spirit of norm smith

Mary Fowler rocketing up the draft boards. Midfielder. Sublime skills. Beautiful left foot delivery. Courage under pressure. What a star !!!!

Mitch is a great young bloke. Loved it when the Dees gave him a chance. Showed plenty but didn’t have the final polish required. Of course we will never forget the sealer in the 2018 finals. Returned to the Dogs and again in the fringe. Bad luck with this injury. Best wishes to him in his recovery.

Trac would have to get votes v Kangas. But he’s likely to pickup too many 1s and 2s and perhaps again not the coveted 3s to win it. He went off on the last quarter v Kangas as a protective move (agree with Goodys move). Perhaps an extra goal or two for the Trac might have been enough to get umps 3 imv.

AFL website update on its Brownlow predictor 30 - Nick Daicos (Collingwood) 27 - Tim Taranto (Richmond) 26 - Lachie Neale (Brisbane) 25 - Jordan Dawson (Adelaide) 24 - Marcus Bontempelli (Western Bulldogs) 23 - Zak Butters (Port Adelaide) 23 - Christian Petracca (Melbourne)

Moir is a super talent. Simply - he takes marks. Contested marks. High marks. He kicks goals. That’s worth a lot in todays game. He’s 2022 form was too good to ignore. He kicks goals from anywhere in the forward 50. His championships were not great due to a hip injury but he’ll be managed in my view over the rest of 2023. I still think he sits in the 14-18 pick range in my view. Of course interviews and draft combine are still to come.

Lots of talent and Dees are well placed to pickup 3-4 youngsters to top up our talent pool. Whether we either upgrade by dealing to grab Reid or hold at #4 (and get access to any of Mckercher, Sanders, Duursma or Curtin), it’s going to be a good result. My update on rankings: 1-10. Harley Reid, Jed Walter (suns academy) , Daniel Curtin, Coby Mckercher, Ryley Sanders, Zane Duursma, Nick Watson, Ethan Read (suns academy), Connor O’Sullivan , Darcy Wilson 11-20 Archer Reid, Mitchell Edwards (Freo nga) , Joel Freijah , Logan Morris, Ashton Moir , Jake Rogers (suns academy) , George Stevens, Nathan Philactides, Ollie Murphy, Riley Hardeman 21-30 Koen Sanchez, Nate Caddy, Koltyn Tholstrup, Harvey Johnston, Jordan Croft (bulldogs f/son) , Cooper Simpson, Archie Roberts, Will Dawson, Harry Demattia, Caiden Cleary (swans academy) , 31-40. Clay Hall, Will McCabe (hawks F/son), Will Graham (Suns academy) , Jack Delean, Will Lorenz, Kade DelaRue, Angus Hastie, Alex Holt, Luamon Luai, Michael Rudd. 41-50. Will Patton, Jack Callinan, Koby Shipp, Caleb Windsor, Rye Penny, Billy Wilson, Aiden Odriscoll, Harvey Thomas (giants academy), Charlie Harrop, Heath Ollington.

Couldn’t agree more. Goes at 100% all the time without hesitation. Also had some nice sidesteps to evade yesterday and kicked in his right foot under pressure. Love him in the team. Right in the heat of the kitchen.

Hunter - played very well Harmes - back to Casey (please )

We are all hoping it’s not too serious. Fingers crossed. 🙏🏽🤞🙏🏽🤞🙏🏽🤞🙏🏽

It’s Fu****ked according to Petty himself. Broken foot probably so 6-7 weeks at best. That’s back for the GF if possible. Time for plan C … Grundy, Schache or BBB. now we’re F*****d

6. Viney 5. Petracca 4. Gawn 3. Rivers - some might query this but he had zero turnovers - contested and competed hard all day - ran through the lines 2. Pickett 1. Hunter apologies to Brayshaw Chandler & ANB lots of okay players who stepped up in 2nd and 3rd quarters (most were in a coma in 1st qtr and asleep in the end) Just don’t be fooled by stats. Many of some players possessions were little ineffective handballs to players under pressure (Harmesy, Gus, Hunter, JJ).

Much much much much better than Whitfield. I like the compatibility but Flower could evade and twist and then burn off opponents. Genuine goalkicker as well.

2nd ❤️Gawn to Trac to Koz BUT 🤮🤮then [censored] kicks by Kozzzy ❤️Kozzzy crumb goal ❤️Kozzzy to Petty goal ❤️Langdon pressure ANB goal ❤️chandler goal ❤️Chandler goal ❤️kozzzy twist turn twist turn left foot snap ❤️JVR goal on 50 out ✅✅JV ✅✅ but 🤮Salem 3 turnovers - half hearted 🤮north using the corridor - Dees wide and slow 🤮Bowey turnover to Larkey too casual and symbolic 🤮Harmes turnover king !! Last game today 🤮JVR TURNOVER HANDBALL JVR GET NEW FARRRRKN BOOTS - SLIPPED OVER 5 TIMES 🤮north more physical than soft Dees 🤮intercept marking Ziebell and McDonald 🤮🤮🤮🤮umps. 1-Nth throws ?? 2-Marks?? Rivers. Smith ??? 3- Centre Bounce was WAY outside the centre square 4-Trac grabbed off the ball Larkey. “Our structure through the mid is working”. Yes it is. !!!

1st postives NIL NEGATIVES 9!!! Harmes 🤬🤬slow and uncompetitive Lever 🤬🤬not respecting the opponent - two goals to Ford May to Bowey 🤮stupid kickin mistake 🤬Half hearted. Pressure nowhere. Trac. Gus. 🤮JJ horrible. fall over. Outbodied. Outpaced. Casey bound 🤮ball use in still conditions (bombs!!) 8% efficiency inside 50. 🤮turnovers - disposals efficiency 42% 🤡🤡wide and wide. Use the farkkkkn corridor 🤮Trac miss from 20 metres out Commentators- “Dees are horrible”. “Can’t find a target. Around the ground or even near goal”

Daicos already on 25-26 votes and Trac on 18-19. Trac needs 3 big games over the next month. Let’s hope he starts with today. Butters and the Bont are the other major stars in serious contention imv.

He’ll be number 1. Had an almost under 18s championship with bursts of talent shown across his rotation in mid and up forward. He’s a genuine ruck rover onballer who can play inside and outside mid. Tough and has pace. Even as a half back, he could setup play and can certainly mark the footy. He’s the number 1 no doubt.

I’ve started to see some energy that reminds us of 2021. Actually it was the willingness to run and score. We had looked strangely defensive at times. Wide and slow. The death of any positive take the corridor style. It’s now looking much better as we attack from half back. A good forward line does also help 👍🏻

Robbie was simply THE BEST. Skills. Left and right. Pace. Evasive. Determination. Marking. Goal kicking. Vision. Decision making. We had dark times through the 70s and 1st half of the 80s. It was tough. But we all had the number 2 on our jumpers and duffel coats. It was Robbie that sustained us. I’d watch the state games v SA and v WA. Robbie was outstanding. The best amongst the best. Wow. He was magic even in the company of other greats. Without doubt the best player I’ve seen in the red and the blue. That’s how good he was Peter Mckenna. Summed up Robbie in the commentary : “ Robbie Flower. He’s a great player. What a player. The Champ”.

Big day. Depending on results, we could push up to 2nd spot. Absolutely must win and win by 40+. 3 tough weeks to come with resurgent Blues, emerging Hawks and Swans in Sydney.

Strange article on bargain hunting. All these players will get drafted. Some have dropped due to their championships or by injury. Archer Reid as a ruck/forward will be in demand without doubt. Definitely Top 15 pick for me and showed bursts of ruck craft around the ground plus a role as a key forward mark and goalkicking. Bombers are most likely suitor imv Moir. Huge talent. Like others before him, he had shown such talent and his goalkicking is elite. Drifted out of top 10 thoughts but he will be picked in top 25. Crows would be his biggest fans. I absolutely like Philactides because he has elite skills, runs the line and makes smart decisions. Can easily see him on an AFL list and should be top 25-30. It’s strange he hadn’t been ranked by Twomey. Lorenz drifted as he was played across half back more than wing/midfield. Still in likely top 30 picks imv outside of academy inclusions. His left foot skill is a huge plus for recruiters although his engine needs the afl preseason. Simpson’s injury means his out of sight but I reckon JT would have him on the list. Good clean ballwinner, tough and likes to distribute out to runners. Could be in our frame for a pick in the 20s if it lasts.

My little trip down to Tassie. Interstate record this year needs improving. Hopefully starting tomorrow

From my VC v Allies write up Orlando Turner kicked the match winner , quiet all day but has burst of pace and looks like he knows where the goals are. Probably rookie pick at best. overall summary Orlando Turner is from NT under our NGA academy. Whilst he was largely quiet, in the two championship games, he showed glimpses of brilliance and goalkicking smarts to indicate he might be picked to develop as a small forward. Rookie pick likely.

A fit muscle man … JV7 👏👏👏👏

Need for two conference system again with wildcards and playoffs and other American style imported gimmicks. VFL is a pseudo east coast made up competition.

Woey going out is unlucky imv Harmesy still in (for now) is lucky JJ didn’t keep up his required standard so very vulnerable again Hibbo deserves to come back but we are already ok for defensive structure. Spargo fell over in 2 contested play events and did an undisciplined act to gift Willy a free goal. His goal from outside 50 with a 5 goal breeze behind him was good but not excellent. Didn’t do enough to warrant return to 1sts.