AFL Player 29: Max Kondogiannis - In the side to face Brisbane

[ghostdog]

"What more could a poor boy do?"

They're going to tour!

 

[Runk]

My parents are/were close friends with his grandparents Jack and Maureen. Jack and my Dad were great mates for 60 years and both mad Essendon supporters, and I’m talking mad. Lincolnshire Arms Hotel old guard. When my father passed in 2022 Jack & Maureen ensured my mum never got too lonely. Sadly Jack passed only a few months ago but he would’ve been genuinely over the moon knowing Max was drafted by the Bombers. He wouldn’t have shut up about it.

Why does all that back story matter?

Seeing him drafted by Essendon has felt very personal in many respects. The connection to family and memories of friends now gone is very special. I love everything about this.

Go well Max. Welcome to the club!

 

[Wahooti Fandango]

Far from hard and fast but in most cases, yes. How the s is pronounced in greek depends on where it is in a word, typically it’s emphasised if it’s in the middle and dropped or very much deemphasised at the end.

In this case it’s not because it’s a surname, it’s just how the name yanni is pronounced and it’s happens to be barrelled with a prefix. If you put any kind of traditional greek first name into a blender with the same prefix you get the same result where you would drop the s at the end. Could be Papagiannis or Kalogiannis or whatever else you can think of at the end and the same idea applies.

How the family pronounce it is a different story altogether, they may adopt a more phonetic pronunciation because it’s easier, they would be technically wrong, but sometimes you get sick of correcting people.

Classic example of this is Jimmy Tsitas the former Sun/Sanfl/VFL player. Really his name should be pronounced tsss-it-ah-sss, but it’s been bastardised so many times he’s settled on ‘Cheedis’, which is an absolute abortion of a thing.

Here endeth the lesson

Yeah that's outrageous. My partner is Greek (family from Crete) so I've upped my pronunciation the last decade and a bit.

 

[dank420_]

That’s awesome Runk

 

[Maggie5]

Excuse the intrusion but you have a good one here. Know his family well (his grandmother and father both mad Pie supporters). He is of good character and strong work ethic - which is a great foundation on which to build an AFL career.
Wish him the best as majority of my family are Bomber supporters so have a soft spot.

Some video:

 

[Blind Turn]

Excuse the intrusion but you have a good one here. Know his family well (his grandmother and father both mad Pie supporters). He is of good character and strong work ethic - which is a great foundation on which to build an AFL career.
Wish him the best as majority of my family are Bomber supporters so have a soft spot.

Some video:

I believe that someone in his family knows what Sugammadex is.

 

[SpeckieMcVeigh]

Tsatas looks like he's wearing an army tarpaulin or something

That's Drvp baby!

 

[Petrify]

Upon watching his youtube highlights closely. His kicking action is absolutely beautiful.

Loving that our project player draft picks now seem to footballers first and athletes second.

 

[faible]

Upon watching his youtube highlights closely. His kicking action is absolutely beautiful.

Loving that our project player draft picks now seem to footballers first and athletes second.

Plus, as a guy who's best as a looser intercept type, the fact he needs to put on a fair bit of weight is less of a limiting factor than drafted a 2m KPD who needs to put on 15 - 20kg to play the role.

 

[brutus76]

"That's why we call him the Greek - a defender you can't beat!"

Adaption from Ray Stevens

 

[Zach Package]

Yeah that's outrageous. My partner is Greek (family from Crete) so I've upped my pronunciation the last decade and a bit.

If he has that Cretan mean streak he'll be a hell of a footballer

 

[RedmanWasHere]

No. 29 now.

 

[Don Won]

No. 29 now.

Interesting that he is wearing 29, because Worpol is also wearing 29 at Geelong and we picked Kondo using Hawthorn’s worpol compensation pick. Just a thought to tuck away for a rainy day. Good luck Kondo!

 

[Cold Sober]

Upon watching his youtube highlights closely. His kicking action is absolutely beautiful.

Loving that our project player draft picks now seem to footballers first and athletes second.

FINALLY. Thank you.

 

[Yoda_]

Reading a few training reports and geez the boy sounds like a real sleeper, could possibly play some games at the back end of the year.

Big, strong, vocal, kicking is fine. Build that endurance quickly and geez we could have a real find.

 

[Vander18]

I’ve seen a few snippets that have me interested.

Good height, good frame, looks like he can run, kicking looks good…..at a distance seems to have plenty of traits.

Look forward to watching him under the microscope and seeing what we have here.

 

[King Patty]

Big, strong, vocal, kicking is fine. Build that endurance quickly and geez we could have a real find.

I think Strength is what he needs to build for 1-1 at afl level.

The surprising thing for me is his pace, doesn't look like a guy that is going to take off, but he can, is deceptively fast.
An injury to Ridley and would be happy for Kondo to come in against a smaller/medium forwardline. If all genuine talls then would be Hayes/Gerryn.

 

[Vander18]

I think Strength is what he needs to build for 1-1 at afl level.

The surprising thing for me is his pace, doesn't look like a guy that is going to take off, but he can, is deceptively fast.
An injury to Ridley and would be happy for Kondo to come in against a smaller/medium forwardline. If all genuine talls then would be Hayes/Gerryn.

His frame is good, strength will come.

Was wondering about speed - if he can defend smalls that’s a big tick on his favour.

 

[JT_the_Man]

I definitely saw something in him today. Won't be playing round 1 or anything, but he's a good prospect.

 

[eth-dog]

He can play. Not sure if he fits in round 1 but he'll get games this year I reckon

 

[Petrify]

Andy McGrath gave him a shout out in this. Would be a pretty good chance to debut early

 

[Vander18]

Calling it - we have a player.

 

[Vindicater]

Looks a player...

 

[Clark G]

With Ridley injured, is Kondo a chance to debut in round one?

 

[Vindicater]

With Ridley injured, is Kondo a chance to debut in round one?

Based off the two preseason games I would but I don't think he will.