Whispering_Jack

… and the Herald Sun was quick to back it up with debutant “Clayton Clayton”.

Coburg has a debutant playing tomorrow named Dylan Thomas. I hear he’s poetry in motion.

One of my grandsons played basketball against Noah a few years ago and my son shared the scoring duties with Adem. To say that he was thrilled to be officiating in those circumstances was an understatement.

It was the Round 3, 1970 match v North Melbourne and we lost the game by 57 points (8.16.64 to 18.13.127). We had won the opening two games of the season and went into the game with some confidence. It was Ray Carr’s third game and what made it memorable to me was the fact that he kicked 7 of our 8 goals for the day. I think he kicked 6 the following week as well. Ray was a strongly built but not tall FF and he faded out after that great start. I came across him years later - he was a very good junior footy coach and also saw him occasionally on a social basis. Good bloke.

I was also at Greg Wells’ debut game but I don’t recall the number guernsey he wore. According to Demonwiki, he wore #57 when playing for Melbourne Reserves in 1968 and was upgraded to #50 in the following year whilst still with the Reserves. This is from afltables.com and it suggests that he wore #50 in his first season. What was the evidence that the change was supposed to be based upon?

For trivia fans, a list has been compiled by http://www.uselessaflstats.com.au/most-goals-on-debut-by-jumper-number/ of the the most goals on debut by jumper number. The following Melbourne players either hold or share these records — 2. Robert McKenzie (1948) 5 goals 23. Campbell Brady (1913) 5 goals — shared with Shane Fell, Sydney (1990) 25. Mark Jackson (1981) 4 goals 38. Bill Brunier (1914) and Ray Nilsson (1960) 3 goals — shared with Alan Killigrew, St Kilda (1938), Colin MacNeil, Fitzroy (1959), Leo King, Geelong (1981), Michael O’Loughlin, Sydney (1995), Shane Harvey, Essendon (2002) 44. Sean Charles (1992) 5 goals 45. Greg McDonald (1973) 3 goals — shared with Bill Hudson, St Kilda, (1942), Rod Dell, North Melbourne (1965), Sean Ralphsmith, Hawthorn (1988), Jayden Short, Richmond (2016) 50. Greg Wells (1969) 4 goals 54. Brent Heaver (1990) 5 goals Which means that when Jacob Van Rooyen makes his debut in jumper number 21, he’ll have a tough task in equaling the record of 6 goals set by West Coast’s Daniel Metropolis in 1992.

The big one on Saturday night. They’ve beaten us at our fortress on the last two occasions we’ve played them there so this qualifies as a danger game.

I spent part of Good Friday at Trevor Barker Beach Oval watching the NAB League game between Sandringham Dragons and the GWS Academy. It was a spirited affair with the scores close all day. The home side drew away late with two goals with a Giants goal on the final siren leaving them just 7 points adrift. It’s rather a pity that the NAB League has followed the lead of the VFL, VAFA and other leagues in no longer producing records with player numbers so forgive me in saying that the players who stood out to me happened to be the ones I already knew from the local junior competition. I expected Dragons’ midfielderWill Ashcroft to dominate and, after a slowish start, that’s exactly what he did with a sensational second half. He’s clean with the ball and delivers it beautifully. He’s a likely #1 draft pick and will no doubt make a decision between going to Brisbane (most likely) or the team that finishes last if they can make him a sweet enough offer. It’s unlikely that he’s going to be at Melbourne. I was part of a cheer squad for Harry Sheezel who played up forward and kicked four nice goals and could easily have finished with six. He was far too elusive for the Giants’ defenders and ran them a merry dance. He’s a medium size forward, elusive with great running patterns, is training with the Saints over the next couple of weeks and was definitely catching the eye of the AFL scouts who sat out on their deck chairs with pens and pads in hand. I noticed a few including Kelly O’Donnell. Another slippery character was Charlie Clarke who burst in and out of play causing chaos from time to time. The nature of the NAB League tends to result in players resorting to individual efforts. That comment doesn’t apply to the ones I mentioned above, but I did notice a few selfish pieces of play that will no doubt be picked up by coaches for those who might find themselves lucky enough to be drafted.

Mason Cox is 31 and looks cooked as an AFL footballer. As long as Collingwood play him in their team, especially with all the tall timber they had running around under lights last night, they will struggle to win games. They should trade him to Geelong at the end of the season.

Good to see an article about one of the Casey listed players on the MFC site. Driving the standards – Ellison’s unique journey is only starting He’s starting to look like a very handy late bloomer. Also mentions Matt Buntine as a team leader but we’ve yet to sight him wearing the colours. Presume he’s injured but I haven’t seen any reports on why he’s been out.

Thanks to the poster who tipped me off that news of Chris Doerre’s demise from ESPN is premature. He’s very much ON the books and has just issued his AFL Draft - April's Power Rankings: Father-son prospect the early favourite for pick No. 1. It’s a fair effort at first look but Elijah Tsatas is a better player than his power ranking of #10 suggests.

2022 NAB League Boys snapshot: Round 2 The big names in Ashcroft and Tsatas were on song. Wardlaw was unwell and didn’t play. Finn Emille-Brennan was good a got a vote.

Coming a week after Mitch Brown was put out of the game against Essendon and at least another week by a blow behind the play, this sounds like cruel justice to me.

Apparently not just off ESPN’s books but it would also seem that he’s no longer the golden boy at bigfooty. Pity because it was always interesting to read his draft material and opinions until he started looking for clickbait with some controversial views. He’s now doing you tube videos and stuff. Although I disagreed with some of his output, I wish him luck in the future.

The pioneer club in women’s football is up against the modern day power house. Let’s make it a double today!!!

Not a bad side with 15 AFL listers and 2 of the ins are key premiership players.

Melbourne did manage to draft an NGA player last year in Andy Moniz-Wakefield who is showing a little bit at Casey but I feel the rule that prevents clubs from matching bids on their own NGAs up to pick #40 is unreasonable and prohibitive to the investment involved in the system. Hopefully, the AFL will see the light and reconsider the situation. In the meantime, these are Rookie Me Central’s notes on Finn:- Scouting Notes: 2022 NAB League Boys – Round 1 “#13 Finn Emile-Brennan Playing out of the backline, Brennan provided plenty of spark with his aggressive ball use and confidence with ball in hand, taking on opponents and showing brilliant composure when under pressure. Emile-Brennan won some impressive ground level balls and spun out of tackles immediately, keeping his hands free to deliver to runners. The real highlight of Emile-Brennan’s game was some of his kicking, whilst some attempted long kicks went astray, his kicking at short-medium distances was superb, getting penetration on the ball to have it move quickly to his target, but having them delivered just softly enough so the kick wasn’t difficult to hold.”

Yet Mitch Brown didn’t even make it to the club’s official injury list. Let’s see if he’s selected for Saturday night’s game vs Williamstown.

Time to show what we’re made of - it’s a game against a team that’s almost on the canvas. Do we put them away or let them off the hook on their own home turf?

West Adelaide’s Tom Scully continues to create excitement in the SANFL Under 18s. The tall key forward booted six goals at the weekend. https://westadelaidefc.com.au/news/under-18s-match-report-round-2-2/ Dare I suggest …

2022 NAB League Boys snapshot: Round 1

Thanks Ivan, I have the NAB League App but it seems to be fixating on the Womens NAB even when I change the tab from NAB League Girls to NAB League Boys :). I even managed to find the previously unidentified Dragons goalkicker as Jamie Hope (who I remember from the East Brighton Vampires).

I searched high and low for details of the NAB Boys League opening round and finally found this ~ NAB League Boys 2022 One of the players highly touted as a possible #1 draft pick, George Wardlaw, kicked the first goal for the Oakleigh Chargers in their win over the Sandringham Dragons. Oakleigh Chargers 4.4.28 6.8.44 11.11.77 11.15.81 Sandringham Dragons 0.3.3 5.4.34 6.6.42 9.9.63 Goals Oakleigh Chargers Ingo Dammersmith, Blake Drury 3, Jerome Lawrence 2, Alwyn Davey, Matthew Jefferson, George Wardlaw Sandringham Dragons Lachlan Benton 3, Jamie Hope, Ollie Hotton, Lachlan Lawrence, Cameron McKenzie, Elliot Perkins, Harry Sheezel. Best Oakleigh Chargers George Wardlaw, Elijah Tsatas, Blake Drury, Player, Samuel Nehme, Alwyn Davey Sandringham Dragons Lachlan Benton, Luca Macnab, Harry Sheezel, Max Ramsden, Archie Roberts, Cameron Mackenzie

It’s our Women’s turn now. A do-or-die Preliminary Final!!’

Australia could have done with some of the reverse swing that Dawson imparted in their ODI v Pakistan last night.