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Roosy recognised me from my efl days when I played against his brother and said gday. I mentioned I had my gear in the car and he asked if i wanted to put a few of the guys through their paces, like the old days. Wattsy and I ventured away from the main group with Roosy kicking the ball long to centre half foward from the goal square where Jack and I starting on the goal line had to retreive the ball and slot it through the big sticks. I hit Jack hard hip to hip putting him off balance and then kicked him in the ankle taking him down .Roosy told him to get on with it and Jack gave me a jumper punch to the throat and Roosy cracked a half smile. . We repeated the drill, this time I grabbed Jack front on by the jumper pulled him around and threw him down with a short right Jab to the jaw . Jack replied with Barry Hall esque choke hold befiiting his 91kg frame that almost had me seeing black. With Jack fuming and his face a demon shade of red we repeated the drill. We both sprinted with Jack running ahead and taking the bouncing slippery ball beautifully with his left hand low to the ground turning back towards myself and launching into this sore and sorry clown who is typing this from his hospital bed in the severe trauma unit at the austin. Jack kicked a goal and Roosy let him know he could play forward this week.

I agree Nut. Riley is a tackling machine and a really hard at it mid and I'm keen to see him. Always held out more hope for him than Michie who has struggled to have any influence. Spoke to someone in the know yesterday who said 11 of our players laid 4 tackles between them on Sunday. Cross laid 12. Embarrassing. McKenzie and Riley will be welcome additions to the team when fit as whilst they are not glamorous they are tough, they have a go and they tackle. I reckon Ro Bail has got a really bad rap here. He's a bottom best 22 player and yet people are judging him on the basis he has to be better than that. He runs all day, he get the ball (which players like Byrne, Howe, Michie and a few others don't) and when he does get it he runs forward trying to create. There isn't a player in the team who hasn't butchered the ball this year and Bail is far from the worst. And not many have created play like Bail did for the JKH goal on Sunday which was about our best play of the season. Bail started it. He won't be a world beater but he has a go, he runs all day, he's tough at the ball and his skills aren't as bad as being portrayed here. He played loose in defence in the 4th quarter last week and did well. Under the "lets throw them about" strategy of Roos this week I reckon there is a good chance he'll play spare in defence or midfield.

You guys must hate roundabouts - you'd never get off the thing!

The constant criticism of Pederson is obnoxious. I was at the G on Sunday and Pederson added physicality when others were tame. He threw himself at the contest, particularly after half time, and because of what had gone before, I stood and applauded him. He is fit and he is able to back up week to week. He has played at both ends, can pinch hit in the ruck and is giving 100%. Not everything he does comes off, but at a time when we are decimated by injuries to other fragile talls, he is an important commodity. If the coulda-been-champions on here could find a way to actually support those in red and blue, instead of indulging in character assassination, we might create an environment (culture) that encourages players to be loyal..

Don't kid yourself Bub. There are myriads of examples in society, even in our so called modern democratic society, of people who for one reason or another find themselves above the law - they just need a good lawyer, accountant or the right contacts. Same applies in the AFL where, over the years there have been plenty of examples of this - take tanking where the practice was widespread for most of the last decade but only one club investigated. Power, wealth and clout remain paramount in this competition where the stronger clubs get commercially beneficial programmes and the weaker get killer draws for which measly compensation is handed out like food at soup kitchens to clubs made to feel like beggars. This entire saga of the supplement has demonstrated how one club has wielded its power and how through the influence of friends in the media, in politics in other sporting groups and even now I've heard possibly in WADA, there is a lot happening in the background in an effort to sweep under the carpet what has been a flagrant and scandalous doping scandal carried out and conducted by one club that believes it really is above the law and is doing the best it can to get away with it.

Our injury list actually hasn't been too bad this year, unfortunately it's like free kicks it's not how many you get but where you get them that counts.

If you are referring to Nathan Jones you are seriously misguided and could not have watched the first 2 games of the year.

put a strip of electrical tape down the side,that will make it look like a GT and it will go faster.

so excited so see Riley on the park. He is my new smoky to be a gun ( having said that my previous smoky's have been Newton and Bail so I am not batting too well so far - I still hold out hopes that Howe who I singled out the minute he was drafted will provide my redemption)

The reason I'd drop Trengove instead of, say, Bail or Byrnes, is because playing as a HFF is doing Trengove more harm than good. We simply don't need him as a flanker. If he's going to be any use to us in future, it's as the high-quality on-baller we got him to be. He's more likely to get his mojo back as Casey's premier mid, than to play game after game in the seniors as a so-so flanker. At his best, he's one of those rare and valuable types who's good both inside & outside, but I agree with whoever said that he hasn't been the same player since the sling tackle. I think the same of dropping Toumpas and to some extent Michie. They're better to get in game time as leading mids for Casey, than as flankers or bench-warmers in the seniors, which is no use to us and no use to them. Trengove and Toumpas were both high picks as premium mids, and that's what we need them to become in the next year or two. If they're only ever going to be flankers, that's not what we need, and I'd bring them back only when they've ripped up 2 or 3 games for Casey. I have faith in their character and quality as men and as footballers that they'll make it eventually. But Roos et al have to find the best path for them.

Let's trade for him.

Trengove FINALLY dropped Been calling for this since the start of Neelds tenure Good to see we have some serious coaches now

Give it a rest, precious. Stuie was clearly just hoping that someone had gone to training would offer some information. I'm sure there are a few people who go to training and aren't keen to share information here unless there is already a thread on it, not wanting to start their own.

I understand that Dawes joined in all the drills, but looks to be lacking condition. Understandable of course, but hopefully a good sign for the not too distant future.

might be no-one here left in 3 years to debate with, vagg .....LOL

You may think that is why he is here but it would be misdiagnosis of what our troubles have been. We have not had a sufficient Plan A. This Plan B stuff is a smokescreen, if you are talking about tactics surrounding our impotent forward line - that is not why Roos is here. If you are talking about the inability to have a second gameplan when things aren't going well - that is something Roos has publicly said he wants to avoid. Apparently the players had been given multiple game styles to learn and that when Roos came in and said - we will play this way - the players quizzed him about what percentage of the game he meant... He had to reiterate - 100%. We have not developed a solid Plan A - that has been our downfall. the players have little trust in themselves and their teammates to execute and it shows when they hesitate with simple kicks and handballs and avoid moving the ball quickly for fear that their teammates (or themselves) will screw up. He may put players in foreign positions but the style they will play will remain the same. Only the execution will (hopefully) change. They will get better, we will help them with a more capable forward line (hopefully), and we will see some hopeful progress.

No it wasn't - it was a well considered decision that at this stage hasn't work out.

We got our hands on the footy but didn't move the footy quickly because we looked up and saw a barren landscape with Shannon Byrnes as the most dangerous forward. Tying it back to losing the clearances is a leap.

I think Ive got this. If we kick more goals than the opposition we stand a good chance of winnig games.

It's also the trust your teammate won't fumble it. We need to be able to trust that they won't. Otherwise, as Roosy said on 360, you're all caught out of position because you've run forward under the expectation your teammate has performed the simple task they have infront of them: not fumbling and movin the ball on. When the trust dries up, the run dries up... Then you enter damage control.

I reckon it has to be a mixture of skill and mindset. Ask most VFL level players to show the same skills as are reported as being on display at our training sessions and they will probably not do as well. There must be a basic level of skill in our players but they can't handle the pressure, both physical and mental. And once the confidence goes and players start second guessing everything they do, disaster follows. To say Watts' dropped chest-mark is laziness is silly. How is that lazy? He got there and tried to catch the damn thing which he has done a million times. Either it was a freak accident or much more likely it was all in his mind, wondering how bad he'll look if he drops it, first chance of a goal for a team under the pump, mind in a spin, etc. Mental pressure that destroys concentration. There are many sports where people stuff up by doing exactly what they are telling themselves to avoid doing. Coaches say concentrate on doing it, not what could go wrong, because if you do the latter, it will. Footy is no different with dropped marks, bad short passes etc.

Thinking about the prospect of those picks only depresses me. After so many years of treating the draft as our finals series it no longer excites me, just makes me ashamed and in fact pretty angry. It's really just pathetic that that is all we have to look forward to, forever it feels like.

Rumour has it they trained hard. Expect a showing on Sunday. How depressing is it that the prospect of picks 1, 2 and 3 excites me so much. You'd think we'd have learnt our lesson by now.

That would be the tiller, old dee, because if it was the rudder we would be under water...oh, wait, on second thoughts...

Not exactly sure how starting a thread about training discourages people from talking about training...

The statistics don't lie. Melbourne is ranked 10th in marks inside 50, whereas GWS in third-last with 7.5 per game. So how are GWS averaging 14 goals per game? The Giants rank 1st in clearances with 46, Melbourne averages 30. On game day, a statistic like that is damning. It gets worse. Melbourne is LAST in center clearances, while the Giants average 5 more with 13. They also average 33 stoppage clearances per game, 11 more than Melbourne (!!!) They also average 7 more rebounds out of 50, with 38 per game. Can you imagine if those statistics remain honest on Sunday? The Giants will win by 8+ goals. The reality is that a lack of a forward line is not really the issue: it is the team's inability to chase, and its inability to work hard enough to win a ball at the stoppages. Guys like Watts in the middle only make this worse. The errors are another problem: if Melbourne makes an error forward of center, the Giants are really good at pushing it through the corridor. They did it well against the Swans, and in moments of flash against the Saints. We all saw against the Eagles the amount of errors Melbourne made in the corridor and in the forward line: on the counter-attack, the Eagles ran ran ran, while Melbourne stayed in 1st gear. They gave up. Melbourne does not need every single tall to be playing to win. It needs to win the damn ball when it matters!

Have to disagree here, thats why i gave the examples of what Vince said and the geelong and richmond game. If they cant hack the pressure in a "real" game, then it is because of their state of mind, mental pressure, or perceived pressure.

Well he can only get back to WA via trade, so if we can't lock him in we'll make whoever wants him pay overs for his services. If this year goes the way we're all dreading, I can't see us locking in any contracts. Likewise, we'd be looking at picks 1, 2 and 3 and Roos would have a field day. If he can't turn this club around with picks like that, nobody can. It's potentially 3x more Dyson/Salem trades, plus grabbing anyone we can via free agency.

Don't be like that DC, disgression is an important part of being tacked full

Really? Jones is about the only player I trust with ball in hand. I think he has become a very good penetrating kick.

not being too discreet olisik but stuie does likes to digress

Can we only open these threads if there is something to report? We are consistently seeing these opened and contain no details about training. Or at least leave it to the disgression of whoever attended training to open?

A pet hate of mine, is when a forward entry is too deep in to the forward line, allowing the back-men to easily force it through for a behind. Plonk the ball 25m out and watch the back-men [censored] themselves. Get a big body to crash the pack (Pederson, all he would be good for), then get the crumbers to rove the ball. Simple? absolutely. Will it be effective? more than what we have got going at the moment, and good enough until we get some forwards back in to the fray.

If you read the article you might have noticed that it says the "AFL has determined the club did not put the players’ health at risk and Bates’ relationship with Dank did not constitute governance failings". Just out of interest, if Bates was conducting his liaison with Dank completely outside of the MFC and did not inform the club, what more do you think the club could do? If any employee of an organisation is associating with undesirable characters and doing so in private, what can that organisation do short of invading the privacy of the employee (for which it may be accused of breaches of the law as well as bad governance) to protect itself in those situations?

I haven't posted anything about last weeks game as i have been (and remain) just too deflated by it. And BB your stat about 11 players having 4 tackles between them sums up why. I haven't even looked at the stats but i'd be guessing Michie and the Toump are among them. In Roos' list of nonnegotiables i reckon tackling would be number 1. As BB says embarrassing. Its one reason why i'm really surprised McKenzie is not in this weeks side as Misson said he was pretty close to cherry ripe. I suspect a reason McKenzie wasn't picked (and the Toump and Michie were dropped) was because of his pace.. Our lack of pace was completely exposed on the big spaces of the G last week. It is a big problem. But not as big a problem as the players mental state. How they could not have been up for last weeks just staggers me. They were half asleep in the first quarter and their skill was as bad as i can ever recall it throughout the match. What was really surprising is that Roos showed faith and took an unchanged side in to the match. And they repaid him with tripe. A few other comments about the game. Trengove has to go in the middle. I am a Watts fan but he was woeful last week in terms of effort . Again Roos has shown faith in him and he should have repaid it - he is now a senior player. Some of his efforts (tackling. standing off packs, not going at the ball carrier) were plain embarrassing Frawley is great one on one in marking duels but his disposal is horrible and he made worse by his him often taking high risk options Dunn was terrific and reiterate my claim he is in our top 8 players and absolutely should be on the DL banner - get rid of Howe (who seems to have gone backwards) and Frawley (leader my arse) from the banner for a start And finally i have to say: Jones can butcher the ball but that was one of the best games i've ever seen from a MFC player. Not the most damaging but for pure guts and refusal to lie down up with some of the great games i watched Flower play through the dark days of the 70's and 80's. The mark of a great player in my view is one who plays best when their team is getting thumped. Respect. Frawley, Watts et al - that's what leadership is about.

yuuuuuuuk

Why do people keep asking stupid questions like "why don't we play king?" Or "why not jetta?" They are effing rookies!

It is in their head. Your telling me they cant take a simple chest mark, or miss a 30 metre pass by 5 metres? They do it at training all the time. I saw them all pre season and their skills were fine. Even Bernie vince commented that he was impressed and surprised at the skill and fitness level. They showed it against richmond , and for two quarters against Geelong. Its mental alright, and the sooner we unlock the key the better.

Yeah i agree, Tyson alone i reckon is worth Kelly on what i have seen, anything Salem does is a bonus, the beauty of which is there are no expectations, he can just take his time and develop, like Toumpas should also be doing

I would prefer them to fix the bye. It must have been difficult to get games into injured players and a form line on who should come in when Casey don't start their season until this week.

Judging by team selection for this week, it would appear that, despite the concerns expressed by many, we seem to be making some progress on the injury front. We have a squad of 25 selected for Sunday's game of which I assume two will not travel to Sydney, leaving 16 to play for Casey which would be above the usual average of past years in the early part of the season. We have 40 on the senior list, 4 rookies and our international zone rookie Maia Westrupp who most likely would have played in the Casey development team but for the fact that it has a bye. That leaves the following players not in action at the weekend due to injury/illness - Jesse Hogan (TBA) Chris Dawes (a week or two away) Mitch Clark (indefinite) James Strauss (mystery injury of the week) Colin Garland (close to a return) Max Gawn (close to a return) There's obviously still some frustration over not having those key forwards, but at least there's some hope on the horizon. Next week we play Carlton who have a fairly long injury list and they've just lost Kreuzer for 12 - 14 after getting rid of Hampson and Jacobs a couple of years ago leaving them with only Warnock to carry the ruck duties.

yeah they do. Watching the games IMO the following is obvious. We are getting are hands on the ball sufficient number of times but are butchering it and when we get it near or inside 50 we don't have a forward line capable of kicking a score. ( let alone a winning one). What stats never tell you are the quality of the stat. The quality of our entries into the 50 are reflected by our poor scores.

lol of course he is well regarded hes an absiolute gun Didnt you watch him play last season?

If the MCC members do, then I'm in as well. spread the word...

No he didn't. In regards to Garland, Jamar and McKenzie he said: "If they get through training tomorrow and Friday, they'll play". (http://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/2014-04-01/dave-misson-rd-3-update …. from around 1:30)

Come on guys. In the words of Paul Roos "I'm sick of talking about the past." What good does it do lamenting all day long that we missed so and so in that draft or this draft. You can't assume those players we missed would've become the same players in our guernsey. For all we know some of the high draft picks we picked that went nowhere may have flourished at other teams. Equally, players we passed on may have ended up duds with us. The thinking here that we simply picked wrong and missed out on ready made superstars like Wines, Darling, Naitanui, Grundy, etc. is exactly the line of thinking that got us into this mess. Good drafting helps, but it's not everything. Reality is, we didn't choose them, and those we chose could not flourish in our team. Accept it, let's move on.

was anyone else hoping to see Frawley's name in the outs? looks like Roos is not going to buck the ongoing trend of auto-selecting senior players with pea hearts

Reckon Mitchie is a bit stiff.

I like the idea. I am one of those who on a yearly basis buy a media polo, jacket/jumper a new jumper when there are new sponsors and now my wardrobe is overflowing with years of awesome red and blue gear. This i see as another way to support. I am willing to part with some hard earned per win. IN NO WAY will i ever wish the MFC to lose. If you cant afford to pledge then simply don’t. When we win i don’t see me paying $10/$20 for it a big issue. I am on a tight budget as most of us are but remember we only play once a week. Most of us get paid for doing some sort of work. I am sure some, as i have done, can put aside a small amount to go to the club to celebrate a good weekend when the red and blue bring home the goodies. I doubt anyone is willing to pledge more then they could afford per week. I hope we go through the season undefeated and i can look back and go that it was a awesome year. I don’t understand how there is so much backlash over a scheme that was designed to help our club raise extra funds that they didn’t have before. I know that we as supporters have put our hands in our pockets over and over again and we haven’t seen the results on the field. Its simple, if you want to partake in the pledge per win scheme then do.. if you don’t then don’t. Its not a competition as to how much money you give etc it is just another way you can support the club if you can afford to. I know that i wall have this criticized by those who have time to crawl through my post but honestly i don’t care. i have always supported the MFC and i always will. I put my money into the club through membership and buying supporter gear and i attend as many games as i can. I have seen the good years and i have seen the bad years. I know what it feels like to loose a GF and i know what it feels like to finish dead last. What i want is to know what it feels like to win a GF and if my small pledge this year can somehow help the boys get me there then i know it was worth it.