Whispering_Jack

Last night’s performance by the Swans again suggested to me that one advantage to be had from losing to them was that we had the front row seat to witness the direction football is taking in 2024. Let’s see if we’re up to doing what they did last night.

Too early to say at this stage. We need to wait for the start of the Coates Boys League in Victoria and the various State League senior and under age competitions elsewhere.

2024 Coates Talent League Boys Testing Day Results The article reveals the top 10 results recorded by players from Victorian-based clubs at the 2024 Coates Talent Boys Testing Day. 20m Sprint Archie Taylor (GWV Rebels/Cobden) 2.796 sec Julian Callahan (Gippsland Power/Leongatha) 2.863 Kade Dwyer (Murray Bushrangers/Shepparton Swans) 2.872 Jack Gerardi (Western Jets/West Footscray) 2.874 Thomas Legudi (Calder Cannons/Aberfeldie) 2.878 Blake Leidler (Oakleigh Chargers/Surrey Park) 2.879 Taj Hotton (Sandringham Dragons/Hampton Rovers) 2.882 JayDe Varlet (Dandenong Stingrays/Beaconsfield) 2.884 Cody Anderson (Eastern Ranges/Healesville) 2.885 Ben Seers (Sandringham Dragons/Beaumaris) 2.886 Standing Vertical Jump Harley Hicks (GWV Rebels/Lake Wendouree) 83cm Gabriel Stumpf (Northern Knights/Warrandyte) 79 James Allison (Northern Knights/Montmorency) 77 Daniel Snell (Western Jets/Yarraville Seddon Eagles) 77 Luke Trainor (Sandringham Dragons/Old Brighton) 77 Floyd Burmeister (GWV Rebels/Redan) 76 Brady Hall (Geelong Falcons/Colac) 75 Ryan Muir (Eastern Ranges/Wantirna South) 75 Nash Ramage (Bendigo Pioneers/Echuca United) 75 Jack Whitlock (Murray Bushrangers/Shepparton) 75 Running Vertical Jump (Right) Floyd Burmeister (GWV Rebels/Redan) 95cm Nash Ramage (Bendigo Pioneers/Echuca United) 95 Coen Ainsworth (Murray Bushrangers/Wodonga) 90 Finn O’Sullivan (Oakleigh Chargers/Koroit) 90 Gabriel Stumpf (Northern Knights/Warrandyte) 90 Archie Taylor (GWV Rebels/Cobden) 90 Ollie Hannaford (GWV Rebels/Sandhurst) 89 Harry Armstrong (Sandringham Dragons/Ormond) 87 Ned Renfree (GWV Rebels/East Point) 87 Taj Hotton (Sandringham Dragons/Hampton Rovers) 86 Running Vertical Jump (Left) Daniel Snell (Western Jets/Yarraville Seddon Eagles) 102 Ben Rongdit (Geelong Falcons/Colac) 98 Archie Taylor (GWV Rebels/Cobden) 96 Matt Whitlock (Murray Bushrangers/Shepparton) 96 James Allison (Northern Knights/Montmorency) 95 Ned Renfree (GWV Rebels/East Point) 95 Taj Hotton (Sandringham Dragons/Hampton Rovers) 93 Ryan Muir (Eastern Ranges/Wantirna South) 93 Thomas Sims (Northern Knights/Montmorency) 93 Jack Whitlock (Murray Bushrangers/Shepparton) 93 Yo-Yo Jett McLaughlan (Northern Knights/Diamond Creek) Level 22.4 Archie Caldow (GWV Rebels/East Point) 22.2 Josh Dolan (Sandringham Dragons/Beaumaris) 22.1 Jeremy Newsome (Eastern Ranges/Healesville) 22.1 Harry Albon (Calder Cannons/Craigieburn) 21.8 Nedd Bennett (GWV Rebels/East Point) 21.8 Ryan Commandeur (Northern Knights/St Mary’s) 21.8 Liam Farrar (Northern Knights/Diamond Creek) 21.8 Patrick Said (Calder Cannons/Sunbury) 21.8 Zach Travers (Sandringham Dragons/Old Brighton) 21.8 AFL Agility Douglas Kerr (Oakleigh Chargers/Ashburton) 7.724 sec Oskar Taylor (Eastern Ranges/Upwey Tecoma) 7.764 Lachy Dovaston (Eastern Ranges/Blackburn) 7.777 Sebastian Murphy (Northern Knights/Montmorency) 7.787 Ollie Hannaford (GWV Rebels/Sandhurst) 7.788 Taj Hotton (Sandringham Dragons/Hampton Rovers) 7.807 Sam McDonald (GWV Rebels/Ballarat) 7.858 Jake Woodward (Northern Knights/Montmorency) 7.866 Nedd Bennett (GWV Rebels/East Point) 7.876 Thomas Sims (Northern Knights/Montmorency) 7.909

Sounds like he might be a fair way away from contention at the moment but there’s another Brayshaw on the horizon - Freddie who has made the Sandringham Dragons list. This is an appraisal from Code Sports:- 63 Freddie Brayshaw The cousin of Angus and Andy Brayshaw and the son of James Brayshaw. A high-level cricketer and footballer at Haileybury College, he's a hard-running wingman for the Dragons, with a view to training as a midfielder later on.

Nothing to see here. Collingwood will argue that it was unavoidable, incidental and unintended and he’ll be sweet.

It was 12 months ago in Round 1, 2023 at The MCG and the Demons handed out a football lesson to the Western Bulldogs. Kozzie Pickett was in sensational form and Ben Brown and he booted four goals each as the team led all night to win by 57 points. Pickett found himself in trouble with the Tribunal giving him two weeks off for a crude bump on Bailey Smith. MELBOURNE 3.3.21 9.4.58 13.8.86 17.13.115 WESTERN BULLDOGS 2.4.16 5.9.39 8.10.58 9.11.65 THE TEAMS MELBOURNE B H. Petty J. Lever J. McVee HB J. Harmes A. Tomlinson J. Bowey C L. Hunter C. Oliver E. Langdon HF K. Chandler B. Brown C. Spargo F K. Pickett B. Grundy A. Neal-Bullen FOLL M. Gawn T. Sparrow C. Petracca I/C A. Brayshaw B. Laurie T. McDonald T. Rivers SUB J. Melksham EMG M. Hibberd J. Jordon J. Van Rooyen New faces Brodie Grundy (Collingwood) Lachie Hunter (Western Bulldogs) Bailey Laurie (Oakleigh Chargers) Judd McVee (East Fremantle) WESTERN BULLDOGS B T. Duryea L. Jones C. Daniel HB B. Dale A. Keath E. Richards C B. Williams M. Bontempelli J. Macrae HF B. Smith A. Naughton J. Ugle-Hagan F A. Scott S. Darcy R. Lobb FOLL T. English T. Liberatore A. Treloar I/C O. Baker J. Bruce M. Hannan J. Johannisen SUB T. McLean EMG H. Crozier B. Khamis J. Sweet New faces Oskar Baker (Melbourne) Liam Jones (Carlton) Rory Lobb (Fremantle)

The AFL has adopted a policy of not releasing the body weights of individual players. Apparently, this has something to do with not body shaming fat or thin footballers so the media only gets supplied with height figures. Please don’t get me started on this one.

We went out hard and failed to capitalize with our forward 50 entries - a single goal from the first 29 entries was poor reward for our hard work while the Swans crowded our forward line. And we completely misread the conditions which led to some costly turnovers, particularly in the first half. As a consequence, by the final break, we had used our petrol tickets and they overran us in the final quarter. Very un Melbourne like and the exact opposite of what we usually expect from the team. I think much the same happened last night to the Brisbane Lions except for the fact that they managed to kick accurately for goal in the first quarter. As to Grundy, the club completely mismanaged the situation by putting him completely off side when he was dropped, ostensibly to learn his forward craft. As a consequence, he wasn’t played in the finals and, as Thursday night showed, he would have been handy in the qualifying final and certainly, no worse than Josh Schache in the semi final. I get that the view inside the club was that he wasn’t selected because he had probably “checked out” but it should never have gotten to that stage. We lost a perfect opportunity to win a flag. Worse still was the fact that the public humiliation and alienation of a two time All Australian resulted in our trading him far more cheaply than had we managed things better. The consequence is that we have egg on our faces for the moment and potentially more embarrassment to come.

Looking forward to Picket Fence’s on the spot reporting from Casey Fields. 😀

I believe that today is Melbourne's earliest start to a season ever, beating the game vs Richmond played on Wednesday 8 March 2000. The season started and ended early due to the Sydney Olympics which opened in mid September 2000. The Demons lost to the Tigers by 2 points and went on to play off in the Grand Final that year. Richmond 7.1 11.6 14.7 14.10 94 Melbourne 4.3 6.6 10.9 13.14 92 Attendance: 41,648 Venue: M.C.G.

THE TEAMS SYDNEY SWANS B: L. Melican, T. McCartin, D. Rampe HB: N. Blakey, O. Florent, J. Lloyd C: J. Mcinerney, C. Warner, E. Gulden HF: I. Heeney, L. McDonald, J. Amartey F: T. Papley, H. McLean, W. Hayward FOLL: B. Grundy, J. Jordon, J. Rowbottom I/C: B. Campbell, H. Cunningham, R. Fox, M. Roberts SUB: S. Wicks EMG: P. Ladhams, A. Sheldrick, C. Warner NEW: B. Grundy (Melbourne), J. Jordon (Melbourne) MELBOURNE B: B. Howes, S. May, J. Lever HB: J. McVee, A. Tomlinson, C. Salem C: E. Langdon, C. Petracca, T. Rivers HF: J. Viney, J. Schache, J. van Rooyen F: A. Neal-Bullen, B. Fritsch, C. Spargo FOLL: M. Gawn, T. Sparrow, C. Oliver IC: J. Bowey, K. Chandler, B. Laurie, C. Windsor SUB: J. Billings EMG: T. Fullarton, T. McDonald, T. Woewodin NEW: J. Billings (St Kilda), B. Howes (Sandringham Dragons), C. Windsor (Eastern Ranges)

The Herald Sun online edition has this to say about him in its preview of Gippsland Power players for 2024:- Ricky Mentha (Gippsland/Warragul): Mentha is an Australian-Academy player who is originally from Alice Springs. He moved to Morwell last year and worked his way into the Power squad. The Melbourne NGA prospect will excite a few this year. And more information here:- Ricky Mentha

We’ve taken over Sydney …

A rare insightful piece of analysis from the media in the form of this article from Rohan Connolly of ESPN. Why the Demons can rise above off-field drama in 2024 Please note the site’s code of conduct continues to apply but otherwise discussion on the football aspect is most welcome.

Overture, curtain, lights This is it, the night of nights No more rehearsing and nursing a part We know every part by heart

Have we ever had a player with the initials BS?

Training reports from today (apart from the announcements about 3 debutants for Melbourne and Clarry’s selection)?

I saw McAdam at training yesterday. He was running freely but appears to be a few weeks off.

How the Coodabeen Champions changed Australian Rules Football forever

So this is where things stood as at Wednesday evening:- MELBOURNE vs CARLTON Jack Billings, Jake Bowey, Kynan Brown, Kade Chandler, Bayley Fritsch, Max Gawn, Blake Howes, Ed Langdon, Bailey Laurie, Jake Lever, Judd McVee, Steven May, Alex Neal-Bullen, Christian Petracca, Kysaiah Pickett, Trent Rivers, Christian Salem, Josh Schache, Tom Sparrow, Koltyn Tholstrup, Adam Tomlinson, Jacob van Rooyen, Will Verrell, Jack Viney, Caleb Windsor. CASEY DEMONS vs CARLTON VFL Jed Adams, Kyah Farris-White, Tom Fullarton, Marty Hore, Matthew Jefferson, Tom McDonald, Andy Moniz-Wakefield, Clayton Oliver, Oliver Sestan, Koltyn Tholstrup*, Will Verrell*, Taj Woewodin. INJURED/SUSPENDED Ben Brown, Lachie Hunter, Shane McAdam, Jake Melksham, Harrison Petty, Kysaiah Pickett**, Joel Smith, Charlie Spargo, Daniel Turner. RETIRED Angus Brayshaw. * played in both VFL & AFL practice matches ** played in the AFL practice match but unavailable for Round Zero

I reckon this bloke would have sorted him out nicely (and a reminder about how many sleeps to go to the start of the season).

We can expect possibly seven changes to the Melbourne lineup for the return game against Sydney with the following likely outs:- Angus Brayshaw (retired), Lachie Hunter, Jake Melksham, Daniel Turner (injured), Clayton Oliver (managed?) and Kozzy Pickett & Joel Smith (suspended). That’s a lot missing in such a short space of time but let’s not forget the David Parkin principle which says that for clubs to win flags, they need to constantly turn over new talent and he thought having five new faces in a team each year was good for the cause.

Casey coach Taylor Whitford has confirmed that Campbell Hustwaite has joined the Casey Demons for the 2024 season. Hustwaite was with Collingwood VFL for five seasons and co-captained the Pies for the last three years with another Magpie VFL stalwart, Lachlan Tardrew. He came from the Dandenong Stingrays and is still only 23 years of age. Standing at 184cm, he has been highly regarded as a midfielder and for his leadership going all the way back to his TAC Cup days. “He is the type of player who bleeds for the club he represents and if you want midfielders with grunt and tenacity, Hustwaite seems a great value option. He might not be flashy like some others, but his contested work and leadership is something clubs should take into account when considering players who could improve the culture of a club.” - Campbell Hustwaite He trained with the Magpies for an AFL opportunity during this summer’s pre-season supplemental selection period (SSP) and, from all accounts, was close to winning a place on their list. I think it’s a great selection for Casey given the loss of such a great VFL campaigner in Jimmy Munro. Hustwaite should go a long way towards filling the immense void of talent and experience left by Munro’s departure and by playing with one of the competition’s strengths should do his AFL aspirations no harm.