Banchang's Mitch Robinson pictured at the Barcrawlers Pre-Seaon training. Mitch is coming back from injury and is looking in great shape for the upcoming season...
It's never plain sailing for The Barcrawlers. In the same training session that the above photo of Mitch Robinson was taken strutting his stuff, young midfielder Harrison Wigg tripped over a bowl of noodles left out by one of the Thai masseuses, and unfortunately fractured his ankle. The Barcrawlers Dr. Suranthanee Suwanwimolkul estimates Wigg to be out of action to mid-June....
The management of Banchang Barcrawlers wish to thank their counterparts at Nuytsland for their wonderful support in designing their new 2018 Avatar.....
The Pre-season Draft proper moves into top gear tomorrow at 8am Eastern and so far Banchang has exercised their Number 1 Pick and taken Luke Davies-Uniacke, a young 18yo midfielder (187cm 85kg), a graduate of the NAB AFL Academy who is a strong-bodied medium midfielder with a good burst of speed from stoppages. He uses his excellent vision and decision-making to set up play and should be a great asset for Banchang's midfield for the next 10 years. With 3 Picks (#32 #34 #38) still to come, Banchang looks forward to selecting 3 more exciting young footballers.
The PSD has concluded for Banchang and we were able to achieve exactly the players we had targeted prior to commencement. Following on from attaining one of the best young midfielders available with our 1st pick, in LDU, we were then able to acquire 3 young men, who should all be great assets in the years ahead. At #32 we got another defender in Ed Vickers-Willis, 21yo, with 7 games under his belt, and who will help the transition when a few of the older blokes change position or retire. At #34 we targeted a Ruck to add depth to that position and were able to grab Wylie Buzza, also a 21yo at 198cm 102kg R/F who should improve on his 6 games in 2017. At #38, our last pick saw young 20yo Jordan Dawson F/M, join Banchang. Jordan is 190cm 84kgs and should help supplement both positions as he improves on his 1 game from 2017. Overall, Banchang welcomes all four players to The Land of Smiles and wish them all as much success as they wish upon themselves.... sawasdee khrap...
Selection Committees aren't the only ones who get things wrong. Our Doctor has got this one very wrong, and young Harrison Wigg is presently back running and will be involved in contact drills in the coming weeks, hopefully being available for selection by Rounds 3-4. And Mitch Robinson has continued with his pre-season recovery by having a very productive weekend just gone, in the first official games for 2018. Meanwhile in not so good news, Hugh Greenwood will struggle to be ready by Rd 1.
The Pre-season games have come and gone and an Injury update is listed here. HANLEY......dislocated his shoulder and will probably miss 3-4 games. WRIGHT.....calf strain and in doubt for Rd1. KNIGHT......ankle surgery and will miss 4-5 games WIGG..........recovering from ankle surgery, is back running, but won't be available Rd1. DAWSON....has gone missing, hasn't attended any training sessions at the Stadium and is suspected of falling for a Thai girl, and gone bush. His family and Thai Police have been notified. He should be located rather quickly as once he discovers her mother doesn't have a sick buffalo and his girl finds out Rookies don't get paid much, then he'll be cut loose and he'll be able to resume training.
IMPRESSIVE Banchang backman Tom Doedee is the round two nominee for the NAB AFL Rising Star award. Doedee collected 25 disposals and 11 intercept possessions in the Barcrawlers victory against Blanchetown over the weekend.
INJURY UPDATE. REID: .............Quad........ 8-10 weeks PICKETT:.......Wrist......... 9 weeks HANLEY:........Shoulder....12 weeks DAWSON:......Quad..........6 weeks ADAMS:.........Hamstring...1-2 weeks WRIGHT:........Calf.............1-2 weeks KNIGHT:.........Avail. WIGG:............Avail HIGGINS:.......TBC............Personal Things are not looking too good for the Barcrawlers this round, up against the visiting Bulls from Staghorn Flat @tyze1 , and already 0-4 from our last 4 meetings. It will take a huge effort from the lads to get a win.....
Once again, Banchang has benefitted from their playing relationship with the Adelaide Crows. At the end of season Awards night, both Hugh Greenwood and Tom Doedee collected multiple awards, while mid-season signing Patrick Wilson won the SANFL best player award....list management is now considering elevating Wilson from the Rookie list. Greenwood finished 5th in the MVP Award with 140 pts, behind Blanchetown's Rory Laird, and 1 point behind in 6th, was Tom Doedee, both players also figured prominently in other awards. Players' Trademark award: Tom Doedee Dr Brian Sando OAM award: Tom Doedee Mark Bickley Emerging Talent award: Tom Doedee Banchang's Children's Foundation Community Leadership award: Hugh Greenwood State League club champion award: Patrick Wilson The 3 Banchang players now have a well earned rest and look forward to returning to pre-season training iin readyness for the upcoming 2019 ORFFU season. @martyg
With the Barcrawlers now finished in the PSD, the playing roster for 2019 is listed below. DEF: SUCKLING HANLEY JONAS KENNEDY... DOEDEE BARRASS EVW IMPEY WIGG MID: HIGGINS CUNNINGTON ADAMS LYONS...GREENWOOD LANGDON LDU DAWSON RUC: SINCLAIR...SWEET CAMERON FWD: REID ROBINSON DAHLHAUS WRIGHT... CORBETT SEXTON GRAY SWITKOWSKI NEW VISAS ISSUED: CUNNINGTON DAHLHAUS KENNEDY SWEET CORBETT SWITKOWSKI DEPORTED: TUOHY NEWMAN MATERA BUZZA KNIGHT WILSON
A lot of water has gone under the bridge since the last post BUT.... 2020 Club Champion – Sam Collins Sam Collins has claimed his maiden Club Champion award after a stellar season in defence for the Banchang Barcrawlers. Sam Collins has claimed his maiden Club Champion award after a stellar season in defence for the Banchang Barcrawlers. Collins seized the lead in Round 9 after polling 37 votes for his role in the match against KING ISLAND where he had five intercept marks and seven tackles. From there he held on with another couple of strong performances in Rounds 10 and 14. . He played 9 games and finished the year ranked second in the league for intercept possessions, averaging 7.1 per game. The 26-year-old also finished in the top five for intercept marks in 2020, totalling 46 for the year. Collins has been tasked with playing on the best key forwards in the ORFFU this year and has rarely been beaten in his contests. The honour of being Club Champion caps off an impressive year for Collins who was also voted into the leadership group for the first time in 2020
This didn't age too well, but 2 out of 4 ain't bad.............as Meatloaf's younger brother was heard to say...
In a Covid affected off-season, Banchang has made 7 changes to their playing list ahead of the 2021 pre-season Draft. Both Sam Lloyd and Matthew Suckling made the decision to pull up stumps and return home, while Darcy Cameron was traded to Sthn. Cross, and Shaun Higgins and Brayden Sier went to Christmas Island in a swap for Robbie Gray, who has signed a 1yr contract with the Barcrawlers, and a swap of picks, and Callum Sinclair was traded to Hughenden to assist with the rejuvenation of their Ruck dept. We were also able to trade in Jamie Elliott from Serengeti, who will play mainly forward with a few games in the midfield, and Jackson Nelson from Cow Bay, who adds depth to our backline. And today, both Mitch Hibberd and Paul Ahern were de-listed and will return to the Mainland. M. Suckling....Retired S.Lloyd....Retired B.Sier....Traded D.Cameron....Traded S.Higgins....Traded C.Sinclair....Traded N.Answerth....Traded P.Ahern....De-listed M.Hibberd....De-listed. And in further trading news, we have managed to trade Answerth to Christmas Island for Hamish Hartlett, who becomes our 4th traded in player.
EMERGING midfielder Luke Davies-Uniacke sparkled as The Barcrawlers hit the track on Friday for an intraclub clash, with a calf issue keeping important recruit Robbie Gray on the sidelines. Davies-Uniacke, who has noticeably added extra strength to his frame, caught the eye throughout Banchang's hour-long contest of four shortened quarters with some explosive runs and damaging bursts playing in the 'Crawlers' midfield. The 21-year-old shapes as one of the Barcrawlers' biggest improvers ahead of his fourth season at AFL level, with his speed and power adding a different edge to Banchang's onball group. Veteran Ben Cunnington was involved in the session early before watching the remainder from the coaches' area at The Stadium's headquarters. After the group training was completed Cunnington, who is returning from his debilitating back injury last season, did more running loads and looks in fine shape for the ensuing season.
At the 1st Banchang Intra Club trial match since the PSD, Pick #47 Connor Downie furthered his claims for a round one debut. Downie played in the Barcrawler's Red team and impressed on the wing, particularly in the early stages of the game, with his booming left foot and burst. Asst coach, Iamah Gunnagettakik, said the 18-year-old had shown his wares across the pre-season so far. "He's a really focused young lad and is soaking up all the information," he said. "His workrate up and down the ground has been a strong suit, so that was a pleasing little step for him today. Another report from the game....... "Connor Downie switched between wing, mid and forward for the Red team and was excellent in all roles. He beat Langdon on a wing, kicked a couple of goals as a forward and was not out of his depth as a mid. He has very much put himself forward for a spot in Rd 1". Also from the same game, Pick #42 Tyler Brockman playing as a small forward for Brown was excellent again today. He even went down back in the second half for a while and was very good. He is composed and is an elite kick. From a 2nd source, "Meanwhile draftee Tyler Brockman was a standout for the Brown – the 18-year-old’s pace and creativity with ball in hand was on show." Brockman named BOG for the Brown Another one that I would pencil in for Rnd 1 or very early debut. Dahlhaus out Brockman in???
With just under 1 week to our first game, the majority of our List has been training very well in preparation for the long season ahead. However injury niggles to a few players have put their selection for Rd1 in doubt. Ben Cunnington is still recovering from concussion and is our most serious case, along with Hartlett (hammy), while both Doedee and Dahlhaus played limited time in the last pre-season game, so might be a bit underdone, which opens the door for new boy Nelson (traded in from Cow Bay) to play down back, and up forward young excitement machine Tyler Brockman in his 1st game in the big league, to play alongside "2metre Peter" Wright, who didn't manage a game in 2020. Taylor Adams came thru today's hit out without a hitch and is a lock for Rd1. With one more solid training session to take place early next week, 26 or our 28 players have a chance to be selected for our first game against the Eden Whalers.
As we approach December, and with Draft and Trading no doubt getting under way in few weeks time, the Barcrawlers Management decided to unfurl the Premiership Flag with all current players in attendance, prior to any retirements, trades or de-listing. A Club dinner was held at The Stadium yesterday evening and the flag was raised, much to the delight of all in attendance.....