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Which bottom four side can make the biggest leap in 2021? A Set the default text size A Set large text size
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After what felt like an eternity of an offseason (which doesn’t make sense given it was actually shorter), the AFL is back in just two short weeks.
That means it’s time for preview articles! Rather than going team-by-team in 2021, we’ll group the teams together based on where they finished last season.
Today, I’ll take a look at last year’s bottom four, before moving onto the rest of the non-finalists (Tuesday), the non-top four finalists (next Thursday) and, finally, the reigning top four (the following Tuesday).
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Wallis Randell’s journey from a cane farm in Carmila to the AFLW will add its next – and greatest – chapter when she makes her Gold Coast Suns debut against West Coast on Sunday.
Randell, 19, has been named to play for the first time since she was taken with Pick No. 61 in the 2020 AFLW Draft, and will become the third Mackay product after Lauren Bella and Emma Pittman to play for the Suns.
Like many in the AFLW, Randell’s sporting background is not founded in Aussie rules.
Before she was lacing up for Magpies in the AFL Mackay competition, Randell was a member of the Mackay Meteorettes’ Queensland Basketball League side.
Is Brad Thorn our next Wallabies coach? A Set the default text size A Set large text size
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Bradley Carnegie Thorn is a winner. As a player, as a coach and across two codes no-one has achieved what Brad Thorn has.
Others will be immortals, legends and be looked up to by everyone. Brad has gone about his business with grace and minimal fanfare, without controversy and with a huge amount of humility.
But make no mistake – beneath that exterior is a fierce competitor that set standards few can match.
30 and over: Adelaide to Fremantle A Set the default text size A Set large text size
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Every club has their veterans and their old boys, so who are your club’s over 30s, where are their contracts at and will they survive post-2021?
Adelaide
David Mackay
He turns 33 in July, is out of contract in 2021 and will probably be the end of the road. Adelaide are relying on their kids and they are quicker and younger than Mackay.
Taylor Walker
Walker turns 31 on Anzac Day and his future is well and truly up in the air with the former captain’s form almost dropping off the cliff.