Whispering_Jack

Hopefully, the final word on the saga ~ SEN boss Craig Hutchison apologises after hosts fail to denounce antisemitic comment

Always a pleasure listening to JT. He's a pretty straight forward, no BS sort of a bloke, unlike some of the recruiters and his results have been more than acceptable given the restraints he sometimes have to work under.

This is to bookmark for the future but it currently reflects the indicative 2023 draft order if all teams finish in the same places next year as they did this year. ROUND ONE 1. North Melbourne 2. West Coast Eagles 3. GWS Giants 4. Essendon 5. Adelaide 6. Hawthorn 7. Gold Coast Suns 8. North Melbourne 9. St Kilda 10. Carlton 11. Western Bulldogs 12. GWS Giants 13. Melbourne 14. Melbourne 15. Western Bulldogs 16. Collingwood 17. Sydney Swans 18. Geelong ROUND TWO 19. Adelaide 20. Fremantle 21. West Coast Eagles 22. Adelaide 23. Essendon 24. Gold Coast Suns 25. Sydney Swans 26. Gold Coast Suns 27. West Coast Eagles 28. St Kilda 29. Collingwood 30. Hawthorn 31. Richmond 32. Melbourne 33. Melbourne 34. Western Bulldogs 35. Port Adelaide 36. Sydney Swans 37. Brisbane Lions ROUND THREE 38. North Melbourne 39. Fremantle 40. West Coast Eagles 41. GWS Giants 42. Essendon 43. Gold Coast Suns 44. Sydney Swans 45. Gold Coast Suns 46. West Coast Eagles 47. St Kilda 48. Fremantle 49. Hawthorn 50. Richmond 51. Port Adelaide 52. North Melbourne 53. Brisbane Lions 54. Gold Coast Suns 55. Sydney Swans 56. Brisbane Lions ROUND FOUR 57. Fremantle 58. West Coast Eagles 59. GWS Giants 60. Carlton 61. Gold Coast 62. North Melbourne 63. Gold Coast Suns 64. Port Adelaide 65. Gold Coast Suns 66. Carlton 67. Western Bulldogs 68. Richmond 69. Brisbane Lions 70. Western Bulldogs 71. GWS Giants 72. Collingwood 73. Essendon 74. Western Bulldogs

2023 Vic Metro talent hubs announced NAME SURNAME HT NAB LEAGUE PROGRAM COMMUNITY CLUB – Levi Ashcroft 179 Sandringham Dragons St Kilda City Kynan Brown 180 Oakleigh Chargers Blackburn William Brown 192 Sandringham Dragons East Brighton Vampires Nate Caddy 191 Northern Knights Yarrambat Jordan Croft 199 Calder Cannons Maribyrnong Park William Green 202 Northern Knights Northcote Brayden LaPlanche 188 Eastern Ranges Rowville William Lorenz 186 Oakleigh Chargers Boroondara Hawks Tadhg McCarthy 190 Oakleigh Chargers Kew Rovers Logan Morris 192 Western Jets Werribee Districts Cam Nyko 178 Eastern Ranges Healesville Nathan Philactides 180 Oakleigh Chargers Blackburn Archie Roberts 182 Sandringham Dragons Hampton Rovers Josh Smillie 191 Eastern Ranges Park Orchards Iliro Smit 198 Eastern Ranges Montrose Jagga Smith 179 Oakleigh Chargers Richmond Mahmoud Taha 182 Calder Cannons Pascoe Vale Luke Trainor 185 Sandringham Dragons St Kilda City Vigo Visentini 199 Sandringham Dragons Brighton Beach Nick Watson 170 Eastern Ranges Montrose/East Ringwood Riley Weatherill 195 Eastern Ranges East Ringwood Caleb Windsor 180 Eastern Ranges Lysterfield

Don’t know. Casey are usually up and about with their recruiting at this time of the year but at this point in time, there’s no news.

The training gallery is up - Training Gallery: December 7

2022 AFL Draft Review: Melbourne

On the other hand Jonti Schuback from Maffra has attributes that will come in handy at Casey and he comes from just down the highway.

Craig Hutchison of SEN has just issued this statement to the chair of the Anti Defamation Council on behalf of the broadcaster:- Thank you so much for the conversation today. I would like to extend a personal apology on behalf of SEN for any inadvertent offence caused regarding the segment on SEN Breakfast from our regular talkback caller, John from Epping. As mentioned, hosts Garry and Tim recognised the inappropriate nature of the comment and made a judgement call that it was best handled and discussed with John off air. This conversation with the caller took place prior to the program ending, such was their desire to address it. They’ve spoken to him in fact several times since. We are pleased with their intent to address it directly with the caller, but we do acknowledge that it could have also been addressed on air. Garry and Tim have always stood for an inclusive show for everyone. As a business, we pride ourselves on our standards and respect for all communities and acknowledge our role in the sports industry as leaders in this space. We appreciate you taking the time to discuss the matter today and once again apologise for the unintended offence this has caused, and your leadership in addressing this with us and with me directly. Kind regards, Craig

I also notice that he's been picked in the Vic Country Hub for 2023. This is their boys team - # NAME SURNAME HT NAB LEAGUE PROGRAM COMMUNITY CLUB 1 Xavier Lindsay 179 Gippsland Power Inverloch-Kongwak 2 Harley Reid 185 Bendigo Pioneers Tongala 3 Cooper Simpson 181 Dandenong Stingrays Mount Martha 4 Darcy Wilson 184 Murray Bushrangers Wangaratta Rovers 5 Finn O’Sullivan 180 Oakleigh Chargers Koroit 6 Coby James 176 Murray Bushrangers Mooroopna 7 Kade De La Rue 181 Dandenong Stingrays Beaconsfield 8 Sam Frangalas 187 Dandenong Stingrays Berwick 9 Zane Duursma 188 Gippsland Power Foster 10 Patrick Hughes 180 Geelong Falcons Torquay 11 Kobe Shipp 186 Dandenong Stingrays Beaconsfield 12 Harry Demattia 188 Dandenong Stingrays Edithvale Aspendale 13 Joel Freijah 189 GWV Rebels Horsham Saints 14 Michael Rudd 190 Geelong Falcons St Mary’s 15 Luamon Lual 181 GWV Rebels South Warrnambool 16 Sam Lalor 186 GWV Rebels Bacchus Marsh 17 Malik Gordon 190 Bendigo Pioneers Strathfieldsaye 18 Brady Hall 189 Geelong Falcons Colac 19 Riak Andrew 192 Dandenong Stingrays Berwick 20 George Stevens 189 GWV Rebels South Warrnambool 21 Boston Dowling 200 Murray Bushrangers Shepparton 22 Archer Reid 201 Gippsland Power Inverloch-Kongwak 23 Flynn Penry 200 GWV Rebels Cobden 24 Joe Pike 201 Geelong Falcons Barwon Heads 25 Lachlan Smith 201 Gippsland Power Warragul

Really? A player achieves something he has striven for all his life and is proud of the fact that he also represents a minority community. So let’s make him the victim and punish him by burying the story and driving it underground, lest the haters are allowed to get their five minutes in the sun. Which is just a few steps away from creating a repressive society that stops its minorities from celebrating their identities and prevents them from conducting activities that reflect pride in their culture whether based on race, religion, gender or the ways in which they prefer to live their lives. Strange how the victims here are mostly law abiding, hard working and loyal citizens but we can’t even tolerate them being out in the open, because they’re different in some way so they can’t even have representative teams. Heaven help us if that’s where we’re heading. As to the nature of humour and how it’s expressed, there is a wide chasm between making satirical jokes in a self-deprecating manner to highlight the stupidity of a subject and jokes that are made specifically to stereotype and highlight untruths. The trope about Jews and money (there are many needy and poor Jewish people in this country) is no different to claims that all Ingenous people are lazy or all Moslems are terrorists - all are ugly, untrue and tend to offend their targets. Attempts to justify their use in the way John from Epping did last week even if unwitting, are unnecessary and shameful. A sincere statement of regret from those involved and some useful and positive learning on the subject are all that’s required. Perhaps something like this one - Radio presenter apologises over racial slur

Harry Sheezel who was drafted at #3 by North Melbourne at last week’s AFL National Draft is Jewish. I am also Jewish - I was his team manager at Ajax where he played his junior footy from the age of 7. He’s naturally talented but natural talent isn’t enough to get you drafted that high. He’s worked hard for years, shown dedication and resilience and copped some racist abuse along the way. Last week, he was subjected to plenty of abuse by anonymous racist keyboard warriors on the Age online newspaper (since taken down) to the point where the AFL intervened and brought in its Integrity Department. Unfortunately, a further instance of antisemitism occurred on Garry and Tim’s SEN breakfast show last Friday in a segment with regular caller John from Epping in which the caller brought out what is recognized as an antisemitic trope about Jews and money. History teaches us that language such as this has caused enormous pain and damage to innocent people in the past. AFL greats Garry Lyon and Tim Watson fail to call out anti-Semitism on SEN Breakfast Our game is rife with racism and intolerance. Just ask Eddie Betts. You can also ask the few Moslem and other minority footballers about what their communities cop from time to time. I hope that we get a swift and responsible response from Garry, Tim, John from Epping, SEN and the AFL on this one. And please take care with your comments.

Cal Twomey has his own Top 10 Future Draft Prospects

Not entirely unexpected since he’s probably one of the very few draftees not to come out of the NAB League or equivalent systems in other states where the training regimens require a high level of aerobic fitness. By contrast, Sestan played for his school and on some weekends was driven up to Mansfield to play in a local under 18 competition. The standard doesn’t appear to have been too flash and it sounds like he didn’t train much with the country side. The flip side is the fact that this is one of the aspects of his game, which the club will most certainly be looking at and working on over the months to come.

Oliver Sestan

Time to start a separate discussion on the 2023 AFL Pre-season Supplemental Selection Period (SSP). The SSP allows clubs the opportunity to invite players to train with them over the off-season with the potential to be added to their rookie list ahead of the following season. Some pretty handy players have found their way onto AFL lists as SSP signings. Melbourne has one list vacancy and therefore has the opportunity to add someone to its ranks at any time up to March, 2023. One train on player has already been mentioned - Kye Turner of Frankston VFL and Old Haileybury. Hopefully, our intrepid trackwatchers will catch sight of any other candidates.

Not really sure that we’ll be playing Hunter at half back next year but it’s nice to hear from him 😀

I’ve been one of Doerre’s critics in recent times but, to be fair, it should be recognised that his own views on Jefferson are no different to those which he held before Melbourne traded into the first round of the draft and became one of the front runners to get him. He posted this podcast entitled “AFL Draft Power Rankings tier list August 2022 (Top-50)” outlining how he ranked the draft prospects at the end of August in three different tiers. He placed Jefferson in the third tier and explained why (around 24/25 minutes in). On that basis, you have to respect his views even if you disagree with them. The three tiers were - Tier 1 Will Ashcroft Aaron Cadman Mattaes Phillipou Harry Sheezel Elijah Tsatas George Wardlaw Tier 2 Jedd Busslinger Jhye Clarke Bailey Humphrey Henry Hustwaite Cam McKenzie Tier 3 Jaxon Binns Charlie Clarke Alwyn Davey Jr Adam D’Aloia Blake Drury Brayden George Reuben Ginbey Lewis Hayes Elijah Hewett Oliver Hollands Olli Hotton Matthew Jefferson Isaac Keeler Noah Long Harry Rowston Kobe Ryan Jacob Ryan Mitch Szybkowski Casey Voss He didn’t get too many on the list wrong although Hustwaite “the next Patrick Cripps??” slipped through to pick 37, one before Melbourne’s second pick (I wonder if we might have picked him if he was still available?) The other thing to note is the difference between power rankings and a phantom draft. He placed Jefferson at #10 in his September draft because that was where he saw an AFL club selecting him. I’ve gone back to the vision of Jefferson in some of his Under 18 National Draft games to see if Doerre’s criticisms stood up. MJ kicked 14 goals across the four games and his seven against WA was the standout. Obviously, when you’re getting delivery from a dominant midfield like he did in that superb five goal third quarter, it’s a bonus but I did notice some aspects to his game that Doerre might have missed out on. The final game vs Vic Country was a much tougher one for him but he still managed two goals including one important one in the final moments. He moved well around the ground, provided some scoring assists and executed a great smother. There’s plenty there for the club to work on and he compares well with the more strongly built Cadman. All in all, I’m looking forward to the day when he and JVR form part of a very formidable key forward combination and I disagree with Doerre’s suggestion that he might become a key defender. He said much the same about JVR last year and I suppose that it might happen but it’s unlikely.

I guess it would be a hard ask bring a bloke with a fractured tibia all the way across the continent to test out whether he can play footy. The Herald Sun’s on line page says this about him - “… he’s been on the radar for a while now and recruiters are aware of his class, composure and decision making across halfback – or through the midfield, where he’s played in spurts.” It seems to me that this description covers one of the areas of our needs that we didn’t deal with in the recent trading and drafting.

Deja vu as we start the season against the Western Bulldogs at the MCG for the second year in a row.

Problem is that the building costs and the expense of draining the grounds would be massive. Someone has to pay for that.

Many, many years ago, I was retained to act in some litigation involving damage to a property close by the Elsternwick Park area. Some very simple and rudimentary research revealed that much of the area was once swampland and any building work there would involve some serious and expensive foundation works. The location might be excellent with good transport but my advice is to stay away from this place. The main ground at Elsternwick Park is currently a disaster area. It’s used as the VAFA’s headquarters and this year’s finals were a disaster. Rain and flooding hit the ground an hour before the Premier B Section Grand Final (see photo) resulting in an ugly game on a mud heap won by Old Haileybury 2.10.22 to University Blacks 2.5.17. The Premier A Section Grand Final scheduled for the following day was moved to the Trevor Barker Beach Road Oval. In short - a definite NO

Can’t believe it but still saying the same thing 14 years later. Still, as they say in the classics, cricket’s a funny game!

Jake Aarts, Sydney Stack and Jackson Callow. It’s a tough gig being on the fringes of an AFL team. One day you’re up and the next - you’re unwanted. Feel for guys in this category.