Thanks for all the reports - they made up for my not being able to be there.

I've made some minor edits by way of corrections - hope they're OK.

Incidentally, the white jumpers looked quite good. Prefer them to our official away strip.

Lebanese?

yep

Food in the blood

Toumpas and Salem just might be the real deal

Nice exotic combo too

THe greek and the... not sure of Salems heritage.

They need a nickname. The Tabbouleh twins? The Ottoman Empire? The pita partners?

Really? You dont think introducing an 18yr old undeveloped body to a professional gym routine couldn't gain results (5kg) over nearly 3 months? Good one

Considering the priority for most midfield prospects is fitness, fitness, core strength then more fitness I doubt he's put on much. What I see with Salem is it's just hard to get a read on his size. He's stocky, with solid legs but has a slim upper body. Put him in a tight footy jumper and he probably looks pretty solid, put him in a t shirt he looks pretty slim. I think the reality is he's not a stick but far from an 18 year old Jones or Tapscott and he's probably getting much more work running in the legs than building up big arms all of a sudden.

Toumpas this year looks much leaner than last year and that's a result of getting hard fit not because he lost muscle. Salem might do something similar but he's a bit stockier so he might not. Either way the main time you can notice a difference in a players frame is after the 6 weeks off when they come back in November. The rest of the time I think they only progress slowly.

They need a nickname. The Tabbouleh twins? The Ottoman Empire? The pita partners?

I don't think Dmitri's parents would like that.

On further thought, Christian's family wouldn't be too keen, either.

Its seems hogan did a lot today. reading the herald sun website they said he moved well and managed to hit the coach in there area men dont want to get hit and put the coach down. \

I must have been looking in the wrong direction or missed them but Salem looked like he had 3 touches early on but not much after that. Didn't really stand out to me. Matt Jones showed similar speed early last year but it seemed to disappear as the year progressed. Michie won the ball well but ran himself into trouble a couple of times and let go a couple of shocking kicks.

Considering the priority for most midfield prospects is fitness, fitness, core strength then more fitness I doubt he's put on much. What I see with Salem is it's just hard to get a read on his size. He's stocky, with solid legs but has a slim upper body. Put him in a tight footy jumper and he probably looks pretty solid, put him in a t shirt he looks pretty slim. I think the reality is he's not a stick but far from an 18 year old Jones or Tapscott and he's probably getting much more work running in the legs than building up big arms all of a sudden.

Toumpas this year looks much leaner than last year and that's a result of getting hard fit not because he lost muscle. Salem might do something similar but he's a bit stockier so he might not. Either way the main time you can notice a difference in a players frame is after the 6 weeks off when they come back in November. The rest of the time I think they only progress slowly.

Seems to be hard to get an idea of his size, especially having never seen him. All I have seen is the photo of the top 9 picks and he looked considerably smaller in height and build to the rest of them. Yet, he is listed as 185cm's and is described as hard bodied. Don't really know what they mean by hard bodied. Is it different to big bodied. Michie looks big bodied and therefore hard bodied. Salem doesn't look anything like his build based on the photos I've seen so far.

I must have been looking in the wrong direction or missed them but Salem looked like he had 3 touches early on but not much after that. Didn't really stand out to me. Matt Jones showed similar speed early last year but it seemed to disappear as the year progressed. Michie won the ball well but ran himself into trouble a couple of times and let go a couple of shocking kicks.

Yeah but the 3 touches were lace out kick to Toumpas for a scoring shot, long kick down the punt road wing from a good run that Fitzy marked inside 50, a clever handball that started another scoring chain and another pick up and kick I think. Every time he touched it seemed to be a score involvement. He was involved less in the latter 2 quarters but that's ok. Small sample size so far.

Its seems hogan did a lot today. reading the herald sun website they said he moved well and managed to hit the coach in there area men dont want to get hit and put the coach down. \

lol awesome

Its seems hogan did a lot today. reading the herald sun website they said he moved well and managed to hit the coach in there area men dont want to get hit and put the coach down. \

Poor Roosy. And that was just for putting Hogan in the Blue team. Imagine what Jesse will do to him if he doesn't get picked to play Rnd 1.

It's funny reading how different people who were all at the same game have vastly contrasting reports of the same players. I remember once going to a dees vs dogs game and thinking Scott west had a very quiet game , then saw in the paper the next day he had 42 possessions!

For what it's worth I thought Tyson just oozed class today, what stood out was his ability to get the ball under pressure and then with a few quick steps get himself out of traffic and into a non pressure situation

Considering the priority for most midfield prospects is fitness, fitness, core strength then more fitness I doubt he's put on much. What I see with Salem is it's just hard to get a read on his size. He's stocky, with solid legs but has a slim upper body. Put him in a tight footy jumper and he probably looks pretty solid, put him in a t shirt he looks pretty slim. I think the reality is he's not a stick but far from an 18 year old Jones or Tapscott and he's probably getting much more work running in the legs than building up big arms all of a sudden.

Toumpas this year looks much leaner than last year and that's a result of getting hard fit not because he lost muscle. Salem might do something similar but he's a bit stockier so he might not. Either way the main time you can notice a difference in a players frame is after the 6 weeks off when they come back in November. The rest of the time I think they only progress slowly.

Lots would depend on Salem's natural build, plus how much he had been looking after his nutrition prior to coming to MFC more so than if he was doing gym work. Putting on 5kg is not too hard if there's lots of improvement available because he was coming from a long way back, and if he was just eating mum's cooking.

Agree that a modern footballer doesn't really need the beach muscles (e.g. Sylvia, Tapscott, Magner) and gaining lots of size in the upper body is less important than leg and core strength. You never get to bench press or bicep curl an opponent away from the ball. And if you're fit enough to get there before the opponent for the duration of the game, maybe you don't need much of anything.

There was another comment about clothing making players look different. Definitely agree, most players look huge to me in football gear, but in civvies look very slim. I worked at Carlton briefly almost 20 years ago (eek). I remember standing next to Koutoufides in his non footy gear.and being amazed at how slim, almost skinny he looked. He looked nothing like that in his footy jumper.

Also there is a massive difference between 85kg in a footballer's physical condition and 85kg in a "normal" man's physical condition. Footballer will take up less physical space, muscle is much denser than fat, even though the scale is identical. Footballer probably sitting around 10% body fat, and the "normal" male 20%+(+++)!

They need a nickname. The Tabbouleh twins? The Ottoman Empire? The pita partners?

Mario & Luigi?

Mario & Luigi?

Mario & Luigi?

Sorry MD wrong country

Con and Spiro!

Edited February 7, 201411 yr by old dee

Didn't see that coming.

They need a nickname. The Tabbouleh twins? The Ottoman Empire? The pita partners?

The Teletubbies!!!

The Teletubbies!!!

Hmm not exactly flattering DO

Hmm not exactly flattering DO

Just a bit of fun o d.

There was another comment about clothing making players look different. Definitely agree, most players look huge to me in football gear, but in civvies look very slim. I worked at Carlton briefly almost 20 years ago (eek). I remember standing next to Koutoufides in his non footy gear.and being amazed at how slim, almost skinny he looked. He looked nothing like that in his footy jumper.

Also there is a massive difference between 85kg in a footballer's physical condition and 85kg in a "normal" man's physical condition. Footballer will take up less physical space, muscle is much denser than fat, even though the scale is identical. Footballer probably sitting around 10% body fat, and the "normal" male 20%+(+++)!

Agree. I recall Big Carl in his footy gear looked huge and frightening. Later in the rooms with his jumper off, or in jeans and a t-shirt he looked thin. I could not believe it was the same guy.

Lots would depend on Salem's natural build, plus how much he had been looking after his nutrition prior to coming to MFC more so than if he was doing gym work. Putting on 5kg is not too hard if there's lots of improvement available because he was coming from a long way back, and if he was just eating mum's cooking.

Agree that a modern footballer doesn't really need the beach muscles (e.g. Sylvia, Tapscott, Magner) and gaining lots of size in the upper body is less important than leg and core strength. You never get to bench press or bicep curl an opponent away from the ball. And if you're fit enough to get there before the opponent for the duration of the game, maybe you don't need much of anything.

There was another comment about clothing making players look different. Definitely agree, most players look huge to me in football gear, but in civvies look very slim. I worked at Carlton briefly almost 20 years ago (eek). I remember standing next to Koutoufides in his non footy gear.and being amazed at how slim, almost skinny he looked. He looked nothing like that in his footy jumper.

Also there is a massive difference between 85kg in a footballer's physical condition and 85kg in a "normal" man's physical condition. Footballer will take up less physical space, muscle is much denser than fat, even though the scale is identical. Footballer probably sitting around 10% body fat, and the "normal" male 20%+(+++)!

I think Jack Viney has a great body shape, seems to have fantastic core and leg strength. I always notice that Gawn's legs are particularly skinny despite him weighing 110kg or whatever. I've never really thought about players looking slimmer out of gear, but when players are up close to the fence after a victory I always notice how players look a lot more muscular than you might think (one such is jordie mckenzie)

Edited February 7, 201411 yr by Je Roos Salem

They need a nickname. The Tabbouleh twins? The Ottoman Empire? The pita partners?

with his first name being christian i don't think he'd be too enamoured with "The Ottoman Empire"

with his first name being christian i don't think he'd be too enamoured with "The Ottoman Empire"

The other being Greek Cypriot wouldn't exactly be doing cartwheels either.

I think Jack Viney has a great body shape, seems to have fantastic core and leg strength. I always notice that Gawn's legs are particularly skinny despite him weighing 110kg or whatever. I've never really thought about players looking slimmer out of gear, but when players are up close to the fence after a victory I always notice how players look a lot more muscular than you might think (one such is jordie mckenzie)

I did think today that Strauss looked broader across the chest and shoulders than I remembered last year. Saw him take his jumper off, he's in good knick.

Agreed about Jack Viney. Has the perfect body shape for the style of player he is.

Its seems hogan did a lot today. reading the herald sun website they said he moved well and managed to hit the coach in there area men dont want to get hit and put the coach down. \

This is actually a pic of roos from his first session at the dees when he saw us try and defend as a unit