spirit of norm smith

MFC. Pert. Green. You must put your “kahunas” on the line. The AFL needs to recognise the multi cultural pathways to include Polynesian origins. Melbourne Storm pathways shows 30/32 kids in their under 16s/under 18s are of Polynesian background. Yet AFL is failing in that cultural group and you fail to recognise the role model and development benefits of this ethnicity. AFL created academies for strong Northern state clubs like Swans, Giants and Lions. 3 of the top 5 clubs. Yet restrictions on other pathways for Melbourne based clubs. Dees need to beat the war drums to get Polynesian kids included under NGA. Not just for this kid but for others to start to come through.

Dragons lead easily from start to end. Clearly the guns Ashcroft and Marshall were equal BOG in today’s GF. Marshall showed he’s definitely a round 1 draft pick and the Lions are blessed to get both for 2025 and beyond. Armstrong impressed in bursts. Top 12-13 ranking confirmed for him. I really liked Harry Oliver’s game. Solid. Composed. Brave. Classy left footer. Mitch Kirkwood-Scott across half back also impressed. Great kick. Setup several rebound attacks. Captains Haileybury and has leadership. He’s just 178cms so that’s hard to judge where clubs could place him. Ollie Hannaford clearly best for Rebels and will have impressed recruiters.

Ashcroft & Marshall !!! Lions are blessed. Especially Ashcroft .Three goals and so classy. Hannaford impressive and moving up draft boards.

1/2 time. Dragons. 69. Rebels 14. Too many guns for Dragons Marshall. Sulzberger. Ashcroft. Again too good. Ashcroft was quieter that qtr but his goal from the boundary showed his skill. Oliver excelled as did Kirkwood-Scott and Bater across defence. For the overwhelmed Rebels, Hannaford was very good and Ough trying hard.

Burmeister. Special for rebels 2nd !!! 👍🏻

Bang. Ollie Hannaford. Rebels first. Kicked it 55/60 metres👏👏 Dragons 57. Rebels 8

1/4 time. Dragons. 37. Rebels. 0. Ashcroft. Marshall. Sulzberger. Reid. Dominant. Marshall especially was agile and competed hard. Snagged 2 goals. Sandy defence was rock solid. GWVs Ough and Unwin trying hard.

Given Lions have now made to preliminary week, their 1st pick “live” would be 15 (lose prelim ) or 17 (lose GF) or 18 (win premiership). in this range, are players like Jobe Shanahan - Bendigo. key position forward. Cooper Hynes - Dandenong. Tall mid. Alix Tauru - Gippsland. tall fwd/back Bo Allan - WA. Mid Joe Berry - Murray. HFF/mid Tom Gross - Oakleigh. Mid. Alex Dodson- SA . Ruck

@picket fence“Grundy was sensational in the Ruck“ We must have watched a different game. He just probably broke even with Sweet. Shaded for hitouts. Gave away 6 free kicks where Sweet was too strong for him. Zero contested marks. Grundy was ok.

@Whispering_Jack thanks. Dragons should win and by 5+ goals. Very talented lineup. Numerous stars in midfield, attack and defence. Trainor out but Dragons can cover him. Faulk and Hannaford will need to kick a bag for the Rebels to get even close imv. It’s unfortunate that Lalor is injured as it would have been interesting with him in the lineup.

Suggest rumours only … perhaps by blues list management 🤣🤣

Draft 2023… started with 6, 14,27,35,42,46 Swans secured Grundy with selection 46 in the 2023 AFL Draft (MFC used in Tom Fullerton trade) and a future second round pick. Demons secured the No.11 pick in exchange for picks No.14, No.27 and No.35, which went to the Suns to help them pay for academy players . (We got Thtolstrup instead of Darcy Wilson). That was interesting business. got 6,11,42 got 6 Windsor, 11 Throlstrup 42 was passed. Turned 5 draft picks between 14,27,35,42,46 into Throlstrup and Fullarton. Wow 😤🤮🤯 do we trust Tim Lamb etc again !!! FFS

Swans. Heeney. Mills. Gulden. Blakey. Campbell. (Cleary) Lions. Ashcroft x2, Fletcher, Coleman , Andrews

Swans had 10 better players last night than JJ and Grundy. But I agree they are pivotal to their overall team. JJ as a tagger and Grundy in the ruck. Grundy and Sweet broke even imv. Butters & Rozee won the footy but didn’t lower than eyes kicking inside fwd50 (aka MFC style) so their impact was less.

Boak. Playing well but … 7 turnovers. 5 swans goals. 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

Boak turnovers again. Costly. Game over ???

Both having quiet nights. Blakey. Heeney. Gulden. Too much run for port.

Langford playing style is Bont like. He is good overhead. Creative handball. Long left foot kick. Can kick a nice goal. He is good at contested footy and in the tackle. Though I watched him in the last games v power and v dragons and strangely he only had one tackle. He seemed slow across more mobile mids which was strange. Still he’s definitely top 5 imv.

45 for Daniel is terrible business. He’s declining. Short and slow !!! On far too many $$$ as well !!!

Cannot believe after this year from MFC AND CASEY that we are only moving on Schache & Hore as the only delistings. Tim Lamb deals and some extensions for others is puzzling.

Only 6 likely list places out at the moment. Brayshaw (med ret), BBB (ret) , ANB (going to Crow-ville), JS29, Schache and Tomlinson (UFA). ? one more year … Hore?? Feel for him given injury hit him and led to being delisted, and it might happen all over again ————————————————- The one more year club… ANW, KBrown, Verrall, Sestan, Billings, Fullarton, Spargo, Woey jnr, Kentfield, Tmcd*, Melksham*, Hunter* (could be high turnover at end of 2025) The two more years club … Jefferson, Adams, Laurie, McAdam (contracted to 2026) & S.Goodwin Hope Dees put through two and three year extensions for May, Howes and McVee in the early part of next year.

Damo the 💩💩💩 IF ... Brand Petracca has hated the criticism directed its way in recent weeks ... THEN ... choosing, again, to place Brand Petracca ahead of Demon Petracca certainly won't make the criticism disappear. This time he's off to an overseas training camp run by an energy drink company private sponsor, and will miss the Dees' best and fairest count. Once again, I am aware and respectful of the severe mental and physical damage he has suffered this season. But I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have missed the B&F if he was a chance to win it. And he could've made the arrangements to leave for the energy drink private sponsor engagement the day after the function.

Certainly not on our list … but maybe Casey VFL can offer him to be the permanent captain/coach of Casey … Carl Ditterich style 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤔

Agree. Only Chandler and ANB are effective tacklers in forward half. And we are losing ANB. Fritsch, Petty, JVR all were lacking in tackling pressure in 2024. Mcadam was horrendous in his brief appearances.

Ahead of round 4 versus Freo. DEFINITELY CURSED THIS YEAR !!! 4. Paxy Paxman Injury: Foot. EST Return: 1 - 2 Weeks 43. Jemma Rigoni Injury: Groin Est. Return: 1 - 2 weeks 28. Saraid Taylor Injury: Calf. Est Return: 2 - 3 Weeks —————————— 15. Lauren Pearce Injury: Wrist. Est Return: 5weeks/ out for season 2. Olivia Purcell Injury: Face. ESTReturn: TBC/out for season 7. Tayla Harris Injury:Shoulder Est. Return: out for Season 25. Jacinta Hose Injury: Knee. EST Return: out for Season 16. Grace Beasley Injury: Knee Est. Return: out for Season 21. Aimee Mackin Injury: Knee. est Return: out for Season