rumpole

I was bemused to read the commentary about Richmond selecting Mac Andrew with pick 9 because they “they need to get another forward/ruck on the list”. They already have Toby Nankervis, Ivan Soldo and Ben Miller and although they recently delisted Bigoa Nyuon, they’re committed to re-listing him as a rookie. I say “bemused” because a workmate’s son played NAB Cup with Nyuon and his is remarkably familiar in comparison with Andrew’s story. Both are sons of South Sudanese migrants, both played with the Dandenong Stingrays, both are/were members of AFL NGA Academies (Nyuon was with St Kilda’s), both are managed by Julian Petracca of Hemisphere Management, both have strengths listed as speed, versatility, athleticism, vertical leap and have a long term upside. Both are raw and lack endurance and physical strength. Despite being in the Saints’ NGA, Bigoa ended up with the Tigers who took him with pick 54 in the 2019 NAB AFL Draft. He wasn’t exactly in everyone’s consideration for top 20 selection like Andrew but 2019 was a much different time for the NAB League before COVID-19. After two years in the AFL system, he’s still a long way off. The Tigers had Mabior Chol and let him go this month after six years. They know exactly what timeline they’re looking at and I don’t see them risking the investment of pick 9 in the draft for such a long term prospect.

Let’s see what he comes up with.

It’s trade week. You never let sauces get in the way of a good story.

Half of the clubs in the competition are talking about grabbing ruckmen from other clubs with senior experience and they’re talking about trading them with draft picks in the 2nd, 3rd or 4th rounds. Then some so-called expert gets up and says this bloke who’s skinny as a rake and was second ruck in a state under 19 trial game and got half a dozen hit outs to nowhere is a top five pick. How does that work?

A reminder as to what his father looks like these days

It’s now become part of football folk lore that at the 2014 AFL National Draft, St Kilda opted for Paddy McCartin as its #1 pick ahead of Christian Petracca. The poor bloke never quite made it and had to quit due to concussion issues a few years ago. Paddy made his debut in Round 3 against Collingwood. The score? Collingwood 21.14 (140) defeated St Kilda 10.6 (66) Twilight zone stuff.

So where to from here for the under 19 championships? Now that Victoria’s lockdown has been extended and the Andrews government seems to have lost control of this Delta strain, I can’t see any further games taking place.

Whatever the muscle, it’s strange that his prognosis in terms of recovery date has worsened in the past week.

Prefer to play GWS because they struck it lucky in the battle of the bridge and looked gone at the end. The Cats are also looking cooked. It’s been a long hard year for them but they will have far too much experience for the Giants without Greene.

We’ll probably never know. Melbourne could have named him as an emergency in case a decision was made to rest Maxy or Doggo in the ruck or play him in defence covering for Jake or Petty this week. They could also have played him up forward - he once kicked 6 goals in a game. It’s versatility. Anyway, our Covid19 response to lockdown 6 has been so pathetic that by the time it comes to having VFL finals in early September we’ll all be in solitary confinement in our laundries 24/7 so it doesn’t really matter.

I think many people forgot about his great sense of humour especially the times when he was trying to be funny like when those journos wrote about his description of the “vault”. In fact, I doubt that he ever was guilty of anything but telling a joke.

6. Clayton Oliver 5. Christian Petracca 4. Alex Neal-Bullen 3. Jake Lever 2. Max Gawn 1. Jayden Hunt

Geelong have played a number of similar games where the opponent has taken it up to them and had the rotten end of the stick with kicking for goal or umpires decisions. A few games could easily have gone the other way. Carlton are shockers - they did the same against the Eagles and could easily have been close to the eight if luck went their way.

There was a good vibe among the Collingwood players after they beat Adelaide. The mood was very positive towards Bucks. The sudden decision to leave is likely to be demoralising. Who are they playing for?

Congratulations on the book. Getting the Mike Sheahan to do the foreword is a really feather in the cap!!!

Does this mean we’ll get the VFL teams before half time in their games now?

Watching Kozzy play over the past few weeks, I think he might have grown a few centimetres since he came to the club. Was recruited at 171cm but looks taller than Spargo who is supposed to be 174cm. Anyone think the same?

Thunderstorms predicted for the Gold Coast. Why not relocate the game to there and put the teams in a hub for old time’s sake?

Meanwhile, what happens with ticketing? Surely the best thing to do is to move this game to Marvel Stadium at 1.10pm on Sunday and reallocate a later North game to Blundstone? This would allow tickets to be sold to the supporters of both clubs and avoid the uncertainty and a possible fiasco.

Have set Foxtel to record this potentially epic television event but am curious about the team selection. Up until now, it’s been simple - wait for Melbourne to pick its team for the AFL game by which time, the VFL game is 10 minutes into the second quarter. I get that and it seems to work as beautifully as everything else in terms of communication with fans of AFL & VFL these days. But when will we know this week?

It took about 10 minutes of cross-examination of Nathan Buckley before they even recognised that Goodwin was in the studio.

“But for now, he will link up with the Demons on Monday, as he hopes to win a spot on their playing list. “As part of the Pre-Season Supplemental Selection Period we have offered Majak Daw an opportunity to train with us for the remainder of pre-season,” List manager Tim Lamb told the club’s website.” Does that mean that the team is able to train on Monday despite the lockdown?

A number of players have been delisted recently as a result of rule changes relating to rookies. I understand that Shultz is one of those players and he will be automatically put on the Dockers’ rookie list with the consent of the player and club. Your suggestion is therefore most unlikely.

There are a good few suggestions here - The 23 mature-age bargain gems your club could steal at AFL draft - and three of them are ex-Pies

Not making excuses. Simply expressing admiration for the people who run the Collingwood Football Club and who always fight tooth and nail to get the best deal for the team.