{"id":71134,"date":"2020-08-20T19:09:53","date_gmt":"2020-08-20T09:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/afl.draftcentral.localhost\/?p=71134"},"modified":"2020-08-21T07:28:45","modified_gmt":"2020-08-20T21:28:45","slug":"draft-central-all-star-team-western-jets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2020\/08\/20\/draft-central-all-star-team-western-jets\/","title":{"rendered":"Draft Central All-Star Team: Western Jets"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE WESTERN Jets have produced some all-time greats of the game, while also laying claim to the production of a bunch of current elite level stars. In this All-Star Team of the AFL Era, Draft Central<\/em> takes a look at how the best possible Jets side would line up, with a good field of players to select from over the last three decades.<\/p>\n

THE TEAM<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Bombers fans should get a good hint of nostalgia with legendary premiership players Dustin Fletcher<\/strong> and Matthew Lloyd<\/strong> making up the spine of our side. There are a good number of medium-small types who have provided plenty of highlights in their time, particularly in the forward half, with versatility a handy attribute of the squad overall. Remarkably, 11 of the selected players are still in the midst of their AFL careers, as a good boom across the 2000s lifted the region’s standing. The team as a whole, particularly the starting 18 is strong on all three lines, and stands up among many of the other Victorian metro programs.<\/p>\n

DEFENCE<\/strong><\/h5>\n

As mentioned, 400-gamer Fletcher slots in at full back to anchor the side, and is surrounded by some pretty handy support. The half-back flank pairing of Bachar Houli<\/strong> and James Sicily<\/strong> would prove a phenomenon in any modern-day lineup, with the former a two-time premiership player and one-time All Australian, while the latter is already a Hawthorn fan favourite. Two more current players, Adam Kennedy<\/strong> (GWS) and Kyle Hartigan<\/strong> (Adelaide) also earned their spots for over 100 games at the top level, along with former Demon, Daniel Ward<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

MIDFIELD<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Our proposed midfield core is strong, and features one of the more underrated players of the 2000’s, Heath Scotland<\/strong> at its heart. The former Pie and Blue was perhaps better known for his work off half-back and on the outside, but won plenty of ball and is the perfect leader to follow in the engine room.<\/p>\n

He’s joined by expansion club marquees Callan Ward<\/strong> and Michael Rischitelli<\/strong> at the centre bounces, with both adding to the hardness of the side. Ward continues to go strong despite injury troubles, while Rischitelli has recently retired. Majak Daw<\/strong> is the ruckman they’ll feed off, with his journey back into the North Melbourne side one of the greatest sporting stories of the year.<\/p>\n

On the wings, former Shannon Grant<\/strong> of Sydney and North Melbourne fame is joined by maligned Bulldog Lachie Hunter<\/strong>. Both are able to rotate through slightly different roles, but feature on the outside of a relatively solid midfield group.<\/p>\n

FORWARD<\/strong><\/h5>\n

You’d be hard pressed to find a much better full forward to base your attack around than Lloyd, who is the centrepiece of an exciting six-man forwardline. At his feet is Brad Johnson<\/strong>, one of the Western Bulldogs’ greatest players of all time. Not only did the pair boot nearly 1500 goals between them over their careers, but they also co-hosted the Auskick’n Around TV show on Fox Footy during the early-2000’s.<\/p>\n

Johnson’s long-time teammate Daniel Giansiracusa<\/strong> features at half-forward, while current players Cam Rayner<\/strong> and Will Hoskin-Elliott<\/strong> bring some high-marking power and goal sense to the forward 50. Mature-aged success story and four-club veteran James Podsiadly<\/strong> rounds out the six, slotting in at centre half-forward as a very handy key position option.<\/p>\n

DEPTH<\/strong><\/h5>\n

A pair of Port Adelaide players have snuck in on the bench, with young livewire Zak Butters<\/strong> joining ‘The Cannon’ Trent McKenzie<\/strong> as solid depth. Josh Mahoney<\/strong> and Craig Ellis<\/strong> were solid players in their day and get a look-in, while cult figures Ty Zantuck<\/strong> and Lance <\/strong>Picioane<\/strong> also make the cut-off, certain to bring even more nostalgia to 90’s kids. Brent Prismall<\/strong> was a player right on the precipice, while the likes of Liam Duggan<\/strong>, Jayden Laverde<\/strong>, Corey Ellis<\/strong> and Daniel Venables<\/strong> could all enter the fold in future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE WESTERN Jets have produced some all-time greats of the game, while also laying claim to the production of a bunch of current elite level stars. In this All-Star Team of the AFL Era, Draft Central takes a look at how the best possible Jets side would line up, with a good field of players […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":71140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11797,7949,8,11598],"tags":[14072,4178,11732,4027,2067,14079,8919,14074,10162,13950,14075,14078,973,3565,14073,14077,14081,1193,2497,7446,14076,9757,14080,41,14071,14070,1931,2415],"class_list":["post-71134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-star-teams","category-nab-league","category-news","category-western-jets","tag-adam-kennedy","tag-bachar-houli","tag-brad-johnson","tag-callan-ward","tag-cam-rayner","tag-craig-ellis","tag-daniel-giansiracusa","tag-daniel-ward","tag-draft-central","tag-dustin-fletcher","tag-heath-scotland","tag-james-podsiadly","tag-james-sicily","tag-josh-mahoney","tag-kyle-hartigan","tag-lachie-hunter","tag-lance-picioane","tag-majak-daw","tag-matthew-lloyd","tag-michael-rischitelli","tag-shannon-grant","tag-trent-mckenzie","tag-ty-zantuck","tag-western-jets","tag-western-jets-afl-draft","tag-western-jets-all-star-team","tag-will-hoskin-elliott","tag-zak-butters"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}