durango

Joel Smith and Corey Maynard were not a father son selections because Peter and Shaun played too few games for the MFC otherwise Brayden would have been a Father Son selection.

I am amazed that Josh Cripps is not on that list and Leak Alleer is that low.

Bob Johnson Jr was also a Father Son selection in the 1950's he played in 5 premierships 1955-1960 left to play in 1962 for East Fremantle in WA and won a premiership in 1965 with East Fremantle. Later he became Captian Coach of Oakleigh in the VFA.

The only 3 premiership players in the list 2019 draft.

If JT team thinks that he is the best available at our pick then we go for him, otherwise we go with the best available whether he is a mid or KP player. We are the premiers and we can take development time with our selections and don't have to throw the young players to the wolves before they are ready a la Jack Watts. Goodwin, Yze and Williams have time to develop players because there is no desperation to win a premiership. The key to winning more premierships is make sure that the players are not selfish, complacent and strive to get better still, plus luck with injuries. I looked at the AFL new player limits 42 + 2 B rookies which will be a disaster if teams have lots of injuries, the Western Bulldogs used the most players last year 41 which means player development will be a premium for clubs. I remember 1981 at the MFC the team used close to 46 players for the season it got so bad that the reserves fielded 21 players + a topup person signed on the day of the match.

Players when they get to the end of their careers want to play in a premiership team because the bond lasts forever and it is a connection with the club for a life time. Players like Jetta and Jones who are now retired, were at the club but did not play can at least look back at their careers and say they contributed to the premiership during the season. There are players who chase premiership and have bad luck to go to the wrong club or expect the team they go to is in the premiership window and for one reason or another they don't get the premiership they craved. Look at the MFC players like Trent Rivers, Luke Jackson, Kysaiah Pickett, Tom Sparrow, Harrison Petty and James Jordan have played less than 50 games whilst Lynden Dunn had played 198 games and never played in a final let alone a premiership. Then you have Ben Brown who crossed from NM to the MFC in hope of finals and ended up with a premiership. Wayne Treloer played for GWS then crossed to the Magpies believing their list was better than Richmond and they won 3. Then was dumped by the Magpies end up going to premiership hopeful and favourites until round 20 of 2021 for the premiership.

Most people look at this draft and try to guess what JT is thinking but we have yet to see what Bailey Laurie and Fraser Rosman can do because of the limited opportunities in 2021 other than training and development programs so if we get 3-4 players thru the draft we will probably have 5-6 players virtually new to put pressure on the existing 36. Players like Oscar Baker must make some development progress or will fall by the wayside in 2022.

Howe had 2 years with Roos but he did not like to play as a backman which is were Roos was playing him and Buckley convinced him he would be played as a forward at the magpies where he played for a while but was returned to the backline. He just did what some players do runaway to a new club's promises when he does not get his way.

At this stage the teams have kept some of their thoughts on who they want close to their chest so the Phamtom Draft is only guess work and listening to some of the broadcasts Cal Twomey select players on clubs needs basis rather than who is the best available.

There is an old saying 'when the going get tough the tough get going'. I guess these players must have interpreted the saying a different way where the last 'going' is replaced by 'leaving' or have a new slant on this saying 'you know it autumn when the leaves fall', they interpreted this on 'leaves fall' as 'players leave'. This is all a bit of fun but I have supported the MFC thru the good times in the 1950's and 1960's and the bad but I would never have given up on the club even at its worst points I always saw a light. We all make mistakes for Jeremy it has come to bite him on his posterior and he will never understand the term 'sticking fat' guess he will enjoy the rebuild at the Magpies and maybe he will have a good day or two.

I just looked at Tom McDonald record he has played 193 games for the MFC and Bowey has played 7 Games the irony is that Tom is 7 short of 200 whilst Bowey 193 games short of 200 but both can say they played in a premiership. I was reminded that when the channel 9 footy show was hosted by Gary Lyon he privately stated that he envyed players like Dermott Brereton who played in 5 premiership but Lyon was 3 times AA and would have given them all up for just 1 premiership.

He played very well in the finals particularly in the last 45 minutes of the Grand Final and had improved his synergy with Bayley Fritsch in the later part of the season. I think he will be even better in 2022 because he has now some understanding how the other forwards interact with him. At one stage during the GF he was playing as the CHF and not gave them a target but made the play. If you look at his involment in the Petracca goal in the 3rd quarter his kick was virtually so deep it got to the back of the pack for Pickett and Petracca to be 2 on 1 with Dunkley. Lots of people questioned whether he would come back to his pre-2020 form and could modify his game to fit into the 3 talls Demons forward line, well it was answered emphatically.

A great servant of the club and his work with indigenous players was exceptional, good luck at Collingwood.

I looked at Joel's playing record and found he has very rarely played a season without an injury. He seems to play some matches and cannot put together at least 5 games in a row without an injury problem, I guess if this keeps up we will never know how good he could be, his best seasons 2018 2020 when he played 8 and 7 games respectively out of a career total of 21 games.

In 2018 we had a relatively young side (Spargo, Neale-Bullen, Salem, Petracca, Brayshaw and Oliver were under 22) and no Bowey, Brown, Langdon, Fritsch, Petty, Lever, May, Sparrow, Jordan, Jackson, Rivers and Pickett. Also in 2018 we probably had played our GF when we won the 2 finals in the previous weeks using the crowd to help our younger players enjoy the emotional experience. West Coast had home ground advantage and were premiers after all with their key forwards doing some damage.

Bayley Fritsch has a great record to date, if he continues to get better each year who knows he may end up the greatest of all time?

Backman's job is first to stop his opponent getting the ball, then assist the other backmen and attack the ball when it is your turn to go. It is nice to get lots of possessions after you have limited your opponents output.

Well I believe he had a great season considering he played no football last year but he reminds me of Steven Smith and wears his number, yes most of the fringe players will have to maintain the form show this season or get they will loose their place to a player in better form which is why premiers are the hunted now not the hunters. Carl Lewis once said 'when your number one you have to train like your number two'.

It was deem a mark by the Umpire so whether it travelled 15 metres or less is irrelevant now but I reckon it went between 10 and 15 metres.

Watch the last quarter bursts from the half back line and when he is tackle he handballs to himself and then retrieves the ball to kick down the ground, this is called awareness of your surrounding and being ready for anything on the football field. You either have got this trait or not, Clayton has this in spades, Sparrow not so much.

Is that 5pm perth time?

In the past players like Jake Bowey were gifted games on potential because they were 1st round draft picks but this year he got his chance late in the season with good form at Casey due to injury to the incumbent and basically made the position his own on form. I think he will win another Rising Star Award next year if he continues his form from this year and maybe be in the running to be the Rising Star along with Daicos and Horne-Francis

MFC has to improve by younger players going to the next step, players like Bailey Laurie, Fraser Rosman, Oskar Baker, Kade Chandler, Deakyn Smith, Sam Weideman, James Jordan, Toby Bedford along with Jayden Hunt, Luke Dunstan, Jake Melksham, Joel Smith and Adam Tomlinson pushing for selection. If the bottom 6 players in the team don't improve or lose form they will be replaced by players who perform at Casey. Players in the team like Michael Hibberd, Tom Sparrow, Tom McDonald, Charlie Spargo, Jake Bowey and Harrison Petty have to perform to keep out others. The competition for places has never been better is the reason we improved over the season and we need players to improve to maintain the status quo. I said before the season to win a premiership you need luck with injuries and have most of your best 22 playing most games for the season and finals. For the season the Demons used 34 players with 10 players (including James Jordan ) playing 25 games, 4 players playing 24 games and 2 players playing 23 games, players like Bowey, Jones, Vandenberg, Chandler, Weideman, Tomlinson, J Smith, M Brown, Jetta and Baker played less than 7 or less games whilst the 8 others played between 12-21 games. The Bulldogs had a good run but lost Josh Bruce just before the finals. The Gaints were gutted by injury during the season and Toby Greene self distructed. The Lions lost 2 tall forwards to injury just before or during the finals. Port seems to be able to play 1 final ok but always fall in the preliminary final.

He just turned 29 so maybe he is a player Geelong should recruit. The MFC need player with a good upside and around 22-26 years of age.

His game in the Grand Final was good but I needs to get better in 2022. He needs a big pre-season training and some good practice games form just to hold his place in the 22 with competition from James Jordan and Luke Dunstan knocking at the door. If players like Bailey Laurie or Fraser Rosman get a clear run without injury or limited match practice and show massive improvement, he will be under more pressure to hold his place.