Academy games 2026.

[Nepo baby]

Hey Deja,
Nepo here - just want to counter your point on Smiths acceleration. I think that if you go back and watch his previous games you’ll see that he has a turn of speed that others don’t, and often drives out the front of stoppage. Also he offers a physical presence that was un watched and his tackling pressure was immense all day long.

On another note, I thought that Clifton was outstanding today and apparently - he gets the boys up and about on the trip down to Melbourne. Mr Medeved was also good and displayed his speed, whilst Lachie “king of bench press” price also was nice today.

Regards,
Nepo

[dejavoodoo44]

The Rookie Me scouting notes for the game.

Scouting Notes: Swans and Giants impress in emphatic wins - Aussie Rules Rookie Me Central https://share.google/05Wfov0ItUM2fnMiY

[imuninformedtwo]

The Rookie Me scouting notes for the game.

Scouting Notes: Swans and Giants impress in emphatic wins - Aussie Rules Rookie Me Central https://share.google/05Wfov0ItUM2fnMiY

Great to see McGroder back into the program. He’s the one that most fascinates me this season. The others like the Jenkin twins are fine, but at this stage late or rookie picks for mine. McGroder is still largely potential for now, but if he can churn out some good games and reasonable production, the upside becomes tantalising. Of course, under the new rules you don’t want to see too much, just enough to confirm he’ll flourish once in a professional footy environment full time.

[dejavoodoo44]

Great to see McGroder back into the program. He’s the one that most fascinates me this season. The others like the Jenkin twins are fine, but at this stage late or rookie picks for mine. McGroder is still largely potential for now, but if he can churn out some good games and reasonable production, the upside becomes tantalising. Of course, under the new rules you don’t want to see too much, just enough to confirm he’ll flourish once in a professional footy environment full time.

Yes, it'd be nice if McGroder was selected for the Allies, played one really good game and then wandered off to compete in a few athletics meets. Perhaps while the club organised a few social media posts, that suggested that he was finding Aussie Rules a bit too rough and that he'd probably prefer a sport where people weren't trying to hurt him.

Medved is quite similar. Very athletic recent convert, who seems to be a fan of Blakey. In that he loves to take off out of defence at full pace, while taking a few bounces as he burns off the chasers. He could easily move up the draft boards as the season progresses. But hopefully not into the range were we have to pay the competency tax.

Hopefully, in a couple of years time, one of them ends up being an upgrade on Bice, or a replacement for Rampe.

[dejavoodoo44]

The team for the game against Eastern Ranges in Melbourne today. Which takes place at 1.15pm, the exact same time as our AFL match. Which also clashes with our VFL match that starts at 1.35pm. Genius scheduling. Though I suppose that it doesn't really matter, since it's the Kommunity TV game, which you can only stream live if you have some sort of News Corpse subscription. There will be a replay on the AFL site. I'm not sure how long it takes to come up, but I suspect that they'll put the score up in the same place at the same time.

1 Isaac Luke
2 Levi Macri
3 Eddie Redfern
8 Patrick Smith
9 Lachlan Price (c)
11 William Jenkin
15 Sebastian Mok
16 Lincoln Chambers
18 Henry Meaney
19 Alex Norris
21 Dashiel Delaney-Fielding
22 Jake Medved
23 Guy Jenkin
25 Henry Lamond
26 Tyron Bird
28 Cody Beavis
30 Oliver Griffiths
31 Mason McGroder
32 Euan Richardson
33 Ben Pignatelli
34 Oscar Clifton
35 Will Morahan
36 Hudson Perna

Underager Tyron Bird comes in for Meyrick. Not sure about the strength of Eastern? They won the Talent League last season, but have only won one of their four games this season.

[dejavoodoo44]

Turned out a convincing 108-62 win, with Eastern adding a bit more respectability by kicking a couple of goals in the last two minutes. However, it didn't start that way, with Eastern being well on top in the first quarter, both winning clearances and hitting targets in the forward half, while we were missing targets when trying to rebound in the breezy conditions. It was only their inaccurate total of 3.7, that had us still close at quarter time. Our clearances improved in the second, which we meant we were able to edge away with the wind advantage. In the second half our defence also got on top and we gradually ran away with the game.

Not sure if we had a real stand out in defence, with it generally being a good team effort. Perhaps Norris with plenty of strong efforts was our best? McGroder didn't have too many possessions, but when he did get it, he looked a bit like a 12 year old playing in the U10s. His opponents didn't really seem to have any real chance of stopping him.

Around the contests, the usual suspects of Clifton, Price, Meaney and Smith all had strong games. Clifton was impressive winning contests when the ball was bouncing around. He also took a few good marks around the ground. Price did his usual amount of grunt work and topped our tackle count with 10, and he also chipped in with a couple of goals. Meaney topped our possession count with 29 and often used it well. Although he did become anonymous to the commentator, after his number 18 jumper was torn off and he came back in 14. Price was perhaps our most influential mid, with plenty of score involvements. The two most notable were when he hit Pignatelli in the forward fifty. One was the result of a long run through the midfield and the other when he powered out of a centre clearance.

The Jenkin twins were their usual busy selves on the outside, with 50 possessions between them. Both seemed to largely roam wherever they wanted to and both spotted plenty of forward targets.

In the forward line, Pignatelli was the obvious stand out with 7 goals straight. He got them in a number of ways: mainly marking on the lead and converting the set shot, but also snapping a couple, after making himself an option on the edge of contests. That performance should guarantee his selection for the Allies. So hopefully he can produce something similar at the business end of the season. Lamond had a productive day as a medium forward and kicked 3. While youngster Delaney-Fielding kicked 2 and could be a handy KPF prospect if he fills out next year. Another underager, Macri, also kicked 2 after showing some nice skills as an outside mid

We probably finish our Talent League season at Blacktown next week, when we host Geelong. Though there is a postponed game from round 2 against the Giants, that still hasn't been played, but I suspect that the powers that be might quietly forget about that.

[dejavoodoo44]

The latest Rookie Me scouting notes.

Scouting Notes: Swans soar past early Ranges peak - Aussie Rules Rookie Me Central https://share.google/ehOloOf1XimTirAZC

[bandwagon]

I agree with all your observations on the game, but would like to shout out Medved. A bit raw but really lived up to his jumper number with his speed and risk taking out of the backline.

[dejavoodoo44]

I agree with all your observations on the game, but would like to shout out Medved. A bit raw but really lived up to his jumper number with his speed and risk taking out of the backline.

Yes, I think that Medved is doing very well as a recent convert and I don't think that he's that far behind McGroder in athletic ability. If we get extremely lucky and add both to our list, then in a few years time, them and Blakey could be an almost unstoppable rebounding force.