There’s a million ways to win a game of football, but only three broad ways to win the ball. The potential of football is only truly unlocked when a team gains control of the ball. Without the ball, you can’t score. As HPN has written in the past, football is
Continue reading »Isabel Huntington is fulfilling her enormous promise, but is it enough for the Dogs?
If the concept of the draft brings renewal to a sporting team, then having the number one pick provides immediate hope. In the history of the AFLW to date, the Western Bulldogs have lived at the top end of the draft more than any club, selecting two players at number
Continue reading »The 2020 HPN Consensus Phantom Draft
It feels like the Grand Final was just yesterday. The trade period may have just finished a couple of hours ago. If the 2020 AFL Home and Away season was the longest on record, then the 2020 Offseason has felt incredibly short. In just a few short hours time, the
Continue reading »Melbourne keep pick swapping away
Within all the hubub of player exchange, Melbourne continued their efforts to trade into the 2020 draft as discussed earlier. According to Draftguru the Demons only have a very limited number of list spots. As a result, Melbourne has converted their lower picks down the order to a small number
Continue reading »Jeremy Cameron makes AFL free agency history
Free agency has been a part of the modern AFL since 2012, and in its ninth season, we have seen a first. Free agency, in its current form, comes in three parts. The first is unrestricted free agency, and grants a player who has been at their club at least
Continue reading »Nick Hinds his own business in the move back to The Hangar
There’s always a couple of surprising names thrown up in the trade window who sometimes attract the attention of a couple of clubs. Often these names never rise above whispers, drowned out by the shouting about stars. After the big moves and drama of the final hours of the trade
Continue reading »Adam Treloar and the pain of the Total Player Payments cap
During every season list managers and club staff have to work out their wants against their needs when it comes to players. This happens not only to external players and potential draftees, but also internally. Clubs might organise their list on a whiteboard or computer into a few columns, shifting
Continue reading »Good Jye – Caldwell heads to the Dons
All AFL players, especially those picked up at the pointy end of the draft, burn to play at the top level. It’s easier for most to find a solid footing in bottom teams than to break into a perennial finalist. GWS drafted Jye Caldwell at pick 11 in 2018 –
Continue reading »Tom Phillips booted from a moving car somewhere near Waverley
Not all of the motivation for moving players is transparent to fans and the media on the outside of the TPP bubble. Players are sometimes traded for slightly more or less than what their true value would be considered to be. With the trade of Tom Phillips to Hawthorn, the
Continue reading »As he moves to Port Adelaide, Orazio reminds us it’s pronounced “Fantasia”
After two years of speculation, small forward Orazio Fantasia has headed back to Adelaide, and more specifically Port Adelaide, to try to get a fresh start on his career. Fantasia has long shown glimpses of being amongst the best at his role in the league, but has been unable to
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