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He also led the warm up lap when training started to a lot of banter, plus the handshake, plus the confirmation with me, expect him to debut Other points from training, the hamstrung group, Salem, Vandenberg and Kent did about 30 minutes and then left During one of the match sim/ball movement drills Roos got very angry and 'bellowed', unlike his usual approach, think it was a case of the players completely ignoring what he and Goodwin had just told them Toumpas looks a completely different character at training now, a lot more relaxed, think he is getting used to being in the team and will continue to improve

I asked him outright and he said yes

Yeah we got it the 1st time mate.

Do you realise that we have played 7 top 8 sides in our 10 games thus far? Do you realise that we have had about an average of 8 unavailable players for most of the year? Do you realise we have actually won 3 and performed well in 2 losses against good sides? I don't understand why people are acting like we are dead last getting pillored every week, we are going OK. Without all the injuries and a horrific draw so far we may well be much better than OK

from:- http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2015-06-12/vfl-player-review-round-eight VFL Player review. Alex Neal-Bullen: We thought he was our best player on the weekend. He played his best game for the club. He had 34 possessions, five effective tackles and 20 contested possessions. He won a lot of critical contests and his hands were really good. He brought a lot of players into the game. His performance on the weekend was as good as Ive seen in any game Ive seen this year. Hes had a really interrupted pre-season and hes building really nicely, so it was a good effort by Alex. Bold is my highlight.

I hope ANB wins a NAB Rising Star nomination.

You slag off Toumpas but you want Terlich in the team?

This player needs a good hard look in the mirror. If you are a fringe player in the worst performing team of the decade, the odds are that the younger players are better than you. The odds are that you have had many chances and failed to grasp them and it's probably safe to say that you are just not good enough and you should be thankful for the chances you had. Seriously, it's not like there's been many 'fringe' players tearing it up for Casey and not being given a chance.

A bit, I should have said a bit! Probably most excited about this kid of our draftees, because these are the picks we need to make count too, and I really think he will. I just hope his mate Billy manages to stay in the side to run out beside him.

TDI please keep up the training reports I.m sure there are many that appreciate them

Yeah. I heard someone complaining that Hawthorn (last year) never played anyone above them, while we always did! :-)

Good to hear that Goodwin is trying to establish his list.

Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't, spoken to a few of them, depends on weather forecast, changes to opposition etc, would assume ANB will be sub, seems the Roos way, although Billings has just dropped out of the Saints side, may change the thinking Not sure, would be good if he did with ANB, bit like Jones and Brayshaw now, Billy and ANB combine really well

Bit of a tangent, but I thought it was interesting that Plapp went out of his way to point out that three of his young players are really enjoyable to coach because they listen (in contrast to Roos' comments after the game). The three he mentioned were OMac, Harmes and Stretch. I wonder how much of an influence this has on players having success at the top level - I've heard stories about some players such as Blease, Morton and Gysberts being nigh-on uncoachable because they didn't listen to feedback.

Bit cold so got there at around 1030 & left after 40 mins. Interestingly numbers were really low..24 or 25 players only. Thought there might have been a tragic bus accident on the way to training! Realised after a little while that it was only the squad for Sun that seemed to be out there. I was told that there were a couple of others out there earlier but they'd gone by the time I arrived - except Spencer. Anyway, on reflection, it makes sense to try some practice with only the people you'll be playing with, I guess. Also noteworthy, I thought, was Goodwin pairing up JW & Toumpas to practice hard tackling on each other and also competitive high marking. Given that these are two players that might over-think their performances, it was good to see them get some special attention. Nothing else noticed by me except Tyson looks better for the break.

I love this thread. A rumour followed by a manhunt. I reckon it was Keyser Soze.

Cold hands?

Lumumba is a smarter footballer than Terlich. Lumumba isn't a great kick but he is better than Terlich. Lumumba can push forward, and can kick goals, Terlich can't. Lumumba can lead, and direct players on gameday, Terlich can't, or doesn't. Lamumba can play on smalls and talls due to his height, jump and pace. Terlich can't. Lamumba is proven on the big stage, and can perform in high pressure games. etc. etc. etc.

Melbourne by 40 points Hogan to kick 5 Garlett 4

An interesting/strange bench: I/C: Billy Stretch, Viv Michie, Aidan Riley, Alex Neal-Bullen Special moment for ANB and Stretch when they go out together (and when they relay the ball down the middle to get ANB his first goal! )

We've been decimated by injuries and ANB is coming off a good run of form in the VFL. The Saints are a young side. Absolutely the correct call, just as selecting a raw Brayshaw in Round 1 has proven to be. I haven't seen much of ANB, but he clearly has no trouble winning the football. 35 possessions at his age is an amazing achievement in the VFL. I expect him to make a good fist of it.

Being the sub more?? Mate do you not research or do you just pull these out of your ass to make you try and look good and continue to put Jimmy downOut of his 24 games Jimmy Toumpas has been the sub 5 time while Aish in his 27 games has been the sub just twice. But hey don't let the truth get in the way of that.. Another Fail. Try again

Year. Automobile correct cane bee a batch.

That is the biggest load of rubbish.. i have played State footy before and the one thing on becoming a good successful winger is having a big engine and speed. Because all day you have to be prepared to be running up and down the wings and willing to spread hard from the stoppages and be that next option out in space. You don't need to be a good overhead mark to be a successful winger because if you are smart enough and spread hard you should be out on the space taking a nice easy uncontested mark and continue to provide run.And to prove how wrong your ridiculous theory is both Jimmy Toumpas and James Aish have played 6 games each this year and Toumpas has already taken more marks then Aish already. So to me it shows he is spreading hard and getting the uncontested marks out in space. So without doing any kind of research your just trying to sink the boots into Toumpas for no particular reason just like that other Plonk Picket Fence. Massive fail again Try again.

Great to have you back TDI. Keep up the good work!

The leaf that says "always read a posters full name so you don't accidentally accuse them of being 'saty'"

As this thread is about crooks I thought I would put this one here. A joke i like about Mr. Blatter “The FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, the director of communications and the general secretary are all sitting in a car — who is driving? “The police.”

I'm sure it's nothing more than a small philosophical difference. A chat over a couple of Lagavulins and there will be peace in the world. Perhaps Beelzebub would prefer something even smokier, maybe a Laphroigh.

Two good teams going at it in a close, exciting contest? Yawn. When do Carlton get thrashed?

Why TF are we comparing him with just Collingwood players? Anyway, I think he's more like Brody Grundy.

When a club 'rebuilds' or decides to 'play the kids' fringe players will, fairly or unfairly, miss out. Some get delisted (Cross, Chapman) and picked up by another club, some get traded (Cooney, Podsiardly) some stay on the list as depth. Its all a natural part of every club's list management and there will be aggrieved players. We have an unusual number of inexperienced players who need to be developed and when ready play senior games. That is not good for the more senior players that aren't regular 22. Player development and experience will be given priority and whether it is Roos or Goodwin it is what I would expect and want them to do.

Time to crush the 0 - 20 Hoodoo

Prefer Riley as the sub. At this stage in his career, I think he offers more as an impact player than over 4 quarters.

Not only that, I'm glad to see they're taking a "horses for courses" approach with Fitzy. They obviously had him in the squad in the first place because they expected Hickey to play. Now he's not, it's the right move to leave out Fitzy. I'd like to think they've learned from when we went in far too tall against GWS & got run off our feet.

Didn't expect the Stretch/Fitz swap, but otherwise as expected after seeing the extended bench. Best of luck to ANB on debut. Hopefully Stretch can step up too - very, very inexperienced looking side this.

Always with a hint of neanderthal though.

A few posters mentioned clever positioning by the defenders to give Oxley the spare a clear run at it. I only semi buy that. It is clearly illegal to block a players run at a marking contest. Some of the balls Oxley marked where high balls taking forever to land in the forward line - yet he marked many unopposed. I thought there were some weakness at getting to the contest by some of our forwards on those high balls. I don't advocate acting for frees but go super hard at the contest and if you get taken out - hopefully the umpires will penalise.

incoming 3 rising star nominations in a row.

Lets say you are in a very exclusive group.

We have actually played 8 of the top 9 and 9 of the top 11, and won two of those games. We are not going too badly.

How do people suggest we stop our hamstring injuries? And what is Mission doing/not doing that is affecting this positively or negatively? This is a genuine question. I kind of feel that it is kinda just bad luck, but happy to be proven otherwise. I'm a teacher, not a physiotherapist, sports scientist etc.

I think whenever Gawn has played first ruck he's done really well. His problem is he can't last four quarters, so he needs someone else to ruck for at least about 40% of the game, and playing a field position for the rest. Pedo comes close, but being first ruck for 40% of the game is beyond him. Fitzy might do it, but it's hard to replace a defender who goes into the ruck, and he doesn't match up in defence against many teams. So it's a problem, and maybe that's why we have both Fitz & Pedo in the team, with a big risk of being too top-heavy. And Spencer & Jamar are not capable of playing a field position while resting. They have to change off the bench. So to pick Gawn with Spencer only makes sense if Spencer rucks and Gawn plays most of the game in FP, where he's not nearly effective and can be easily nullified. It's the Stef Martin dilemma all over again. Someone mentioned Leuenberger. He's in the same position at Brisbane, where both he & Stef are much more effective as No.1 ruck & not nearly as good as forwards. So Leuey probably isn't the guy we need either. We need someone more like David Hale, who can be a dangerous tall forward, but ruck for a lot of the game if he has to. And they are very very hard to find (tho' if that's how King develops, then we're looking good for 2018!!)

Honestly thats a stupid idea. Couldnt think of a more worse idea to use idea to use a young player.

No, not really.

If we lose this then it will be very hard to say we have improved over the last 18 months IMO. It's a must win. I don't care it's at Etihad and the players shouldn't either. Enough is enough, for the love of god stand up and show something Melbourne.

Respect, we want to earn respect - this is what our team is preaching..... Well how about from this week onwards start [censored] playing 120 min of consistent, hard football that earns you this respect. Then carry it to next week, then the one after.... I'm sick of hearing 7yrs of excuses. JUST WIN!!!!!

Just a reminder of our injuries: Salem, Kent, JKH, Frost, Dawes, vandenBerg, Garland. All of them besides Dawes and JKH have to be in our best 22. That's after significant time without Tyson, Viney and Jetta. Throw in long term injuries to Trengove and 'Trac. Brutal season so far.

If we lose this game, we are a disgrace........ Saints are a bunch of children

C & B to avoid playing more sides who are above us so often we have to start winning. Then we will be playing more games against sides below us and not as many against sides above us.