The Great Pretender

Essendon's Conor McKenna has retired, effective immediately. It was thanks to him that Melbourne’s fortunes started going off the rails in the early part of the season. We missed that game only one week after the resumption and we had a flat start the following week against Geelong. Perhaps, if McKenna hadn’t tested positive we might have had two extra wins plus a week’s respite by way of a bye around this time of year which might have made all the difference?

6. Jack Viney 5. Christian Petracca 4. Bayley Fritsch 3. Max Gawn 2. Clayton Oliver 1. Trent Rivers

Thanks - notice it was just put up now.

Two ruckmen - one the skipper, the other our first rising star in 4 years - under an injury cloud. Supporters concerned. Any danger of a word from the MFC?

I hope our players were taking note of how the Dogs frustrated the Giants tonight.

6. Max Gawn 5. Christian Petracca 4. Clayton Oliver 3. Trent Rivers 2. Christian Salem 1. Ed Langdon

If Jack Viney isn’t leader after round 1, I would be very surprised.

"Joel Jeffrey (Gold Coast Suns) – Linked to the club via NT Brodie Lake (Gold Coast Suns) – Linked to the club via NT" Two players in one year via NT - is this the zone we lost when the AFL gave concessions to Gold Coast last year? Did we ever get compensation?

I have been more than somewhat disappointed that the club hasn’t pursued this avenue in recent times after we were initially the front runner in terms of recruiting players from the Gaelic game and had so much early success with Sean Wight and Jimmy Stynes. I’m pleased therefore to read that we had someone in Dublin for the Combine. I think it’s definitely worth a crack and we have two Cat B vacancies so why not?

2019/20 AFLW off-season review: Melbourne

No - we have 5 vacancies (plus room for 2 Category B Rookies*) Primary list 1. Oskar Baker 2. Toby Bedford 3. Angus Brayshaw 4. Bayley Fritsch 5. Max Gawn 6. Mitch Hannan 7. James Harmes 8. Michael Hibberd 9. Marty Hore 10. Jayden Hunt 11. Neville Jetta 12. Nathan Jones 13. James Jordan 14. Kade Kolodjiashnij 15. Ed Langdon 16. Jake Lever 17. Oscar McDonald 18. Tom McDonald 19. Steven May 20. Jake Melksham 21. Alex Neal-Bullen 22. Aaron Nietschke 23. Clayton Oliver 24. Christian Petracca 25. Harrison Petty 26. Braydon Preuss 27. Christian Salem 28. Charlie Spargo 29. Joel Smith 30. Tom Sparrow 31. Adam Tomlinson 32. Aaron vandenBerg 33. Jack Viney 34. Josh Wagner 35. Sam Weideman 36. - 37. - 38. - 39. - 40. - Category A Rookies 1. Kade Chandler 2. Kyle Dunkley 3. Jay Lockhart 4. Corey Wagner Category B Rookies 1. Austin Bradtke 2. - 3. - * these are subject to special criteria for selection that are outside the drafting rules

I think it’s already been explained elsewhere but we have 5 vacancies so based on your scenario, there would only be one vacancy left if we took 3 & 8, Murray as a DFA and Bennell as a SSP Rookie. BTW, if this happens, the chances of us also pursuing Jack Martin much further are diminished.

Lot of water to flow under the bridge.

I don’t believe that Weightman is in the next 6.

Sometimes, the experts just get it wrong. Worpel was considered a solid footballer as a 16 to 18 year old but the perception out there was that he was too slow. As a result, he fell out of favour but he’s worked very hard under Clarkson and has been a real achiever. Charlie Spargo was regarded very highly as a 16 year old but his problem was that he never grew. That, together, with his injury woes in his draft year, saw his stocks fall in his draft. Such things are likely to happen over again as time goes by no matter how much money and how many personnel the clubs employ to do their recruiting.

Suggest you read WJ’s post #4 above together with the NTAFL website he quoted. This shows that we definitely had the Darwin zone.

This is from 2017 - Berwick’s Kobi George and Narre Warren’s Deakyn Smith have been selected in the Flying Boomerangs More recently from the Stingrays site - Kobi George (Berwick): “Kobi is an indigenous player who’s part of Melbourne’s Next Generation Academy. His ball control and ability to sidestep is exceptional and he’s very quick off the mark, but we just need to get his endurance levels up a bit. He could be one to watch.”

I hear that the Gold Coast Suns have now been awarded Darwin as part of its Academy Zone which is fair enough. I was never a fan of losing a home game, having to go up there and then inevitably losing the week after as well. But does the MFC get another area by way of compensation for the loss of this zone or have we been done over in yet another AFL rort?

Dockers will make a big play to get Angus Brayshaw in exchange for Langdon. Idea is to reunite the brothers (the WCE brother to be delisted and also picked up by them).

Ben King will come back home at the end of 2020 when his contract expires and he will go to St Kilda.

But why a 173cm midget when we already have a few on our list?

Has he passed a fitness test with any club yet?

Jon Ralph reckons he “would take Sam Frost over Adam Tomlinson” so what’s it all about?

Why should GCS be given a priority pick when they’re going to get a trade with the Blues for a quality player like Jack Martin who should be netting them a first round pick but will probably cost a second rounder? They already have plenty of first rounders including one who has yet to play at all. First round picks aren’t going to help them anyway if they can’t be nurtured and want to leave at the first possible opportunity.

I don’t think so