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Just got back home, too nice a day to be inside, couple of observations Love Tommy Mc as much as everybody, please keep a lid on it, I was pleased to see he was beaten twice by Jesse Hogan on the lead, because it showed me what I have to look forward to next year as well, and the Nicho incident, he still has a bit to learn, but he is great to watch. Myself and my lovely lady thought (in no particular order) these were out stand outs today Davey, Jetta, Blease, Dawes, McDonald, Rodan, Grimes Of the new guys, Toumpas and Barry showed something, and Kent surprised me once with his speed in the match simulation But all in all everybody put in John Muggleton (the tackling coach) has them working hard on the techniques, today was giving them an alternative method, great to see them sticking, particularly when doing the match simulation As for the way the teams were broken up for match simulation, read nothing into it, been to a few trainings it changes all the time, we need everybody comfortable with everybody else Had a chat with a few Jack Trengove - he is coming along fine with his rehab, didn't lose too much fitness, looking fwd to playing with Toumpas Mitch Clark - still on target with his rehab, you can sense he is champing at the bit Aaron Davey - happy, feeling great, loves he has got the full preseason under his belt Nev Jetta - same as Aaron , just wants to show what he can do Jimmy Toumpas - he just smiles, he is just loving it, told him to keep the beard for team photos tomorrow. Col Sylvia - again happy to be out on the paddock injury free and nearly a full ;preseason under his belt, can't wait for start of the season Nathan Jones - just wants to play Rory Taggert - another injury free, knows he has a battle on his hands to get into the side but will give it everything Michael Evans - really pleased to be back, no problems now, another who knows the challenge ahead, got interrupted by Neil Craig whilst talking to 'Pickles", asked me what I thought of 'Pickles' so pumped up his tyres Jack Watts - compared beards, another who is feeling really fit and just wants to play Jack Viney - just can't wait for the season, told him not to hit the first stoppage at a hundred miles an hour, and he just laughed, can't wait to see him in action

Interesting. From about the midpoint of last year, I don't remember Dan Nicholson fluffing his kicks at all, and was struck by the improvement. I went to training this morning too, and his kicking was no better or worse than any others, and by that I mean it was largely very good. I remember there being a lingering belief that Nathan Jones got caught with the ball regularly long after that in fact kept happening......pretty much all of last year, but we kept hearing it.....zzzzzzzz boring. These guys improve, and being lumped with continuing preconceptions as this improvement occurs while not noting the improvement, means you're just not paying attention. What strikes me about Nicho, like Jones, is that he's a hyper competitive animal. I see the same thing in Tommy Mac and Jack Viney. These are the guys who seem to have very singular self directed levels of expectation on themselves, and who I personally love to have in the red and blue, cos nobody's perfect, but the do or die attitude counts for a huge amount. Other observations from this morning.....Nev Jetta is looking and moving beautifully. If he stays fit, we'll finally see the best of him. Likewise the run and energy of Luke Tapscott much better. Cam Pederson has good hands. Given his size and mobility I wish Chris Dawes had the same natural marking security, but he is a vigorous focus which is good. Jack Watts just oozes stuff you can't teach. He's a joy to watch.....his reading of the play, breadth of vision and ability to dispose to the right option at precisely the right time with accuracy, is innate and very rare. His competing with his body and trust in the strength of his marking I THINK look better too, but hard to really assess at training...... his only weaknesses it seems. Sam Blease's speed very exciting as per last year. Jack Grimes looks terrific, and is moving with confidence, speed and assurety. A big year in the midfield I think. James Sellar looks very confident and happy down back, like he's relishing the fact that he now has a role he can anchor. Another big year for mine. James Frawley looks full of monster grunt and ready to go.....let's hope his speed and correctness of decision making have also returned. Frawley, Garland, McDonald and Sellar will be a great unit in defence. Just a thought on Tom McDonald. He's 20 years old, but plays like he's 27. He really doesn't get beaten in a contest, and has an intimidating sense of control of the situation when he's around the ball, either winning it, or giving the advantage to his mates. He is truly exceptional given his age, and I'd be very surprised if he doesn't eventually move forward, maybe in 4 or 5 years, a la David Neitz. After he's gone all Australian as a KPB!!! Bring it on!!!

A few observations from this morning, first session I've seen since this time last year. Wow, haven't they stepped it up a cog or three? Fitter, stronger, better drilled, more on the park, quicker, tougher etc. Hard to believe it's the same group. No sign of Neeld today when I was there - left after an hour or so. Nice to have a bloke like Craig to run the show. Looked like everyone did most of the session apart from Trengove and Clark - did brief running and some kick to kick. Bail and Gawn did repeated sprints then some kicking drills - worked pretty hard. Otherwise looked like only Tynan and D-Rod sat out tackling drill but did everything else I saw. Tackling was tough work, tackle low round the thighs (just above the knee was the task) - bury them in the turf then get up quick and "go" - as stated above repeat calls on "your out of the game on the grouond". I thought almost all applied themselves to the drill - Barry and Frawley seemed the best two at avoiding the tackle - a couple simply couldn't get Chip to ground, and Barry just jumped up cat like to get round others. Gee Magner can tackle. Tommy Mac and Dawes just OK at this drill - but BIG it seemed. When they went into match simulation - end to end stuff. Stopped for the odd ball up, throw in - from AFL umpires. Craig worked through the middle barking instructions. It looked like A-team backs vs A-team forwards in this drills - plus A-team on ball. From that I'd say certain starters for Rd1: 7 Backs - Watts, Nicho, Seller, Dunn, Frawley, Garland, T-Mac Forwards - Dawes, Pederson, Sylvia, Howe, Byrnes - would have Hogan also....if only. Mids - Jamar, Spencer (expect both to play), Viney, Jones, Grimes, Blease, McKenzie Of those I couldn't pin as starting or not I thought Davey looked good - further up the ground; Toumpas looked great, just silky and a nice size already, hit some great kicks. I also recon they'll give Barry a run early before he wears out come mid-season. Those who get to Casey games will salivate at watching Hogan all year. Huge crowd today - great vibe, bring on the season!

This is great stuff, how are our new boys going...Viney Toumpas and Hulk Hogan.Just told the missus to put her panties back on because I have live training reports to read...

This is amazing! Sitting in Canberra getting a running commentary on training at Gosh's. Looks like the scheduled gardening will have to wait. Thanks guys!

Perspective. That's what it's all about at this time of year. We see them on the park but even when they're doing the really competitive stuff like match simulation, we just don't know the extent of the improvement that must be subsumed and incorporated within the group. One player who has been mentioned as an improver in despatches is Tom McDonald and I imagined that, at 194cm and 92kg, he would loom large among the players. But when I arrived and saw the number 25 out there early with three others, including Dan Nicholson and Jack Viney, he looked tiny. That's because the fourth player in the early group was Max Gawn who is positively a monster at 208cm and 107kg. That's perspective. Max put on his GPS and after a bit of a run around he disappeared into the wild blue yonder. I don't know when he'll be ready (it's said he's still on the long term injury list), but I can't help thinking that a bloke of that size who moves so smoothly might be a damn important asset if he can get it all together. There's no "might" about the other early birds. Jack Viney is going to make a difference and his infusion into the midfield, along with that of another classy mover in Jimmy Toumpas will aid our quest to revive our stocks in this all-important part of the ground. Those two might be young and raw but, of the top ten newcomers out of the draft, they're the only ones with experience playing the game with and against men. And Jack Grimes, who will give a lot of service in the midfield this year, has the look of a captain this year. Now, if only we can get his co-skipper up and running, that midfield might well dig itself out of the third world territory it has occupied for the best part of a decade. There's a bit more run there too with Dan Nicholson and Sam Blease showing a fair bit of toe. Once I got the other early bird, Tom McDonald into the right perspective, he looked all right too. I'm not putting too high an expectation on him though. He's only 20 and while he did have some terrific break out games last year, he's still got plenty of work to do but along with James Frawley, Tom Garland and Jack Watts (and maybe James Sellar), he will add a bit of class and stability to the back half. I'm not getting carried away by all means. After all, the team was so much on the nose in 2012 after promising a lot in the pre season. We even belted Collingwood in a NAB Cup game and we thought ourselves at one with the universe until the Big Bang came and hit us on a weekly basis for months until many of us were invoking the mercy rule before midseason. We gained a lot of perspective as a consequence. I'm not going to rave about the mature age recruits on a little over an hour's exposure but Chris Dawes and Cam Pedersen, despite some detractors from the clubs they left, appear as if they are going to add lots to what was a very undermanned forward line last year, particularly after Mitch Clark fell. While we're at it, Clark ran around a bit and kicked well with his left and is supposed to be on track for a start in the first month of what they call the regular season. There's been a lot said about the failure of many of Melbourne's early draft picks to develop as quickly as we would like, but less said about the fact that many of them including Blease, Grimes, James Strauss, Luke Tapscott, Watts and a couple of others missed great slabs of what should have been development time through injuries and missed out in previous years on much needed pre season work. Well, they're getting it now and, in doing so, we're ticking that very big box that requires players to be injury free at this time of year. We should see much more advancement, better prospects of development and hence, a greater depth of talent available for selection than in the past. In that regard, I will nominate my big improver for 2013 as Neville Jetta who appears to be thriving under this new regimen. I reckon Aaron Davey might just be ready to reinvent himself as he goes around for another year: a prospect that some might have thought doubtful when he struggled through games in the past two seasons. Both players are thriving now whereas in recent years, they haven't been on the track. There were others but it was the first time in a while and I'm still learning new numbers, faces and styles. Sooner or later, I'll get it all in the right perspective. I won't venture to say how much we'll improve in 2013 but I note the AFL Prospectus has us down with the 13th best list, which even without the prospect of a good draw, a healthier list and more stability at the club, suggests we'll at least double our number of wins. Still, I'm not going to get carried away just yet. I must add two final points from what I saw. Neil Craig looked really in command at training today and what a great choice he makes in that assisting senior head honcho role? And the kid wearing # 1 looked the goods for a 17 year old, so much so that I might get myself a few extra doses of perspective at Casey Fields this year. The show rolls on into February but for now ... it's yibbida, yibbida. That's all folks!

Barry doesn't look as thin as people make him out to be, he at least has some definition already. Would easily beat Morton in an arm wrestle.

This is the time to rush to conclusions and speculate.Not the time for sensible consideration.

I might drip feed a few of these until Nasher gets back.

I know you're not a fan BH but I strongly believe Watts is the man. He lacks in some attributes but his decision making and disposal is first rate. I have been a vocal supporter of his but he must step up this year.

I can tell that just by looking at your avatar.

Dunn looks soiled and I think he'll have a very good year. Was he paired together with Viney in the drills?

does anyone look a bit gay?

Great to see the players being trained on how to tackle properly, Whelan was the last Melbourne player who knew how to tackle.

You seem pretty close-minded for someone who doesn't speak English.

It is interesting that Eddie's knifing of Malthouse and his anointing his love child seems to be causing a few rifts. Long may it continue.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogan The term bogan is Australian and New Zealand slang, usually pejorative or self-deprecating, for an individual who is recognised to be from an unsophisticated background or someone whose limited education, speech, clothing, attitude and behaviour exemplifies a lack of manners and education. 'Bout sums it up ...

Tomorrow, I hope to make it to training for the first time in over a year and with the anticipation of that event, I'm feeling a bit like a kid again. Back in those days (when I was a kid), I was an unabashed fan of Bugs Bunny whose character has been described as personifying "supreme heroism" and "humanity's aspirations to prevail over all difficulties and antagonists". Let's not forget that Bugs' heyday was back in the 50s and 60s when Melbourne was highly successful in fighting evil and winning premierships. Well, after enduring what was a very painful season in 2012 and having then to put up with sheer nastiness over the off season from characters like Caroline Wilson (I liken her to Elmer Fudd complete with shotgun at the ready to blow the brains out of our beloved Demons) and other media antagonists like Jon "Pepe Le Pew" Pierik, Jay "Hippety Hopper" Clark and Greg "Daffy Duck" Denham, it will be refreshing to go down to AAMI Park to watch some actual footballers, even if it's just to while away an hour or so watching the players do some pre season training drills. And how appropriate it is that the session is taking place in the shadows of Rod Laver Arena as they pack up the remnants of the tennis and close enough to the G where the curtain is about to fall on an uninspiring summer of cricket? Those sports are virtually done and dusted and the footy season beckons. All that's needed now is for the AFL head honcho Foghorn Leghorn Vlad to light up his exploding cigar and blow away the iniquitous tanking inquisition and the universe will once again be in harmony. But that's for another time and place and for now, I want to tick some (match) boxes. I want to see the box ticked that shows the players improving in their KPI's. I want to see greater enthusiasm, better skills, positive attitudes, keenness and competition for spots on the team and I want to see healthier, fitter bodies on the park. I want to see evidence that our intensity has gone up from last year's 60% of "elite" to 80% as promised. Show me Speedy Gonzales, the Road Runner and some tough guy characters, but most of all, the spirit of the hero, prevailing over all those who connive to defeat and dominate us. On with the show, this is it!

Some of still remember the bogan's king hit on Rohan Bail at Casey in 2009. Added to his 'bruise free' comments Id love to see him eating dirt when he plays the Dees this year, Hopefully there is now enough mongrel in our side to give him his come uppance...

I am in awe of you JVF. Such commitment. (Is your partner's name Judy? Please, make it so, in order that I can say commitment over and above the call of Judy) To think I once questioned your haircut. A man who can knock it back. Our club will surely prosper with supporters of this ilk.

I've been to a few sessions since new year and with every session we see the intensity increase. I actually thought Sylvia was one of the better players today. One thing that stood out is the players we have that can hit targets and the players we have that can't. When the ball was moved with our quality players it looked good, but we still have many players that just miss targets. Blease may have looked great with his speed but let himself down with his disposal. Last Friday was 1 quarter today was 2. The speed was a stand out and the ability to maintain that speed through the 2 periods is the biggest improvement from last year. Jack Viney needs to lose his superman cape and learn he can't take on the world. Nathan Jones had the same issues until last year hopefully he can help Jack through this. Watts played on Dawes and actually held his own on the lead, if he gets confidence early in the season, we will all be reminded in how good he is. To me the main spots up for grabs is the small midsized forwards and backs. Two spots forward and two spots down back. Early doors I would have Jetta and Dunn down back and Davey and Blease up forward with Tappy not to far behind. A lot can change in 9 weeks, but we will beat port by 10 goals

His straight mate says"no chance Barnee even those gays have standards".

If the club is allowing Dan Nicholson to be the release kick from def 50 then its gonna be a bloody long season

Loving the look of Dawes, presents well, runs hard and has been holding his marks.

Yes because all people who wear burkas are mass murdering suicide bombers. Where do you get your world views from? The amount of ignorance and fear you portray is utterly astounding!

I have returned recently from a month riding in Thailand and Cambodia. Despite the crazy traffic there, I felt much safer there on a bike than I do in Australia. There is a much greater acceptance in SE Asia of bikes as a legitimate road user. Nobody sticks to lanes, or even drives down the correct side of the road, but everyone recognises that everyone else has as much right to use the road as anyone else. That doesn't happen in Australia. Road users have a sense of entitlement such as 'we pay for the roads, so bikes should get off it'. Firstly, that's wrong, and secondly, who cares? The roads are public property and should be used by anyone who lawfully does so. There is an anger which I don't understand. I'm not a lycra clad road warrior, but I ride my bike every day to work and have now sold my car. All I want is to be able to ride my bike safely from point A to point B without someone trying to run me off the road just because they have a problem with me existing. I can deal with people swearing at me for no other reason other than that I'm using the same road as them (thus forcing them to drop their speed from 60 km/h to 25 km/h for 5 seconds), but I can't deal with people trying to make my trip less safe. Why should I have to suffer extra risk just because some idiot suffers feelings of inadequacy? Biffen, I don't ride down Beach Rd, but I can see why those who ride for sport would. It's a great view, the road is flat, long and there's a big gap between traffic lights. Cyclists are entitled, legally, to ride two abreast. Besides, it's a multi lane road so there should be no issue with it. Why do you have an issue with it?

I went down for an hour and was surprised to see Dunn playing in Rivers old role as the loose man in defense. I would have expected Watts to be groomed for this role. Jetta stood out with his pace, attack and disposal and seems a ready replacement for Bartram. I really liked what I saw of Dawes. Although he doesn't mark everything he times his leads to perfection, does repeat running and controls the space in front of him better than most. He will bring others around him into the game and give confidence to our midfield when delivering into the forward line. Shannon Byrnes was shorter than I expected but impressed me with his positioning and read of the play. Finally I thought Garland looked in top shape. Physically he is much bigger and solid than I remember and with his pace brings valuable versatility to the team.

Run out of arguments then have you?

This thread doesn't have a topic. It only has one prohibited topic.

His problem is he waves the ball around before he drops it. It's like trying to hit a golf ball while on the run, he needs to keep his hands and head as still as possible.

In the instance I mentioned, Toumpas swooped on a ball that was knocked down in a marking contest and slotted it from about 30 out. It was good to see him run on to the ball with momentum and then convert. Didn't see him get in and under much but that's not really why we got him I guess. Jones, Rodan and Viney seemed to do a lot of the grunt work at the stoppages with Grimes, Toumpas and Blease breaking away. Rodan did make a lot of quick sprints out of congestion too. Good to see Neil Craig emphasising the need to breakaway quickly when we go.

Players to impress me were Blease who's run and carry is genuinely exciting. Once he's running nobody can catch him. Matt Jones is a very big midfielder and did some good things. Wasn't a fan of Tynan but like some of what he did today. Toumpas will be a favourite, exquisite skills and finds it a lot. Nicho will frustrate unless he can sort his kicking. Taggert is a big boy too but I didn't see him do much. Didn't see Terlich either which was disappointing as he'd been good the last two times I'd been to training. All in all a good fun day but the intensity is only about 80% of match day and still the skills disappointed on occasions. I find it hard to compare with last year and it's just dancing with your sister stuff. Rohan Bail didn't train with the main group, hope it wasn't because of Dunn's brain fade at the last session.

Camp as christmas. The boys are as happy as can be.

To quote the coach in the tackling drill: "Get up quick or you're out of the game."

First group out were Jack Viney, Daniel Nicholson, Tom McDonald and Max Gawn who made the other three look like dwarves. Max puts on his GPS and is having a kick with one of the coaches. Looks like he's set for a bit of running. The rest of the group preparing to enter the arena.

I've been giving this some thought and I've come up with this one. To eliminate tanking, I would change the system for the next ten years to give preference in order to the length of time since a particular club won its last premiership. For the newbies that haven't won a flag at all, I would use as the benchmark, the year they entered the competition (GWS and GCS have had ample concessions and Freo gets a good spot anyway). This would have given us this order for the 2012 draft: 1 Western Bulldogs 2 Melbourne 3 St. Kilda 4 Richmond 5 Fremantle 6 Carlton 7 Adelaide 8 North Melbourne 9 Essendon 10 Brisbane Lions 11 Port Adelaide 12 West Coast Eagles 13 Hawthorn 14 Collingwood 15 GCS 16 Geelong 17 GWS 18 Sydney Swans The incentive to tank has been eliminated and the Doggies keep getting #1 every year until they win a premiership (I might consider putting them between Carlton and Adelaide however, because that's when Footscray became the Western Bulldogs and this would lift Melbourne to # 1). The idea is to give the clubs that have gone through hard times, the opportunity to rise without tempting them to list manage or, god forbid, break any AFL laws. Thoughts?

Just kills my buzz. I know this is a footy forum but if footy is all we could or should ever talk about then I'd have to hand the keys back right now. I like my footy but damn I have a personality that needs variety too. And this is the only forum I frequent, and most of the people I hang around don't give a stuff about having meaningful conversations so I come here. Sue me stuie!

whatever you think about the Burqa, it's a total furfie that it imposes some serious danger in our society. It is also more commonly a reprehensible avenue for muslim-bashing. It is a minority of Muslim women who wear either Burqa or Niqab in the world, let alone Australia. This being an issue just reflects the ignorance of posters. For the record, this is legitimately an issue at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, perhaps the oldest centre of Islamic scholarship, where the institution demanded women not wear Niqab in exams. some perspective Tackling footy's silence on gays Tackling footy's silence on gays Tackling footy's silence on gays Tackling footy's silence on gays Tackling footy's silence on gays

Stuie it's actually an interesting conversation why do you always feel the need to shut down threads because you don't like the content? If it was up to you everything would be about football only and this place would be a vanilla bore.

For the record the point was made in order to emphasise and categorise initiatives relating to gay equality...and contrast it with multiculturalism round. While I may very well have differing views on multiculturalism to both responders, you clearly missed the point [one which if you had remained closed minded, albeit a little less closed minded you may have interpreted in your favour!]. If I were a bigger man I would cease writing but alas I am not, and I unfortunately risk this degenerating into an 'ology like thread...this is a pity, as the usually horrible Brock's points were worth being highlighted. B-H, "research it", you know not who you direct this to, and you clearly have not applied your advice. The opposition to multiculturalism expressed in these two posts does not reflect a well-considered opposition to the policies of multiculturalism [which is valid, regardless of your stance], but rather is a clearly poorly interpreted version of recent dog-whistles blown by Angela Merkel and David Cameron. The promotion of individualism and tolerance does not imply an ethic that views "all cultural behaviour is equally valid and welcome" - hence in Australia we do not permit whaling, or [insert dubious cultural behaviour here]. You so very badly 'get' what multiculturalism is and how it manifests itself. These two views are poorly expressed, and thinly devised - not something which is necessarily applied to all opposition to multiculturalism. You should have more faith in our strong and successful institutions of state, welcoming ethos, and most of all the lessons of the rather short history of the Australian federation. Sorry Nasher

This is absolute [censored]. To draw a line between sexuality and AIDS in this day and age shows exactly why we need social awareness campaigns. The majority of people with AIDS are poor Africans with little to no education. It's not 1983 anymore. And this whole argument about the 'majority of the actual public' is proven to be untrue as well. On last count 60% of the Australian population supported gay marriage, one of the highest approval ratings in the world. Seriously, if you're going to speak you might want to think first.

Butters you [censored]!!!!

^^ This, perfectly said. Being gay myself I totally agree with this, the whole coming out process was difficult and stressful, I can't wait for the day when society accepts differences in peoples lives. Also, disliked Brock Mclean for what he did to the MFC, but am really impressed how he has tackled this issue and is now coming out in support of gay people even by marching along side Jason Ball in the pride march next week is an amazing sign of support. Much respect to him for that!! Maybe our Brock is growing up and the storm after his comments on tanking has made him realise the important things in life? I am sure he has been extremely caught up in this whole saga as well, having an effect on his life.

How is it irrelevant Stuie? It's all about acceptance. Cultural acceptance has just been a topic of conversation that has flowed from acceptance of one's sexuality preference. You hijack every damn thread with your boring repetitive moral high ground crap.

This is a footy board. Not only that, but now you are discussing things totally irrelevant to the original post. AND not only that, but certain posters are embarrassing themselves while offending others. Started out as an interesting thread, some good positive comments and some well thought out ideas, but as seems to happen on 'Land it's been hijacked.

Wtf? Sort of going off-topic here with the good old fashioned religious bigotry..

I can and do. A Multi-racial society is a fine thing to aim for, but a multi cultural one is just asking for future troubles. Multiculturalism just makes it harder for the melting pot to do its job, and god knows the job is hard enough as it is. Now I'm not saying we all must eat meat pies and say Strewth all the time, and the dominant culture should take the best it can find from others and use it, but the idea that all cultural behaviour is equally valid and welcome is a very bad idea that will hurt this country in the future.

Any policy that implores divisiveness cannot be successful long-term. And if you don't think it's divisive you don't understand it. Being against multiculturism doesn't mean you're against celebrating someone's original culture, it's not being against diversity, it's not anti ethnicity, it's not being against immigration, but I doubt you get that. I wonder whether you understand what multiculturism even means. Multiculturism advocates difference. It advocates non inclusion. It rewards anti assimilation. It rewards groups financially to stay different. It's a completely flawed concept that has caused havoc around the world. Don't take my word for it. Research it.

I'll wait for the full story. Remember how many stories the Herald Sun got out of our boxing day incident?

For mine, a big part of what landed us in trouble was the increased sensitivity to the issue by the time we were open to it. After the Kreuzer Cup it was going to be noticed. Add to that West Coast's big rebound after dropping back for one year and people were looking for it.