spirit of norm smith

Rory Wright another excellent game today in Dragons big win. He uses the ball with great effectiveness. Clever player. Together with Dalton and Fincher, the three classy left footers were too good for the Knights. All three will get drafted and their kicking skills will transfer into an AFL environment.

Honestly. We are blessed to have Kate Hore as our AFLW Captain and leader. She won it with two goals to nail the win. Not enough superlatives. Kate is a star ⭐️💙❤️⭐️💙❤️

Hopefully we have 21 players to field a team. I think it’s now going to get very hard to compete with 6-7 regulars out and Purcell especially

Dees defeat Pies & Umpires by 4 points Brave win!! Under strength team missing 6-7 best team players and Heath out of the game Umps clearly biased … clearly!!! Kate Hore is a star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ TAYLA Harris 👏👏👏

Poor game Extremely poor umpires

Shelley Heath is out for the rest of the game, with elevated heart rate. Her rate has now been reduced to a safe level.

Kate Hore is a star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Bailey Laurie is a tough one. He’s contracted so likely he stays on. We must give him some real games. He was clearly BOG v Williamstown in the VFL final yesterday. Perhaps the pace is not the same as the AFL and that’s where he gets caught out. But he makes good decisions and is skilled on left and right foot. It’s a tough one.

Saw some of a recent Eastern under 18s games , watching young guns like Dovaston, Greeves , Xavier Taylor and Oskar Taylor. Also noted youngster Sullivan Robey. He took some nice marks as a tall forward. Good kick. Looked like a footballer. Interesting to see Cal Twomey put him in his list on other youngsters to watch Yesterday in the Eastern v Western game, Robey collected 40 possessions, 3 goals and 9 marks. I will definitely be looking at that game on the video once it’s on the App.

Any news on Verrall?

That’s much much tougher. Frankston at Frankston. Fiery local home ground. Will test Casey once the pressure comes on.

It’s crazy how effective goalkicking accurately is !!!

The Negatives 💔💔💔💔💔 Losing to the Saints after being up by 46 points at 3/4 time. It hurt. It was embarrassing. We were the LAUGHING STOCK, ridiculed. The amount of dumb moments to lead to this disaster was unbelievable. Losing so many close games. The Saints, the Pies twice, the Blues, the Giants and the Dogs. We snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. As Max Gawn said, we have to learn how to win !! The Steven May decision. 3 week suspension. 90% of the media and footy public saw this as a footy act, unavoidable in a contact sport as players compete where a ball bouncing can be unpredictable. But not the AFL and not the 30+ year magpies member Jeff Gleeson the Tribunal chair. A reasonable player can predict and react in 0.25second. If ever there was persecution and bias, this was it. Goodwin getting sacked. Yes the demise of a premiership winning coach. It hurt. Whilst I agreed that his time was up, the decision and the leaking the media again showed the club as unprofessional and without good leadership. The appointment of a new CEO. October 2024 Pert announced he will move on. The search and decision takes 6 months only then to have the ignominy of Guerra not starting for another 4/5 months until September. The whole season to have a vacant CEO. GOALKICKING. It went from the absurd to the ridiculous and it cost us games. The 7.21 v Saints in Alice Springs (1.14 after half time) was a horrendous way to lose a game. In the majority of games , the Dees inability to hurt the opposition with scoreboard impact was a key problem and hurt our chances , as well as morale. The AFL, MRO AND UMPS. It was a farcical circus for most of the year. The MRO inconsistency was clearly a problem. It often depended on the colour of your team jumper. The umpiring was shown to be terrible in so many way. From free kicks paid, or not paid to bringing the ball, the crowd became frustrated even more than ever. And finally the AFL choosing Snoop Dogg. Wow. How bad can they get !!! KICKING AND SKILLS. I’d say that alongside the Blues, Eagles and Bombers, the Dees are the worst for hitting targets and transitions the footy. At least we tried to move it quicker as the year progressed so the signs are better for game style, but missing targets or inability to kick to a forward was a horror show. A don’t think Petracca hitting a forward in 20-30+ forward50 entries. The media. The Dees were the whipping team all year. From the ridicule of the promoted “love” culture , to the lack of a CEO, to crowds, to media leaks, to the interim president to the Clarry and Trac to be trade them push !!! The fixture. Dees had a tough run but when you are in the non preferred tier of clubs, the AFL shuffles you in to suit others. Trip to Geelong. MCG games v low drawing teams like Freo, GWS, Suns. Short turnaround and interstate trips. It’s par for the course for clubs like us and we can do little to complain. probably a few more negatives ?

The POSITIVES Max Gawn. The GOAT. 8 x All Australian ruckman. Will win 2025 B&F. Another great year. Kozzzz$$y Pickett. Showcased his talent with some 5goal/20+ possession games. 40 goals. Had some high and lows . But retaining Kozzy on a long term contract was a definite winner winner. Beating the Lions at the Gabba. Absolute underdogs and it was a huge upset v the reigning premiers. The last quarter dominance showed we still had the capability to compete and beat the best. Harvey Langford. He’s our Rising Star. His composure. His decisions. His kicking. He will be a cornerstone for our midfield in the future …and … Xavier Lindsay, with a very limited preseason, showed he belonged straight away and has a huge future both as a half back/wing but eventually also in the midfield. Trac and Clarry getting back. Both had forgettable 2024 seasons and the media had them traded out. But we held them and they showed they are A grade players. Trac had a good year and it must have taken mental courage to get back after his injuries. Of course Clarry had issues to overcome too and we saw him grow and glimpses of his return to his talented best. I’m holding firm on retaining both as the new coach regimes and improves them to become elite. Dismissal of Goodwin. I mean it ended the constant speculation and media circus. Ultimately whilst it hurt to see how it ended, I agree with the decision although the timing might have been questionable. Were we spooked given the potential for Voss to be also removed? It’s never easy given Goody is our premiership coach and we respect and thank him for that. Improvement to players like Bowey and Turner. I see him as regulars going forward and part of the backline did next 5-10 years. Beating Freo to record our first win. Again another upset win when we had been kicked down and kicked again by the media. Other postives ?

Will be interested in the AFL fringe players here versus the VFL group. Laurie. Woey. Kynan. Possibly players playing for their futures.

Max Gawn 👏👏💙❤️🏆 Not enough media discussion on Max Gawn’s achievement… 8 X All Australian team. He’s a 33yo ruckman fighting for just one spot in the team. Finished top 5 in the AFL Coaches Association award. GOAT AFL RUCKMAN 🐐.

#44 LATRELLE PICKETT. let’s go !!! 👏👏

@Whispering_Jack thanks. I had a look at Eastern V Western last night. Marked down number 28 for the Jets … 16yo Jake Miller. 6ft4in big key forward. Worked up and down with good footy iq. Strong mark. Good left foot. Kicked 3 goals from 7 marks. Had a look at the league stats. Has now kicked 12 goals from his 5 games and averages 7 marks per game. A bit more digging and found out he was captain of Vic metro under 16s and all Australian under 16 full forward. Dees might want to keep round 1 pick for 2026. He looks a ripper as a FF/CHF type.

10 players out this week … many are already long term or season ending … only Colvin might return for round 5… so it’s 22 players to choose from this week … lots of rookies getting their chances straight up… 2 train on players will be added to the emergencies … and this is only round 3!!! Ex AFLW magpie player Sophie Casey coming out of retirement to support the Dees as an emergency … this is desperate times already

That’s 10 unavailable. I believe 2 “top up train on” players are included in the emergencies for this weeks game.

Hardie ??? Captain … Deakyn Smith ???

afl.com.auCal Twomey's Phantom Form Guide: Top draft prospects' Aug...AFL.com.au's draft guru Cal Twomey delivers his second Phantom Form Guide ahead of the 2025 Telstra AFL DraftCal has updated his top 30 and some of the earlier players who I thought might drop down to the second round & be available are now being uplifted into the top 30. If the Dees trade to get into the first round, there remains good high quality youngsters. Whilst many are querying the strength of this draft pool, which I tend to agree, I see this as due to the heavily compromised nature with around 18 of the top 50 likely types being pre nominated through father son or academy. I still think clubs can get good well prepared youngsters in the 2nd round. Outside the CAL TWOMEY “current top 30”, some good youngsters are available although again it might involve bidding on prenominated players Outside this top 30 includes Noah Chamberlin Tall mid/half back (*academy Sydney) Fred Rodriguez WA midfield Lachlan Carmichael(**acdemy Sydney) halfback/quarterback Rory Wright. Vic. Gun midfielder👍🏻 Cody Curtin WA Key fwd/ruck Ryder Corrigan (**academy Giants) inside midfield Koby Coulson (* Suns academy)👍🏻 midfielder Harry Kyle. (*Swans academy ) qtrback/half back Jack Dalton VIC Small midfielder Blake Oudshoorn-Bennier SA inside mid 👍🏻 Felix Kneipp VIC small defender/mid👍🏻

@WERRIDEE out - JVR??? 😭😭😭 Kemp ?? At full forward 😭😭😭

I said we should acquire Derksen in a trade deal … I didn’t say a swap of May and Derksen.

Ok Max v2 … let’s talk