Jon Ralph’s big winners and losers from the AFL pre-season

Jon Ralph has named the three teams he believes have performed best according to their expectations in the JLT Community Series so far, and has also listed the three sides that have disappointed the most this pre-season.

The Winners

Melbourne - Rating: A+

“(Jesse) Hogan and (Christian) Petracca are in amazing form and in amazing shape. Their ball movement is first class… (Jordan) Lewis, (Clayton) Oliver and (Angus) Brayshaw as well, it’s almost obvious.”

St Kilda - Rating: A

“The forward line has real synergy again. Beautiful ball movement and no injuries at the moment apart from Nathan Freeman who is always injured. Jack Steele has come in and looked fantastic. Jack Billings got 30 on the weekend on the wing. Everything you want from St. Kilda looks fantastic.”

Richmond - Rating: B+

“(Toby) Nankervis, (Dion) Prestia and (Josh) Caddy have all been exceptional. Their tackle pressure’s back. Tommy Hafey would be fist-pumping in his grave.

“I saw (Trent) Cotchin on the weekend, who was exceptional. He looked sideways and nearly chipped sideways, and then he pumped the ball 60 metres and Jack rose up and took a strong mark.

“(Deledio’s calf issues) are total vindication for them. They have got an (additional) first round pick coming up in November’s draft. Even though they are paying about an additional $250-300,000 a year for his contract this year, it has got to be a great deal for them.”

The Losers

Carlton Rating: E

“A gameplan has been non-existent. They’ve been opened up down back, they have given up the biggest score since 2000 in the pre-season competition to Melbourne, and then they eclipsed it and gave up an even bigger one a week later.

“Their midfield depth has been sorely exposed. We’ve seen a bit from Caleb Marchbank, we’ve seen a bit from (Jacob) Weitering, Sam Petrevski-Seton hasn’t played, (Patrick) Cripps has missed 10 weeks and is only just back, so everything you wanted to get out of (the JLT Series), they've got nothing.

“It might cost them 3000 memberships.”

Port Adelaide Rating: D

“The three most overrated players in the competition might be Charlie Dixon, (Matthew) Lobbe and Hamish Hartlett.

“Dixon’s gone 0.0, didn’t hit the scoresheet against St Kilda, and then 1.2 against Richmond.

“Lobbe has had eight possessions and then four possessions and some hitouts, but nothing dramatic, Nankervis was the story of the game for Richmond on the weekend so clearly Lobbe was beaten by him, underwhelming there and Hartlett has gone 25 possessions in two weeks.

“There’s probably two million (dollars) of their salary cap sitting there doing sweet F.A for them. Very disappointing.”

Adelaide Rating: D+

“They needed Bryce Gibbs and they weren’t prepared to go out and get him, even though they committed to him.

“All the injuries they have had have been in their midfield and have already underlined the difficulties they might have.

“Brad Crouch is out with a hamstring. Rory Sloane, we hope he might come back in (by Round 1).

“Charlie Cameron was good early on, a bit of a mixed bag for Troy Menzel, Harrison Wigg has been good, but the midfield is where you win or lose games of football.”