Father/son access obviously but gee Michalanney looks unreal for a kid in his first year. Super composed, good aerially and great with ball in hand.
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Murray looks fantastic this year too.
I was just talking about their 1st round draft picks but yeah he looks very solid for an unheralded key defender.
Not much hype around he and Butts but they have a bit of size about them which helps (unlike the default Essendon key defender model) and look as though they are hard workers.
I’m sure as they look to cap off their rebuild it’s still an area they might look to invest in via trade or FA.
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They should be very thankful North knocked back their JHF offer.
Since Reid took over as lost manager they had
-2016 Gallucci, Poholke were busts as their first and second rounders, Himmelberg is bog average but he was a third. Signirello and Davis were late picks but busts.
-2017 Fogarty at 12 is quality, MacPherson was their only other pick at 40 and was a fail
-2018 Chayce Jones at 9 is a bust, McHenry at 16 is a fail, Hamill at 30 is a fail. Sholl at 64 is not bad so in 2018 they had 3 top 30 picks and stuffed it completely.
-2019 McAsey at 6 is one of the worst top 10’s in history, Schoenberg at 24 looks ok, Worrell at 28 is meh, O’Connor at 42 was a bust, Gollant at 48 looks good so that draft was a massive fail.
-2020 Thilthorpe at 2 will be very good, Pedlar at 11 looks good, Cook at 25 jury is out, Sam Berry at 28 is very good. Rowe at 38 was a bust. They nailed that draft IMO
-2021 Rachele at 6 YES,YES,YES! Soligo at 36 looks the goods, Taylor at 44 I haven’t seen enough of. Another one they nailed
-2022 Michalanney at 17 is going to be a ripper but as a F/S it was a no brainer and too early to make the call on the others.
What has set them back was their really poor 2016 up to 2020 drafts where they had 9 top 30 picks and probably only nailed 2 of those and both of their top 10’s in that era were utter busts.
Since 2020 they have done very well
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I wouldn’t say Jones is a bust just yet! Is playing some good footy at the moment
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They should be thankful North matched the bid on Tarryn Thomas
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They also traded in some cooked players (Gibbs and Sam Gibson) before going through their inevitable rebuild.
They hit rock bottom in 2020, sorted through their saga ■■■■ and were patient with their rookies.
Pedlar had injury after injury. Cook continues playing through SANFL. Fogarty took a long time to reach this point. They aren’t gifted games at all. They earn them.
And yes, they have kept their fair share of cooked players long the way (Walker, Sloane, McKay, Lynch to name a few).
The main thing is they stuck by Nicks through the worst of it. They’ve been bottom four every year of his first 3 years and now they look like making a jump up the ladder.
They have a sustainable style. They have small forwards who apply pressure both offensively and defensively rather than just play a bevy of resting midfielders in the team for the experience.
There isn’t a superstar on their team. Rachele, Rankin, Dawson and Laird would be the closest they have to one. They play to a system and don’t shuffle the deck chairs too much to try and force players into the team. Crouch and Hately are good examples of this.
I doubt they make the 8 but a jump out of the bottom 4 and into the mediocre zone of the ladder looks assured.
They have home ground advantage most weeks which is a big help to jumping spots on the ladder, but as long as they don’t get too far ahead of themselves and just keep adding young talent, they should continue improving.
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I think they’ll sneak into the 8 if they play like last night with all contributing. They won the ruck and the contested ball repeatedly.
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Predicting a 10-11 win season for them which is a vast improve on the previous three years.
Not sure how sustainable this current level of performance is, especially with such a young list.
They look dangerous in the years ahead though.
Rankine and Rachelle are stars.
we would give up our first rounder in a instant if they were available.
Dawson and Laird are top line players equivelant to Ridley and Parish would get selected in majority of AFL sides. I still think 12-16th is fair early season prediction. more likely closer to 12 though
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Adelaide would also have received North’s 2022 second rounder, and I’m sure they still would have got the Dawson deal done somehow **.
But yes, it was a good thing for Adelaide that North said no.
** For example, maybe their 2022 second & third & North’s 2022 second for Sydney’s 2022 second, third and Dawson? As they would need a second/third coming in since they’d traded out their 2022 first. That would have meant 22 + 26 + 43 for 38, 51 & Dawson. A steal, but miles off 2022’s #15 straight up?
WTF didnt Rachele give the quick hb to Murphy in that last play ?
Young player but dreadful lack of composure.
Murphy had just enough time to put it to the advantage of 2 Adelaide players in the F50.
A lowish kick gets it there in time (just).
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I’m not blaming the kid when they missed so many sitters early and idiots like Tex who is a supposed leader and can kick a bomb decides to go the weak option and not take on the responsibility
Not blame exactly, just a strange decision to panic kick on your left under pressure, when you have a left footer a few metres forward of you.
Of course, there are no guarantees that Murphy’s kick gets into a scoring position in time, or that an Adelaide player marks the resultant kick.
Robbo just compared them to the Baby Bombers
Wash your mouth out, Robbo.
Robbo is being held together by duct tape and whiskey.
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There was a clip going around of him swigging straight vodka sitting at desk on set
Clearly gets himself going pre his blabbering with Whately
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Genuinely, he doesn’t have long left.
Even after all the crap that has happened to him I still think he is smoking and drinking to excess. He’s farked.
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