What your AFL club can look forward to in Round 1
WITH the real footy season just nine days away Jon Anderson and Sam Edmund highlight why your club is looking forward to Round 1.
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ALL eyes on young Pies while the Tigers count the cost of injuries. Jon Anderson and Sam Edmund highlight why your club is looking forward to Round 1.
Adelaide
IN HIS brother Brad’s absence, Matt Crouch has stood out as an inside midfielder.
And importantly, big bro Brad, dropped by Don Pyke for having a drink when a ban was in place, got through a trial match on the weekend.
Brad Crouch didn’t play an AFL game last year due to foot problems and given he gets back in the coach’s good books, is set to fly.
Matt played 17 games, including two finals, last year and is similarly primed. A big year awaits for the Ballarat duo.
And then there is Eddie Betts, no newbie but maybe even greater heights beckon.
Could the one-time Blue be the first man under 175cm to kick over 75 goals in a season since Jeff Farmer’s 76 in 2000?
Brisbane
UGLY pre-season with Dayne Beams (knee) out indefinitely and the team given only two NAB Challenge matches after the St Kilda washout.
Skipper Tom Rockliff (hamstring), Allen Christensen (finger) and Josh Green (foot) will go into Round 1 without a hitout, but Tom Bell has slotted in nicely.
The former Blue, acquired in the off-season, has been influential in his two outings, mixing time between midfield and half-forward.
Academy pick Ben Keays just keeps finding it in the midfield and looks a real prospect.
Carlton
THERE have been glimpses from Blaine Boekhorst over the NAB Challenge to suggest he belongs at senior level, although there is a fair gap between his best and worst.
Before he was drafted at No. 1, Jacob Weitering was described by one respected recruiter as a 300-game multiple all-Australian and future captain. He has done nothing to dispel belief in the first two predictions although the presence of Patrick Cripps, 20, may delay the latter.
Dale Thomas faces a delayed start to his third year in Blue after he was offered a week’s spell yesterday for his strike on Swan Jeremy Laidler.
Collingwood
ADAM Treloar did what was expected of one with such class on Saturday, but don’t undersell the four goals of Darcy Moore, who has enough tricks to ensure multiple avenues to goal.
Corey Gault at 200cm and Mason Cox at 211cm are set to stretch opposition defences over the next few years.
Gault kicked eight goals in three pre-season games, enough to prompt the Pies to confirm his name for promotion from the rookie list to primary list for Round 1.
Former Brisbane Lion James Aish looked at home in the midfield.
Essendon
ALL signs point to a long, hard slog ahead for this collection of retirees, draftees and the established players left behind by the supplements regimen.
Positives will be sought and there’s none more apparent on the eve of Round 1 than Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti.
The Tiwi-Island rookie with the cult following has been a revelation off half-back in the NAB and is one of four players chasing three upgrade spots.
Fremantle
MICHAEL Barlow, under pressure late last year just as Luke Ball found in 2009 under Ross Lyon at St Kilda, worked well in close against the Cats on Saturday with 16 contested possessions.
Riddells Creek product Tom Sheridan seems to have learnt the Rossy Lyon method and looks ready to make serious inroads in the real stuff.
Big-name recruit Harley Bennell racked up 17 possessions and kicked a goal against Geelong and is due to play a WAFL game this weekend before Round 1.
Geelong
LINCOLN McCarthy was one of the Cats best against Fremantle and is hopefully set for a run at it as a hard tackling small forward after an injury-ravaged four seasons.
Sam Menegola won’t be ready for Round 1 but was really impressive in limited game time against Collingwood before suffering a posterior cruciate injury that didn’t require surgery.
The Cats say veteran Jimmy Bartel is right after his latest brush with concussion but young star Nakia Cockatoo faces at least two weeks on the sidelines after being charged for his slam-tackle on Docker Michael Johnson.
Gold Coast
RYAN Davis, 26, looks ready-made as a high half-forward after playing 14 games with West Coast in 2008-2009.
Davis is competing with 18-year-old Darcy MacPherson, the son of former Bulldogs star Stephen, for a rookie upgrade.
Peter Wright won’t win a Stawell Gift but he’s starting to look like a key forward target to provide an alternative to Tom Lynch.
Took Miller continues to show what a steal he was at No. 29 in the 2014 national draft.
Greater Western Sydney
AN encouraging pre-season with a bitter aftertaste given Jeremy Cameron was sent straight to the tribunal for his high bump on Brisbane’s Rhys Mathieson.
But, along with fitness concerns over the super-important Shane Mumford, it is the only negative.
Josh Kelly looks ready to breakout, Ryan Griffen has slimmed down and Dylan Shiel could be headed for greatness.
Recruit Steve Johnson has looked the most dangerous forward on the ground in his game-and-a-half exposure and looks fit.
Hawthorn
THE Hawks’ structure has been so reliant on David Hale’s forward positioning that his loss through retirement could be large.
That’s why Jon Ceglar becomes pivotal given his willingness to continually present and become a predictable target for his crumbing teammates.
Second-year defender Daniel Howe showed enough to suggest a future and importantly Jonathan O’Rourke, the former Giant and No. 2 draft pick, started to find it against North Melbourne.
Melbourne
VOWED to treat the NAB Challenge series seriously and have done that, winning all three matches against Port Adelaide, Western Bulldogs and St Kilda.
Clayton Oliver was a draft bolter late last year and has continued the trend in the pre-season with three solid performances in midfield.
The No. 4 draft pick has averaged 17 possessions and impressed with his hardness. Would be very stiff to miss out on a Round 1 berth.
North Melbourne
THE Roos have tweaked a few things at Arden St over summer in an attempt to avoid the slow starts that have hurt its last two campaigns.
So it would have to be slightly concerning that they were pipped by Collingwood and blasted off the park in the second half against Hawthorn.
There’s been an overwhelming positive, however, in the form of a fit-again Daniel Wells. It’s a cliche, but the line-breaking midfielder has been like a new recruit for Brad Scott and looks set — hopefully — to leave the injury nightmares of the past two years behind.
Port Adelaide
LAST year’s winter of discontent for the Power at least saw the blossoming of another Gray in Sam (no relation to Robbie) as a serious midfield option. But could he go on with it?
Very much so if his prolific NAB Challenge form can be used as a guide.
Port also got a game into former Gold Coast Sun Charlie Dixon which was vital given his importance to their 2016 campaign.
Richmond
A CLUB which hasn’t won a final in 14 years and is desperate to be counted among the big boys, hasn’t exactly drowned its supporters in positivity.
Aside from a resounding win over an opposition looking more like Box Hill than Hawthorn, there’s been injuries, 15-man controversies and two thumping defeats.
Among all that stands Jacob Townsend. The former GWS on-baller is tough, niggly and combative — everything the Richmond midfield needs. Seven tackles against Fremantle and 10 against the Hawks, he is the grunt to Trent Cotchin and Dustin Martin’s polish.
St Kilda
MAY feel its preparations are a bit rushed given it was involved in the washout with the Brisbane Lions, lost both of its other games and would have liked to get more time into Nick Riewoldt, Leigh Montagna, Jarryn Geary and David Armitage.
But one player ready to roll is Jack Billings. When the little left-footer was thrown up as potential trade bait in the pursuit of Jake Carlisle, coach Alan Richardson admitted he nearly “choked on his Weet-Bix”.
Six months later, the fit-again finisher looks set to take his game to the next level after his 2015 season was ruined by shin stress fractures.
Sydney
FINISHED a ho-hum NAB series with a win against Carlton made more encouraging by the fact its big guns fired.
There’s been much intrigue over who takes the half-back role vacated in 2014 by Nick Malceski and last year by Rhyce Shaw.
Jarrad McVeigh has played there in the past and Kieran Jack has been trialled there, but it could be where youngster Callum Mills has a breakout season.
The 2015 No. 3 pick and Swans Academy star has been eye-catching over summer and a consistent performer in his side’s three games.
Oh, and a bloke called Lance Franklin looked pretty solid against the Blues last Friday — all in the football world will be watching when he steps out against the Pies on Saturday week.
West Coast
SEVEN years after Adam Hunter was John Worsfold’s bailout swingman for West Coast, another Eagles defender appears ready to follow suit.
Jeremy McGovern has more talent than Hunter, but will he be to Adam Simpson what Hunter was to Woosha? The marking-machine defender started back against a hapless Essendon last weekend, but was swung forward in both halves and kicked three goals.
Western Bulldogs
IN A team where stars seem to be springing up like daisies, Marcus Adams may be the latest to leap to prominence.
The 192cm, 96kg rugby union convert arrived as a 22-year-old mature-age recruit via the WAFL and has shone in his past two NAB outings. He spent a lot of time on Travis Cloke last weekend and kept him to two goals.
Tom Boyd also showed promising signs against the Pies and would have thrilled coach Luke Beveridge with his two contested marks in the first quarter.
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