Almanac Footy: Mid-season footy club reviews (a bit late, but…) – Part 1

 

Hi all,

Yes, it is R.19 and I’m a bit late, but I’m trying to dash through the mid-season reviews while on school holidays and I’m reviewing my uni students’ assignments. Here is the review – club by club – from Adelaide to Essendon.

 

Adelaide

As said, back in November 2024, it is time to be excited about Adelaide. The reason for it is the expansion and development of its midfield – Rankine, Berry, Soligo, the workhorse Crouch, Sholl, Laird, Dawson, Jones, and now Neal-Bullen, Peatling & Draper. Shame Rachele has been injured.

Adelaide can now rotate more midfielders more regularly, enabling it to run hard for all 4 quarters of every game. This has resulted in more opportunities coming to Thilthorpe, Fogerty, Walker and others. To go from 15th to 3rd, so far, is enormous. To use the car analogy, a 12 cylinder car runs faster and longer than 4 or 6 cylinder cars.

Good job, Adelaide! Best of luck ending the season!

 

Brisbane

Brisbane continues to add younger runners into the team. We all know about Levi Ashcroft, and Jaspa Fletcher continues where he left off in 2024.

However, the mature Day didn’t work out. But, the 20-year-old Logan Morris did and tops their goal-kicking with 2 goal per game. The key is having the depth in the list to cover for injured players.

The ironic stat is that Darcy Fort is now dominating the “Brissie” rucks, while Geelong are looking out for a 1st ruckman. Maybe the Cats might re-sign him?

Good luck again, Brissie!

 

Carlton

Yes, I told you so, back in December 2024. The Carlton list appears to be over the hill. But that’s not the only problem.

The loss of Newman to injury, and Docherty being played up-field, means that Carlton are not getting quick rebound from defence. Saad is their only real rebounder now, and every other AFL club knows it. Stop Saad, you stop Carlton. Also, Weitering is playing injured, making the situation worse.

How do you resolve it?

1. O’Farrell, a 19-year-old, 196cm, defender should give Weitering a rest. And O’Farrell should be fast-tracked to replace aging tall defenders, McGovern & Haynes.

2. Carlton drafted the Camporeale boys for a reason. Ben Camporeale, averaging over 20 disps in the “Magoos”, has, by all reports, expressed frustration as to why he hasn’t been picked.

Enough of Carlton. Let them look after themselves!

 

Collingwood

Don’t let the aging names at the Carringbush fool you … for this year. They still have junior and developing players giving them good run over all the ground – the two Daicoses, Bobby Hill, the new-boy Steele, McCreery, Will Parker, Ned Long, et al., are giving them extra run.

However, the crunch will come! The tall backs show some fraying. They haven’t given 24-year-old Charlie Dean a fair go, though he sits atop of their Magoo marks taken.

Who knows! If Frampton, Howe or Moore go down, they’re going to regret not putting more games into Dean.

As said, McCrae is an ex-Tiger coach, and the Pies play a Hardwick/Caracella-styled game. We respect them.

 

Essendon

Everyone’s wondering what’s wrong at Essendon. I can tell you.

Previously, Essendon had a small problem, maybe a couple more talls than they needed. Now it’s an epidemic! How many genuine talls do you need?

They have 16 players over 195cm tall – 9 players 200+cm, and over a quarter of the list, 195cm or over. Who needs that many? Surely, it’s going to cut your depth in running players!

I know they’ve had repeated injuries to their talls, but maybe they need to trade off a few genuine talls for more mobile tall types.

If they are going to rebuild, they can start promoting promising juniors – Visentini, Blakiston, May, Prior, Kako and others.

Recruit more mobile juniors, don’t look for other clubs’ rejects!

 

For more detail, and previously made comments, please refer to Oz Footy List Manager.

 

More to come!

 

 

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