) received from Western Bulldogs in 2023 10 St Kilda (1,395) 11 Gold Coast Suns (1,329) 12 Carlton (1,268) 13 Geelong (1,212) 14 Fremantle (1,161) 15 Melbourne (1,112) 16 Fremantle (1,067) received from Port Adelaide in 2023 17 Sydney Swans (1,025) 18 GWS Giants (985) 19 Sydney Swans (948) received from North Melbourne in 2023, received from AFL as compensation in 2023 20 Gold Coast Suns (912) received from North Melbourne in 2023, received from AFL as compensation in 2023 ROUND TWO 21 West Coast Eagles (878) 22 Collingwood (845) received from Hawthorn in 2023 23 North Melbourne (815) 24 Hawthorn (785) received from Collingwood in 2023 25 Richmond (756) 26 GWS Giants (729) received from Adelaide in 2023 27 Gold Coast Suns (703) received from Hawthorn in 2023, received from Brisbane in 2023 28 Essendon (677) 29 Western Bulldogs (653) 30 Fremantle (629) received from St Kilda in Liam Henry trade 31 Gold Coast (606) 32 Carlton 31 (584) 33 Geelong (563) 34 Richmond (542) received from Port Adelaide in 2023, received from Fremantle in 2023 35 Adelaide (522) received from Melbourne in 2023 for Shane McAdam 36 Port Adelaide (502) 37 Melbourne (483) received from Sydney in 2023 for Brodie Grundy 38 St Kilda (465) received from GWS Giants in 2023 ROUND THREE 39 Richmond (446) received from West Coast in 2023 40 Collingwood (429) received from Hawthorn in 2023 41 North Melbourne (412) 42 Collingwood (395) 43 Richmond (378) 44 Adelaide (362) 45 Brisbane Lions (347) 46 Gold Coast Suns (331) received from Carlton in 2023, received from Essendon in 2023 47 Melbourne (316) 48 Melbourne (302) 49 Western Bulldogs (287) 50 St Kilda (273) received by the Western Bulldogs in 2023 received from St Kilda received from Gold Coast in 2023 received from Carlton in 2023 51 Geelong (259) 52 Richmond (246) 53 St Kilda (233) received from Fremantle in 2023 received from Melbourne in 2023 54 Port Adelaide (220) 55 Sydney Swans (207) 56 GWS Giants (194) ROUND FOUR 57 West Coast Eagles (182) 58 Brisbane Lions (170) received from Hawthorn in 2023 59 North Melbourne (158) 60 Richmond (146) received from Essendon in 2023, received from Hawthorn in 2023, received from Collingwood in 2023 61 Richmond (135) 62 Adelaide (123) 63 Brisbane Lions (112) 64 North Melbourne (111) received from Port Adelaide in 2023, received from Essendon in 2023 65 Carlton (90) received from the Bulldogs in 2023 66 Fremantle (80) received from St Kilda in Liam Henry trade 67 Carlton (69) received from Gold Coast in 2023 68 Port Adelaide (59) received from Essendon in 2023, received from Carlton in 2023 69 Geelong (49) 70 Carlton (39) received from St Kilda in 2023, received from Frementle in Liam Henry trade 71 Melbourne (29) 72 Richmond (19) received from Port Adelaide in 2023 73 Sydney Swans (9) 74 GWS Giants (0) Club by club (selections and points) Adelaide 6, 35, 44, 62 (2758) Brisbane Lions 7, 45, 58, 63 (2,273) Carlton 12, 32, 65, 67, 70 (2,050) Collingwood 22, 40, 42 (1,669) Essendon 8, 28 (2,228) Fremantle 4, 14, 16, 30, 66 (4,971) Geelong 13, 33, 51, 69 (2,083) Gold Coast Suns 9, 11, 20, 27, 31, 46 (5,350) GWS Giants 18, 26, 56, 74 (1,908) Hawthorn 2, 24 (3,302) Melbourne 15, 37, 47, 48, 71 (2,242) North Melbourne 3, 23, 41, 59, 64 (3,720) Port Adelaide 36, 54, 68 (781) Richmond 5, 25, 34, 39, 43, 52, 60, 61, 72 (4546) St Kilda 10, 38, 50, 53 (2,366) Sydney Swans 17, 19, 55, 73 (2,189) West Coast 1, 21, 57 (4,060) Western Bulldogs 29, 49 (940)

At the moment, young Yze is of a size just a little bit too short for a key position and probably not quite fast enough for a midfielder. He’s still young enough to grow and develop his skills and running ability so it’s fantastic that he’s in the elite system at a strong Coates Talent League club along with the benefit of being under the eye of both the Melbourne Football Club and his father which means he has a good chance of getting onto our club’s list if he puts in the work. Hopefully, he will get the opportunity once or twice this year to show his wares at Casey as Kynan Brown did last year.

The first round of the Coates Talent League was played at the weekend with the Oakleigh Chargers and Eastern Ranges playing out the marquee game in terms of high end draft talent. Snapshot: 2024 Coates Talent League – Round 1 Oakleigh take on the Sandringham Dragons in another big game on Saturday afternoon at RSEA Park.

There is a solution and I’m not sure that it’s going to be palatable for everyone but it’s something I suggested a while ago. That is to give him more of an opportunity to develop KFW’s ruck craft by loaning him to a suitable club in the VAFA where he can get plenty of game time actually playing in the ruck. There are some seasoned ruckmen at that level and 80 minutes of time in the ruck is better than 40 minutes stranded in a forward pocket when the ball is spending 75% of time in defence. The idea is not original. A couple of years ago, Collingwood arranged for one of its rookies to play with Beaumaris Reserves in VAFA B Section. I don’t think it succeeded in the end, but the player in question was given every opportunity to develop his craft.

Three broken ribs and a small cracked vertebrae requires a conservative approach. No play over the next month and the earliest we’ll see Steven May on a footy field will be at the Anzac Day Eve game vs Richmond. I also expect that Jake Lever will miss at least one game. They are the best individual assets in our defence. We have to look after them.

I don’t think that delisting him would create a vacancy for the purposes of the mid season draft. I do agree that on his display today, he doesn’t appear to be up to it.

So far, there’s not much joy from a short term point of view. The selectors have some headaches coming up this week. Looking further forward, AMW, Koltyn Tholstrup and Kynan Brown look very promising while the taller youngsters are getting an education and need time.