Three of North Melbourne’s five mature-aged additions find themselves in the VFL and another isn’t far away from joining them as they fail to play in the bash-and-crash spirit of Brad Scott’s sides, write JON RALPH.
Jordan De Goey has quickly developed into Collingwood’s ultimate midfield wildcard, thrown into the centre square with great effect in the second half of games this season. 360 VIEW
James Hird has been refreshingly frank about what caused his mental health issues. Instead of bashing him over his desire to return to Essendon, Jon Ralph says the AFL should use him for his mental health advocacy.
Jack Silvagni has been left languishing in Carlton’s VFL side, unable to break into the worst team in the competition. Former Blues’ coach Denis Pagan says a tough decision could be the key to kickstarting his career.
NEW Carlton recruit Cameron Wood was seen to have written his own football obituary late in the 2012 season.
AS recently as last year the pre-season draft was a vehicle for lashings of suspense and controversy.
ANALYSIS: BETTER without “Buddy”. That is the immense challenge for Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson next year.
TWICE in the past year Alan Richardson must have felt his dream of coaching an AFL side was close to extinguished.
SCOTT Watters walked out of a meeting with St Kilda powerbrokers on October 10 hopeful he might secure a contract extension in January.
THE AFL once pretended it played nice with its fellow Australian sporting codes. The 2014 draw is anything but, writes Jon Ralph.
JON Ralph analyses the AFL’s winners and losers from the 2014 draw.
ANALYSIS: ANDREW Demetriou’s mantra in his decade as AFL boss has always been to maximise attendances.
JON Ralph says the International Rules series may have drawn its final breath over the weekend.
THE AFL says it will review all aspects of free agency including the scrapping of compensation picks.
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