Freddy Fuschia

Just in case people are wondering why there hasn’t been much in the news about the AFL Draft Combine, it’s because the first two days were taken up with interviews and medicals. The actual athletic testing is today.

There are other key position forwards available who would be in the 10 - 20 range if that’s where we want to go. Jetterson, Lemmey, Keeler or Gruzewski who could all turn out as good as or better than Cadman. No need to fret if GWS nab him with the 2nd or 3rd pick.

No, he’s not a slightly better version of Jimmy Munro. It’s Knightmare being Knightmare - he likes pushing forward mature age footballers and hyping up players who are NQR. His October Power top 20 rankings he’s included Casey Voss (son of Michael) who he’s been trying to get drafted for about 4 years without a sniff and he’s also pushing Port Melbourne’s Ethan Phillips. Neither will ever make it.

Who?

Not top 20 anyway.

He’s quick.

I hope Yze gets a senior coaching gig but a word of advice, stay away from the hangar.

Finn played well in a badly beaten up side last night in the NAB League GF. His stats were 14 kicks, 3 handballs which was one disposal less than the best for the Stingrays (Jaxon Binns) and strangely enough, the most kicks. He disposes of the ball very nicely and could do with a couple of pre seasons at AFL level, possibly as a rookie.

Great start from the Dragons leading 25 - 0 in the first quarter.

More hurt than anything else.

Absolutely loved the book. So much to remember.

I wonder what our injury list would have looked like immediately after Friday night’s game?

From memory, Callow was one of Knightmare’s big favourites but he missed out altogether in his draft year and was finally selected by the Hawks in the mid season draft of 2021. Was there a problem with him that led to him being overlooked by every club in 2020 and why was he discarded at the age of 20?

Thanks for a great read. I think we can expect 8 out of those 9 young players (Rosman out with concussion) to take part in the VFL Grand Final on Sunday. A great experience for them and may it hold them in good stead for the future.

It stands to reason that the clubs with the more experienced lists will also rank higher in the above list but we are definitely travelling okay at the moment as far as injuries are concerned.

Please tell me they're still not loading?

I’m guessing that we’re done with loading for this year.

I agree that while country zoning was a big help if the zone was productive, it was clubs like Carlton, Richmond and North who also recruited well from interstate and from other clubs who prospered the most. At the end of the day, it was still about the clubs that had the most professional approach to recruiting that won out - we were well behind.

Point is that is he considered draftable by AFL clubs? You only get invited to these combines if a certain number of clubs are interested.

Apologies - so the Suns had him in their best 6 in Round 3 in a 10 goal defeat. The competition is into Round 19. How many votes do you think he’ll get in the Liston Medal?

You make me laugh too. He was not named once in the best players in their reserves and you think that's satisfactory for a top 5 draft pick? His performances are not even on par with Casey's Corey Ellison who isn't even AFL listed.

Really? You're the one who's been all over the shop here. I expect a number 5 draft pick in his first season to get in his team's best players a few times if he's playing in the ressies to justify a place in the ones - wouldn't you? How many times has he done that?

Yeah nah! I was quoting the views of officials who recruited him. Good luck to him but check out how he’s been going in the Gold Coast Reserves. This is how he went last week’s game against the Brisbane Reserves.

Our old friend Knightmare having a nightmare. This hasn’t aged well -

Because of the fact that he was drafted during the pandemic with very little football behind him in his draft year and then again in his first year on the list, Rosman didn’t get enough game time to show what he’s made of and he’s still very much a work in progress. Such players deserve time and patience and I think he’ll get there.