Pink Freud

Insights into the 2025 AFL Draft: Rising Stars and Key Strategies

Yes … it’s him Stingrays win double header

I came across a poster on bigfooty who I think also posts here GoodoilBartul who has taken a swipe at Melbourne’s drafting and given it his lowest grade. This was partly based on his assessment of XL as follows - “I'm not a huge fan of the pick at a basic level. He's a very good player bursting from stoppage but I worry about his distribution and ability to stand up in the heat of the contest as an inside mid and think his play as a free-wheeling player is over-rated. Happy to be proven wrong, but the Dees could be left with a mediocre receiver type or an inside mid who is too slight for the role.” This runs counter to everything I saw of him in the National Championships, his disposal was neat, he attacked the ball strongly, got plenty of contested ball and in the deciding game of the series, there was no sign that he shirked any issues. His first quarter was superb. Any thoughts?

Not what I heard from people closely involved in negotiations. I’ve heard the contrary which I suppose just goes to show that people looking at things, sometimes see them from the perspective of their own agendas.

Kennedy and Owies would both be worthwhile options if not too expensive but I wouldn’t touch Lewis Young - not a clean ball handler. We might also be well advised to move on a couple of players who are likely to be list cloggers to make way for them.

So Gale was in the seat for 7 years and his strategic plan had been written 6 years earlier when this review was carried out. Did Caroline Wilson express dismay at the time?

During the 2023 preseason, when Jack Ginnivan was with Collingwood in Torquay, it was reported that he was busted taking illicit substances in a hotel bathroom. This cost him a two-game ban. He returned to play in the Pies’ premiership but then requested a trade to Hawthorn and people were saying it was win for the Pies’ culture. Look who’s playing in the finals this year and who’s not. .

Demons move up the ladder to ninth without a sweat.

My theory is they picked Petty because they didn’t know how to spell Faller … Fuller … Fullarton

Looks like they’re looking to give away you know who’s junper number.

No - he’s eligible in the 2024 draft.

Oakleigh Chargers had a comfortable 33 point win against Eastern Ranges and Noah Yze had a productive game with 23 touches, 2 marks and 4 tackles. He’s getting it together at last after a slowish start. I believe that he’s a likely rookie draft pick and since he wasn’t considered for the state side in the national championships, I assume that we won’t be challenged by any of the other clubs.

6 Rivers 5 Windsor 4 van Rooyen 3 Langdon 2 Pickett 1 Viney

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

To their credit, we had them on the ropes but they didn’t give up. We need to do better next week.

They always take one or two emergencies up in these cases and in view of the five day break it would be wise to take all three up there and rest them in case they’re required for the Gather Round game. This is especially so after the embarrassing fiasco last year when Melbourne travelled across the Nullarbor to play in Perth, flew back to Melbourne and then to Adelaide with disastrous results.

Big if. Unless he has an outstanding season, Mentha is likely to miss on top 40 because of his size. Look at Kynan Brown - he was one of Vic Metro’s best in the national championships and was very good in the Coates Boys League but nobody tried to draft him.

Significant move at the Doggies James Harms out Oskar Baker in Make of that what you will!

It was not so long ago that we were being feted for our accuracy in front of goal - The stats behind Melbourne’s “freakish” accuracy in front of goal in 2023. After Rounds 1 to 7, the Demons were “ranked first for goals kicked in the competition with 118, but stunningly they’re dead last in 18th for behinds kicked with 61”. That’s a shooting accuracy percentage of 65.9. We were still ahead of the game slightly over Rounds 8 to 10 when we scored 39 goals 35 behinds (percentage = 52.7). However, since then we’ve gone 26 goals 43 behinds for a shooting accuracy of 37.7. A massive decline but hopefully our coaches are saying “let’s work on it and not let it get into our heads”. Accuracy is often one of those swings and roundabouts things - we need to get it back on track for our next game against the Cats.

One bloke who you have to feel a bit sorry for is Blake Howes who is out there at Casey putting his hand up nearly every week for a game and he just can’t crack it for a long awaited debut. I guess you could say much the same for Taj Woewoedin. It’s hard breaking into this team.

8 point game and if we win they will be the best ranked team we’ve beaten

Nothing personal against Junior Rioli but I was a little peeved that he copped a two week suspension (reduced from 3) at the Tribunal the other night. How could they have applied the same punishment in a situation where a player caused an opponent to be concussed and miss at least the following week to one where his club gives him the all clear?

The slipperiness was due to the state of the ground after a heavy downpour on the night before the game. And yes it was humid during the course of the game.

Expect Jefferson to have a big post season at the end of the year and return bigger and stronger and near AFL ready. As it is, he’s the leading goalkicker at Casey so far this year. Ollie Sestan should look different as well after a pre season.

Especially after 46 possessions the week before and no promotion.