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Apparently Austin's journey has been conflicted between his obligations to the MFC - which we all understand - and his cultural obligations in the Tiwi Islands following the death of his father (whose name cannot be spoken in that culture ) which most of us do not understand at all. Austin has stayed in Melbourne with a friend who encouraged him to come to this city and who has spent time in his home environment and understands that Aussie had obligations to go through a mourning process that goes over 12 months and this friend is saying that Aussie wants to find a path back to footy here if he can. These cultural obligations are every bit as real as the imperatives under which we operate - if not much more so not saying I have any special knowledge beyond this - for information only

You took a real situation, then chose to emit certain words to create interest. Thats what you did

So we've established that young players are either better or worse players than their fathers. Smashing. Glad we've cleared that one up.

Family friends with James and watched him go through the ranks. Also used to throw some iron around in the gym with him. Pound for pound the strongest bloke Ive ever known/seen. Will set the bar very high in the gym - which would be a good thing for many of our young mids

Mr. & Mrs. Scully.

Have a look at some reruns of 80's and 90's footy on Youtube and compare it with the speed and intensity of 2011 football. The shirtfront may be gone but the premium on space and pressuring tactics all over the field means the need to put your body on the line is ever present. It matters not whether you have or don't have the ball. Unless you are lightning quick, copping that kind of punishment in close requires a certain amount of muscular padding.

All I can say is don't let him anywhere near Dangerfield!

If he learns to keep his elbows down, yep. The role of a key forward or key defender is totally denigrated by the Brownlow Glitz. We all know a gun Centre Half Forward is in most winning Grand Final sides. There worth is equal to any midfielder or should be.

I like this post all the more because I'm reading it in the voice of Dylan Moran haha

Should have picked Fev.

I'm all for the tache. But Dunn's doesn't rate much higher than Baldrick's dead slug mo. If you're going to do it, do it well.

Really? MFC must have concerns over Cook, because they punted on a tall forward (who they eye for the backline) with a rookie pick in a weak draft year? No possibility that he was just the best left? In fact, considering they see him as a backman, maybe they have concerns over Frawley and Garland? :: Facepalm ::

This doesn't make any sense. Surely Cook was a significantly more risky pick than Darling or whoever. That's the complete opposite of conservative. Just fits in with what I've seen over the years of reading forums - people don't agree with a decision the MFC make, so they decide it must be because the club was too "conservative".

And ... um ... Jack Viney?

I think Jai was selected because the new coaching staff have concerns over Cook. He (Cook) is a nice kid with good skills but lacks that hard-nosed aggression that seems to be a common element in players these days. Even when fit he struggled this year at Casey. I believe Cook was a very conservative selection by Prendergast at pick 12. I would have much preferred Billy Smedts, Jack Darling or Issac Smith. I do wonder who the recruiting team would have selected this year if Neeld and Co had not been there. Prendergast did make the comment that the Rookie draft selections were coach driven. If left to the recruiting team I suggest we would have ended up with more skinny 18 year-old nice family boys.

The problem he has (my guess as a personal trainer) is he has a 'greyhound' metabolism... and is playing an elite sport that needs a lots of fuel/energy to play. Getting a personal trainer to do 'extra' stuff isn't always the best thing either... despite what most people may think. A bloke like him has an incredibly fast metabolism, and any excessive training would only burn calories that could be utilized by the body to produce more muscle. The key is to find a balance between conserving energy and doing minimal training... Or training too much and burning much needed energy. The problem he also has is that the energy he needs to build muscle, is now being used to fuel the super intense pre-season training sessions that the boys are being put through. This extra size is a LONNNNNG TERM process for him, and he will always be a skinny player I think. Yeah, he could sit on his arse and conserve energy to build muscle, but then he loses his aerobic fitness... or he runs like a mad-man to build his aerobic fitness, but then has trouble gaining mass. Tricky balancing act to build both aerobic capacity and lean muscle mass at the same time.

Not a bad selection method but maybe you should have included a speed criteria because that team lacks some speed. I would include Bail, even though he's not super quick he is a must, Bennell and Davey for their nimble movements and I agree with Wadda We Sing on Jordie.

A bloke rang up SEN to say Jack Redpath, rookied by the Dogs at about 60, was going to "tear the competition apart" and was going to be a "superstar". Obviously not an opinion shared by the recruiting staff at the 18 clubs who passed on him at the myriad previous drafting opportunities? My point? The proof of the pudding is on the horns of a dilemma. Might be a good idea if the footy world waits a while before pronouncing superstardom status on redrafted and rookied players. That said, I like that we went to big players and clearance players. Grunt is good.

Absolute animal. Played against him in school footy and was aggressive and uncompromising as you would want with our new style of play. Gunna be a great fit. Got a bit of crunt in him too

Jack, James, Jurrah, Jeremy, Jordan, Jordie, Joel, Jack, James, Jamar, Jake, Jack, Jones, Jared, Jack, Jetta, Jamie, Josh and James would like to welcome Jai and James into a select group.....

Actually, according to Melbourne's little paper, he's about to travel with his family to South America for a holiday.

dale thomas isn't big but goes hard at the ball. yuk, that left a horrible taste in my mouth

Someone just needs to tie this kid down to a chair and force feed him KFC or something, seeing as he is supposedly such a "fussy eater." Well toughen up sunshine, If you want to put on some size you need to eat! Enough with mummy cutting the crust off your triangle sandwiches and aeroplaning it into your mouth, eat a steak princess. Regardless of size, he never goes for the 50/50 ball anyway. So until this changes it doesn't really matter if he stays stick figure-like or not.