Following our exes...................

[Stevo]

Joel Hamling to finally debut for Sydney after a year on the list. His first AFL game since 2023 and only his 7th since 2019.

Good for the Hammer

[The Underdog]

BTC picked for the Dees.
Eker legend. Go Big Tom.

[Bornadog]

BTC picked for the Dees.
Eker legend. Go Big Tom.

Should have kept him as backup. Good luck to him

[Axe Man]

BTC picked for the Dees.
Eker legend. Go Big Tom.

Meant to pour down on Sunday and Melbourne have loaded up on talls.

Edit: BTC didn't get a game

[The Underdog]

Meant to pour down on Sunday and Melbourne have loaded up on talls.

Edit: BTC didn't get a game

Weird, he wasn’t on the bench at all on the AFL website earlier. He was at CHF so assumed he was in, but now he’s an emergency.
At least I can hate Melbourne again…

[Mofra]

Nice work St Kilda media:

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[chef]

Macrae having a pretty good game so far. Nice to see.

[Bumper Bulldogs]

Honestly o really pleased and happy for both Jack McCrae and Caleb Daniel who both are enjoying great start to the years at new clubs. This looks like a win win for all three clubs and players

[Axe Man]

Billy Gowers’ NFL dream a step closer

Billy Gowers this week became the latest mature-aged AFL player to be lured as a punter to a US college.

Gowers, 28, the goalkicking barber who played 33 games and kicked 39 goals for the Western Bulldogs from 2018-20, will join the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors in May as their sole punter.

JA: How did you go from Aussie rules with Port Melbourne (Gowers was the VFL’s leading goalkicker last season with 50) to punting for the Rainbow Warriors?

BG: I’d never watched the game or been interested in it, but I had a conversation with my old man (Andy, president of Hawthorn FC) in July last year and ended up going for a trial kick with Prokick’s Nathan Chapman at Glenferrie Oval in August last year.

JA: Tell me about your journey since leaving Xavier College in 2014?

BG: I was at Carlton for two years after school but ultimately wasn’t good enough. Then I went to the Western Bulldogs in 2017 and got drafted. I played for three years and then got delisted during the Covid hub, so I went to Southport on the Gold Coast for two years. I moved back to Old Xaverians in the VAFA for a few games before playing with my mates at Moe and then Port last year?

JA: Having watched you since your school years, I have never worked out why you didn’t play more AFL, given your obvious X-factor explosive qualities?

BG: I probably fell out of love with the game for a multitude of reasons. But I’m in a really good spot now and have learnt not to put all my eggs in one basket. Owning a barber shop was my nine-to-five job and training for footy at Port became my fun time. At AFL I didn’t have enough from outside to focus on.

JA: Was there a catalyst for change?

BG: I was diagnosed high level ADHD, which explains why coaches had issues with my concentration during games and meetings. Self-discovery made me a far better player over the last three years than during my time with the Bulldogs. I wasn’t mentally mature enough. If I started my AFL career knowing what I know now, I feel I would have done a lot better.

JA: You have made fast inroads with Prokick?

BG: I don’t feel like that given I have a super impatient personality. But you are right, my route has been quicker than most although being older I’ve already done a lot of strength work, development.

JA: How does someone with an impetuous personality go with punting, where you might only be involved once a game?

BG: While I love action, that will be going on around me and I’m a moments person where I like the idea of being called upon to produce. I’ll get my chance to show some flair. But it will take a while to get used to not always being involved.

JA: Have you picked up the nuances of your new code?

BG: A lot of it’s hang-time. I kick mainly spirals (torpedos) rather than rollouts (drop punts).

JA: How cool to get a placement with the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors at the University of Hawaii?

BG: My partner Ava has been to Hawaii and loved it so I can’t wait. My way to break down some barriers will be to offer some free haircuts (laughter). We’ll move in May with the first game in August.

JA: Tell me about Prokick.

BG: I have reached out to as many people as possible for information, something I wouldn’t have done when I was younger. Prokick is really well run, so specific in terms of biomechanics with your actual kick. The number of placements they get for their punters is crazy.

JA: Your long-term dream is the NFL?

BG: Yes, but that is a long way off and I have to learn so much about the game, which I’m doing every day. Playing last year with Port got my mindset into a professional way. It does also feel like I’ve been training for years for it.

[Bornadog]

Good Luck to Billy

[soupman]

Gowers was diabolical to support when he played for us, but geez the further that is in the past the fonder I am of him. No kidding he struggled with concentration in games.

[Hotdog60]

Former Western Bulldog Aiden O’Driscoll not giving up on AFL dream, seeks second opinion on medical retirement



Medically retired AFL youngster Aiden O’Driscoll is refusing to sign documents that will end his dream of playing football again and is seeking more opinions and brain scans in a bold bid to make an incredible comeback to the game he loves.

The third member of his family to enter the AFL behind brother Nathan and sister Emma at Fremantle, Aiden was badly concussed during Western Bulldogs training in January 2024.

O’Driscoll met with the AFL’s Independent Medical Concussion Panel in May last year and was advised “to retire from contact sports in the interests of his long-term health and wellbeing”.

The league has placed an added emphasis on concussion amid former players taking legal action over the impact of head injuries during their careers and the discovery of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in some ex-players’ brains after they passed away.

O’Driscoll joined players such as West Coast pair Brad Sheppard and Daniel Venables, Melbourne’s Angus Brayshaw and Collingwood’s Nathan Murphy in being forced to quit the game due to concussion.

Those men won AFL premierships, but O’Driscoll never got the chance to play a game because he was in his first season on an AFL list.

The 19-year-old, who grew up in Northam, has moved back to Perth but unlike other medical retirees, hasn’t experienced the debilitating symptoms — such as constant headaches — which impact on quality of life.

He has been offered a financial payout as compensation for not playing but won’t sign those forms until he gets another brain scan to learn if micro bleeds have healed.



“I’ve been to a specialist and he reckons I’m completely fine to come back. He said because I’m so young, the brain heals by itself and it has enough reserve. If I was to cop another concussion, he reckons it would be completely fine,” O’Driscoll told The Sunday Times.

“There’s other opinions that reckon not to play. Obviously the AFL want to cover their arse as well because they don’t want anyone to sue, which is fair enough.

“I haven’t signed anything off. There’s a couple of payouts on the cards. I could sign up to them and then it would be all over. It says I won’t be able to play at any level again if I sign those.

“If I don’t sign them, I could play. I could play right now. Some opinions say I can. Some opinions say I can’t, so at the moment I am just holding off.”

O’Driscoll has had advice that the micro bleeds in his brain could heal due to his youth. But the AFL won’t let him play with the micro bleeds.

He has been recommended to visit a Melbourne-based specialist who helped to reduce debilitating concussion symptoms in multiple retired AFL players, and then get another brain scan.

He hasn’t had a brain scan for more than months, but the Bulldogs have advised O’Driscoll that he is no longer eligible to receive funds for additional scans, so he is considering his options.



“I want to see if it has healed,” O’Driscoll said.

“If there’s a way to get them healed, I’d be back in no time. That’s what I want to do before I call it quits. I’m going to live with regrets if I don’t see this guy and don’t get another scan. I need to know.

“There are no symptoms. That’s the bad part. That’s the problem. I’ve never had any symptoms or anything. It’s almost like I’ve been praying every day for something to happen for me to get back to playing football whether it is local, WAFL or any league.

“Just the fact that it’s all (been) taken away and I can never play footy again, that’s the hard part.

“Seeing my brother and sister be at the AFL level as well, I just want to get back out there. It seems a bit weird that I won’t be able to play footy again when I’m watching the game and I see all these concussions and these blokes are allowed to keep playing.



“It’s my first concussion. It just doesn’t seem right. It’s a weird one to swallow. I feel completely fine. I honestly feel like I could go out there right now, without even being fully fit and kick a couple of goals in the WAFL.”

O’Driscoll will attend Sunday’s game between the Bulldogs and Fremantle at Optus Stadium to cheer on his ex-Bulldogs teammates and his brother at the Dockers.

He is also keeping involved in football by working as a runner for the Perth Football Club. He said it had been difficult to adjust to no longer being a footballer.

“It sounds weird, but only professional athletes will understand. Once you’re out of the system, no one really texts you. That’s just the industry,” he said.

“Some days are hard, and some days are unreal. You’ve just got to keep positive and keep yourself busy. When you’re not busy, the train of thought comes back and you just reminisce about things that you shouldn’t.

“It’s a good thing to think positive. What’s the next option? What life brings, you never know. I’ve been hitting the gym a lot. That’s good for the mental health. If I’ve got nothing to do for the day, I just go to the gym for a couple of hours and pump some iron. It makes you feel good about yourself.”

Blessed with pace, he has also committed to chasing an athletic career if he never gets the chance to play football again.

O’Driscoll has a 100m personal best of 10.6 seconds during training and has set himself the goal of representing Australia.



“That’s the long-term goal,” O’Driscoll said. “Short-term is to just enjoy it, but I definitely want to work my way up. I know what I’m capable of. I know I’ve got pace to burn.

“On the footy field, that was my best asset. It’s a different type of training. It’s literally just sprint-focused, whereas in AFL it’s about a lot of repeat efforts.

“I am pretty fast. My best time is 10.6 at training. That was last year. If I grind for this year, I reckon I could get down to 10.4. That’s a big difference.

“I believe that nothing is impossible. I’m from a country town and made the big league. I’ve made a professional sport already. Anything is possible. I’m willing to put in the work. I’ll just keep a positive mindset, keep an open mind and I reckon I can get there.”

LINK

[Grantysghost]

It really did all feel a little too fast to me.

[jazzadogs]

Weird situation, I had always assumed he had severe symptoms to be kept away from training and medically retired?

Given we haven't retired Libba or Scott, you can't say that we've been extra cautious because of Picken. It's strange.

Good luck to him - great that he doesn't have symptoms, and hopefully he can build an AFL or athletics career.

[Dogs 24/7]

He was getting some good reviews from our training watchers. Lets hope he can find a cure for it or find something else he is passionate about.