spirit of norm smith

Squad 42. 23 seniors. Missing - Hore, Spargo, Lever, Schache, JVR, Melksham, JS29 Unavailable due to travelling emergency - Billings, BBB CASEY Missing - Hustwaite, Connolly 10 AFL LISTED PLAYERS TODAYS SUMMARY - Overall beaten by players mixed between VFL and suburban league players backs AMW - 👏👏as a rookie listed player, he showed up others with his run, contested footy and intensity. Should get a debut soon. He's not perfect but very few are. Howes 🤨- has the style however not the intensity Just an average performance. Casey again next week Jed Adams 🤔 young and developing. A keeper for the future imv and let’s give him another preseason to build up midfield Laurie - 🥔completely AMAZED we extended his contract I would delist him Slow and tackles because he’s second to the contest forwards Kynan Brown 🤔- a good honest scrapper. Not sure where he’s future lies Tagged perhaps ? Tholstrup -👍🏻 he’s got the goods and I see him as a rotating mid/half forward (not a pure mid) and will develop more with better opportunities. Sestan 👍🏻- had some good moments but overall lacks some athletic ability to play anywhere but half forward or deep forward. Jefferson 👍🏻-shows enough to persist. Took 2-3 nice contested marks which needs to be his weekly standard. Development still in Casey this year rucks Verrel - 🥶 have to persist. He’s young and needs time. Keep or not? Not sure Fullarton - 🥶he’s a basketballer playing footy. I thought he was better. Possibly delist if he’s on a year contract. Worried about where he fits

Just to state… you had to see his game v Sandringham. No meaningless kick outs !!! Definitely showed all the qualities of an AFL player. By the way he offers more than Laurie. His speed and ball winning is better. Also his upside is better than Hunter and Billings who are in the decline in my view. I think he’s more of a forward than a defender. Actually not sure why Dee’s trying to turn him into a defender. I’d play him across half forward. His tackling alone and better than most small forwards , and more like Chandler. Deserves a game ahead of them.

The usual suspects performed. Draper. Camporeale brothers x2 . Welsh. Sam Marshall. All are top 30. Sulzberger also was good. But one player who impressed me was Oliver Depaoli-Kubank (great name). Running wing mid. Looks composed with the footy. Good pace. Kicked well on both right a left. Scored a lovely running goal. Reminded me of Darcy Wilson from last years championships. I’ll see how he goes but another Tassie lad to watch for.

Bump and agreed. @Tarax Club AMW deserves a game. Simply cannot believe that he’s not even an emergency or travelling to Alice Springs for his debut. I would have rested Chandler who’s clearly not 100%. A role as a sub would be perfect for game 1. Note Freo and Pies have lots of small forwards to cover and AMW would be well suited. His kicks were not earned by kickins or soft out the back cheap kicks. He won contested footy. His tackling was solid. He had a 2 turnovers I remember from under pressure. His disposal is probably as good as any of our senior players. Yes they also make mistakes. ANW deserves a go and not for a week but for 2-3.

JVR out. BBB fragile. Schache not intense/good enough. Dees forward line v dockers Petty- defender tried as a forward Turner - defender tried as a forward McAdam - 29 year old injury riddled ex Crow Fritsch 👏👏⭐️⭐️4x leading goalkicker as a 6’2 medium sized forward

Sam Darcy 👏👏👏💙❤️ needs a good lawyer and one of those body mechanics experts https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/teams/collingwood-magpies/afl-tribunal-news-2023-brayden-maynard-cleared-full-reasoning-behind-not-guilty-verdict-revealed-jeff-gleeson/news-story/769da7a37ca089ae1f6287605abfc24f

Agreed. 2011 was a low point.

Memo to Goodwin. Pies lack talls so they focus on the mosquito fleet to run and run stop their run stop the corridor Pies runners Daicos and Daicis and Crisp and Lipinski and Sullivan defence: noble and quaynor small forwards: hill and mccreery and Schultz and Harrison

Please please have a minute silence for John Beckwith before the Kings Birthday game. 5 x premiership player Former captain during our golden era. He was a club legend. My late father said he was such a strong defender. Think Jake Lever / Steven May of his day. An absolute star.

Darcy 1 Maynard nil 🤣🤣🤣

Another weakened line up from 3 travellers to the Alice. Most clubs take 1 emergency but the Dees are the masters of risk management.

Agree @Jesuschrist05 how does Goodwin even name Billings in the squad. He’s on the decline. ANW deserves a chance. Deserves. He’s shown great improvement. A debut in his home ground would have been special.

Yes , the 2011 solution from Paul was to recruit Fev , and then look to Lucas Cook and Jack Fitzpatrick as our key forwards… it did not age well

JVR out . Key forwards again in crisis. Might have to bring the BBB back in Hopefully no other changes … please no to Billings no no no

The Age write up on his profile … slightly underwhelming compared to bio write ups on other draftees Luker Kentfield Melbourne have added a promising player from the WAFL in Subiaco forward Luker Kentfield. Also to clarify. He has kicked 1 goal in his last 5 games for Subiaco senior team. Just to calm the high expectations. He’s a speculative pick that will need time to develop.

Clearly Rugby Australia wanted to cut out one of the teams. They killed off the Force, then Twiggy saved them. One of the damning issues is the funds allotted from Rugby Australia. They “develop” the game through big contract offers to players to play with the Reds or Waratahs. Rugby Australia recently chose to provide millions of dollars in financial support to the NSW Waratahs to keep them paying bills!!! Unfortunately decided to knife the Rebels and provide not a cent to the Rebels. So watch as half the Rebels squad move up to the Waratahs. Rugby Australia plan succeeds again.

Clearly the Dees identified the key forward position as still needing depth and opportunity. Likely that Ben Brown retires and Schache is delisted. That leaves JVR (only just turned 21) , Jefferson and Fullarton (ruck/forward). Kentfield adds another young big bodied forward to develop. He looks like he enjoys the contest. A good sign already. Dees definitely will look to build their next generation of mids over the next 2-3 drafts.

Welcome aboard LUKER as the age reported “Melbourne will hope they have found another weapon to use in attack after drafting 194-centimetre target Luker Kentfield out of Subiaco. The Demons have experimented with various players up forward across the past few years, so Kentfield joins that eclectic mix.”

The search continues in 2024 Since Neita retired in 2008, Dees have tried to find the TARGET key forward The Kernahan, Lynch, Pavlich, Lloyd, Sumich, Modra, Brown, Riewoldt , Dunstall, Carey type of forward to kick 5 or more and on occasion save the day. It’s the hardest task to do. Rare yes. Every club is trying and few succeed. Perhaps only Darling, Curnow, Daniher , Hawkins, Franklin, Kennedy, Dixon, Walker, Cameron, Lynch would be successes of the last decade We’ve traded and drafted a few over the past 15 years Liam Jurrah Jack Watts Mitch Clark Lucas Cook Chris Dawes Jesse Hogan❤️ Sam Weideman Liam Hulett Ben Brown 🏆 Jacob Van Rooyen*🤞 Matthew Jefferson*🤞 Josh Schache Tom Fullarton and tried to remodel a few defenders into forwards like Tom McDonald 🏆 and Harry Petty. Some were short term successes then for a variety of reasons- such as injury, personal circumstances - didn’t quite make it The search continues …

Assume Dees will take 23 plus 3 travelling emergencies again this week up to Alice Springs. Likely to see Casey with only 8 or 9 listed players. Might be a tougher assignment this week to get over the line.

Cooper Lord to the Blues. Another of the young Sandringham Dragons 2023 premiership team to make an AFL list. Dragons are an absolute footy factory producing top players each year. I’m surprised to see Collier-Dawkins not get picked. He’s shown good strong consistent form this year and against AFL listed competition. Not sure why he missed out.

Definitely a development longer term selection. 2024 output is modest so far. Still only 19 so another waiting game. ROUND COMPETITION OPPOSITION K H D M T HO FF FA G B Round 8, 2024 League East Perth 7 2 9 1 1 9 1 1 1 0 Round 7, 2024 League South Fremantle 5 5 10 1 0 5 1 0 0 0 Round 6, 2024 Reserves East Fremantle 3 4 7 1 4 6 2 1 2 0

Luker Kentfield. Definitely a project player. Big key forward. Good mark. Skills are ok. But needs to work on his movement. I thought Noah Howes offers the same so perhaps a 50/50 call. Likely Dees see BBB as done, Schache is done, Petty is 50/50 staying and Jeffo is still in development. Need to have another young big forward option.

Mitch White 👏👏👏👏huge game as skipper also outside of the MFC listed players , a special mention for Tyler Edwards. Another good showing. 11 kicks 8 handballs 19 disposals 5 marks 3 tackles. Looks very comfortable at this level and deserves a weekly game right now.

Not sure what intervention meant. I also thought surgery but usually they say so. It’s a mystery still imv