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Riley in the main group! Looks like he'll do running with the boys! Great news. No deeds go unpunished here. Nathan Jones piffs a ball at Chip Frawley, falcons him, and then Chip proceeds to get Jonesy back, piffing multiple balls at him before finally getting him. Hardly anyone's here after 300 odd on Friday... wow. Everyone except for Jayden Hunt, Col Garland and Daniel Cross is here training. Guessing Cross and Hunt are affected by the bug which swept through last week, while Col is obviously injured. Mitch walking laps, looks like Nicho without training jumper on will be in rehab. Stretches + runthroughs as is always the case. Tapscott, Clark and Nicholson in rehab. Tapscott asked to run at 80-85% so issue must be minor. Basic short kicks following runthroughs. Group split into three - one group doing short kicks and handballs. Ruckmen doing some jumping drills, and a small group doing forward 50 leads. McKenzie's doing some kicks inside 50 with Tapscott. Not entirely sure why. Whether it's just to help Tappy or he's joined rehab I can't say. New drill in main group - three groups of eight utilising handball to get out of trouble followed by a short kick to next group. Group must negotiate a defender. In another drill, they're doing screamers. Unsurprisingly Howe is in that group. And taking the best hangers by a mile... also not surprising. McKenzie leaving the track early. As is Clark. Watts too. Full ground drill. Six groups going in both directions, two defensive groups, two midfield groups, two forward groups. Aiden Riley's first real hitout at training and he delivers an absolute gem to Harmes. Running hard. Dean Kent is another who's really looking good, has a lethal boot on him. Boys come in for a drink. Group split into defenders, mids and forwards. Trenners leaving the track early too. As is Jetta. Hogan getting some massaging on the sideline, then finishes up. Forwards working on leads inside 50. Defenders working on getting the ball out from a congested scenario. Brad Miller is urging that players look for the eye contact when preparing for a lead. Brings them in briefly to discuss this with the boys. Looks like mids are working with the ruckmen with tap work. Fitz is still being himself, a few miscued kicks, looking awkward but managing to do the job. That's what I love about the bloke. Interesting to note Miller doing some one on one coaching with JKH, again about eye contact (what he was talking about before). It's easy to see the difference between a first year AFL player and a more experienced player. New drill - few wearing bibs and they're doing a full grounder with the game style they intend to play. With the cooler conditions today compared to Friday movement is also much quicker. Don't mind seeing Sam Blease on the burst from half back to inside forward 50 much like 2011 when he was on half back. That's exactly what I'd want him to do as coach, set us up from half back. Riley's back in rehab, doing running on the sideline, but he's been pretty impressive today. JKH gets three possessions in one chain in the main group, using his pace as always. Pedo ignores a running Viney, u-turns and hits Fitz. Cops a bit of a spray for ignoring Viney. I read an article yesterday about Jeremy Cameron and how good his ground skills are - I reckon Howe is just as good on the ground as he is in the air. Just does not fumble the low ones. Boys come in for a chat. Weird moment - Harmes comes in for goal, Toumpas takes the ball off him and Harmes tackles Toumpas! Bit of playfighting ensures. Hmm. Few players doing some goalkicking, ruckmen doing some tap work with the midfielders and forwards/defenders doing some one on ones. Interesting. Up at the goalkicking end, the classic 'Coffee Bet' as they kick for goal. Comes down to a 'shootout' between King and Barry who shanked their kicks, Barry takes his boot off and kicks it from the boundary! Huge celebrations erupt! Boys finished up afterwards, a bit of a lighter session today.

You're right, the club should have predicted that Clark & Dawes would suffer collision injuries... Deadset, you have absolutely NFI. I'm surprised you even know the players' names and what club you "support."

I'd just like to add a bit of perspective to this. Clarke, Dawes and Hogan had absolutely no input into last year and we had an underperforming or non-existent midfield (NJ excepted). This first NAB challenge will be all about our new midfield setup and what better way to measure its output than to have it performs with the same forward setup as last year. For those who can, get along and support the Dees. It’s only February.

Ones a low life illegal drug peddling lunatic who doesnt take responsibility for their own actons. The other took some dope to Bali

What I will never forgive Schwab and Neeld for is their neglect in failing to consult the writings of Nostradamus before they went on their recruiting campaigns for Mitch Clark and Chris Dawes. "'The young lion will overcome the older one, On the field of combat in a single battle; He will pierce his eyes through a golden cage, Two wounds made one, then he dies a cruel death." This is clearly a reference to the demise through injury of both players. If only those morons understood the prophesy, it would have saved us a lot of misery. You can throw McLardy in with that lot as well. He could have put a stop to this nonsense if he wanted to.

It's the 14th of FEB......I for one am happy that these players are held back at bit....until the real season starts......The "Woe is us" brigade are out in full force.......These games leading into the REAL season are called practise games for a reason I understand that us long suffering supporters want to win, just win something, but I would rather have the tall forwards right to go for the REAL season where wins mean something.....

Nice sediments...

Who cares, just win games and improve.

I'm sadly excited about this, even though we all know NAB Cup is a load of rubbish. I thought it was fitting to spend Valentines Day with my true love.

Nah, the game needs people like Grant Thomas. The Lyon, Hutchie, Wilson show is much poorer for his absence. He had a few little digs but did say this. "Make no mistake he is the right appointment after previous 2 debacles and will be super for their future"

this is a great way to protect our senior Talls to be ready for the start of the season, whilst putting the acid test on our midfield runners to see who's serious, & who's hearts aren't in it. 2 way running to help-out both ends. it allows us to see our depth players at either end. push them hard prior to our best are ready for the real stuff,; when the weather cools off a tad. we don't want hot weather fatigue to cause our best big forwards to re-injure in a nothing game. ..... 2 weeks out should do for getting some touch. meanwhile our youth who are ready for the next step can step forward.

Brad's a development coach, during training all the coaches are out on the field, doing their bit, ie most of the time Roos calling the shots and the rest observing with bits of encouragement, help with drills etc, would assume a lot of his 'work' is done at closed sessions and at meetings etc.......would think Roos is developing him as a coach as well

I wont be! In the past few years we have treated new draftees badly by playing them before they had time to develop. I want this kid to be a champion at the MFC during 2016 - 2020 period. If that means he is in the outer or playing at Casey for most of 2014 then so be it. I will disappointed if Dawes does not play this weekend and Clark by the 3rd round. They are seasoned players on big money. Time they earned it.

Roos words have a higher purpose than self adulation. He is rebuilding the confidence of a broken club. He is trying to sell hope to members, administration and players. As a coach his first job is to get the club to believe him. If he can't achieve that then we are roo ted.

Thanks moonshadow and Dee-luded.So we still have a chance to get 20+ games out of the deal. My humor just imporoved.

* Seeing how our side has adopted Roos' game style.. * Observing a completely new midfield unit with Tyson, Michie, Cross and Tyson, a former number 2 draft pick. * A second year Viney (although may not play) and Toumpas who we've heard has been tearing up the track. * A glimpse of the future with Salem and JKH who are both reportedly training well. Whilst it would have been fantastic to see Hogan and Dawes play, there's still plenty to look forward to. Dknow how people aren't excited... Footy is back already, and we've got much to look forward to.

Crikey, there are lot of things there that 'people like me' believe or are concerned with which I hadn't realised I believed or was concerned about. I haven't expressed a view on most of the things you list. Don't even recall saying that Debt Demolition was a good thing - though I'll say it now. Better than being bankrupt and crappy on the field simultaneously. To get back to injured players: as Redleg says, we all (including you?) were happy with the Mitch deal until he unexpectedly did his foot. Did anyone predict he'd have that sort of injury? Was Dawes constantly injury prone at C'wood? I don't recall that he was (bar his thumb problem which does not seem to be his problem at the MFC). There is such a thing as bad luck as well as incompetence.

Just to be fair to Clark, before he did his injury he was flying. We looked like we hit gold. The injury is no one's fault and no one was complaining about his contract when he was booting goals from everywhere. Hopefully he returns better than ever. Maybe if he does, his next contract with us will give something back, considering our return on his first. Chip if he leaves will not do it for money, as we will match it or go close. If he leaves it will be for the hope of a flag, sooner rather than later.

The man's expressing his opinion and I'm fine with that. However, he should count himself lucky he doesn't live in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea where you wouldn't want to say those things about the country's equivalent of Paul Roos namely, the supreme leader Kim Jong-un.

He did. Good post too.

played in plenty of losing teams in my time never left somebody out to dry. first rule of footy.protect the kids at all costs, should also add, when your a low team on the totem pole,youve got to hang your hat on something. we made a pact when a losing club ,never give them an easy shot. and when the good days returned we had a forceful approach in place. its easy to invest in those types of things when you have no chance of winning. a matter of fact its the only thing you can invest in. some of those young kids carried me when my legs were shot and i hid in the back pocket in later years

the moment you realised you are p-whipped

That moment when you realised ages ago that it is on Valentines Day and you never had a chance in the first place...

There wouldn't be too many highly successful coaches who didn't have a pretty good opinion of themselves. Roos seems to have a good balance between enormous belief in himself and being able to read/manage people.

Goal kick practice now. Winding up. Dawes, JKH & Howe slotting them from everywhere.

Corby was carrying a sack of shite that was actually worth something?

In fairness to the majority of the other posters on this site, that sort of thing won't be tolerated here in future. While there's no problem with a bit of friendly banter from time to time, there will be no further tolerance allowed for posters who constantly derail threads. Thanks

Do I really have to say it - It's a practice game.

Whilst I am disappointed that I will not see Hogan run about on Friday most players will play 2 of 3 matches and I would much prefer to see a conservative approach and Dawes and Hogan play together for the Cats and Hawks game. Thats better than Hogan playing week 1, then get rested in one of the games when he should be in tandem with Dawes. The key is to ensure they are ready for round 1.

There is a fairly easy argument to be made mjt that without Jimmy's debt demolition there would be no club left for you to criticise.

Really? I'd say you're in the minority, with that opinion.

Lady if you want excitement, may I suggest you give the footy a miss and go to the movies to see The Wolf of Wall Street.

Hey OD, separate the cork from that piece of string and the pop gun becomes an effective weapon. (not sure where I'm going with that, but I think it sounds good.)

Yeah... we finally get a midfield in place that might get the ball to the forwards, but this week we will have no forwards for them to get the ball to :-) I'm actually a little excited about what this may force them to do... we might see Toumpas given a run forward which might in turn see Salem get a run. We will now almost definitely see JKH get a run and maybe even Barry. The Pedster has been firing in training (or so we are told), so if the mids can get the ball to that end of the ground effectively, there is no reason why he and Howe cannot contribute on the scoreboard (we also have Dunn who can, at a pinch, go forward).

I know whoI support I go to 11 games a season I'm not getting in a slanging match with someone that has had a dozen different accounts.

i still shake my head in anger when i think of that moment with Jack Watts. I will never understand why the club did that. No explanation would ever change my mind It was just so wrong.

Anyone else worried that Roger failed to report in today?

Gee I bet all the clubs knew that he would land awkwardly and stuff his foot then had problems with it afterwards...........some people have no idea!!

I seem to recall Grant Thomas poisoning our last coach's chalice before a ball was ever kicked. I'm not surprised to hear he's doing it again.

Riley doing suicide runs. Looks to be moving freely. Jack Viney participating in everything. TOUMPAS is a thing of beauty.

The boys have it absolutely humming through the middle in the full ground drill. Not one mistake so far.

So I guess saying that 'I nearly had a heart attack' when there is a close game is now bad form?

In fairness to WYL I think he may have been misquoting Bill Hicks who had a bit that talked about humanity being a "virus with shoes". Hicks was a comedian and was having a go at all the "back-slapping, aren't humans neat" opinions. I don't want to speak for him but I seriously doubt he would've meant to offend anyone who has been impacted by cancer (is there anyone who hasn't?)

Under five days until the footy. Thank Christ.

I don't think anyone would consider membership of the MFC to be a luxury, Doctor, more a burden passed on from generation to generation.

I'm sure many people reading this will be delighted to see you trivialise such an insidious disease that afflicts so many.

??????????

Based on who is currently fit: FB: Terlich - Frawley - Dunn HB: Grimes - McDonald - Clisby C: Toumpas - N.Jones - Watts HF: Vince - Fitz - JKH FF: Howe - Hogan - Pederson R: Spencer - M.Jones - Cross I: Tyson - Gawn - Strauss - Bail - Tapscott - Michie S: Dawes - Blease Rested: Clark, Kent, Viney, Salem, Hunt, Byrnes, Garland, Jamar

Why? Looking back through the premiership defenders of recent years in Hawthorn (Lake, Gibson), Sydney (Richards, Grundy), Geelong (Lonergan, Taylor, Scarlett) it seems most key defenders are still around that 195cm height at most. Tom Boyd and Joe Daniher stand out as the 200cm key forwards drafted recently, and our own Mitch Clark as well as Jake Carlisle from Essendon are other key forwards approaching that 200cm mark. But they are much more the exception than the rule. The best key forwards are still those around 195cm mark - Franklin, Cameron, Cloke, Riewoldt(s), Roughead. No matter what position a guy plays the taller the better of course but any defender with skills and some athleticism and reach can make up probably close to a 10cm gap between him and his opponent. Because a 200cm defender can't spoil a 195cm forward if they have a run and jump at the ball with separation, but a 190cm defender can spoil a 200cm forward if they can get body contact on.

You stole my thought. Which other Melbourne Coach would have got those 4 pages in the sports section of our 2 biggest papers, with his sponsors logos there and gaining massive publicity for the club. Roos makes us relevant in the AFL because he is so repected. We were irrelevant for the last few years.