As the AFL season draws closer, here’s a wrap of news from around the clubs.

Young forwards excite Dockers and Demons

Young key forwards Matt Taberner and Jesse Hogan showed enough to excite their respective fan bases in Fremantle’s 18-point NAB Challenge win over Melbourne at Fremantle Oval.

The Dockers won 0.9.7 (61) to 6.7 (43) in a contest where the hosts scored just one behind in the third quarter and the Demons one point in each of the second and fourth terms.

While both teams had midfielders who performed well, without question it was the performance of two key forwards that was most encouraging with each club desperate to find someone in attack to build their future around.

Ever since joining Melbourne as a 17-year-old, the raps on Hogan have been that he is someone who could dominate the forward-line.

He has yet to make his AFL debut after injury ruined his 2014 season but there was a glimpse of his potential on Thursday night.

The 20-year-old kicked a terrific goal from a free-kick, continually presented and created contests in attack.

With Chris Dawes doing the same, Ben Newton showing good signs in first appearance and the likes of Jeff Garlett and Jay Kennedy-Harris at their feet, coach Paul Roos has every reason to be excited by his forward line.

“What I liked about Jesse’s game was when he was prepared to stand under the high ball and bring the ball to ground,” Roos said.

“I thought Dawesy and Hoges, when they are prepared to do that, make a difference because they don’t get outmarked and bring the ball to ground which gives our lively smalls a chance.”

For the Dockers, left-footed 21-year-old Taberner booted three goals, led and marked strongly, and kicked well to show that he could very well be the man the Dockers need to back up Mathew Pavlich.

“I thought Taberner continued in the manner we expected him too, so he was a real positive. I thought what we’re trying to do with Pav, unload him with some workers around him helped a bit as well,” Lyon said.

Giants secure Cameron

Young star Jeremy Cameron knocked back a seven-year offer from Adelaide to stay with Greater Western Sydney in the AFL.

Cameron agreed to a monster five-year deal with the Giants, understood to be worth around $4 million.

But the Crows apparently were willing to offer even more to tempt Cameron away from GWS.

There was also plenty of interest from Victorian clubs in the 21-year-old, who is from the country town of Dartmoor, and his re-signing is a major coup for the Giants.

It will now have a domino effect at the expansion club, with several team-mates expected to also re-commit.

Swans begin quest for redemption

Many of the key Sydney Swans players start the long road to redemption from last year’s grand final shocker in Coffs Harbour today.

The Swans play their first NAB Challenge match against Brisbane, just over five months since their 63-point flogging by Hawthorn in the 2014 season decider.

Injuries have ruled out forwards Kurt Tippett and Lance Franklin, while veterans Adam Goodes, Jarrad McVeigh and Ted Richards have been rested from the game.

Dons 2012 quartet to play pre-season match

Four young Essendon players who were on their 2012 list are in the squad for Saturday’s AFL pre-season match against St Kilda in Morwell.

It is a surprising change by the club ahead of the AFL anti-doping tribunal verdicts on 34 current and past Bombers players.

Nick O’Brien, Jackson Merrett, Elliott Kavanagh and Lauchlan Dalgleish are in the squad of 26, as are all the 13 top-up players brought in because of the impending tribunal judgments.

Last month, the AFL commission gave Essendon permission to use top-up players through the NAB Challenge as the club awaits the verdicts.

All 25 players currently at the club who were there in 2012 would sit out the pre-season games until the verdicts were known.

That is to protect the anonymity of the charged players, understood to number 17 or 18.

Those players whose cases are before the tribunal are serving provisional suspensions and by not playing in the NAB Challenge, they preserve potential back-dated suspensions if found guilty.

The tribunal cases came from a joint ASADA-AFL investigation into the 2012 Essendon supplements scandal.

Essendon football operations manager Rob Kerr said the quartet had approached the club about playing in the NAB Challenge.

“The coaches and the leadership group agreed that it was appropriate for the four players to be available for selection throughout the NAB Challenge and the AFLPA was also comfortable with this decision,” Kerr said in a club statement.

“As a club we had to weigh up the interests of all of our players and the leadership group made it clear they didn’t want to deny these four players the opportunity to play senior football at this stage in their careers.

“The 2012 listed players who are provisionally suspended understand the reasons for their selection and feel their anonymity remains protected.”

Apart from the four cleared to play in Morwell, midfielder David Zaharakis apparently is also not facing charges because he did not take part in the injection program.

– AAP