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http://www.theage.com.au/afl/melbourne-demons/michelle-cowan-appointed-to-melbournes-coaching-staff-20160203-gmkpkt.html?&utm_source=social&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=nc&eid=socialn:twi-14omn0023-optim-nnn:nonpaid-27/06/2014-social_traffic-all-organicpost-nnn-age-o&campaign_code=nocode&promote_channel=social_twitter A woman has been employed among the coaches of an AFL club for just the second time in history with Michelle Cowan, already a state league pioneer, joining the Melbourne Football Club in a groundbreaking set-up. Australia's top female footballer Daisy Pearce has also been signed by the Demons in a full-time role that has seen her resign as a midwife, initially to join Melbourne's commercial team. As a player development and welfare coach, Cowan follows the path of Peta Searle who almost abandoned her dream to coach at the elite level before St Kilda recruited her in mid-2014.

Let's make this a training report please - unnecessary side comments which can lead to derailing the thread will be removed.

Don't know if it was a closed session, or MFC supporters didn't want to get wet, but hardly anyone viewing this morning at Gosch's paddock. Rehab - Vince, Dawes, H Main group - Frost trained. Couldn't see Watts. Petracca left before main drills. Jogging/Walking - Max King I only stayed an hour, but Goodwin took them for slow-mo full-ground, low-pressure stoppage work. D50 stoppages, midfield stoppages, offensive boundary stoppages. Interesting to notice that at every stoppage, the "fifth", the "launch" and the "stalker", amongst other roles and positions need to be identified. At the end of it, the goal kicker had to pull the trigger under pressure. Weed, Kent +/- Frost kicking truly. pTGR

I assume this is stalking...and was one of the most enjoyable 'stalking' efforts of all time Although it really ended up as a mugging.

This is wonderful stuff. Another sign that a confident and far-sighted football club, the one we support and the one that bears this city's name, has advanced not only its own cause but also the cause of women in football by making these appointments based on nothing but merit

I can't believe that buffoon gets paid to share what he thinks with the world.

Now lets lock Jesse and Daisy in a room together :D

So proud of my club right now

Gee I hope he gets back and has a long career at the Dees.

Yay! This topic involves females, so let's make it about sex!

Who knows? My view if he is not yet sprinting flat out then his return is a long way away. My reading of the situation is he is unlikely to play until mid season. He has a one year contract and I doubt the club is expecting anything much from him this season and anything he does produce will be a bonus. I think they will give him the best possible to stabilize his foot and play fully fit and to the best of his ability. We will then know what he can produce and we can assess his future. It will be interesting to see how it pans out.

That would be the worst thing that could happen to the AFL.

Dill can't make a decision, handballs to his lawyer, then his lawyer handballs to the 13 uninvolved clubs. Hilarious. Convenient that the AFL were perfectly capable of making so many high-stakes decisions in Essendon's favour within hours of the CAS verdict, yet need a month of internal consultation about an obvious issue 4 poorer clubs were always going to raise. Healy makes an excellent point in that if any of those traded players were still at Essendon, it wouldn't even be a question allowing Essendon an additional top-up player; why is the situation different for us? Why on earth is the team of drug cheats getting preferential treatment? Is this simply routine AFL incompetence or something more sinister? It strikes me much more as another meticulously puppeteered outcome masquerading as administrative bureaucracy. They knew this situation would unravel and they've successfully delayed, handballed and pushed back any decision for nearly a month. So why? For one obvious purpose: ensuring Essendon had exclusive access to the best available talent for as long as possible. A secondary benefit is creating uncertainty for the 4 other clubs, preventing players from resisting Essendon's advances (would you turn down $200K for 10 months work?). Significantly, former senior players are the only useful top-ups this late in the game; there's simply no time to train, condition and teach a foreign gameplan to a kid with little experience in the system.

This is the same Jon Ralph that was swearing black & blue on SEN that Goodwin would be coaching Adelaide, whilst at that very same moment we were announcing that Goodwin will be our coach in waiting. As i recall, it was John Ralph's revealing his "exclusive info" that prevented SEN from telecasting the Goodwin/Melbourne press conference. The bloke is a muppet.

FFS put each other on ignore. People are sick of reading the same petty crap between the same posters in thread after thread, day after day. Stop the personal attacks and the point-scoring or you'll get a holiday.

Just wanted to say thanks for the training reports guys. We do not take them for granted. Those of us who have followed the Dees for years, ...and who buy memberships for our kids who don't go anymore, and posters and mugs and commemorative port bottles and those infernal raffle tickets that we hide from our wives (Is that the Melbourne footy club on the phone again??... tell em to bugger off!!) ......but cant get to many games ....let alone training sessions... really appreciate all the silly details and opinions that you present us with each week Please keep writing, and the more detail the better....

Should Melbourne experience the same modest success as North has achieved over recent years I would expect membership to be in at least the low 40k's or even higher. Should the team climb even higher then I would expect at least Geelong like membership numbers. I'm not sure if the club could ever challenge the big clubs in this regard but a dozen or so years ago Hawthorn was struggling and look what they've achieved even with their sh*tty colours.

I think you're getting Bruce the Goose confused with "the Sea Kyaker" aka Martin Hardie. Francis was severely peed off when the Essendonians (Dons coterie of which my mate is a member) commissioned Hardie to document the saga many months ago. Francis thought he'd get the job.

I wish the above posters would get back on topic and stop derailing this thread. I've had enough of that behaviour.

I disagree. Jaeger O'Meara is the best young mid I've ever seen enter the game. His first year is without peer in my decades of watching footy. Injury free and O'Meara would make our young developing midfield the envy of the competition.

I'm starting to think that if enough people forget/ignore Tasmania, that it may just go away

If Essendrug finisher higher than the MFC in 2016 then the MFC should disband. It will not happen of course how could the idiot even suggest it.

Well done WJ. About time - could do for many other threads as well. It would make this whole board far more enjoyable.

WYL, you have to weigh up risk vs. reward. I'll do a highly simplified example. Risk 1: Keeping Trengove on the list Possible MFC outcomes: (1) Trengove comes back and stars. (2) Trengove never plays again. (3) Trengove does play again, but never gets better than his first couple of seasons. Risk 2: De-list Trengove and gain a late draft pick. Possible MFC outcomes: (1) Late draft pick ends up being a regular member of the 22. (2) Late draft pick has an okay career where he's in and out of the side a fair bit (3) Late draft pick plays a couple of games before being delisted himself. You'd have to think that Risk 1 is the obvious risk to take, given that outcomes 1 and 3 are superior to any of the outcomes of Risk 2. Further, the benefits of Risk 2 aren't tantalizing enough to make it a worthwhile risk to take.

Like Beelzebub said, the 'launch', I suspect is the go-to man out of the congestion that is ideally a good user by foot....ala Salem. In VAFA circles, the 'fifth', as I understand it, is usually referenced to high HFFs pushing up to a stoppage; but I can't be sure about this morning and the context.

Clint, I'd suggest pace wasn't going to adversely effect his career - he'd shown enough already. Plenty of players like Luke Hodge don't have pace. Nonetheless, it's worth re-reading our very own Weber's (?) excellent post (some time ago) that gives insight to navicular injuries and the types of issues potentially facing Trengove, including perhaps even a psychological one: "the midfoot is critical to the 'rigid lever' that the foot must become to allow power in push off, thus for running and jumping. It also must have the flexibility to allow deformation of the foot during weightbearing prior to push off. The navicular is the keystone of the arch which forms the rigid lever. If it's suspect, the whole transfer of power is inhibited. If JT's nav heals without issues of blood supply being affected, there's no reason he can't make a full recovery, and that would include complete power capabilities. If the midfoot was unstable either biomechanically or as a conscious lack of trust in it, he would certainly present with those symptoms, but there are a bunch of other pathologies that could give the same symptoms."

Seriously, the game is 2 months away and we're are already trying to psych ourselves out of it. There is no reason for negativity in February. This anxiety around melb dropping games it should win is at the heart of our mindset problems as a club and a supporter base and is both infectious and paralysing. I've been just as guilty of this kind of thinking before. The facts are we have everything to be positive about this season and they have everything to be concerned about. If the players bring the required effort then on ability we will win and win easily. But we fear the players won't turn up or we worry about what might happen if we should lose, we don't want to seem confident or positive and fear the embarrassment if we lose and look stupid... and so it becomes a self fulfiling prophesy. I'm not saying we should be more arrogant , but just back ourselves in and let the confidence build with an exciting young side. I'm too young to know but I doubt this kind of thinking would have existed in the swooper northey days

Nice list, I'd like to add. The players failed to tell ASADA on multiple occasions that they were being injected with anything. (Despite believing that it was legal) None of the players went to the ASADA site to check if the substances were legal. (Despite being well aware that the site was for that purpose)

In 2011 there were three occasions where we put sides away. When we were "on", we were an awesome team to watch. Just a shame that we weren't on all that often... R4 defeated GCS by 90 R7 defeated Adelaide by 96 R13 defeated Fremantle by 89 Year 1 of "the good stuff" was the year of this game: Essendon were 8-1, we were 0-9, and we started their fall which eventually saw them miss out on playing finals. You know your drugs are bad when you lose to the 2012 Demons.

He's been kicking on his right foot for some time. It's the left, we're concerned about..

I'm not going to lie... Round 2 scares me...

Ah, old serious looking, squinty, cross-eyed Ralphy. The same turnip who questioned Melbourne's decision to trade a 20-something pick for Frost at the expense of drafting young talent without realising the trade also netted Alex Neal-Bullen and Oscar McDonald. In the end we got 3 players for that 20-something pick.

Was also there for a couple of hours. Here's a few random observations: Garland, Harmes and Tmac are three of the most vocal/encouraging in the group. Garlett was told to forget his left foot by Rawlings after a particularly bad attempt at goal. Ben K. worked particularly hard, so much so that he had a chunder during one exercise. Garlo was there to put an arm around him. Max Gawn is looking incredibly fit! Dom Tyson's kicking was quite ordinary. Many helicopter kicks. Jack Trengove looks ready to return to the action. Running at three quarter pace was solid. Coaches were regularly riding Salem hard for not getting into position. Fitness/concentration seems an issue. Pedo was looking dangerous up forward with a number of excellent marks. Frost is quick but skills are ordinary. Jack Viney is one single minded mudder effa! Works incredibly hard. When he yells out though his voice breaks like a pubescent teenager! His father is quite garrulous these days! Rawlings is an extremely positive influence around the group. Always encourages. Dean Kent and Hogan look particularly sharp during the drills. Tom Bugg looks like a mountain man. Then again he hails from Gembrook so no surprise!

It was my day off so I lasted the full session - just. DeeSpencer's done a good job on the rehab group. The two surprise rehabbers were Jack Watts and JKH - not sure what they have done - maybe in Jack's case too much golf. They did a few muck around games to start with - one with tennis ball and the other soccer ball - no surprises for guessing that Salem was the best but Angus did a pretty fine Ronaldo move at one stage. Vanders tried to be cute as well, but he would be lucky to get a game at Scunthorpe United. Saddest moment was when Neal Bullen hammered a ball and Angus stupidly decided to head it from less than 10m away and realised soon after that it wasn't a good idea - bt dizzy for a bit. The rest of the drills consisted of either sprints - which they did in pairs, goalshooting and for the most part transition work. The last 30 minutes was using just half the ground and came after a ball-up. Ben Matthews took the drill and at one point after Jack Viney (who had swapped to the defensive team) won his third consecutive clearance thereby rendering the drill useless as a transition exercise, he exclaimed "Who is on the little c..t". Said with a smirk but shows how much they think of him. A run down on players for those of you who are starved like me at this time of year. Kennedy - One of the standouts. His left foot kick is more powerful than I thought and he has a pretty handy leap. I think I'd be willing to say that unless he has some pre-season game howlers, he'll start as a small forward in Rd 1 with Jeffy. Viney - Hard at work as always. Chose to do sprints against Kennedy and probably just shaded. Vandenburg - Wanted to prove a point in sprints with Hunt and very, very close. Also hammered a few when he could in transition and Bugg went off early after copping one of his fend-offs. Kent - Very impressive again. Won his sprint battle with Harmesy and presented well as a forward. If Kennedy plays Rd 1, does he move to a wing? He's fit enough. Angus - Copped quite a few knocks. You almost think the players love getting him because he gives so much cheek. Won his sprint duel with Jeffy most times, although you sensed Jeffy was foxing for a better handicap. No sign of him being turned into a backman (my wish) and no real sign of him being part of the clearance machine - so I suspect wing/half forward is where he'll line up. Harmsey - Was used as a forward in the transition game. Keen and eager as usual. One of a big gang of small forwards battling for three spots in Rd 1. Salem - Hard and classy as usual, although couldn't escape Vanders on the wing one time and did a bit of a Stephen Stretch taking it out. He also copped a knock late in session and was tested for concussion. Seemed right but no risk policy meant he just did light work from then on. A lock for Rd 1. Nat Jonesy - You barely knew he was there most of the time and then a player bobs up with exquisite balance gets it and delivers a pinpoint pass. Bernie - Yep he was back in the thick of the action - copped a knock to the finger at one point but had one quick look cused and went straight back into it. No sign that he missed the pre-season before X-mas. Hit Jeffy one time with a perfect grass-burner. Tyson - Always calling for it and right in the thick of the action but way too many turnovers today. Sometimes it just doesn't work for him when he hangs on to it, especially when you are up against a team full of really good tacklers. But you need players who keep presenting. Matt Jones - Another who worked hard and did nothing majorly wrong but you just wonder if he has the confidence to impose. Viv Michie - A really impressive session from him. Tackled well and kicked beautifully. One of his spot ups to Kent was like watching Nat Jones. Bugg - You can just tell this guy will be playing Rd 1. No fuss and hard, always putting a body on a player. Not a thumping kick but he'll end up tagging Shiel or Ward Rd 1. Garlett - Got on the end of quite a few and lively in transition. No reason to think he won't be standing next to Hoges in Rd 1. Hunt - Got a fair bit of it and provided a fair bit of run at times, but I'm still not sure yet. But he did play as a defender for a lot of it. Most of the bigs didn't do as much because they aren't in the thick of the transition games, but key things were. Sam Frost did almost the whole session and did a lot of it as a backman - maybe he'll line up on Patton Rd 1. No sign of any interest in club trying to get him to do ruckwork. Garland, Grimes, Dunn and Oscar Mc all played done back and did their usual tight checking and switching. Oscar even got the gig on Hoges so maybe they rate him highly or maybe Tom Mac lighter session meant they had no choice. Wagner also played down back and looks lively. Hoges, Pedo and Hulet were the tall forwards. Hard to understand why Hulet is allowed to do more work than Clayton Oliver. Perhaps the club had him earmarked and on a special program late in year. Harmes, Kent, Jeffy and Kennedy rotated as small forwards. Spencer and Gawn battled in the ruck but there was no major intensity from either this time and Spencil started in rehab group before joining in game-simulation. Of those in the lengthy rehab group, I watched Trenners the most - he was out there the longest and clearly he's getting close to resuming. But when he did his run throughs you sensed why he won't be playing in the seniors for a while. He can mark and kick, but he obviously hasn't been able to work yet on his sprinting and given the nature of the injury you can probably understand why - so to answer the question of when he will get back in AFL - I see him as a mid-year prospect. Also I still didn't see him kick a left-footer - assume he's not allowed to yet. Of the rehab group - Dawes seems closest to rejoining. I'm hoping Oliver and Weideman were on light days. Terlich is getting fitter and could also resume soon. Harry did quite a few sprints with Dawes. That surely is enough!

i suppose the afl will also come up with a new definition of a multicultural player

Got plans this weekend? You do now if you've got Foxtel or have a dee supporting mate that does. From midnight on Friday night for 24 hours it is nothing but Melbourne games. A few from 2015 and a few older ones. In true Foxtel form they don't give the year of the games just the teams and round. I assume they will all be wins ? so tell your other half to take the kids to see the grandparents, buy a slab and enjoy some footy. Ive been hanging to watch some old matches as I've got a newborn and am up all hours with nothing to watch. And Foxtel have only had that guest programming on which is basically the same finals played over and over. Don't get me started. Anyway, thought some of you might not notice that this was happening.

I think Citizen Murdoch's allegiances are to one person - himself. I don't think they are split

My brother is a North supporter and until this came out was in the "it's been too long, just let it slide" camp. Once this information was released his position became "ban them for as long as possible". I think a lot of supporters would have had this reaction.

I believe Ox's information is spot on and simply highlights the AFL's incomptence in the way it has conducted this process.

Astounding. What exactly is it in the water over in Bomberland? They're all delusional.

Why wouldn't we want one if given the option? We're asking for a rookie, so it would give us a chance to get a year of AFL training into a guy like Jake Lovett, or someone else from a state league before deciding whether or not to draft them in November. It will give Casey an extra AFL listed player (a point that I had overlooked before RedLeg pointed it out to me yesterday) We'll be promoting someone from our rookie list, and this player would be taking their place.

I don't get why anyone would begrudge him. It's one more year of footy, good money, additional exposure which could lead to other opportunities off the field (e.g.- coaching). Jamar also has a kid on the way, so good on him for extracting another year of top dollar footy salary! The players joining Essendon now have nothing to do with the drug saga and don't deserve to be tarnished with the same brush.

I don't think this is right. Dawes was terrific against the Cats and also very good against Collingwood in our win this year. When he plays well as he did in these games (as well as the win in Adelaide against the Crows) we are a much better team. Why you're bothering to argue the marginal merits of two players who are both inconsistent and over the journey have been unreliable I don't know. They are much of a muchness and you'd be no more confident with one or the other. Edit: Sorry to barge in on your conversation Stu, but it is a forum you know.

The AFL integrity unit...

Morning BA.

CAS disagrees with this.

Jack was kicking the ball at training on Monday

Another video from Rob Jackson. https://instagram.com/p/BBO6Ebrl31f/