Freddy Fuschia

9 hours ago, monoccular said:

Do any Casey watchers know what Daw's injury was?

The Melbourne website has an article here which states -

“Majak Daw looked to be continuing his form following a best on ground display last week, kicking two first quarter goals, both from free kicks.

“But his day was cut short after quarter time, meaning the Demons had to adapt to overcome the spirited Lions”.

No explanation as to why his day was “cut short”.

Jake Lever reporting that he’s okay after rolling his ankle (twice) on Saturday night. As long as he looks after it, he should be right to go next week with the 8 day break.

Some concerns however, at Casey level. Blake Howes not selected and the rumour is Blake Howes (“stress fracture”?).

Majak Daw kicked 2 goals before coming off the ground and failing to re-appear. This is a concern because he’s really our only proper back up ruckman in the event of injury to our two ruck talls in the ones. 

Commentator on the afl site also mentioned that Dunstan was off getting his leg iced late in the game.

Losing Daw early just two weeks after Mitch Brown was felled behind play is a concern, especially after the manhandling of Ben Brown last week. 

18 minutes ago, Whispering_Jack said:

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. 

 

Oops. My bad - I must have been having a Knightmare.😀

6. Clayton Oliver 

5. Angus Brayshaw 

4. Sam Weideman 

3. Ed Langdon 

2. James Harmes 

1. Steven May

Toby Bedford not used means that he can play tomorrow. 

15 hours ago, Whispering_Jack said:

There’s been very little discussion on the net and social media about future prospects of late which, will change this weekend with the start of the 2022 NAB Boys League. It would appear that the Oakleigh Chargers are going to be one of the teams to beat again. They have been strong in recent seasons and have consistently provided high draft picks. This year, they have two of the most highly rated midfield prospects in Elijah Tsatas and George Wardlaw in their ranks. Their neighbours from Sandringham are also expected to be up there again.

Here are previews for the Oakleigh Chargers and the Sandringham Dragons from Aussie Rules Central - 2022 NAB League season preview: Oakleigh Chargers and 2022 NAB League season preview: Sandringham Dragons.

One reason why there’s less discussion is that I believe Knightmare is no longer on ESPN’s books and is keeping a low profile this year. 

Doggies streaking ahead tonight.

How much would you pay for an untried player like Mac Andrew who is presumably not going to play this year (and possibly next year)? What’s he worth?

1 hour ago, dazzledavey36 said:

 

There’s a Fraser Rosman sighting in there.

With Weideman so hot, you would think they take him off at half time and give him a half tonight.

Keep the pictures coming - especially of the newbies.

Here’s their numbers 

16. Bailey Laurie
19. Fraser Rosman
21. Jacob Van Rooyen 
22. Blake Howes
27. Luke Dunstan
34. Deakyn Smith
40. Taj Woewodin 
41. Judd McVee
42. Daniel Turner 
45. Andy Moniz-Wakefield
50. Ben Brown

1 hour ago, Wells 11 said:

I’m so glad our recruits don’t come in under that kind of pressure anymore!  how many careers were ruined that way. I truly wish him well but can see no way, with that build, playing ruck he will impact the comp in 2022. Nor should he remotely be expected to.

Doubt whether this is the Suns’ expectation.

It’s just one pundit giving an opinion based on nothing other than that he was selected at 5 in the national draft. Like many others, it’s doubtful whether he’s ever seen him play.

4 hours ago, Whispering_Jack said:That’s it - I’m done with the Suns.

Careful - we play them in round 2 this year.

23 hours ago, Whispering_Jack said:

I’m up on the Gold Coast and had dinner in a restaurant last night where there was a table of three young blokes, one of them, the Suns’ gun recruit Mac Andrew. I’m no expert but he doesn’t look as if he’s put on any weight. 😀 But we were in a pasta joint so that’s a start!

How’s he doing up there?

2 hours ago, Whispering_Jack said:

Firstly, kudos to Tegan Cunningham on her design of this year’s MFC AFLW Pride guernsey.  I thought it looked not too overstated - just right.  

I found it hard to read the numbers on tv. Must have been harder at the ground.

On 1/21/2022 at 6:29 PM, dazzledavey36 said:

I bumped into Daniel Turner at our local gym during the off season and had a good chat to him about his stint so far in the AFL system and the September experience. 

I was also blown away by how incredibly fit he was. He'd already lost all his puppy fat and looked as lean as I had seen. He said he got a reality check with just how professional you have to be off field including your diet. Stark different compared to his 'tradie diet' as an apprentice plumber prior to being drafted.

He was doing his running program up here with Charlie Spargo who is an absolute pro when it comes to off field training standards. 

His older brother has recently signed at our footy club. Looking forward to getting some good updates off him.

I hope he gets a game next year.

 

There was very little known of Turner when he was drafted late in last year’s mid-season draft. One unconfirmed report said that he started last year at 191cm but was closer to 194cm when selected in June. 

@dazzledavey36- could you please follow up his height and the all-important nickname “Disco”? Do they have discos in your neck of the woods?

24 minutes ago, Whispering_Jack said:

He was a truly wonderful gentleman.

Friendly and always willing to get into a conversation about footy. I remember him once at Trevor Barker Oval Beach Road Sandringham when Melbourne was still affiliated with the Zebras. I got there early and we were watching this gangly young ruckman, Stefan Martin who had come down to play VFL after a year with Old Haileybury.

Scotty was fascinated by the fact that Martin had scored a 99.75 in his VCE and we discussed why someone with those qualifications would want to play in the VFL ressies.

He was great company for a while before wandering off into the rooms to get a scoop that would enable him to come up with another one of his punchlines. A real character.

Condolences to his family.

That would have been about 15 years ago. Hard to believe that Stef’s still playing all of those years later.

The only thing is that in some cases, the talent within the new category of contingency players would be fairly thin. If you take the Casey Demons as an example where the MFC had a good year injury wise, there were some occasions last year when there were barely half a dozen VFL affiliates in their side and some of them might have spent less than 50% time on ground in games. 

9 minutes ago, faultydet said:

The AFL should be paying for these pointless academies if this is the case.

I think they do subsidize them to an extent but I’m not convinced it’s worth it when any player in your NGA can be taken without a right to bid against a nomination made in the top 40.

2 hours ago, Deefiant said:

Not sure if it's been announced but the AFL squad list has been updated with numbers. 

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/teams/afl 

Just need to update the player pictures. 

Yes. It would seem that “health and safety protocols” will be a thing for the AFLW season and possibly going into the AFL season unless things with Omnicron can stabilize quickly. This could make 2022 a bit of a crap shoot.

Great reports guys. Comforting to know we have great depth and can readily replace all bar a few players (we know who they are) in the event of injury. 

4 hours ago, mauriesy said:

Reading some of Knightmare's rankings on previous drafts, he never seems to like taking risks. He is not alone in that regard. And he is a pundit, not an experienced recruiter with access to a lot more information.

So a large majority of his top dozen or so picks in every draft are midfielders. He hardly ever sees a key position player, ruckman or small forward as worthy of top-10. Maybe he thinks of Brownlow medal votes, or he's been burnt by previous experience, as we all have. 

Hence he thought Jackson at 3 and Pickett at 12 were "reaches". He thought Green would be a far better pick than Jackson, and preferred Weightman over Pickett, listing "marking superiority" as a reason.

The problem with never taking risks is that you are always "safe". Being "safe" can mean that you miss out of the players that will make a dynamic difference to your side, if the other building blocks (e.g. power midfielders) are well in place.

Well, if memory serves me correctly, he swooned about one ruck/KPP last year and probably thinks he was vindicated when that player was picked at 5. Wonder if that bloke’s training the house down at Carrara and whether, like Dogga, he’ll be a premiership ruckman by the end of his second season on an AFL list?

20 hours ago, The Jackson 6 said:

Possible Knightmare has never actually seen him play… wouldn’t be the first time he’s had an opinion on a player he’s never seen

Ha ha Knightmare. Wasn’t he the one who argued that Luke Jackson didn’t deserve to be picked as high as number 3 in his draft?

😀

Ready for a big last quarter.