To be fair I think his first 4 drafts he was trading rather than drafting.
Despite the emphasis on trades and free agents, Austin still drafted some pretty handy players in his first four drafts; Motlop, Ollie Hollands, Cowan, Moir and Wilson.
At the same time, he brought in Williams, Saad, Boyd, Hewett, Lewis Young, Cerra, Acres, O'Keeffe and Matt Carroll and, apart from Oscar McDonald, not one delisted player among them
The World Cup Qualifying series between Australia and New Zealand may not have both countries' best lineups but the results are much closer than I expected. After a five point win in game 1, Australia won game 2 with a buzzer-beating three point bankshot
Aus were a bit disappointing I thought, had a few players out but struggled on the boards vs the Kiwi bigs and it needed the Hawks Davo Hickey to manufacture a couple of big three's in each game to secure the win. Keanu Pinder had a good second game and hopefully he returns to Aus and my team the Cairns Taipans next NBL season. Aus will need their NBA players available to progress vs the better countries as NZ are rated at 25 and Aus at 6 with the USA and Germany the favourites.
We certainly come back to the field without our NBA players!
The World Cup Qualifying series between Australia and New Zealand may not have both countries' best lineups but the results are much closer than I expected. After a five point win in game 1, Australia won game 2 with a buzzer-beating three point bankshot
While that's a significant improvement, we still have to find at least another six goals per game. That should come from our midfield, improved delivery and not relying on a key forward who was terribly out of form.
There was talk on some forums earlier in the night that our targets were Dean, Ison, Byrne and Emmett Three out of four ain't bad...but he would probably have been a good pick-up.
Some might remember me saying before night 2 that we should trade up with the kangas to get the 1st pick of the night to.... a) Guarantee us a pick before Ison was bid on. b) Get whichever player we wanted from what was left without having to worry about another team taking him
Lucky for us Ison wasn't bid on anyway. Unlucky (or poor planning??) that 'our guy' was taken right before we had the chance to take him.
All these things are easy in hindsight, sure, but let the record show i called it at the time. I just was unaware that we were targetting Emmett over my preference of Ludowycke,
Do you really think that Austin and co hadn’t considered that scenario and rejected it in favour of better options?
All list managers, ours included, are formulating their strategies and making decisions based on a hell of lot more information than the most well-informed supporter has access to.
Yes, it would have been good to have been able to draft another Harry McKay, but all that were available were more Harry Lemmeys … and we scored the best KPP by a considerable margin.
Our NGA is part of our list management strategy. The fact that we drafted Ison is evidence that our NGA is finally working.
Harry Dean’s development is also a product of our NGA and he’s ready to go as a result. The downside is that we were forced to use more points than if he’d had no connection to the club. Cody Walker is going through a similar experience that should make for a seamless transition from under 18s to AFL.
We were fortunate that Ison drifted and we were able to draft Byrne as well as shoring up our points for the 2026 draft … but you make your own luck by exhaustive scenario planning.
Our list management moved out of the dark ages with SOS’s appointment. Austin and Agresta have pushed its evolution forward and we’re at least the equal of the best in the business now. Of course, that doesn’t mean an instant improvement in our on field fortunes as sustainable list development takes time. The better performing teams have developing players waiting in the wings and can maintain their ladder positions through seamless replacement of departing players. We’re finally getting to that point.
In previous years we’ve tended to bring in a couple of players in the twilight of their careers as insurance or to plug gaps. With the exception of Nick Haynes, a recruitment masterstroke, all of our incoming players are now at the beginning or the peak of their careers.
While I do think that size matters, it’s not something worth obsessing over.
I can't see it transferring to the men's teams Baggers. I think the dominance of North's women's side is purely that they have a jump on other sides in a relatively new competition. They will eventually come back to the pack, but for the next year or two they'll be hard to beat, and that dominance isn't necessarily good for the growth of the game in the short term.
I agree Lods. Despite being late to the party, North has put together a list that is simply bigger, stronger and faster than everyone else.
We have focused on fast, skilful players and they’re good enough to beat most teams. Brisbane just brushed aside in the prelim, as they were brushed aside in the granny.
North may well come back to the field in time, but we need to bring in some big, tough bodies to be close to matching them.
To paraphrase Bill Hayden, a driver’s dog could coach North to a premiership. It’s their list management team that deserves recognition.
My approach is to pick 7 midfielders, 8 defenders, and 8 forwards, then choose the 6-6-6 from that lot. The remainder start on the bench. It helps if there are versatile players like O Hollands, Kemp, L Young and Florent who can fill a couple of roles, and forwards who can take a turn in the midfield.
I'm still struggling to fit several players in who I thought would be best 23
I imagine that most folk were shocked at the report of the 11 year old boy stabbing the 8 year old at school. What a terrible experience for the two children, their classmates, the teachers and the families. But then, when you think about it, there over 380,000 children attending government primary schools in Victoria. One out of 380,000 isn't too shabby, particularly when you consider that more than 4,300 children and teens are shot and killed in the USA every year and over 17,000 more are shot and wounded. It is estimated that 3 million children in the US are exposed to shootings per year but successive governments there do nothing about it ... and that fruitcake Pauline Hanson tried to solicit donations from the NRA in return for watering down Australia's gun laws.
Who knows what motivated the 11 year old to do what he did? We can speculate about domestic violence, abuse, the influence of violent video games or TV programs and mental health issues. Has anyone else noticed how TV characters suffer punches, and knife and bullet wounds and carry on as if nothing is wrong? Does that unrealistic ability to absorb punishment give children the impression that violence doesn't really do any harm?
So why hasn't the 11 year old been charged? Quite simply, the age of criminal responsibility in Victoria is 12 (It was raised which was raised from 10 earlier this year) and the law recognises that children are unlikely to understand the impact of their actions or to comprehend criminal proceedings. Brain studies have conclusively shown that the prefrontal cortex – the part of the brain responsible for risk assessment, decision making and impulse control – doesn’t fully develop until after adolescence (10–19 years) and into early adulthood (20–29 years). This developmental process means children and young people are unable to think about their actions and understand the potential consequences in the same way as adults.
I think that most of us can look back with horror at some of the things we got up to as pre-teens and teenagers. Converting spud guns to fire .22 bullets and shooting at cars on Bell Street, Coburg was not one of my brightest ideas.
Obviously steps need to be taken to understand why the eleven year old did what he did and to ensure that it doesn't happen again. I don't know how that can be done but I do know that charging him and dragging him before the courts is not the answer.
but I don't think so.