There are no more preseason games standing between us and round 1 of the AFL Season. So we thought it a good time to note what we’ve learned from the JLT Community Series.
Sam Mitchell is a freak and until he steps off a Football field will always be a freak.
The Eagles midfielder of Gaff, Masten, Priddis, Jetta, Redden, LeCras and Sheed (to name a few) got a big boost when Premiership star Mitchell moved West at the end of 2016.
Mitchell might be aging but 28 and 39 disposals respectively in his two JLT games more than proved how much he has to offer the Eagles in 2017.
How quickly Nic-Nat can get back healthy and hopefully on the park for the Eagles while they have this terrific core the better.
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The Giants are going to be very, very good.
Ok maybe we didn’t learn that from the JLT but it’s certainly been a nice reminder on who we think to be the number one team on paper heading into season 2017.
They’ve got depth in almost all areas of the ground which they’ll need with Deledio and Coniglio set to miss some time at the start of the year but the talent they can roll out through the midfield is incredible.
They’re hard and have an element of tough swagger about them and they’ll be very hard to beat this year.
The Blues might be even worse than we first thought
Carlton has been flat out bullied during the preseason and although we aren’t playing for sheep stations yet, the signs are not good.
They obviously lack talent, so to compete this season they’ll need to work hard and be hard at the ball and the man.
They haven’t done any of those things in the preseason. Luckily for Blues fans their start to the season looks pretty cruisy on paper with some good opportunities for cheap wins to keep the pressure off the coaching staff and the young list.
AFL ready midfield rookies are few and far between
SuperCoach players don’t need to be reminded of this but there doesn’t seem to be many from this year’s draft crop ready to step up and deliver the goods come round 1.
One theme we have observed is that there is a lot of players who, if they can return to their best will be needle movers for their respective teams.
A few that have impressed us so far are Sam Powell-Pepper, Brandon Parfitt and Jake Barrett.
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Clayton Oliver is ready to make the leap for the Demons.
Oliver has had a terrific JLT series and looks set to make the leap to the next stage for the Demons and start really affecting the outcome of games like Jack Viney did last year.
Playing alongside the likes of Vince, Viney, Bugg, Tyson, Jones and now Jordan LewisĀ means Oliver can slot in seamlessly with the limelight on the bigger name players.
Keep an eye on him and if he and a few other of the Demon fringe players can make the leap they’ll more than likely make the finals.
What have you learned from the JLT Community Series?
Be sure to share your thoughts with us on social media and check out our AFL Betting Preview for the season.
We’ll be back prior to Round 1 with all of our bets and information for the first round of games.
Good punting!