Elwood 3184

14 hours ago, Chelly said:

Injury List: Round 8

Blake Howes - Foot | 10-12 weeks 

Given Howes’ injury (navicular stress facture) is of the sort that could easily blow out beyond that time frame, the club might give consideration to putting him on the long term injury list to allow it entry into the midseason  draft. Tough call but how much of a season can the kid have even if he’s right to return by Round 20?

Hibberd suffered a setback but they're looking out for him to come back soon.

Round 8 Injury Report | Smith set for surgery

Saints looked really cooked in the heat and humidity of Cairns. Wonder what the effect would be on them if they had a few instances of Covid19 through the club this week?

8 minutes ago, Whispering_Jack said:

Could I ask people who want to post rumours about supposed Covid19 cases to state the source of the basis of the claims made.

Here, here … 

On 4/23/2022 at 4:56 PM, Whispering_Jack said:

The beautiful sunshine attracted me to RSEA Park, the Moorabbin HQ of the St Kilda Football Club (once the home ground of that team in the glory days of Plugger Lockett). Legend has it that they used to water the ground on the night before a game so that it would suit the Saints’ style of play and, back in the day, it truly was a smelly bogheap saturated in mud. But this afternoon, the surface was a lush, even magic carpet of green and the Sandringham Dragons put on a master class for the visiting Tasmanian Devils State Under 18s who are part of the NAB Boys League competition.

First things first - the final score was eerily familiar to any Melbourne fan - the Dragons scored 21.14.140, a score that for eternity will always be associated with 25/9/21. Tassie managed to make it to 10.8.68 so they weren’t much better than the Doggies of that day. You get the drift though - Sandy destroyed them. 

The Dragons also had a medium forward who performed his wizardry with the football, kicking some magical goals and displaying some nifty footwork to finish with six goals and a couple of behinds (one poster) on top of giving two or three away and having the occasional stint in the midfield where he also picked up a few touches. Harry Sheezel is good and will go top 10. This is probably not the last time that I provide the disclaimer about having seen him grow up from a 7-year-old junior footballer with enormous talent back then to a 17-year-old on the brink of even bigger and better things.

Now, if he wasn’t best on ground, then fellow 182cm medium forward Charlie Clarke who played half forward and kicked 7 goals would take the chocolates. He’s hard, robust, has great running patterns and is a real goer who is dangerous with ball in hand. From this day on, he will be ranked in the draft top 20 if not higher.

Midfielder and Brisbane Lions father son prospect Will Ashcroft was silky smooth and full of class in the midfield and he and Cameron McKenzie combined well to ensure that the Dragons were well on top in the clearance battles. 

The above four are all going to feature heavily in draft discussion and there are a few others in a very solid Dragon defence who will also be fancied because they certainly combined well to keep the Tassie forwards under control. Unfortunately, I was closely following the Sandy forwards (going from end to end at the start of each quarter) so I couldn’t really pick up the numbers or names of the better ones other than one Jakob Anderson who looks a really good stopper.

And that’s not all - two top agers in Hugo Hall-Kahn (4 goals) and 202cm ruckman Max Ramsden pressed their credentials for possible selection in this year’s Mid Season Draft. 

Tasmania were far less organised and nobody really stood out to me but one of their small rovers was quite nippy and kicked three goals. I discovered later that his name is Brandon Leary. Given that he’s a Tasmanian, I wonder if he’s related to former Demon, Noel Leary who played for Melbourne in the early 70s before going back home and becoming an AFL Tasmania Hall of Famer?

Summed up your Dragons perfectly WJ!

2022 NAB League Boys snapshot: Round 4

Also votes for our own Finn Emile-Brennan at the Stingrays.

20 hours ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Something we used to be really interested in and desperate to find future stars for the Dees to draft.  

But now we leave it to the Kangas, Hawks, Bombers and Pies supporters to worry about.  Now it’s merely a passing interest for the Dees. We have our stars and can look to JT to weave more magic.  Hallelujah!!! 

Disagree.

We might not need a rebuild but it’s still important for us to keep improving by restocking with future players.

We have the advantage of being able to take our time with player development because of our current depth.

Going forward a few years this is going to make an interesting topic. 

Gold Coast used what was effectively its only real draft pick (No. 5) to draft Big Mac. 

Adelaide went for Joshua Rachele with pick No. 6. Hawthorn got Josh Ward with No 6 and Josh Gibcus went to Richmond for No 9. A few others have already played for their AFL teams. Andrew has yet to play and still looks very light for AFL. Will he make it?

10 hours ago, Whispering_Jack said:

2022 NAB League Boys Team of the Week: Round 3

Our boy Finn in the BP. 

On 4/15/2022 at 5:38 PM, Whispering_Jack said:

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. 

It comes with the territory in this sort of competition. Players aren’t playing for the jumper. They are there to attract the attention of the scouts because their future careers are on the line. The smart ones however, do realise that doing “team” things is important and is taken into account in player assessments.

Surely Bedford can’t be the sub six times in a row?

The Early Top 40 from Davo-27 on bigfooty 

1. George Wardlaw - Oakleigh
2. Elijah Hewett - Swan Dist
3. Elijah Tsatas - Oakleigh
4. Harry Lemmey - West Adel
5. Will Ashcroft - Sand
6. Adam D'Aloia - WWT
7. Olivier Northam - Geel
8. Aaron Cadman - GWV
9. Anthony Munkara - NT/West Adel
10. Matthew Jefferson - Oakleigh
11. Jhye Clark - Geel
12. Jackson Broadbent - Peel
13. Harry Sheezel - Sand
14. Isaac Keeler - Nth Adel
15. Lachlan Cowan - Tas
16. Oliver Hollands - Murr
17. Kobe Ryan - West Adel
18. Kane Bevan - West Perth
19. Jedd Busslinger - East Perth
20. Ted Clohesy - Geel
21. Blake Drury - Oakleigh
22. Bailey Humphrey - Gipps
23. Charlie Clarke - Sand
24. Max Clohesy - Murr
25. Jed Hagan - East Frem
26. Max Michaelanny - Norw
27. Sam Gilbey - Clare
28. Josh Weddle - Oakleigh
29. Braden George - Murr
30. Seth Campbell - Tas
31. Paul Pascu - Cald
32. Luke Teal - Oakleigh
33. Jaspa Fletcher - Bris A
34. Mitch Szybkowski - Dand
35. Jaxon Binns - Dand
36. Brady Wright - GWV
37. Matthaes Phillipou - WWT
38. Jonti Schuback - Gipps
39. Henry Hustwaite - Dand
40. Noah Long - Bend

Jon Ralph seems to be running some form of campaign to get Ben Brown’s MRP suspension increased to 3-4 weeks. That’s ludicrous when you look at the outcome. Not normally into conspiracy theories but he is with the Herald Sun and didn’t they run a nasty little campaign against our coach in the off season? 

Does anyone know about Melbourne’s NGA players for 2022?

 I heard that we had another good NGA prospect coming through the ranks.

23 hours ago, Whispering_Jack said:

Where can we find the list?

Mitch White
James Munro
Matthew Buntine
Jack Bell
Corey Ellison
George Grey
Miles Shepherd
Roan Steele
Aiden Quigley
Luca Goonan
Riley Baldi
Josh Smith
Bryce Milford
Tyler Edwards
Jack Lonie
David Zaharakis
Reece Conca
Sam J. Reid
Callum Moore
Thomas Freeman
 

6. Christian Petracca 

5. Ben Brown 

4. Clayton Oliver 

3. Jack Viney 

2. Ed Langdon 

1. James Jordon

Jordon’s first half was better than his second.

11 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

 

Will these players be lining up tonight vs Footscray?

He  could hardly complain about the umpires, could he?

Lachie Hunter apparently not selected for the Dogs. He was an important player for them two years ago. A bit of a surprise that he’s lost favour with the selectors.

1 hour ago, Dees_In_October said:

I'm nervous!  Brisbane are good on every line and when they're on, they're on.

A win would be massive, a loss probably means we're just making up the numbers. Regardless of the outcome, I hope we can show our best, which we simply haven't yet this season. A good start is on top of my wish list.

Best of luck to Purcell and Gillard for their first games as Demons.

They looked really good in their last game albeit against mediocre opponents. But much better than us against Gold Coast a week or so before.

Hickey and Naitanui are elite and Max isn’t - well, well. I must have been dreaming during 2021.

7 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

According to everyone's favourite non MFC coach.

Geelong had too many players under an injury or illness cloud and thus the game should've been postponed until Geelong were fit and healthy.

No excuses but flummoxed Scott still wonders why prelim went ahead

“At least eight Geelong players took varying degrees of illness into the match … “

Why doesn’t the media investigate the failure of Geelong’s doctors to properly diagnose the illnesses and to act accordingly? This is a terrible no no!

6 hours ago, John Demonic said:

Jack Darling is 191 too. Hard to believe given he looks like a clumsy lumbering 200cm forward.

Then there’s Jeremy Cameron at 196cm and Jack Riewoldt at 193cm and many others in the mid 190s who can all mark the pill. It looks as if JVR can hold his own in that department and isn’t going to be pushed off the contest. However, there’s a lot more to being a well rounded KPP. Time’s on his side.

On 1/27/2022 at 9:54 AM, Whispering_Jack said:

Agreed. I really can’t see this working. 

REPORT: AFL considering top-up pool of replacement players for 2022

The AFL seems to be concerned that some clubs manage better with their second tier affiliates than others but they should be rewarded rather than making further allowances to the lazy clubs that don’t do enough for their development. 

Surely, it would be in the club’s interests to draw from a pool of players at their affiliates if the situation arises? Coaches at those clubs should be able to train their VFL players in roles so they could fit into their AFL team if necessary. The top up pool concept should only be a last resort eg if you need a ruckman or other more specialist position.

I’m wondering whether the club updates player statistics at the start of every season. Luke Jackson definitely looks bigger than when he first came to the club both in terms of weight and height. I would be surprised if JVR isn’t bigger than the 194cm he’s credited for which was his height at the start of 2020.