You mean - you didn’t like the [sic] ‘their magnets are very movable’ line???
I wasn’t attracted to it no
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It was polarising.
Walla*, Brown, Dea, Hartley, Kelly (as coach).
10% of our senior list, and one of our most promising young coaches got on our list initially as “Top Ups” because of the Saga.
They all do, or would, look in place in our senior side - who at the moment is the best performed in the league since after round 8.
Even Hartley is important depth to avoid another Ariel Steinberg vs Ben Brown finals scenario.
I wouldn’t even be surprised if Kelly was senior coach one day.
All these players were either discarded and/or not wanted - in draft after draft.
We probably won’t make the finals, but no one can tell me we are not a better side this year - and we have been missing Joe and Marty most of the season and we still have more quality depth players than I can ever remember having and a decent number of very promising improving players to come in.
Improve the coaching a little (which is to say, make us a bit more responsive and adaptable), add a couple more gems - who can beat us?
If we don’t make it this year, roll on 2019.
*Walla originally made the senior list as a Top Up player in 2015 because of the Saga (nearly breaking Zaka’s leg in training was a sign of his unbridled enthusiasm and keenness to make an impression), and although he snuck onto the rookie list after Gach Nyoun at the end of that year, and he most likely had his senior debut accelerated because of the 12 suspended for the season - he actually has never looked like being dropped, despite languishing in our VFL side for 3 seasons previously. If it was only a matter of his determination, I’m sure Walla would have been drafted regardless of the Saga, but it certainly got him there initially and accelerated his senior experience after being passed over previously.
Remember the goal Walla kicked in the VFL? I was on board then hoping the club picks him up but people kept saying “Nah dosen’t have a tank” “will never make it” etc,etc lol
All Walla needed was a chance and he hasn’t looked back since.
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Walla, Brown and Hartley were drafted in the 2015 national and rookie drafts. They had nothing to do with saga top-ups.
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I thought your memory was better than that. Top ups were used at the beginning of 2015 for the NAB Challenge before the AFL Tribunal Verdict when most of the 2012 players still on the list were provisionally suspended , only to be found not guilty by the AFL before ASADA appealed to CAS.
Brown, Walla and Hartley were part of the top up squad and trained as part of the AFL list until the not guilty verdict on the 31st of March clearing the provisionally suspended players to play against Sydney in the first round with no preseason games.
I found a couple of articles relating to this time to remind you, but probably digressing a bit too much for this thread. Although the second article indicated that Hartley didn’t pass the medical (which I’d forgotten) and didn’t end up playing in the NAB Challenge, but the saga certainly brought him to the club, and Dodoro’s attention, in the first instance.
So here’s a link - (and I wasn’t meaning to rub it with posting the below thread title - it’s just a happy coincidence):
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Looking at the contract thread, it would be nice to lock Draper into a long-ish contract.
I don’t think he has displayed any injury vulnerabilities…he is developing his skills nicely…and we have quite a big need for him in the age profile of our rucks.
So, I would be seeing if we can lock him in, while he is still developing, to a 3 year deal? Get the figures right, and it could look quite cheap by the end of the contract?
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If you are a migrant wanting to be accepted as an Aussie, you need to be very good at sport. Olympian preferably.
Supporters and media keep saying that Tippa was a top up.
He played 1 game in that NAB challenge match as a VFL listed player.
Then got drafted as a rookie the following draft. In that summer period, the players got suspended.
He was never a top up. But he may never have gotten his chance in the AFL if it weren’t for suspensions.
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Rubbish, he had to be a top up to play with the senior side in 2015.
Pick 22 in the 2015 Rookie draft
https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/ft_drafts?year=2015&t=R&s=P
Edit: the only time he might have been considered a top up is for the NAB cup when 34 players didn’t play. But they allowed all the Essendon VFL listed players to play in that series.
Zaharakis went down clutching his right knee after falling awkwardly in a tackle laid by one of Essendon’s potential VFL top-up players, Anthony Tipungwuti.
Yes he did play in that series as a top up player, which is what I’m saying.
Jeebus!!!
A warning next time, man!
I thought it was today!
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I think he played the Saints game in Morwell from memory. I remember Giles kicked 4 that day and thought he’d be an amazing pick up for us.
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What is the point of this discussion? Who really cares now?
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So essentially, your saying that all of our VFL listed players were top up players?
I’m getting sick of hearing from opposition supporters complaining that we only got Tippa because we had players suspended, as he was a top up player.
This is simply wrong.
Just like any eligible players who met the criteria to be top up players, the Essendon VFL players had to be selected to be on the list of top up players as the AFL article implied.
You are right about the Walla probably not needing to rely on his exposure as a top up player to make it onto the senior list, as I said in my original post. But he was very keen to audition with the seniors, as Zaka found out.