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.
