Cal Twomey names his 'best value' player in the competition

0:00It's Monday, March 16th, I'm Josh Gavallich and this is AFL Daily. The Stephen King era begins in style. What actually is margin compression and is Nick Watson the best value for money player in 2026. I'm joined by Keltumi as I will every Monday afternoon. This season is part of a new look AFL Daily crew in 2026. Keltumi won place to start and that is in the post game press conferences at the MCG on Friday night. Good to be here with you, Josh. Yes, the AFL has a MC issue and it's not that Pete Lazer has pulled out of a function or anything like that. By MC I'm talking about margin compression. Let's take a listen to what Brad Scott said on Friday night after a 62 point loss to Hawthorne. I think it's going to be very, very hard to contain very good sides.

1:02There's no doubt about that. Is that good for the game? Probably. Is that good for the AFL talk about margin compression? Well, best of luck with that when the best play teams that are for a young and inexperienced and perhaps struggling for one reason or another. So far in 14 completed matches, we've had five games decided by more than 50 points. Now, last year we had a two-tier competition. I've got worries that we're heading down the same track again this year already because I look at the latter and the latter now is segmented into three different bits on AFL.com. But I think you can already have real concerns around West Coast, Eston and Port Adelaide, Richmond, Carlton, all being prominently in that bottom six to seven spots on the latter. Now I think the challenge of getting better has taken longer. We've spoken to coaches across the preseason. I spoke to Brad Scott in an interview in February, right?

2:03He spoke to Alistair Clarkson. He recently lamented the ability to actually get yourself off the bottom of the latter. I think the early part of this year would have to be a concern around the blowouts and the fact that these new rules are making it even easier for the better skilled teams and more experienced teams to get going. I think it's really going to be really hard to stop and we saw that over the weekend and Brad Scott's Eston and found it difficult to stop the Hawks on Friday. That was his point, wasn't it, that it's on the back of these seven rule changes. It's difficult if you are rebuilding, if you're a young inexperienced list to stop scores. And we've seen that early. And Cal, this is on the back of what the AFL did in November last year. In November 10 to be precise, they announced the introduction of a Wildcard finals round. That was on the back of last year. We saw the Western Bulldogs been 14 games and miss out on September. But below the Western Bulldogs, there was a significant drop off. I know Sydney finished on 12 wins, but they were poor for their standard. We've never seen a bigger golf between the haves and halves knots.

3:04No, I think you're right. And the ability to get up the latter now is going to become even more difficult by virtue of the fact we've got a new team entering the competition at the end of next year. The picks that are going to be wiped out over the next couple of seasons. And good players, they might be up for grabs, but they don't want to go to bad teams. It's getting harder to attract people to bad teams because everyone's got money to keep the good players at their own clubs. Although they've got good enough money elsewhere. Yeah, they might not all take the big deals, but they'll take a big enough deal to go somewhere that's looking like being a successful team. So it's just something that over the first round and a half, I'd have to say the blow-outs is at a higher level than I think most would have hoped and expected, because the reality was last year's final season was really good. It probably wasn't the type of consuming season though across the board. Speaking of MCs, great to see a day, Boo, on Saturday night at the MCG, in the form of Oleg Markov calling on his new MC in 2026 now, Kelly, who's your favourite MC? I'm an Oligio man, he dominates Fist and Kielder and it's got a massive profile, doesn't

4:06he for that role? He does, I think he'd keep the goal out there with Nas. He was the first out. He was. He was the first out. Yeah, clearly yesterday was the dawn of a new year at Melbourne, Kiel, when you consider the mass change from top to bottom last year, not just in the playing ranks, but also from president to CEO to a new head of strategy. But the big one, of course, was the senior coach. Stephen King won his first role at the age of 47, got the keys to his own team for the first time, and we saw a different Melbourne yesterday at the MCG, didn't we? I loved it. I mean, it was quick. It was fast. It was exciting. It looked really free. Didn't it? And the obvious thing for a new coach is to come in and do what wasn't working beforehand. Now, this has been a team over the past couple of years that has been strangled in terms of its scoring. I think if you'd been able to kick 12 to 13 goals against Melbourne, you'd largely win. So what we saw in Round 1 against Kielder was one of the great games. I think it'll be, if the year really, perfect conditions at MCG, back and forth, back and

5:07forth in front of a pretty good crowd on a Sunday afternoon. So I think what we saw as well was a new breed of demons who are embarking up on that next year, and it's not just about Caleb Windsor and Colton Tholestrup, who are top 15 picks, but Harry Sharper thought played his best game for Melbourne. I thought Shankuth Jeyath as a pick-up over Summer Diddy's job, Jack Steele, Diddy's job, and then of course it was the Max Gorn moment as well against Tom Dukoning, who just couldn't match the fight and power of one of the best ever. I'm interested, though, from your perspective, because you interviewed Stephen King really racially in the past couple of weeks. What did you learn about spending some time with him and the demons around how he wants his time to play, and whether this style was going to be sustainable? Well, I spoke to Stephen King just under seven days ago. Last Tuesday morning inside Amy Park at about 45 minutes with him, and he said Melbourne for a long time have been known as a great contest team, we've seen that with those champion

6:09premiership midfielders. That premiership also was built from the back line when you looked at the acquisition of Stephen May and Jake Lever, but under Stephen King, he wants to be known for being really aggressive. And 18 man attack, demon football, that's how he described it to me, and that was on the back of a high scoring opening round. He believes that if he can't score 100 points, he can't win. And we did see that yesterday because Steele just scored 107 points and lost, so I think we can expect him to be very aggressive this year, and we saw a glimpse of LaTrial Pickett. Cal, tell us about him because there were three new recruits out there. You touched on CJ, Jack Steele, Brody Myche kick three goals. But LaTrial Pickett is someone who spent almost all of last year playing in the reserves at Sanford, at the age of 20, and then he went where he did on draft night, pick 12, and he looks like a 200-game AFL player. He does already, I mean, he's got Colt Hero and fan favorite written all over him already. It's actually going to be hard to see if a few kids jump off, cosy, going on to LaTrial

7:09for the number on the back, but it's so hard to find players with pace, isn't it? And Speed is the quantity that in any sport around the world is so hard to get because you can't just manufacture it. You've either got it or you don't, and he has it, and throwing the footy now, so it was one of the great debut goals, wasn't it? Not just in a debut game, but a debut first goal, and taking all the bounces, and that's what he did last year. He probably wasn't let free to roam up and down the ground as much last year playing in reserves. Well, he was probably deeper inside, 50 crumb, crumb the packs being the right spots, but he's got real running power, and you have to now as a small forward, so he's a dangerous player already, and yeah, I'm not expecting huge things of Melbourne this year, but I think if you get some good game time into him, a couple of the other names that we spoke about before, my Caleb Windsor is on the precipice of a really, really strong breakout season, had the infections last year, and he's in his foot, so some little niggling issues last year. Xavier Taylor will come in, he's one of my favorites from last year's draft, he'll play

8:11some good footy across this season, so don't forget as well, I've got two first round picks this year in the draft, too. They will stock them, and the turnaround could be quicker than we expected. On the back of, of course, the shoulders of a giant of the game, and Max Gorn was incredibly yesterday. Before we get to Max Gorn, just a quick one, because I went to Melbourne's briefing, and they brought up all their first round picks post-premiseship era. Jacob Van Ruin is one that has struggled. Last year, he spent three separate blocks playing for Casey in the VFL, this on the back of a great debut season, 28 goals, and he's second year at kick 30, just the 16 last year. Never kicked more than four guys before yesterday, he had five on the board at half time and finished with six. I mean. He was thinking double figures. Wasn't he? I mean, he just, he looks like a different player under Stephen King, and I was a small sample size, but the inclusion of Brody Mychek looked helpful as well. What did you make of that, because there has been so much pressure on this kid for so long? Well, yeah, there has been, and there's also been pressure on Melbourne to go and land a big key forward, right?

9:12They don't come around, and they've tried. They offered a five-year deal at very, very good money at Jake Waterman. He stayed at the Eagles. They made some inquiries about Tom Hawkins and even Tom Lynch a couple of years ago. Those guys don't move. The key forwards just don't tend to move clubs across free agency or trade. I mean, Lance Franklin, of course, one of the all-time moves, but beyond him, Lynch was one of the big names. Jeremy Cameron, Joe Danaher. Other than that, not many key forwards move clubs. So, they've tried some big pay deals at key forwards. They haven't been able to get it done, and maybe they've got the guy now internally that has the confidence, and he kicked the ball beautifully yesterday, and he looked leaner. He looked like he moved around the ground better, as did the whole demons outfit. There was a game within the game at the MCG yesterday, and involved the greatest ruckabin over the modern year against the man being paid. Like he has that resume in Tom DeCunning, Max Gorn, at 34, game number 248, he's still got it. Doesn't he? He's still going to be the man to beat when it comes to all Australian selection this year

10:14when he hunts that record-breaking ninth blazer, but what did you make of that matchup? Well, I got some numbers sent through last night when I was putting together the calculations column today, and I mean, I'd watch the game. Watch the game on Telly. You're not 100% sure on some of the numbers and data around time off the ground and all these things, because you only got a certain view of the game, don't you? If you're at the game, you'd be able to probably say it better, but it came onto the ground at the 16-minute mark of the third quarter and played the rest of it out. That's just incredible stuff. And our last quarter, it is. Last quarter of 10 disposals, five contestant touches, clearance, three inside of 50s, one score assist, three score involvements at a goal. I mean, that is a guy who's stepping up when he has to. Yeah, I mean, the game was there, wasn't it within the battle, as you mentioned. Is Dukani started pretty well, but go on, just thought stuff, and I'm going to run you ragged and he absolutely did, and there was a moment there when he did push forward, I think Jackson and Claire turn around and sort of looked and said, where are you about Tom Dukani, and he was five or ten meters off.

11:17Look, I've got no worries about Tom Dukani personally around then, yeah, spinning the money, but also going for him as a player, and I think he's going to be fine, but he went up against the old time, great there. He's been okay to start. Yeah. First thought night's been great, not great, it's been good, come up against Darcy Cameron and Max Scorn, just, it's got us thinking, yeah, because Max Scorn is clearly going to go down as one of the old time greats alongside Polly Farmer and Simon Madden and Gary Dempsey and these types, but where does he stack up in terms of the Ruckman this century? So post 2000, I think we need to have a bit of a draft here, just to sort of get through the top handful. All right, we're going to do three H, we'll do three H, you can have the first pick. Yep. I think, I don't know if it's nostalgia, maybe it's a little nostalgia, but you're not going to Max Scorn. I'm going to go with Den Cox. I think as a revolutionary Ruckman, he was, I don't know, one centimeter ahead of Max Scorn, but Jesus, it's close to him. It's time.

12:17Den Cox, six time all Australian, 290 games, one of the old time Rookieless successes, a Premiership player, best and furious, we know. The resume I've gone is going to stack up better, I've got it, mind you, mind you, mind you, mind you. The great Rookie picks of all time is Den Cox, I'll make this quick, I'll lock in Max Scorn with my pick. I'm going to go in. I'm going to go in. I'm going to go in with Nick Nutnex, the jumping king, the new rules would have suited it perfectly. Missed out on a flag with through injury, but three time all Australian. You? Aaron Sandelence. Yep. What he did at that size and stature, quite remarkable to think the durability over the journey. So I'm going to lock in Big Sandy. All right, last one for me, I'm going to lock in Max's former teammate. It's incredible to think now, isn't it, those two teammates. It's like a glitch in the foot of the universe that those two played together, it's one of those ones you just can't even remember happening, but Brody Grundy is my next pick. I'm going to go Ben McAvoy, and the Premierships get him across the line in this era. It's hard to move on past that top handful, I think there's a gap between him and the

13:20rest, between the top five and the rest, but Ben McAvoy, I just think the Premierships and the value during that famous three-peat needs to be outlined. Stick with us on IFL Daily. Up next, this man stands just 170 centimetres, he's only 21, he hasn't yet played 50 games, but he's Nick Watson, the best bang for buck player in the AFL. Hey, it's Luke Davis-Yunek from North Melbourne Football Club, subscribe to the AFL Daily podcast now, and never miss an episode. Welcome back to AFL Daily, now Kale, you watch Nick Watson a lot as a 17-year-old, as an 18-year-old playing, not just for Vic Metro and the Eastern Rangers, but for Kulfo Grammar in the APS. He is now doing what he was doing at school level, and I went with you ahead full of times a few years ago, and it was amazing to watch him play. You would have paid to go on watching play school fully, but we're now seeing him do that regularly at AFL level. But last night in your calculations column, you wrote that it's the best value for money player in the comp right now, explain that to me please. Well, he's in the third year of a standardized CBA deal, so think back to 2023.

14:26He was in that first group of players who, if you're picked inside the top 20 of that year's draft, you then had a compulsory or standardized three-year deal, previously forever, it had been two years, but that year it got increased to three, is under the new CBA that was introduced, so this year he's basically on about $290,000 in terms of his base payment, and then for every game you play a year in $5,000 a match payment, so the old matchy system still exists for those guys on that standardized deal. Got some ASA deal in there as well, so that's additional service agreements, obviously the most marketable player in the competition. He's got a little bit of help there, he's got a little bit of help there, but he's been able to do that. Getting a clip of the rotees around there, it's a missed opportunity for me, and I have it reminded him every single time I get that it might owe me a clip of those wizard intakes,

15:26but apart from that, so if you put it all together and he plays every game this year, it's about $500,000 a deal, but take it back to the set-based seller of $290,000 or so. This guy is going to be earning less than average pay, and he's performing at higher than average levels. He was excellent on Friday night, kick four goals against Destiny, and kick two against J.W.S.S. the previous week as one of Holton's best players in that pretty ordinary performance. If he does two game across this year, he's going to be pretty close to the $50 mark, and that'll put him right in contention to be an Australian. Last year, Cosy Pigg had kicked 40 goals, a little bit different because he was playing through the midfield more, but we're saying a little bit more of that from Watson as well this year. Jack Bailey had 33 in the home and away season, was an Australian half forward. Jamie Elliott was very unlucky last year, very, very unlucky, 52 goals in the home and away season. Watson's next deal starts at the end of this year. It's already signed. It'll get him to around that $850,000, $900,000 mark.

16:28We will become one of the Hawks top pay players. Right here right now, you have to say that he is one of the best value players in the competition, and the recruiters who spoke about him pre-draft and said he could kick 500 goals. I think they'd be happy and feel pretty comfortable about that prediction. Stephen Milne, territory now, and all Australian bonus would be handy, he's bottom line this year, but just on players playing above their paychecks this year, who would be in the conversation because it did get me thinking when you wrote this last night. Well, the other ones from that year's draft include, of course, Haley Reed, Colby McCurcher, Caleb Windsor, who've spoken about Dan Curtin, who would be another one if he was playing at the moment. Nate Caddy, Conor O'Sullivan, I mean, some of these guys are feeling pretty important roles, aren't they? And there's a guy at the Bulldogs as well who come out of that draft, who's a star already. Joe Frazier, of course, would have picked a pick, a pick, 45, and even some at the other end of their careers, the Daines of Orcos, Gonstons on that late extension for this

17:32year coming off in all Australians, so certainly playing above their pay grade this year. Now it's time, Kel, for this new segment that we are running in 2026 called The Stock Exchange. Kel, bear in mind that last week you were buying stocks in Errol Gould, and for good reason, given his preseason form and his performance first half in opening round. But now he's booked in for a shoulder reconstruction for four months, who are you buying stocks in this week and why? Well, no, I want to be bought by me now, will they? But I'm buying stocks in North Melbourne's first month. They have to be four zit, West Coast this week, then Estonan and Carlton in successive weeks at Marvel. After yesterday, which they got done, and Porta pretty ordinary, I thought, but North Melbourne should be four zit from here, what about you? Well, I'm buying stocks in Aaron Norton, and it's not just across the weekend.

18:33You look at his forms in Sam Darcy came back into that team in round 14 last year, 41 on the final 11 rounds of last year to be in the All Australian squad. Just missed out on selection, finished with 60 for the year, career year last year, now up to eight in the first two rounds, and just looks great, doesn't get probably the love because everyone's mesmerized by Sam Darcy, but he is a perfect partner with him and for a long time to come. Does Sam Darcy have another partner to come down the track as well, up basing off VFL performance? Well, it's just a glimpse of the future, and the expectations around Will Darcy's younger brother aren't anywhere near Sam Darcy, but it keeps four goals and a half against where it will be in a practice match with Futscrow on the weekend. There are some now that believe at the West of Bulldogs that he will play at some stage this year, tough team to break into, Jordan Kroff clearly ahead of him right now, but good start to the year for Will Darcy, so just want to keep an eye on who are you selling this week? I'm selling the 30-second shot clock, I've had enough of it. Now, I've copped a lot of flak for this suggestion on the socials, but you didn't put this

19:34up late on Sunday night? No, that's okay, that's okay, because it's been annoying me for a long time. Players have been taking the mic out of it for years, and in a time when we are finding every reason and any reason to cut down dead time or gap time in games, the example that I showed of Brody Camp taking Mark on the 50-meter line, spending 30 seconds to go back, take a deep breath, and then walk in, and then pass it, that shouldn't be allowed. I'm sick of it, and yeah, there's not a slot against Brody Camp, it's not a slot against any player who does it, because the A4 rules allow him and him to do it, but if you're drooping near, I'm positive like that, I think it should be surrendered the ball, and then I think we'll see it stop. So, I only take your time if you're going to actually have a shot, what about you? I am selling Collingwood's Ford Mix in 2026. I clearly need a key Ford, I sat in there, President's Function pregame on Saturday night in the Olympic room where the CEO Craig Kelly confirmed your story last week around Brody Grundy didn't use Brody Grundy's name, but did applaud Justin Lapish's list boss for clearing

20:38salary cap room last year to set them up to attack this year's free agency and the trade period. Again, been super aggressive haven't they in recent years, not so much last year. Lapish did say he's currently got a first round pick to play with, but he did say he will look to sell it. He was been quite flippant, but they might need to, no banking's a free agent, of course, but you look at their mix right now and they are building around team memory, Dan McStay and Jack Bullett, someone who they got in low cost last year from Sydney, but they've combined for two goals across the first two rounds of the season. They had a stack more inside 50s on the weekend. They beat Adelaide in the territory game, yet they just cannot connect. It's going to be an issue for them, isn't it? Yeah, it's gone. It's why Ben King has been a long-term target and you discussed this on Getable last week. That name is just not going to go away. Hasn't gone away for 18 months. I remember talking about on Getable 18 months ago and we knew that they'd be hot on that market. Something I'm holding before we get to our final segment, free medua, I think I'm okay

21:42with Saturday. I love the first quarter. I think they will be absolutely spewing that they threw that game away, but they're playing a very good team at a very hard venue to win. So I'm sticking with the dockers, but imagine if they were able to get away with the four points after that model would have really set them up. Absolutely agree. I'm still already on St Kilda. Oh, I know there's Zip and two, but they've been riding these first two games and the opposition hasn't been amazing in a start the year and the pressure is high, but the pressure is high, given what they did. Last October, they were super aggressive. Let's not panic after just two games. I'm holding on them. Last week we introduced another new segment for this year, something I'm watching. What are you watching this week? Bit of success last week as well. Sam Grill, you put on the radar. He had a good debut and also I thought he was really good and Max Kondo Giannis, we did say his hands to play on Friday night and there he was. That was the one that surprised me. I was a bit surprised that he got in ahead of Jacob Farrow, but Farrow won't be too far away at the moment. Something I'm watching this week, slightly different lens to this way, Josh.

22:47There's a watch on press conferences at Marvel in coming weeks because something peculiar popped up yesterday and it was Alice the Clarkson. He had to stand up. Usually we see those press combs they sit down and they take a deep breath. Why was he standing? Did you get to the bottom of this? Well, yes. There was some concerns around the seat, the stability and the loaners of the seat. That was an issue for him and it was a bit of an issue across the weekend. Scott, if it's jailed, the man behind the magic at Marvel, I'm sure we'll sort that out by the time the next Marvel game happens, but Bevo looked like he was about to sink when he was on there. Josh Karl looked pretty comfortable. Adam Kingslamp might be a little less so, but nonetheless, I've got to watch on the press conference as that's Marvel and hopefully no one else had to stand up in future weeks like Clarke could have because if he sat down, the Makers ball was going to be covering his face. Now we love Makers, a big fan of the Big Arch burger as well, but not for this one. There were some issues with the screen as well, so I think Adam Kingslamp wasn't thrilled

23:52about the setup on Saturday after a big loss. Was Adam Kingslamp thrilled about something else though because you delivered some news on Monday? On February 13th, Tom Green went down with an ACL and the expectation was he would miss the entire season, but his expectation is if the Giants play finals, he'll be there. That is his aim right now, clearly he's a month into rehab. It's very early for him to be a live chance, but that is his goal and that is his ambition and he's one of the great pros in the AFL, so if anyone can get there, he can get there and you look back to Sam Dockety only a couple of years ago, he went down and opening round, made it back in 183 days for that elimination final. Tom Green's got a bit more time to work with, might not be in the first week of September, but if GWS do progress, there's every chance he'll be there. Green shoots for September. That's all we've got time for on this Monday edition of AFL Daily. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode and don't miss tomorrow, we've got the round table back in here.