Elwood 3184

Amazing to think that the National Draft is still three months away.

Our last two games have been repeat matches against teams we beat easily earlier this year. We beat North by 90 points the first time but struggled against them for half a game and won by 32 points in the end the second time. We beat Carlton by 61 to 44 the first time but they really mauled us in the first quarter and we couldn’t get over them in the end on Saturday. What’s with our slow starts and reversal of form lately? Is there reason to worry?

Jamarra Ugle-Hagan was a true #1 (I would suggest that Cadman was a specific requirement of the Giants and that Ashcroft and a couple of the other mid sized players like Sheezel, Wardlaw were rated ahead of him). It took JUH until late in his second season before he started taking off and look where he’s at in his third. We’re doing well if Jefferson follows that path but in any event, he is calling out for patience and there’s no need to rush him in early.

Kynan Brown had 30 touches and kicked a goal for the Oakleigh Chargers. He’s still going under the radar - why? Is it his disposal and decision-making?

Grundy was picked at full forward. Interesting.

Wasn’t it in the pre season practice match/simulation? Dusty got a goal after not being penalized for a blatant push in the back.

How convenient it is for Al Clarkson to return to the coaching fold this week against his old club Melbourne. Will this provide the Demons with the danger game that greets opposition clubs when there’s a change of coaches? 😀

She also called Charlie Cameron, “Charlie Curnow”.

Surprised that the injury was said to be an existing one from some time ago because he appeared to injure the wrist late in the game vs Sandringham in the week before the bye.

This game is a bit of a fork in the road event. We can either take the path that’s heading straight for a top finish or we join a large pack that could finish anywhere and perhaps even miss out on making the finals. People say it should be an easy win because Adelaide is no good away from home but it was less than a month ago that they almost beat Collingwood at the MCG. If we think we can take this lightly we have another thing coming.

Casey has a bye this week.

Doubt that he will turn out to have Jack Viney’s toughness but that doesn’t exclude him from having other attributes to make him a handy recruit for the club.

Hopefully, our shooting accuracy reaches that level on Friday.

40 years ago

Now where have I seen this before?

No luck from my mate who just emailed that OGG won and Old Trinity kicked themselves out of the game in the second quarter.

Kynan Brown is playing today for Old Geelong Grammarians in B Section VAFA. Hope to find out how he went if one of my mates ended up going to the game.

Good luck to the 13 players drafted, but none of the names are exactly jumping out of the page to excite me. None of the Casey listed (or ex-Casey/ex-MFC) players made it so with apologies for being selfish, that makes me happy that our VFL affiliate hasn’t been adversely affected. On the other hand, a lot of young men who are probably not far off the pace have again missed an opportunity to live their dreams.

2023 AFL MID-SEASON DRAFT First round 1. West Coast - Ryan Maric (Gippsland Power) 2. North Melbourne - Robert Hansen jnr (Subiaco) 3. Hawthorn - Clay Tucker (Eastern Ranges) 4. Richmond - Matt Coulthard (Glenelg) 5. Greater Western Sydney - Pass 6. Sydney - Harry Arnold (Brisbane VFL) 7. Geelong - Mitch Hardie (Woodville-West Torrens) 8. Fremantle - Ethan Stanley (Box Hill Hawks) 9. Essendon - Jaiden Hunter (Perth) 10. Western Bulldogs - Caleb Poulter (Footscray) 11. Port Adelaide - Quinton Narkle (Essendon VFL) Second round 12. Hawthorn - Brandon Ryan (Northern Bullants) 13. Richmond - James Trezise (Richmond VFL) 14. Greater Western Sydney - Pass 15. Sydney - Jack Buller (Claremont)

Of course Cerra was cleared. He had the best legal representation. Carlton is good at it.

Can’t help but feel that we should have made sure we were somehow involved in the MSD. We have a few on the list who look done and unlikely to play a part in future campaigns and should have been trying to do what Collingwood have managed with the likes of Noble and Johnson who have seamlessly come in virtually straight out of the MSD and made them a better team.

Okay but did you train on the Monday after the incident?

Or perhaps they’re happy to take 3 first round picks off our hands.

My conspiracy theory this week is that the AFL and North Melbourne conspired to ensure that they lost to the Swans to keep their chances alive of special draft assistance at the end of the year. Couldn’t happen if they won too many matches.

Apparently the indigenous name for West Coast is Boorloo. At least we know what the “loo” part stands for.