Whispering_Jack

It would be nice if the club could confirm next week’s training times and venues. With schools returning in the following week, the next week could be the final opportunity to get the kids to a preseason session and if they are taking place at Casey which involves special arrangements for most of us because of the distances involved, plenty of advance notice would be helpful.

Casey Fields this morning STINGA'S PRESEASON TRAINING REPORT

A Herald-Sun article by Chris Cavanagh “DID YOUR NUMBERS COME UP?” (pages 76 & 77 yesterday) examined which club has the strongest draft hand going into the 2023 National Draft. Of course, it’s a long way off till November and the draft picks are dependent upon how each individual team fares in the coming season but the verdict has Melbourne ahead of the pack. Here are the picks each club holds – and why. ADELAIDE Rd 1: Own Rd 2: 1 x linked to North Melbourne, 1 x linked to Gold Coast Rd 3: None Rd 4: None BRISBANE Rd 1: None Rd 2: 1 x linked to Geelong Rd 3: Own, 1 x linked to Geelong Rd 4: 1 x linked to Fremantle CARLTON Rd 1: Own Rd 2: None Rd 3: None Rd 4: Own, 1 x linked to Essendon COLLINGWOOD Rd 1: Own Rd 2: 1 x linked to Carlton Rd 3: None Rd 4: Own ESSENDON R 1: Own Rd 2: Own Rd 3: Own Rd 4: Linked to Sydney FREMANTLE Rd 1: None Rd 2: 1 x linked to North Melbourne Rd 3: 1 x linked to North Melbourne, 1 x linked to Carlton Rd 4: 1 x linked to North Melbourne GEELONG Rd 1: Own Rd 2: None Rd 3: None Rd 4: None GOLD COAST Rd 1: Own Rd 2: 1 x linked to GWS, 1 x linked to Adelaide Rd 3: 1 x linked to Adelaide, 1 x linked to Collingwood Rd 4: Own, 1 x linked to Adelaide, 1 x linked to St Kilda GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY Rd 1: Own, 1 x linked to Richmond Rd 2: None Rd 3: Own Rd 4: Own, 1 x linked to Brisbane HAWTHORN Rd 1: Own Rd 2: 1 x linked to Western Bulldogs Rd 3: 1 x linked to Western Bulldogs Rd 4: None MELBOURNE Rd 1: Own, 1 x linked to Fremantle Rd 2: Own, 1 x linked to Fremantle Rd 3: None Rd 4: None “The Demons hold the best draft hand of any club with four picks in the first two rounds. Not only do they still have their own selections for those rounds, but they also have Fremantle’s as part of the trade that sent young ruckman Luke Jackson to the Dockers. Melbourne’s third-rounder went to the Western Bulldogs in exchange for Lachie Hunter, while their fourth-rounder also found its way to Whitten Oval in a swap for utility Josh Schache.” NORTH MELBOURNE Rd 1: Own, 1 x linked to Port Adelaide Rd 2: None Rd 3: Own, 1 x linked to Melbourne Rd 4: 1 x linked to Hawthorn PORT ADELAIDE NNRd 1: None NNRd 2: 1 x linked 
to Collingwood NNRd 3: 1 x linked 
to Fremantle NNRd 4: Own RICHMOND Rd 1: None Rd 2: Own Rd 3: Own Rd 4: Own ST KILDA Rd 1: Own Rd 2: Own Rd 3: Own Rd 4: None SYDNEY SWANS Rd 1: Own Rd 2: Own, 1 x linked to Hawthorn Rd 3: Own, 1 x linked to Hawthorn Rd 4: None WEST COAST EAGLES Rd 1: Own Rd 2: Own, 1 x linked to Port Adelaide Rd 3: Own, 1 x linked to Port Adelaide Rd 4: Own WESTERN BULLDOGS Rd 1: Own, 1 x linked to Brisbane Rd 2: 1 x linked to Brisbane Rd 3: None Rd 4: Own, 1 x linked to Melbourne, 1 x linked to Geelong

What about the enjoyment on the faces of the fans at attending a winning Melbourne match in Geelong at a time when the chances of us bringing home the 4 points was negligible and the prospect of that long drive home in the cold at the end of most games wasn’t exactly tantalizing.

Watch this to the end.

Just watching the Gridiron and it appears Pickett might have changed codes and gone to Pittsburgh 😀

Today’s Herald Sun has a report on the train-on players in anticipation of possible selection to fill vacancies through the AFL’s supplemental selection period, which ends on 15 February. Melbourne has one list vacancy and this is the comment on our two candidates:- “MELBOURNE TRENT BURGOYNE (Port Adelaide SANFL) Mid-Fwd, 21, 177cm, 70kg The son of Power great Peter and brother of 2021 draftee Jase, Burgoyne was delisted at the end of the 2021 season without playing a game for the club. Burgoyne’s two years at AFL level were cruelled by hamstring injuries, playing just four SANFL matches during this period. He remained with Port Adelaide’s SANFL side last year and impressed with his agility and reading of the play in defence, highlighted by 24 disposals and seven tackles against Norwood. KYE TURNER (Old Haileybury/ Frankston VFL) Defender, 20, 193cm, 78kg Turner gets his chance to trial at the Demons after playing just two VFL games for Frankston late in the year. The defender showed promising signs for the Dolphins, averaging 12 disposals and three intercepts while going at 79 per cent kicking efficiency. He also starred in VAFA B-Grade competition for premiership winners Old Haileybury, with Turner named at full back in the team of the year. The Demons already picked up unknown VAFA prospect Oliver Sestan in November’s rookie draft. Could it be a similar story?” I’m not sure where they got the idea that Oliver Sestan was from the VAFA - he actually played in the Goulburn Valley Under 18s and at school with Xavier College but not with their Old Collegians in the Ammos.

Demons Facebook announcing arrivals for 2023 Preseason Training. Good to see that Josh Schache is keen and hungry …

And (belatedly) the Herald Sun has confirmed in an on line thread entitled “AFL off-season: What your club’s players are up to over Christmas break” “THE BRAYSHAWS “As they usually do, Angus and Andrew Brayshaw did their 100 100m runs on Christmas Day. “The Melbourne and Fremantle stars gruelling session at Christmas have now been replicated by other players keen to get an edge on the rest of the competition”.

I don’t think he was ever “pinched” from us. Gold Coast was entitled to nominate him under the rules set down by the AFL and they validly did so. End of story.

This is the one from West Adelaide, isn’t it? In which case no rules have been broken.

Special tribute to the late Ritchie Benaud on the second day of the Boxing Day test as Australia reaches 2/222.

… and the answer is “Boak”.

Ok … fill in the blank ________ and Trengove are two names that have appeared on the playing list of Port Adelaide.

Close but no cigar.

Today’s quiz. Who wears the number 32 for Port Adelaide?

Melbourne player Troy Broadbridge passed away on this day in 2004 while on his honeymoon at the Phi Phi Islands in Thailand. He was one of an estimated 227,898 people in 14 countries who perished as a result of the Boxing Day Earthquake and subsequent tsunami in the Indian Ocean - one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. Always remembered.

Good luck to him in his rehabilitation but those Perth Demons are something else. Their colours are red and black, not red and blue.

Until about 12 months ago Chris Doerre was the draft guru of the bigfooty.com website operating there as “Knightmare”. By then, he had gone commercial and was writing for the ESPN conglomerate producing his insights into matters AFL extending beyond the drafts and attracting controversy for his views of a nature that certainly didn’t hurt his click count. Anyhow, he somehow fell foul of the powers that be at Bigfooty and now he’s still doing his thing at ESPN as well as freelancing. The name of his latest effort on YouTube is “My top 2023 AFL Draft prospects and 2 AFL Draft learnings”. I was interested to find out whether he was pushing one particular player. You live and learn.

Agreed. Sometimes you can have problems and they turn out to be good problems. If everyone’s fit, then potentially you might have a number of key defenders lining up at Casey for a game - Tomlinson, Joel Smith, Adams and both Turners. Little wonder that Corey Ellison took the punt on a move to Williamstown.

Tomahawk is known for his ability to take on the forward pocket ruck duels for the Cats and for initiating or kicking goals as a result. His strike rate is excellent and I'm not talking about the same form of striking that you're thinking about. JvR did help out in the ruck this year at Casey but the fact that he's doing it at preseason training against the likes of G & G suggests that he might be called upon to do that this year - hopefully at the higher level. I wouldn't be expecting TMac to do any ruckwork because of the history he has with his foot.

I think you’re onto something but you could have the wrong player. See my post above about the Herald Sun article written by Glenn McFarlane. The “untried player” who is practicing the craft of ruckwork against two of the AFL’s elite ruckmen is the one I think the club could have in mind for a Tomahawk role.

I’m having an early breakfast and catching up with the news and there, staring directly at me is an on line story in this morning’s Sunday Sun written by Glenn McFarlane ~ Have the Demons already solved their key forward issues? The story also appears at the bottom of page 86 in today’s print issue under the title “Van Rooyen’s time has come at the Demons”. It’s about Melbourne’s hopes that an untried talent and an injury-prone veteran can help it overcome its key-forward issues from the latter part of this year. “Track watchers have noted the solid pre-season form of Jacob van Rooyen, who is yet to play a senior game but came so close last season, and premiership forward Tom McDonald, who only managed nine games in 2022 due to injury. The Demons struggled to get bang for their buck when going forward last season, with their forward mix an endless source of debate.“ This made me wonder whether the people at the Hun are reading our reports I mean the article got the drift about our hopes that the availability of JvR and TMac for senior duty in 2023 will make a difference to Melbourne’s forward set up, but that’s nowhere near the full story unfolding in front of the eyes of our “track watchers”. Firstly, some housekeeping about fact and fiction. The article refers to JvR as a “20-year-old 191cm forward” but he’s neither. His date of birth is listed on the MFC website as 16 April 2003 which means he’s still a 19 year old and the site refers to his height in one place as 193cm and elsewhere as “[S]tanding at 194cm”. I can add to the debate by saying that from my previous observations and again on Friday at training, he’s probably a bit taller than that. At one stage, he was contesting in ruck duels against Brodie Grundy (202cm) and appeared to be giving away only a couple of inches to the Demons’ new big man. At another stage he was pitted against Harry Petty (197cm) who barely shaded him height wise. Perhaps, when the club updates its website in the new year, it might organize the players to be measured for height. In the meantime, we might be happy that the media and other clubs are labouring under a misapprehension about JvR’s vital statistics. 😀 Secondly, McFarlane has only covered part of an intriguing story that’s unfolding with regard to repairing the issues that derailed Melbourne’s premiership defence this year. At this time of year there is always the matter of pre-season preparation of the team for the year ahead and the development of tactics and strategies but this year, the big story is what the club’s ruck set up will look like with Gawn and Grundy, both leading practitioners of their craft. And based on Friday’s training session, that “untried talent” might also have a role to play in that story as well.