DeeSpencer

I think Turner could do a job on someone like Weightman, Jamie Elliott or other medium marking types. We’d probably have to give the match up on a pure speedy type like Cameron to Bowey or Rivers. Like Jetta before him, Hibbo’s been a great luxury given he can match up on the most dangerous forward be they smalls all the way up to 190cm ish marking types. If Hibbo’s injured or slowed down we might not have that luxury.

One of McKenzie or Clurey will gave to play as key backs. They have possibly the best collection of flankers in the league but question marks on their key talls at both ends. Not getting Esava as a defender might hurt them. They have Jones, Farrell and probably Sinn who would coast in to most teams as flankers/wingers which is a luxury. And can Wines, Rozee, Boak, Drew, Butters get it done in tight? Or is JHF ready to be a powerful mid?

FB: Corr Logue McDonald HB: Hall McKay Tucker C; Howe Cunnington Taylor HF: Sheezel CCJ Thomas FF: Zurhaar Larkey Ziebell Foll: Goldstein LDU Simpkin Int: Scott, Shiels, Greenwood, Stephenson I think they’ll go with far more experience to start next year. Shiels and Howe should be used to buy some time and provide mature bodies. Thats a team without Wardlaw, Phillips, Powell, Goater, Comben, Curtis and of course George. Which means they can be allowed to develop at a far more appropriate rate. Certainly very nice of the afl to give them 2 extra rookie spots to carry veterans and the extra second rounders to bring in Logue and Tucker. We had to trade for Vince and Tyson and use a list spot on Cross and others.

Key back: May, Petty, Lever, Turner, Tomlinson Medium back: Hibberd, Rivers, J Smith Small backs: Salem, Bowey Rucks: Gawn, Grundy Mids: Oliver, Petracca, Viney, Harmes, Brayshaw, Sparrow, Dunstan Wings: Langdon, Hunter, JJ Key fwd: McDonald, Brown, JVR, Schache Medium fwd: Fritsch, Melk Small fwd: Pickett, Spargo, ANB, Chandler With the extra round and a heap of games outside Melbourne it really should become more of a squad approach. Especially if we tweak the game plan and need to see how players adapt. Above is our top 32 players who should form the bulk of the best 22. The remaining 11 are first to third year kids. It will be interesting to see if any of them can crack a debut. I’m sure Howes will be a popular pick. Laurie should be pushing his case more regularly. But if there’s a role for him I’d actually put a bet on Taj Woewodin getting a game

Vikings, Eagles, Chiefs

I went to Gosch’s. The players went to Casey

He didn’t directly say that did he? Not to my ears anyway. I think more than likely 3 firsts for 4 and 22 was offered. Possibly with some swaps of 2nds and 3rds. That’s really only 2 firsts and a slight downgrade. A fair deal that doesn’t compromise our future by going all in with just 1 player.

The thing I found interesting is he averaged 16 disposals, 5 clearances and a stack of hit outs not only in 2022 but in 15 under 18 games in 2021. He took a nice step forward with marking and goal scoring in 2022 but otherwise seemed to stagnate a bit. And then there’s this quote from the SA Under 18 coach: Bangers Says - Tony Bamford's assessment of Will Verrall ”We didn’t know what was going to happen with Will because he had a really interrupted preseason with some injuries to his groins and hips which he carried through the back end of his U17 year. ”We thought he had gotten over that but as he started to come back into South Adelaide’s preseason in February last year, some signs of aggravation reared again so he had to stop training altogether and restart his rehab. ”That really hindered his ability to get on the track and get his match fitness. ”Had Will Verrall been fit and firing, on all four cylinders, like he was as a 17-year-old, we would have played both rucks at the Nationals. ”Because at his best, Will Verrall is as good as (Harry) Barnett. So (AFL) clubs are doing some work on Will Verrall now based on what he did as a 17-year-old, knowing it was at a really high level.” If 2021 was a true representation of his talent and this year he was hampered by groins and an interrupted preseason then we may have got a bargain.

Saw this and thought, I bet JVR will be in 2. Club confirms it

Do you mean something on the Punt road wing because I can’t recall seeing anything there when I went last Friday? Or do you mean the new and much larger open air pavilion on the city side, in which they’ve set up a temporary gym and more equipment than I’ve seen in previous years?

At this stage he’s Jack Watts. Doesn’t run hard enough to play wing. Doesn’t get the ball as a forward. Isn’t trusted defending down back. I think they have to pick forward or back and stick with it, and I’d pick back because his elite skill is his field kicking.

I have a sneaking suspicion Hewett might’ve been our best case result at pick 15 and the player we’d have traded up for to picks 11-13 to get ahead of the eagles. He’s such a Melbourne type player - aggressive, physical, great agility - and interest had cooled in him for a top 12 pick. Eagles were leaking interest in Jefferson, we were leaking interest in Allan. What if both sides were just trying to throw each other off the scent of their number 1 target in that range all along?

Had Sydney not done their nonsense Allan would’ve been available. Fairly safe to assume given Cal and others reporting that it would’ve come down to Allan or Barnett. I wonder if it would’ve been the Freo pick or our own to get the deal done. Guess we’ll have to wait 12 months to see where those picks end up and the talent available

We've secured multiple rounds of upgrades for Casey Fields. We secured the Gosch's Paddock oval upgrade. Personally I think we were close to getting the Olympic Park upgrade done, but the switch flipped really quickly from all out spending on Covid recovery to being far more careful with spending given the steep inflation. That impacted governments and it would've impacted our desire to borrow 10's of Millions of debt to pay for facilities too. Whilst it's disappointing it really has little impact on wins and losses. The one thing I think we should go for is ditching the idea of the women playing at Casey and making sure we have a ground that can host them either our heartland or a growth area that works for hosting our men. After seeing Brisbane's facility that has to be the aim.

20 Questions with Jason Taylor: Draft positioning: - how close was the trade up deal? - who was the target? - did they consider trading back, ie. taking the Hawks deal Jefferson: - How's his athleticism - 2km, agility, 20m sprint - Did the consistent scarcity of tall forwards play a role in his selection? - is he a late bloomer/underdeveloped as a junior? Adams - Prior to the draft on AFL media JT was very confident he'd get a good player in the 2nd round, was this the guy? - Where did he rank on his board - What injuries has he had and have they been corrected? - How's his athleticism - 2km, agility, 20m sprint Verrall - Do they like his forward game? - Did the sub rule and the ongoing likelihood of 2 rucks increase the importance of having 2 developing rucks Sestan - did they have athletic testing on him? - was this the most wild pick he's ever made? - how was his form at Xavier? - are the rumours he worked over George Wardlaw at the training session true? - why draft him rather than get him down to training for summer? Burgoyne/K. Turner - how long will they train for? - are the coaches far more involved in deciding a list spot once a player is training? General - Excluding JVR who we expect to see soon and the first year kids, who debuts first from Howes, Laurie, D Smith, Taj, AMW, McVee?

I’d argue none of Peter Wright, Harry McKay, Todd Marshall or Mabior Chol demonstrated more that rarest occasion of aggression or physicality until they were 22-23 years old. Now they are some of the best key forwards in the game. Jefferson reads the flight and attacks the ball in the air strongly, once he gets stronger that can be developed to attacking those in the way too. It would be nice if he did have a natural inclination for crunching bodies but if he works hard and is resilient there’s no reason he can’t develop that to a decent level. I’m actually more concerned he doesn’t have the athleticism, skills or height to become a really potent weapon. Given many talls are now closing in on 2m and have agility and/or pace like midfielders it’s harder going if you don’t have a weapon like that.

Trent Burgoyne: 2019 (draft year): no games due to hammy issues, rookied 2020: covid year, port didn’t play in the sanfl 2021: 5 games, averaged 6.8 disposals. Delisted 2022: played 10 matches, averaged 10.6 disposals, 2.8 tackles and kicked 2 goals He’d be a pretty bold selection based on that. Started to go in the right direction this last season but before that had 3 years of nothing

Way too early reaction: Adams - big forearms, he’ll end up a solid lad Sestan - 5 days and 1 training session in and he’s already looking leaner and more like an afl player Jefferson - not quite big buckets but he gets a lot of purchase with his fingers around that footy, good size mits Verrall - decent shoulders, probably the most developed of the young talls

As for draft rankings, it’s not exactly clear who we should’ve taken to achieve a better result. The consensus clear cut prospects were gone by our pick We probably had only a couple of options that I would’ve preferred. 1. Take the hawks trade back. Pro: draft Ryan, Burgiel or Cowan, bank an early second next year Con: the bonus 2nd rounder next year would give us such an overload of picks we’d be competing against ourselves to draft players 2. Ed Allan or Weddle Pro: athletic freaks who could provide wing or defensive mid and take the physical load off Tracc and Clarry as they age Con: both developmental prospects with limited sample size to suggest they are future afl mids I can see why they went Jefferson. Key forwards outside the top 5 picks are rarely perfect prospects and trading for them in their prime is at best incredibly expensive, at worst just not possible for small clubs.

If Bevo was coaching the Dees our spine in a few years would probably be: FF: Adams CHF: Petty CHB: Jefferson FB: JVR Theres even a chance that will be our spine with Goody coaching!

Packers, Browns, SeaHawks

I’m not saying it’s not a talented crop but it looks more on par with a regular group at the very top (if Cal’s rankings are solid) than a special crop. Compared to the super draft with the King twins, gun bigger mids in Walsh, Smith and Rozee, and some rare talent in guys like Rankine, Luko, Blakey and Thomas I don’t think it stacks up at all. We’ll have a really good hand and most likely be willing to try to get up the order. And of course more names will announce themselves as the year goes on. But this list of names looks to me like good reason that JT and co were willing to have a very strong go at getting Essendon’s pick this year.

Harley Reid GC academy tall forward ————————————— - Tassie mid who looks 25 - WA ruck with a BMI of near death - WA key defender (there’s 6 of these each year) - tiny small forward - 3 precocious medium forwards who’ll need to grow or show midfield ability to be elite prospects - 1 skinny balanced vic metro mid To quote JT ‘next year is next year’. Unless I had pick 1 or were the GC suns I wouldn’t be all that excited by this crop

Whilst there’s room for it - fixture announcements, contract extensions etc - I like that our socials haven’t descended in to a mess of bad memes and attempted edgy content. Our media content reflects our brand and the interviews with players reflect a level of trust and respect. Kudos to Ben. There was a new person taking photos out on the field at training and their outfit alone made me a little nervous. But I don’t want to judge prematurely. Teams give so little to traditional media these days (and I don’t blame them), which means the in house media are really important for how we connect with the team.

Time to start again with WERRIDEE Best 46.