2 hours ago, waynewussell said:

You don't get to training much, do you!

Funnily enough, I do!

And last time I checked, training didn't mean much - games is what counts.

2 hours ago, waynewussell said:

You don't get to training much, do you!

Daniel Nicholson used to train the house down...how did his career go?
Could list you plenty of ordinary footballers who trained well.
I'm not saying Kolt is ordinary/will be, but his AFL career to date he has been underwhelming. I hope he has a big season but my gut says he won't given has had one pre-season in 3 years.

On 28/01/2026 at 10:13, BW511 said:

The concussions are starting to pile up for Petty, if that’s the case

Isn't fluoro hats also non contact which could be injury related?

4 minutes ago, Red and Blue Flame said:

Daniel Nicholson used to train the house down...how did his career go?
Could list you plenty of ordinary footballers who trained well.
I'm not saying Kolt is ordinary/will be, but his AFL career to date he has been underwhelming. I hope he has a big season but my gut says he won't given has had one pre-season in 3 years.

I was referring to the inference that he wasn’t fit

2 hours ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Our midfield is in refresh for 2026.

I agree with the outlook for Langford. He’s a genuine star for the future and I’ve been singing his talent since his under 18 performances. Absolutely was over the moon when we drafted him and with his 2025 debut season. But don’t load up pressure too much for a second season player

I do have to agree with @dazzledavey36 about the loss of Petracca. Even though he didn’t perform like 2021-2023, he still had a very very good 2025 in my view. Runner up in the MFC B&F, 16 Brownlow votes, 582 disposals, 18 goals, MFC number one for goals assists. He is a huge loss. We got three 1st round draft picks in exchange and he wanted out. So we move on. But he must acknowledge his loss.

Hopefully the loss of Trac and Clarry (both will be remembered as greats for the MFC), there’s now opportunities for Langford, Riv, Kozzy to now own the new midfield. More opportunity perhaps for Kolt and Sparrow to show us that they have the ability to play midfield minutes too. JV7 still has some grunt to give. Jack Steele is also a great addition with his own talent and guiding influences to others.

Let’s go Dees in 2026

I’m in total agreement with Tracc he leaves a huge hole in our midfield, we will have to work harder and smarter to try and offset that loss SONS. I would like to add that it was you and WJ that first alerted me to Harvey Langford in 2024, and I, like a lot of others was all over the draft hoping for Langford at Pick 6. I feel like we won the trifecta with Windsor, Langford and now Taylor along with Tholstrup, Lindsay and Latrelle Sumner-Pickett.😁👍

2 hours ago, picket fence said:

MAYNARD injured at Filthland what rotten luck for him eh?? Anyone want to take around some Flowers??

I need some good news. Tell me about his injury😎

On 28/01/2026 at 14:08, Sydee said:

Feel sorry for him but I'm astonished he is still on our list

He had a three year contract for 2024 through 2026. I cannot see him playing this year and his contract will not be be renewed. A gamble that did not work out in spectacular fashion. He had injury problems at the Crows. IMO the worst recruiting decision of the Goodwin era.

18 hours ago, monoccular said:

I realise this is only preseason, dancing with your sister, but is there any impression especially compared with last season or two, that they know a bit more about where their team mates will be, and are they moving in anticipation and perhaps shepherding more than before.

There’s a lot more speed on the ball with players joining in the attack and forwards presenting.

I still think we’ll have issues with the handball decision making from congestion especially given how many new faces are in our midfield. But hopefully we can get clear and hit up targets.

Shepherding isn’t too common, most of the time if a player is free they want them being an option for the next disposal.

3 hours ago, DeeZone said:

I’m in total agreement with Tracc he leaves a huge hole in our midfield, we will have to work harder and smarter to try and offset that loss SONS. I would like to add that it was you and WJ that first alerted me to Harvey Langford in 2024, and I, like a lot of others was all over the draft hoping for Langford at Pick 6. I feel like we won the trifecta with Windsor, Langford and now Taylor along with Tholstrup, Lindsay and Latrelle Sumner-Pickett.😁👍

Not sure about Tholstrup, Does not appear to have a talent that hurts the opposition. He had an interrupted Preseason at the start of 2025. When he was injury free he was dropped straight back into the senior side. No warm up games at Casey. I struggled to see what valued he was in 2025. IMO it is 2026 or bust!

9 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

There’s a lot more speed on the ball with players joining in the attack and forwards presenting.

I still think we’ll have issues with the handball decision making from congestion especially given how many new faces are in our midfield. But hopefully we can get clear and hit up targets.

Shepherding isn’t too common, most of the time if a player is free they want them being an option for the next disposal.

Faicos NEVER has shepherded in his career, other fun facts he has taken only 1 contested mark in his career and thirdly hardly ever wins his own ball.

On 29/01/2026 at 20:22, Its Time Again said:

"Lots of good stuff my thumbs accidentally erased 🙄🙄"

+

Don't get me wrong. I loved Trac and think he is the most dynamic player I have ever seen play for MFC and I choke on my weeties to say this but including Robbie who I saw play his first and last games and most inbetween. Robbie was pure poetry in motion but he wasn't an explosive contested beast with so many tricks and Trac will always have one of the greatest GF performances of all time. However Trac won't go down as one of the most elite players of all time because of his lack of effectiveness. Think Robert Harvey. I'm guessing he will end up with another Premiership and if he starts hitting targets i50 and kicking goals accurately I'll agree with you. But he hasn't done that for us for 5 years. Not to mention the off field issues.

Someone else is going to take his place in the team and I am very confident at the end of the year they will have delivered more i50 kicks marked and retained than the star they are replacing. Same goes for Steele replacing Clarry. Have a look at Langford's retention stats i50 they are incredible. His percentage retention was 42.9% compared to Trac's 37.8%. Wheelo supplied an interesting stat on average equity gained from kick i50 which is more nuanced because it includes things like

. how the kicker won possession (i.e. proxy for pressure);

• the location where the kick was taken;

• the location where the kick ended up; and

• who took next possession and how.

Langford ranked first in the team, Petracca ranked 17th.

I'm sure Langford will play more in the guts but there are plenty of candidates for that kick i50 who I am sure will do better than Petracca.

I couldn't watch a lot of games last season mainly because of how Petracca and Oliver were delivering the ball i50. Our key issue. We're not going to be worse for their departures we're going to be better. Virtually no one in the fourth estate has worked this out.

Thank you to Wheelo for all these great stats. If you want to see them in more detail go over to the Stats Files. He compiled a list of them on Petracca and Oliver and how they compare to other MFC players and other players in the league. It would have been sobering reading if they were still here.

Onwards and Upwards

Go Dees

I'm inclined to 2nd most of this especially the idea that we may actually be better off without Trac and Ollie. Have no doubt this will be a bitter pill for many.

But just for a moment I invite people to look at our games, remove the emotion, remove, the bias and just critique the games via effort and effectiveness. ( because thats really all you ever really should do ) .

There were any number of reasons we failed over the last few seasons.

They pivot about thee two metrics ( above ) and then they're either tempered or expanded by a third. Cohesion.

Tbh.... saw sfa of that last one for quite a long time.

What I've been gladdened to see is its creeping back in ( if training is any guide )

This will be what brings us back... cohesion.

Not about playing one particular style of footy..... but playing with one shared mindset.

Go Dees

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by beelzebub

Thanks to the track watchers. Can’t get down as I’ve moved to Adelaide Hills.

here is something to sing at training;

Sung to ‘Sing’ by Travis

Matey, you’ve been going to training

Lately, not much seems to be going wrong

Flagish, why’d you have to get flagish?

How so…

You’ve been watching in the sun too long

They play a sim, sim, sim, sim, sim

The form they bring don’t mean a thing

it’s a sim sim sim sim

18 hours ago, bing181 said:

Valid point of course. But in 2023 the issue for Hawthorn wasn't so much what they were capable of, but consistency. Alongside some bad losses, they beat both grand finalists (Lions and Pies), as well as a couple of teams in/around the top 8. They also managed to find a bit more consistency across the last 8 games where they were in most games and had some decent wins.

That's not a pattern we've seen with us over the last couple of years, which is one of the reasons for the change of coach and personnel I imagine. Not so much that we were mediocre, but there were no real signs that things were turning.

For me, if we can match Hawthorn's 2023 it would be a decent season and auger well for 2027.

Well, we did beat the premier last year, plus another finalist (Fremantle). We ended with 7 wins and a percentage of 93.3%; Hawthorn in 2023 had 7 wins and a percentage of 80%.

That aside, I think you're probably over-rating Hawthorn in 2023/24 a little, if not a lot. The top two results from a Google search for 2024 season previews had the ABC forecasting Hawthorn would finish bottom 3 with 7-8 wins, and Fox citing King, Montagna and Hudson who all thought they'd finish bottom 4 in 2024.

12 hours ago, Red and Blue Flame said:

Don't disagree with this, but he is nowhere near fit enough to execute a role at AFL level. Jury out until we see some athletic traits.

I dont get to training at all, but based on reports and if you go off his numbers from draft camp with the 2km run, he was rated elite with a time of 6:17.

The reason he looked heavily underdone last year was because people forget he missed a chunk of the pre season with a hip injury and was rushed straight back into the senior team off tje back of zero match fitness by our so called brain thrust of a coaching committee.

His first two years in the AFL system are very similar to ANB first two years before he had a break out year in his 3rd.

Lets hope its the same for KT.

15 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

The reason he looked heavily underdone last year was because people forget he missed a chunk of the pre season with a hip injury and was rushed straight back into the senior team off tje back of zero match fitness by our so called brain thrust of a coaching committee.

Was such garbage wasnt it? Set him up to fail really. Won’t be hard for King and crew to improve upon selection integrity

1 hour ago, titan_uranus said:

Well, we did beat the premier last year, plus another finalist (Fremantle). We ended with 7 wins and a percentage of 93.3%; Hawthorn in 2023 had 7 wins and a percentage of 80%.

That aside, I think you're probably over-rating Hawthorn in 2023/24 a little, if not a lot. The top two results from a Google search for 2024 season previews had the ABC forecasting Hawthorn would finish bottom 3 with 7-8 wins, and Fox citing King, Montagna and Hudson who all thought they'd finish bottom 4 in 2024.

I think for me in all this is how they finished the 2023 season.

Which for me is also what to watch for with us this year. If across the last 6 - 8 games we see signs of it coming together, again, that would be a good/excellent outcome. And is what we were really missing last year. (Though what we did have in 2020.)