Elwood 3184

The problem in assessing yesterday’s game was the fact that both sides missed 3 or 4 top players which meant an automatic diminishing of the standard of football which was not helped by the windy conditions at an open ground. I don’t think Thebarton Oval was such a good venue and assume the Adelaide Oval is being prepared for cricket. If you’re looking for a ruck prospect, none of the ones on show yesterday would qualify IMO. Williams would be a part timer at best - like TMac or Weed. When the two states played a month ago, WA’s ruckman looked ok but nowhere near as good a prospect as Toby Conway of Geelong Falcons who is the best of the young crop and I reckon would be available in the mid 20s.

Late in the draft period the media guys usually get the top ten pretty close and then it veers away from there. Logical really because the top five or so usually stand out and the next five aren’t that far behind. It’s after then that the discrepancies occur. Often this happens with players who are difficult to categorize. Mac Andrew is one of those players because he’s so different to the usual draft prospects that we see. Have we ever seen such a raw project player feature so high in draft calculations before?

And now a challenge to J G Kennett. Grab the popcorn, sit back and enjoy.

This is how to make the most of AFL Trade Radio

If someone is most certainly top ten then you really have to be “certain”. There are 18 clubs and they all have at least 4 or 5 on their recruiting staff. Using your criteria, there might be more than 50 players who are top ten. And none of that means he still would make top 10.

It’s going to be interesting to see what Fremantle can get from GWS for Rory Lobb. If they don’t want to pay part of his wages then you would expect that they wouldn’t expect much.

DEMONS RE-SIGN A FURTHER SEVEN PLAYERS And bang! Seven players all signed up in one day including Kade Chandler.

All but gone to the Bombers according to the little paper.

Officially kicks off today but is anyone holding their breath about whether the Dees are going to be active this week? “…unless the Dees pull a left-field move we anticipate their 2021 off-season to be extremely uneventful.” AFL Trade Period: Who should your club target?

And 24 and 26 = 50, the number of our tall target now. With half that number being our centre half forward today.

Here’s an omen if there ever was one -

Can he be mentioned now?

I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for the Doggies and wouldn’t want to tease them for losing but it’s what they’re saying at St. Kilda that amuses me - dragit wrote in 2014 before St Kilda drafted Paddy McCartin at #1 ahead of Christian Petracca: Don't think I will ever recover if we take McCartin and he flops while Petracca becomes the gun that everybody is predicting. We don't want to risk taking a raging bull mid/fwd with a hip problem, but we'll take the chance on an overweight, diabetic & injury prone full forward that is 3 inches shorter than the other key forwards coming through the system. After tonight’s game Trixilver wrote: It's so creepy seeing Alan Richardson in a melbourne kit hugging Petracca with a norm smith around his neck. It was like a fever dream watching him rip that final apart.

If anything Clayton was robbed by the lightning strike the week before the Adelaide game. We were coasting ahead when it happened and I don’t think any of our players did well after the return to play. If not for the break, a fit player like Clarrie could have gone on to well over 30 possessions - as it was he finished on 28.

Ring the bell

From the Herald Sun 2021 Draft Guide. Isaac Birt Midfielder Age: 4/6/2003 Weight: 70kg Height: 181cm Club: South Adelaide/SA Stats 2021 SANFL U18 (16 games) 115 ranking points, 20.6 disposals, 5.5 intercepts, 5.1 inside-50s 2020 SANFL U18 (15 games) 62 ranking points, 14.7 disposals, 5.7 marks, 11 uncontested possessions Birt is another young Panther to catch the eye of recruiters, putting together a consistent season on a wing in the under-18s, named in his side’s best in eight of his 13 matches. The left-footer has great skills, delivers with precision inside-50 and wins the ball in the air and on the ground. Birt had 16 disposals and eight marks against WA and produced one of the SANFL under-18 competition’s best performances of the year, tallying 31 disposals, 13 contested possessions, 12 score involvements, 11 intercepts, two goals and 226 ranking points against Norwood in Round 10.

There used to be a monorail on the Gold Coast from Jupiter’s Casino across the highway to the shopping centre at Broadbeach. Last time we went there, it was gone.

On the other hand, Richmond, of all clubs would be aware of the risks involved with taking a player who’s promise lies in the far distant future. They are losing/ditching Mabior Chol who came to them as a thin, lanky project ruckman and took six years to attain the level of NQR.

This one is actually from Michael Alvaro of AFL Draft Central and promoted by Channel 7.

Does anyone know if Taj is playing Colts football tomorrow?

The Mac Andrew controversy is going to continue right through to the night of the national draft. The club has no control over where he gets picked so why fret over it?

While the club has other fish to fry at this point in time, no doubt JT and TL are working out strategies to improve the club’s draft position as happened last year. No club can afford to stand still.

Well, they won 7 games this year and didn’t finish last so they’re not a basket case 😀

So where does he go? Back to Freo where he might have burnt his bridges or to the Eagles who might not have that much call for an aging midfielder who gets the pill but doesn’t hurt you that much these days.