Yes, it really is silly season at the moment for football news. Most of the rehab groups at club training have dwindled down to nothing, the training drills are all the same day after day, and everyone’s “flying” if you read the mainstream press. Don’t laugh, there may actually be some merit to combing through the jumper numbers given to new recruits.
Rather than listing every jumper number, I’ll just list the ones that have changed or have been given out to new recruits. Full lists (including most of the rookies, which I haven’t included here) are accessible via the team links on the FanFooty front page.
Adelaide
Brent Reilly: 3 (was 33)
Phil Davis: 16
Thomas Lee: 30
Rory Sloane: 31
Patrick Dangerfield: 32 (was 19)
Jared Petrenko: 33 (was 42)
Shaun McKernan: 35
Will Young: 39
Brisbane
Daniel Rich: 10
Kieran King: 13
Todd Banfield: 18
Bart McCulloch: 25
Jack Redden: 30
Aaron Cornelius: 44
Carlton
Chris A. Johnson: 9 (was 17 at Melbourne)
Robert Warnock: 11 (was 34 at Fremantle)
Mitch Robinson: 12
Chris Yarran: 13
Rhys O’Keeffe: 20
Caleb Tiller: 35
Collingwood
John McCarthy: 3 (was 27)
Tyson Goldsack: 6 (was 38)
Anthony Corrie: 14 (was 30 at Brisbane)
Leigh Brown: 15 (was 16 at North Melbourne)
Dayne Beams: 17
Steele Sidebottom: 22
Jarrad Blight: 27
Brent Macaffer: 30
Luke Rounds: 37
Essendon
Brent Prismall: 9 (was 32 at Geelong)
David Zaharakis: 11
Sam Lonergan: 14 (was 36)
Hayden Skipworth: 21 (was 14 at Adelaide)
Michael Hurley: 22
Michael Still: 35
Tyson Slattery: 36
Fremantle
Garrick Ibbotson: 5 (was 35)
Nick Suban: 8
Marcus Drum: 9 (was 30)
Hayden Ballantyne: 17
Andrew Foster: 21 (was 40)
Zachary Clarke: 30
Stephen Hill: 32
Ben Bucovaz: 33
Chris Hall: 34
Tim Ruffles: 35
Michael Walters: 38
Geelong
Mitch Brown: 1
Tom Gillies: 25
Steven Motlop: 32
Taylor Hunt: 38
Hawthorn
Ryan Schoenmakers: 25
Liam Shiels: 26
Josh P. Kennedy: 32 (was 36)
Jordan Lisle: 36
Luke Lowden: 38
Shane Savage: 40
North Melbourne
Lachie Hansen: 6 (was 26)
Andrew Swallow: 9 (was 19)
Jack Ziebell: 19
Nathan O’Keefe: 23
Warren Benjamin: 26
Michael Wundke: 34 (was 45)
Sam Wright: 37
Liam Anthony: 44
Melbourne
Jack Watts: 4
Austin Wonaeamirri: 33 (was 39)
Stefan Martin: 34 (was 33)
Neville Jetta: 39
Rohan Bail: 41
Jamie Bennell: 43
Sam Blease: 46
James Strauss: 47
Note: Liam Jurrah appears not to have taken a number yet.
Port Adelaide
Chad Cornes: 1 (was 35) – due to taking captaincy
Hamish Hartlett: 6
Warren Tredrea: 12 (was 1) – due to giving up captaincy
Jarred Redden: 20
Mitch Banner: 21
Jason Davenport: 24 (was 1 at Geelong)
Glenn Dawson: 31
Danny Meyer: 34 (was 22 at Richmond)
Jackson Trengove: 35
Note: I haven’t been able to confirm a number for Matthew Broadbent, possibly 19… any help here?
Richmond
Chris Newman: 17 (was 1) – due to taking captaincy
Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls: 22 (was 29)
Tom Hislop: 27 (was 35)
Kane Johnson: 28 (was 17) – due to giving up captaincy
Tyrone Vickery: 29
Adam Thomson: 31 (was 6 at Port Adelaide)
Ben Cousins: 32 (was 9 at West Coast)
Jaydyn Post: 37
St Kilda
Colm Begley: 17 (was 46 at Brisbane)
Nick Heyne: 21
Farren Ray: 22 (was 1 at Western Bulldogs)
Rhys Stanley: 28
Tom Lynch: 29
Alistair Smith: 39
Paul Cahill: 41
Sydney
Rhyce Shaw: 2 (was 22 at Collingwood)
Dan Hannebery: 4
Jarred Moore: 7 (was 33)
Daniel Currie: 10 (was 35)
Lewis Johnston: 23
Campbell Heath: 35
West Coast
Nick Naitanui: 9
Scott Selwood: 10 (was 28)
Tom Swift: 15
Luke Shuey: 22
Ash Smith: 28
Jordan Jones: 33
Western Bulldogs
Jarrad Grant: 1 (was 24)
Shaun Higgins: 7 (was 19)
Sam Reid: 11 (was 26)
Ayce Cordy: 19
Jordan Roughead: 23
Liam Jones: 26
It is traditional to give out low jumper numbers to highly rated recruits. The pecking order roughly follows numeric order at most clubs. That’s why you’ll see the #1 draft pick, in this case Watts, wearing the lowest available jumper at their club, whereas fifth-round draft picks get somewhere up near the 40s. Melbourne have gone all the way into the 50s for their rookies this year, as they have left some numbers of recently retired players open – a practice that has dropped off in recent years. Some number changes are sentimental, as with Higgins taking the number of Scott West, while Hawthorn’s Kennedy will wear the #32 made famous in the brown and gold by his father John Kennedy junior and grandfather John Kennedy senior.
It’s dangerous to draw too many conclusions of course, but there are some good signs. The Carlton hierarchy wouldn’t be giving Johnson the #9 jumper of club legend Kenny Hunter unless they believed he was a regular senior player, I feel. Sydney giving Rhyce Shaw the #2 is perhaps less significant given that it was previously worn by Nick Davis. No one is talking about Hannebery so it will be interesting to see if he plays in the NAB like he deserves Tony Lockett‘s jumper. I like the lowness of the numbers given to Robinson, Zaharakis, Suban and Swift. Geelong’s Brown getting #1 is nice, but he inherits it from Davenport.
Thanks to adam10 from BigFooty for collating most of this, by the way. Top work Adam, you’re a champ.
Am I completely wasting my time trying to read anything into these near-random sequences? I feel like I’ve been staring at them for hours, mainly because I have, while updating the FanFooty databases. Give me some perspective in the comments.
Dazza
January 18, 2009 at 3:38 am
Monty, Port havn’t named a captain yet so the #1 is technically vacant.
Dazza
January 18, 2009 at 3:40 am
Nice work btw. Lachie Hansen wearing Grant’s #6 is another one.
XztatiK
January 18, 2009 at 3:58 am
Jeez, we’re really digging for fantasy news now aren’t we! First Duffield, now this! lol.
You missed the most important one – Patrick Dangerfield switching from 19 (now belongs to the supporters) to Mark Ricciuto’s 32.
SpikeSetsFire
January 18, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Steele Sidebottom picking up Tony Shaw’s old #22. (And to a lesser extent, Rhys Shaw). I like it!
Warnie
January 18, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Didn’t Chris Grant wear #3?
dylan
January 18, 2009 at 12:38 pm
hey monty have u done a post with all the teams premium players or did i just imagine that?
Athomas
January 18, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Some pretty exciting number changes, but this one sums up that it might not mean much:
Jason Davenport: 24 (was 1 at Geelong)
lol (even though I’ll prob get him ;))
MiGZ
January 18, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Yep Chris Grant did wear 3 monty, last person to wear number 1 for the bulldogs was farren ray…andrew wills…nicky winmar…simon-mitton-connell.
m0nty
January 18, 2009 at 2:36 pm
You’re right Warnie, Grant did wear #3. Who used to wear #1, was that Scott Wynd?
MiGZ
January 18, 2009 at 2:36 pm
And just my 2 cents on Lachie Hansen getting number 6…this kid is going to explode this year and next year at CHF. Expecting him to average in the mid 70’s this year, could be as good as riewoldt.
Warnie
January 18, 2009 at 3:04 pm
I think Wynd was #15.
Warnie
January 18, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Haha MiGZ! We went in for a hungover lunch at the “Saloon Bar” in Launceston a couple of months ago, and Simon Mitton-Connell was in there with his wife and kids. Tucking into a good old Parma (they are one of the best Parma’s going around there at the Saloon).
Mitch
January 18, 2009 at 3:38 pm
m0nty it is not Luke Shiels. It’s Liam!
MiGZ
January 18, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Haha, ah yes Mitton-Connell, the king of the chest mark!
m0nty
January 18, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Ta Mitch.
TigerGlory
January 18, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Monty, are you sure you have JON’s new number correct?
Im pretty sure Daniel Jackson wears number 23, and to my knowledge hasnt given up the number.
I think JON is changing to 22, vacated by Danny Meyer.
m0nty
January 18, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Right again TigerGlory.
Other Dan
January 18, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Good work Monty. Look forward to each blog for the fantasy insights it may provide.
This is an interesting one. Being from a fantasy soccer background where jumper numbers are key indications (e.g. 1 being first choice keeper) this concept doesn’t appear to exist in AFL. I think that high drafts getting low jumper numbers perhaps is a given but doesn’t really help in our fantasy selection. Having said that, of particular interest is Johnson and Warnock at Carlton.
So whilst I don’t think there’s a lot you can read into these jumper numbers, a lower number maybe indicates a coach rates a player highly, so look out for players with a surprisingly low number.
STRAYA
January 18, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Hi Monty,
I noticed that player prices have changed in the fanplanner. Is this because the prospectus has been released? Are there any changes to player positions?
m0nty
January 18, 2009 at 8:20 pm
No, just some comments on BigFooty that cause me to change my mind on the projected magic number.
NuriootpaTigers
January 19, 2009 at 12:45 am
When Tredrea goes back to number 16, what’s Pearce going to wear?
grimlock
January 19, 2009 at 9:45 am
Where did you get this info m0nty. On the Swans web site it says that Jarred Moore still has #33 and Brett Meredith got #7.
http://sydneyswans.com.au/tabid/7106/Default.aspx?newsid=71031
Heater
January 20, 2009 at 11:58 am
Interesting that Beams gets Scott Burn’s number. They say he will be the same type of player Burns was.
Leon
January 27, 2009 at 12:29 pm
what number is josh carr going to wear at port?
Friez
January 28, 2009 at 5:27 pm
whats goin on down at the Dees woenamirri going from 39 to 33, martin 33 to 34 then neville jetta getting 39
cmon pitch it up
cowsnutz
January 29, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Gday Monty,
IMO Grant, Higgins and Selwood’s lower numbers reconfirm their long term prospects in their teams starting 22’s.
Also, John Kennedy Jnr wore #34.
Duxy Woo
April 1, 2009 at 1:58 am
what are the names of the current players who wear number 32 at all clubs.