Leaderboard

If Saty was there we'd know why Brayshaw didn't do the full session, we'd know when Petracca is due to join the full group and why T Mac and Garland were the mature age attendees. We'd also know other stuff I'm not interested in but Saty provided information no other watcher did. Sad he was hounded off by the selfish few.

Imagine what this administration could do with a successful team and bigger crowds. Please let it be so.

Parish and Weideman for me would be a great result. I think we need another pure key position forward. Then Parish and McKay

you're the joke in this case bluey michie - trade pick 54 riley - dfa newton - dfa hardly expected to be a ready made midfield. paid peanuts, basically got peanuts, and no way cost a mill per year

Cannot understand the Jake Stringer/Charlie Curnow comparison. The more vision I watch of him, the more I dislike him. Sure he's got some athletic gifts, really strong running ability etc. But he isn't a natural footballer. That's for sure. Of course I am no expert, and we may well take him with pick 7, (can't see it being pick 3) but to me, he just looks like one of those guys that will always struggle to make a consistent impact at AFL level. This whole 'body of work/evidence' over a two year period is pretty important. And Curnow's isn't great. Obviously injury didn't help him. But for where we are and for the reason we traded to get two picks within the top 10 says to me that Curnow will be an unlikely choice for us. Too risky.

Well despite my not having spent too much time trawling through all the possibilities Im going to go with my gut...so to speak. Not too distant in our past we had the opportunity to pick two players who knew each other inside out...were best mates and they as it happened were of the type for two spots on the list. History now shows we pretty well stuffed up that twosome ...still ., we did get one !! This draft theres another opportunity to pick up two mates who , again , would fill two spots very nicely. That being two mids...We need good mids...the more the merrier. We can fill in for the time any other role. There are players for those roles even if not the very best choice, for the moment but again we need good mids.. We also need to loom a fabric which will bind these players together as we build a good team. Nothing usurps mateship. There are two players coming up for picking who are like two peas in a pod. Theyd add to our mid talent and might likely both make some step onto the big arena in 16 though it s not a requirement. 17's fine I speak of Parish and Mathieson I like what they would both bring. There's a bonus to getting both as they play ALREADY with a synergy So...if i had to pick its Darcy and Rhys. Worth learning from mistakes eh MFC

Should have cut Terlich, paid his contract out and been a better club for it.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/melbourne-demons-set-to-record-stronger-profit-this-year-20151111-gkwpke.html Highlights: - $500K profit, up from $300K in 2014 (incl ‘equalisation funding) - Debt to AFL to be reduced from $4.1 mil to $3.0m this year...doesn't say what Total Debt is. Good Progress! Guess we will hear more I the coming days. Caroline’s commentary is genuinely positive about the club. Little steps but our club is winning back some respect.

For a trade pick 54, Viv is undeniably good value. As other posters have noted, Viv has undoubtedly been squeezed out as a result of the (now clearly) regrettable re-contracting of Terlich and M.Jones. For me, Viv has significantly more upside than Terlich or Jones - his last 4 games, his effort as sub in the Feo game, and his sublimely well-weighted kick to Angus Brayshaw (who then ran on and burnt off Ziebell to snag an inspirational goal) suggested that he might just have a bit more class than is commonly attributed to him. No doubt he needs to tackle more, but I felt that he seemed to have improved his tank this year to show that he had the capacity to do the fabled 'two-way running' that the modern game seems to popularly demand. Definitely worth rookie spot for 2016 - in fact, if the draft is as shallow as frequently stated, I would have no hesitation in re-drafting Viv with a 4th or 5th round pick on a 1 year contract.

Masters is the Mistess and is being royally screwed.

Lions debt $12 mill and Carlton not far off handing the keys back to the AFL. A small part of me says 'yes!!!', but mostly I wonder what the hell has happened to the people's game?

Yes Masters has been on that tack for some time - it is old news. He obviously has a source probably inside the AFL I would suggest, maybe through his wife Elaine Canty who has deep connections into the AFL, and would be swallowing Elizabeth Lukin's line on this, and she is the best "spin doctor" in the businessMaster's track record in predicting WADA/CAS has not been good. For instance he completely missed the WADA appeal direct to CAS. He had been saying it was all over after the AFL Tribunal which was very much the AFL/EFC line. I suggest this will be the same. WADA will only be very very reluctantly be doing deals on this, and Old Dee's fantasy about wet tram tickets will remain just that - fantasy! The recent Russian revelations about destroying evidence will only harden CAS's resolve on this.. In my view they see the criminality by Essendon and Hird after the doping as far more serious than the doping itself, particularly destruction of evidence.

i'd probably have gone home and had a one hour shower

I don't think we'll take Curnow. He is too sloppy to make it as a mid, and there is no certainty he'll make it as a forward. To my eye he is versatile in under 18's, but hardly exceptional at anything he does, looks a 3 touch player, not that clean. I wouldn't have him anywhere near the level of Francis. And I definitely wouldn't take Curnow ahead of safer picks like Parish or Oliver.

No, it was Jack Watts's fault!

The kid needs an injury free run and a year at Casey. He has the potential

uhmm Middy, a wonderfully expressive and ambiguous sentence left hanging.

None of these three were dropped by their clubs despite 2 ending up being DFA. Freo were very unhappy to lose Michie. Likewise Crows and Port wanted to hang on to Riley and Newton but both were out of contract and wanted to chase better opportunities at Dees. They weren't worth anything as trade picks so were delisted so we could pick them up. I thought Michie was starting to show a bit. His last 4 games were promising. Newton also was starting to show something by the end of the year.

I have zero time for the romance of father/son purely because the father was a gun. I have a lot of time for the romance of father/son if the son shows enough promise to be worthy of a draft pick.

Interesting that Taylor was lukewarm on next years draft pool. Explains why we gave up next years 1st rnd pick for another early 1st rnd this year. My take is that we will go for a mid @ pick 3 and a Utility at pick 7. Parish would be my guess for #3 but not sure who the 'utilitiy' prospects are for #7. It was good to hear him say he tries not to worry too much about the club's ladder position from year to year and he is focused on doing his job of 'getting the foundations right'. That sounds pretty good to me!

Vanilla footballer. Won't make it. Happy to go on record.

Completely agree He had the balls and the relationships to get the info I actually want to hear. Anyone can go to training and tell me what they can see (not that that isn't appreciated!). Not everyone can go to training and provide inside info.

There is no difference between a caretaker coach overlooked for the job and Roos? For one thing - Roos instigated this transition, he is the architect of it, and the one with experience on how it has worked in the past. If the point is to subtly say that Roos is a 'lame duck' and all the irrelevance that comes from being one - I doubt the players would see it that way. It's Paul Roos. If the point is that more and more responsibility will transfer to Goodwin to the point where he is the head coach by the end of next season - then that is the actual point isn't it? I don't know whether it will be successful but Roos would be able to point to his experience in doing this as a successful one - a very successful one...

I doubt it. If the shoe was on the other foot, and Viv was contracted but Terlich wasn't and we cut Viv loose mid contract, he would be a lot more annoyed. We have to honour contracts, I'm sorry that we made crappy list management decisions, but it isn't Terlich's fault. It is the best solution given we need list space for draft and rookie promotions. Viv only needs to speak to Jetta to understand that this is not the end of the world.

So then just for you dc... Things I saw I didn't like: - many tackles missed or not held onto well enough - many short kicks that easily missed their targets or caused the target to halt momentum. Saw Turls do this on at least three occasions. - Brayshaw sighted for only a short period of time, not sure what's going on there - a couple who really struggled in the running excercises, eg, Frost and Kent. Although given their injuries this season that might be forgiven - I turned around and saw Damien Barrett next to me. Most unpleasant.

Curnow is ridiculously over rated in this thread. The talk of us taking him at pick 3 is ludicrous.

Thanks for the effort, would appreciate a bit more detail next time though. But seriously, fantastic report, thanks a lot.

I appreciate all training reports regardless of who has written them and how comprehensive they are in their content or how professionally (or not) they have been written... the fact that anyone goes to the trouble to first of all attend training and then to write a report (even if it's just a few lines) for our benefit is appreciated.

Yeah I stole your thread idea Return To Glory (sorry) but as it is the off season it seems like it could be a bit of fun. What were your opinions or feelings regarding a player that were completely wrong? The one that comes to mind for me is that Addam Maric just didn't get enough of a chance.

It all starts again at 2.30pm tomorrow at Goschs Paddock ~Pre-season slog begins as 10 clubs return to the track Note: This thread is for training discussion and is not a place for posters to demonstrate their immaturity by throwing tantrums and launching personal attacks on other posters - or the players.Thank you.

Not sure why people were comparing Oliver to Jordie Mckenzie. Oliver got a perfect score in the combine kickig test while Jordie shanks goals from the goal square. If we take a speculative forward like Curnow or Weideman over a sure thing like Oliver we will regret it. TMac can play Hogans forward buddy better then any young draftee, he has played on the best forwards in the game to learn and has a huge tank with good hands. We can take talls with our later picks, if teams burn through picks on academy players our pick 46 could fall as far as 34. Would be some decent talls to slip to that pick anyway.

Sure beats 2 mill in the hole !!

Careful, you'll cause Demonland to crash for 24 hours

Really hope we take Parish with 3. Would then be happy with any of Curnow/Mathieson/Oliver at 7.

Hey Wrecker The people you are quoting are pretty knowledgeable types. I'd be listening to what they say. Sure, we haven't had a bad drought since the 12 year one leading up to 2009, but it does seem pretty certain that the general temperature patterns are only going one way, and that will inevitably lead to drought - and increased risk of fire. As I said in my first post, the fact that we had such terrible fires in early October should be enough to put the wind up anybody with eyes in their head. This probably all seems rather academic to people down in the city (though I don't know where you live) , but it's not to me. We lost so many friends on Black Saturday - nine, all up, their ages ranging from 4 to 70 - I can't help but find it dispiriting when I see our society doing nothing about global warming. Also, as a firefighter and a person whose family lives in the bush, I'm rather worried about the forthcoming summer. Anyway, I don't like getting into arguments - intelligent dialogue works better for me. All the best

It will be very interesting to see how the IAAF and WADA responds to the damaging evidence in Russia that vast amounts of doping evidence was destroyed by the athletics establishment to hide doping. Precedence any one? Sebastian Coe, President of the IAAF, has given the Russian Athletics Federation until Friday to state how they are going to clean it up, or they will be banned from the RIO Olympics. Fits nicely into the opening of the Essendon CAS drugs case next week. "Coincidences" seem to be converging nicely! Sent from my iPad

Surely the official Essendon line of 'We have no idea what the players were injected with' is the smoking gun for WS, and makes the whole thing an open and shut case? I would have thought it's a free shot for WS and there'd be absolutely no need for negotiating a penalty, go hard, spend whatever you need to maximise the penalty. After all, it's your duty to look out for any affected employees, isn't it? Also, considering this involves 34 players, surely there are 34 charges of any infringement. You kill 34 people aren't you charged with 34 murders? Surely the penalty has to be applied 34 times?

Unbelievable. Who would want to do that, honestly. One of the suspects who was called in for questionning...

I'm surprised we'd even bother re-rookieing him. I don't buy into this shallow draft crap. They are out there. Last year was "shallow" too and vandenBerg and White in last years Rookie Draft both possess more AFL qualities than Michie, in my opinion. I'd use the rookie spot on a kid with a couple of the right traits (i.e. White's kicking or vandenBerg's size, strength, agility & aggression) over Michie who doesn't have the speed, size, skill or aggression to make it at AFL level.

Fixed.

FFS coaching is a not a one man band. Who gives a stuff if Roos isn't there for every minute of training. I'm very happy with our structures - there is no reason to doubt Roos commitment or his value to our progress.

I'd suggest that Worksafe and Essendon were in negotiations for quite some time. Of course I don't know what actually happened, but I suspect Worksafe are happy to have Essendon agreeing to the charges because it means a guaranteed "win" for Worksafe whereas a contested matter on perhaps more complex matters might have seen the whole lot lost; for Essendon, a negotiated settlement means they don't risk losing on those more complex matters which would result in a harsher penalty. I suspect on the evidence available to Worksafe it is probably the best outcome under the circumstances. Apart from anything else, Worksafe has to manage its budget to ensure it monitors all Victorian workplaces for employee safety. Consuming too many dollars here means other (meaning non-AFL) matters may fly under the radar when they shouldn't be allowed to.

No. Spoken to him once. Just know people who know people. I take an interest in Viv because of his time at freo and more particularly Peel. Then moved here and he was over here. People at Peel will tell you what a great talent he is but has had serious injuries so never gets a real run at it. Even at MFC he split an eyelid first game and could not wear contact lens, dropped to the 2s and gets a broken Jaw. Never let the set backs get in his way. Just hope he gets another go but that looks like some sort of injury will be the main hope which no one wants. His biggest problem is he is such am introvert. Looking forward to his year and watching Tyson this year. Hes another good talent.

Viney would clearly be one. If I had to name a captain of the under 22s he'd be it.Hard to believe he's still even in that group. Feels like he's been here for a decade.

I used to like Michael Long - before 2000.

Two blokes I owe apologies to: Lynden Dunn: other than his first handful of games where he looked like he'd be a good HFF, all I could see was a bloke that was prone to brain farts and who was more interested in being phoney tough than playing football. "We'll never be a good team as long as he's in our 22" was something I was pretty fond of saying until not that long ago. I don't know if it's maturity; him finding a position that suits him; the right word in his ear at the right time or shaving off the mo, but I'm pleased that he is comfortably picked each week and is someone dependable in our backline. Clint Bartram: "Why the hell is he getting picked at all? Bloody useless. We'd be better off a man short." Yeah, that's what I thought of him for his first couple of years. But geez at the end he was the shutdown king on small forwards. If his knee had have held up we'd be a 2-3 goal a week better side with him in it (that is 2-3 goal we don't have to worry about getting kicked on us side). On the other end of the scale: Tom Scully: Yeah I was seduced. I thought he was going to be the Fyfe of the new Melbourne era. That 18 touch last quarter against Footscray seemed to prove the point. But he's proved to be a very expensive good ordinary player. Still he saved us $300 million a season and got us Hogan, so I can't hate him for his backstab. Nah, who am I kidding. He's still a turd, but lucky for us he's not our turd.

Don't understand why so many who complain about our depth want Matt Jones out the door so quickly. He shouldn't be anywhere near the 22, but we have 40 senior list spots. Played 9 games this year and is a consistent utility type. Happy to have him for next year, then reassess.

How can you put Ben Kennedy in the list cliggar category when he hasn't even played a game for us? Pretty silly to be honest, at least give the kid a chance to prove himself.

If he isn't picked up i wouldn't be surprise if Casey sign him up next year.

Those who STILL think Jack Watts is a one grab pack crasher, dead eyed dick shot for goal , quick bulldozer type mid need to stop watching his pre draft highlights He is an Outside Player and always will be In his first 2 seasons it was starting to get obvious that Watts was never going to be a Carey, Brown, Hart type You could claim that he is a Third Tall either end of the ground but IMO he is best suited to the Wing On a Wing his speed and height combination would be hard to match up on IMO WING is the most prominent 1 on 1 position on the ground throughout the duration of a game He does have a football brain and makes good decisions but he tends to lack URGENCY at times In a Team that spreads really well he can be an asset turning defence into attack Gone are the days when players only run one way He needs to improve his endurance as the restriction to rotations in 2016 will make it harder for him I hope he stays