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Hot and blustery out there today. Some very general observations: - Evans walked laps. - Bartram, McKenzie, Spencer, Jurrah, Tapscott, Williams and Lawrence were on modified programs, although Bartram and McKenzie hit good speed in their interval running and kicked the footballs over fair distances. - Magner mananged to get his hand on the ball first time in all almost all stoppage work with the onball group. He just knew where to be. I am confident he will play early. - Taggert has a solid body and worked with the onball group. He may surprise by playing some senior footy this year. - Blease and Davey got to the right spot at the fall of the ball in forwards V defenders drills when the ball was coming into the forward line. Davey had a great battle with Bennell, and Flash really harrassed JB when the ball got turned over. Blease kicked a beautiful right foot snap after crumbing the ball off a pack. - Petterd took some good marks in drills today. Howe did also. He just times his leap so well and never looks like dropping the pill. Howie got away from Rivers a couple of times. I hope that's not a sign of things to come for JR. - Garland was awesome at killing the footy in marking contests and getting it out of bounds. - The players used Frawley a hell of a lot when rebounding the footy from defense. Look for Chip to have a big year. - They practised kick outs. It was hard to notice any particular patterns other than the fact they hugged the boundary for a large portion of transition drills. Garland and Grimes did the majority of the kick ins, but Frawley and Morton did some also. - They also spent time doing close in drills where considerable pressure was placed on a team carrying the ball from one line to another over 20 meters. Common themes for the ball carrying team were to dispose of the footy at first option and to keep it simple. (No fancy stuff was the cry from Aaron Greaves.) - Gysberts and Blease were again yelled at to push harder in drills where the ball was moved up and down the ground. - Moloney was the standout for me with his voice. He kept urging players to "Help your teammate." - It was good to see the majority of players do the bulk of the session today. Overall, our list appears healthy and in good shape.

He sure was, and as has been widely reported, he has trimmed down and looks fantastic. He worked with Brian Royal and the mids. Choco is one angry little bloke. You wouldn't want your kids sitting with earshot when he is barking out the instructions. "Not [censored] good enough Nicho. Get to the right [censored] spot next time. Fark!" was one order I heard bellowed.

Nice report So39. I went down for a look this morning. First time so I can't compare it to previous sessions, but I'll add a couple of random observations. -Loved the amount of physical stuff going on. Plenty of body contact and pressure during the drills. Players were sheparding for each other and looking to make space, basic stuff but we've been horrible at it the last few years. Late in the session Frawley and Clark had a bit of a wrestle. Clark had been killing Sellars in a drill where they'd burst from the goalsquare while one of the coaches kicked it in from CHF. Sellars took a knock and went off for a bit and Chippa moved onto Clark and started to bump him off the ball. After one or two Clark responded and before long they had each other by the scruff of the neck and were going at it about as hard as you can in modern footy. By the end of it a shredded orange vest lay on the ground but I couldn't remember who had been wearing it. Loved this from our big bloke bookends, neither will take a backward step. -Bartram and Tapscott couldn't be far off the main group, they were very strong in their running and were told to ease up a bit more than once, Jurrah looked to be struggling a bit with the running but they did a lot of it. I think he'll be pleasantly surprised by what he's able to do in games with his increased fitness. Jack Viney looks physically ready to play AFL now, his biceps are thicker than my thighs were at 17. -Clark is excactly what our forward line needed. His body work was excellent today. He was consistently able to push off his opponent and get a few yards on the lead against everyone but Frawley. Chippa gave him a much tougher contest. -Plenty of blokes out there looking fitter than they've ever been. Gys looked fine to me, was still pushing hard late in the session and his face was barely pink. Bate's transformation is signifigant, completely different body shape. Howe is cut, don't know if he's any bigger but I'd guess his skin folds are down considerably. It's finally starting to look like there's more men out there than boys.

Yes he did. He did not stand out in drills but he was moving very well.

Oh really ... http://demonland.com/forums/index.php?/topic/25192-jack-darling/page__view__findpost__p__412514

Hahaha you crack me up WYL. "<insert oversimplified personal opinion here>. FACT."

Sometimes I think it would be better if all clubs sacked their recruiting departments and just followed Emma Quayles draft order, it often seems to pan out that way. Think of the money and time that would be saved. It seems in the recruiting circles there is a consensus about how the draft will fall, particularly in the top 20 and this is why Darling was picked up in the 2nd round. I think we have made a few outside of the square decisions in the last draft with Sellar and in the rookie draft with Williams, let's see how we go. I would have loved us to pick Darling, I would have loved us not to pick $ but that's the draft. I think we have a pretty good list that will be enhanced over the next few years with Viney, the compensation picks and some good coaching.

yes, but if it was a 1 point loss i may die out of sheer disappointment. and if its a 1 point win i may have a heart attack. lets do what the cats did, win by heaps the first time and then we can have a few closer ones. haha

It warms my heart to read that the competitive juices are already on show and its only January. Great stuff, and a positive sign for the future! I can't remember when it last happened at Melbourne.

I'll counter the big call earlier and say Bennell will be our first choice lock down defender for crumbers but in a year or so Strauss will be a very capable and versatile defender who can defensively or offensively, just needs a lot more time now due to injury.

IMO the Recruiter is the eaiest target in AFL football. So many factors go into whether a pick was good or bad. Players can get injured, poorly developed, poorly coached, poorly trained, overlooked for selection, have personal problems etc, etc , etc all of which plus more that can affect their performance and for this the recruiter is blamed if the player doesn't end up a star.

It's probably because what he (and Blease) do really well can't be coached, but what they need improvement in can be coached. Improving their knowledge of team structures and defensive pressure can be improved through coaching and it is the coaches' job to make sure G & B play their roles properly. But if they can do that then their other, more unique, gifts can really add to the team.

I think it is also because he does a lot well, but you cant just let the kids who have some natural talent keep coaching along like we have in the past, really push them, I think its a bit like Neeld and Watts, put some extra expectations on the ones who have a higher ceiling than others and make them reach for it.

You'll back the FD - until it all goes to poo in which case you'll say you were against it all along :-p

Just great to hear he is back in full traing!

Thought of that too! One of the worst examples of confusing hindsight with foresight. For every player with a troubled that turns out to be a Darling there are a trainwreck of examples that turn out to be a Fevola, Angwin or a Thorp. Player character is an important part of a players make up as a footballer. If he overcomes those personal hurdles to perform then well done. Some do succeed but many dont. As a result players with problem attitudes are a risk and are marked down in the drafting process. And we are only onw year into a career and we can link it to why we have been crud for 48 years. Wonderful. Nice slap at Bailey too. For a person who defended and overcooked his MFC performance and would welcome him back at MFC in the future you butter both sides of the bread implying that he did not have the guts to make a list decision (that incidently was not his to make, its Prendegast). And one thing in Bailey's favour he was not scared to cut the deadwood and to support the selection of youth. The issue with MFC is not the alleged "choirboys". We have recruited our share of ruff nuts, brawlers and tuff guys. We have also recruited a few problem cases. We just have not recruited talented footballers

As with all things in life, some recruiters are better than others.

And those who trot out the above refuse to acknowledge that is it not an exact science so all recruiters can do is pick the player that all data points to him being the best pick and Cook was the All Australian CHF so all data pointed to him being the better pick ( not because Darling wasnt a choir boy). Whilst recruiters may punt on later picks there is a fair reliance on data such as all Australian selections and draft camp testing. So I guess what you are saying is recruiters are paid to ignore what is in front of them and "punt" on selections

History wouldn't be repeating itself if Green was told to step aside. Junior was shown the door and that's what the players took exception to (I think); nobody's suggesting that we put Green out on his arse, just remove him of a title. I really doubt the playing group would be all that upset about that - they may even agree that it's the right thing to do. Bottom line: I don't think there would be any catastrophic fallout if Green was replaced. Worst case scenario I think is that Green himself cracks the sads - he's a big boy and if he wants his career to continue then he'll build a bridge eventually.

C: Moloney, Grimes VC: Trengove LG: Rivers, Jamar, Green

C - Frawley VC - Trengove, Grimes LG - Rivers, Jones, Moloney, Green

Frawley, Trengove & Maloney co-captains.Jones,Jamar & Green in leadership roles.Grimes to be included as a v/captain.

Moloney © Grimes © Trengove © Rivers Frawley Jones McKenzie Having Jordie in there is wishful thinking on my part. And I believe the paper report about shared captaincy. I don't like them normally, but these are not normal circumstances.

Given that we front up to the chapel (the G) week after week, year after year, in the vain hope of our heroes performing a miracle ... it would seem to be, yes.

Jim Stynes has done a great job, but what is this ... a religion?

For those nominating Trenners as skipper and the likes of Beamer and Nut as VC. This creates nonsense. Your saying we have no mature players to act as captain, but yet you have a 40 gamer as captain of those mentioned maturing our young players. If you want a young captain, surround him with young support to build! How good is Wozniacki in that red dress?

Is that right? What he was thinking about Ben Reid when he'd played 8 games is 3 years.

None of the names are spelt correctly, that's the joke.

For round 13..... "you lied to Jim stynes"

What's happened with Waylen Manson?

Yep. I am with you on this. Some of the venom being thrown in here at G.Lyon is totally disgraceful. Some of you people need to go to the hall of mirrors & have a good hard look at yourselves.

Interesting debate. The main thing I take from this (and perhaps it assumes that AoB's analysis is correct) is that Mark Neeld has a clear vision and game plan that he intends to execute. Sellar, it seems, fits neatly into what Neeld is looking for in defence. Whether Sellar is good enough or not to effectively play that role, time will tell - but, at this point in time, he is a required piece in Neeld's jigsaw puzzle. The whole 'best available' methodology seems to have gone out the window a little for the time being. Neeld seems intent on recruiting players who will have defined roles to play in his structure. And I like that - it inspires confidence.

Great report, JJH. What you have described in the first paragraph is music to my ears - it sounds as though we now have an experienced, battle hardened Green Beret (Mark Neeld) at the helm of this club, and he is preparing these boys for the type of combat where lives may be lost. Bottom line - they will be a well drilled unit this year. For years I've said to my mates at the start of each season, "watch out for the Demon Express - we'll be in the mix", only to see us turn out pathetic performances for the entire season and end up in the bottom four. Even though I have absolutely no credibility with my MFC predictions anymore (partly because I told everyone to put their house on Sylvia for the Brownlow last year), I reckon we will be finals bound this year - and I'm going to put my zero credibility on the line with my mates (once again) and tell them to watch out for the Demon Express in 2012. When they dismiss my predictions, I will simply give them the type of smug look back that says, "I have inside info - I know what I'm talking about". I feel certain we'll make the top 8 this year. Major Neeld won't settle for less.

Nice bit of revisionism there, worth of the aforementioned North Koreans. It was messy all round, and the follow up, especially from Adelaide, was seen as bumbling and amateurish - go type "Neeld" in the search window on some of the Adelaide boards to see what their supporters thought of AFC and their president. 186 was a shattering, traumatic, and yes, chaotic weekend for the club and everyone connected to it. But the seeds for what has happened since were sown in those 48 hours.

If I was to have a go at dreaming up what happened at the Club (like many others have attempted) it would be as follows: Garry facilitated a great deal of the change purley through asking some really good but invasive questions. He was exposed to a lot more of the conjecture about the club in media circles whereas the people within the club were trying to avoid addressing it in anyway. These questions were the catalyst for the hard decisions to be made by many people. Who knows but I bet most of the people that were shown the door probably asked where it was after things started getting uncomfortable. I also suggest that it was Garry who brought back the meaning of passion and defined it at the MFC that attracted Neeld, Craig, Misson and Co. At the time, I also was pretty disappointed by Garry giving the 186 debacle more fuel on his radio show - thinking that Jim's health would be put under more pressure by such comments. However, looking back at it all now, I doubt all of this would have happened had it not played out the way it did. Dealing in hypotheticals I know, but the rapid turn-around in positions, staffing, structures etc may not have happened if Garry hadn't have shot his mouth off to begin with. Maybe it was Jimmy who give it to him that got him at the club? All I care about now is the current status, of which appears to be a massive improvement. But, talk is cheap and 4 points are not.

rolly I would like to see him play a game at Casey that is good enough for him to get a game at AFL level.