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From Roos' Facebook chat: Q: Can we expect to see Trengove available for round 1 selection or will he be worked in through the VFL? A: Probably not round one, but it's great to see him back training, and we certainly will not rush him. However, signs are good that we will see him early in the season.

Do you really want an answer 'pineapple'???

For what it's worth, Jake Lovett is one of the 8 top up players from Casey.

If he's going to have his hands on the footy I'd much prefer Grimesy be forward of centre than behind it - I always feel like he puts himself under so much pressure because of where he has the ball on the ground. If he's on the half back flank you can see he wants to 'go' and almost does a number of times before he pulls up and decides not to risk it - those moments of indecision then sometimes create turnovers/clangers as he gets a bit flustered PLUS the opposition have more players in front of him as a result of stalling, making it even harder to progress the ball forward, hence the 15m kick sideways which we all know him for. So I'm thinking it's a nice move to see if we can 'release' him from being in that position, hopefully he can feel a bit of freedom with not having to watch his opposition number as closely and get forward of centre and start creating instinctively.

Played well tonight and showed that might actually flourish at the Hawks. Took a fantastic contested mark and was quite competitive. Hope he does well at Hawthorn. I was one that wasn't happy we got rid of but hope he really does well at the hawks.

Will be interesting to see him run around again.

Now this law applies to players called Mark. If they mark the ball the umpire will blow the whistle and call Mark's mark and mark the line in line where the mark was taken and a mark at the line of the goals . This of course is the new Mark's mark rule Mark-2 not to be confused with Mark's mark rule Mark-1. Though that rule left its mark on the game a line was put through it for this season and revised into mark-2. Should more than one mark attempt to mark the ball then the two players will line up on the mark of the mark that the marks attempted to mark the ball. This line will mark the line between the marks trying to mark the ball and the marked line of the goals. if three marks should attempt a mark then all bets are off and mark my words we'll line up the rule makers and make them mark the ball instead. Mark my words !! So any other rules needing clarification ??

According to Ports bigfooty forum, he was woeful in the first half of their intra club game but got a bit of it in the 3rd qtr. They said he ran around aimlessly and couldn't really work out the role he was playing....sound familiar?

I can somewhat clarify as I handles our companies insurances and we use Chubb. It is not a matter of him being covered by insurance for legal costs. If we want to take legal action or reject claims that may lead to legal action taken against us that we believe will be covered by our insurance policy we need approval to proceed with our course of action from the insurer BEFORE we proceed - the insurers then will advise us which direction to take as the are they bunnies who have to cough up the dollars.

Loved Titus O'Reily's Twitter post on this "Chris Yarran won't play for the first third of the season. His teammates have yet to announce which third of the season they won't play."

Apart from having to have a few guns to have finals success, you also need a handy bottom six of your best 22. Will Grimes thrive in a more attacking style of play? It could be argued that he was a better player under Bailey than compared to Neeld and Roos...

Oliver's "physical superiority"? He was fat as a junior and still managed to dominate, imagine how much better he will be when he puts on more muscle.

Needs to improve his disposal if he's to play that role. Well ... any role really. Hope he makes it at last.

am or pm? I have organised flares.

whole club is comedy gold

You seriously need to reassess your criteria as to what makes an AFL footballer. Like Saty, you seem to have too much of an emotional attachment to the players' personality rather than focus on their abilities and performances.

I am thinking of changing insurers away from Chubb purely based on the company they keep.

Deliberate out of bounds is another interesting one, I hate when someone kicks it 30-40 metres then it bounces at rights angles and goes over the line.

The issue is that the AFL has a Laws of the Game Committee (aka a rules committee). If you have a rules committee, there will be new rules every year, because that's what the committee's job is. If the AFL were to scrap the "Laws of the Game Committee", all of this crap would be easily eliminated.

We got it right with Toumpas, after the disaster of drafting him over Wines, and gave him away to another club. He doesn't have "it", and I'm confident that he never will. Rabbit in headlights.......

Who knows, and TBH they will stuff up interpreting this across each game so none of us will know what happened then it will be hailed a success! Yay AFL!

I'm not sure about WJ's use of the expression "top up players". Makes me feel like we've done something wrong.

I prefer "We need Roos to stay because the job is not completed." I believe the Roos is a culture changer. I believe Roos is a developer, strategist , teacher and mentor. Will this ever be complete ? The answer is no and the game and our club will be ever evolving. To have a person of Roos credentials still at the club to be part of the continual evolution in any way he wants to be involved would be a huge plus in my mind.

Roos would not be retained on a $1.5m salary. He would be realistic enough to understand a diminished role in admin/culture maintenance or whatever would be worth signifcantly less. He wont leave to coach elsewhere. He would be a tremendous asset to retain around the club.

don't think, nut, DOOOOOO! ....and make sure you tell them why

Toumps an interesting one for me, I always felt he had the attributes to make it but much like Watts he was sapped of confidence in his developing years with poor management. He also, like Watts, seemed to "train the house down" and be one that people pointed to being the big improver. Confidence is still his biggest barrier and perhaps a change in location will help that. That pick will always haunt us though, Wines being best mates to Viney and us passing him for Toump, and if Jimmy becomes a good player at port they will have nabbed them both. I kinda wish him luck.

I love the way the headline says the new rules explained and then the article completely fails to explain what this rule even is, let alone the change to it!

lol, let's call them "helpful mofo's" instead. ?

Post Grand Final celebration 2018....

Not a footballer. Sure he might get games because of injuries. (example: Roughhead). He'll do nothing more than what Spangher has done for them. Injury insurance. Hole fillers.

He obviously mistook them for"Chump Insurance "

Hird's take: the entire affair was an attack on his reputation. (Players', club's, competition's: mere collateral damage.) Therefore any action he takes in defence of that reputation is justified and in fact required. Doesn't matter if any step in the defence is reactive or proactive. It's all part of the same game and the one end. Surely any reasonable insurance company can see that? In the "legends of the game" clause for instance?

Does he still?

https://mobile.twitter.com/Stevo7AFL/status/699864022414266369 Get excited.

Agreed Saber. The HS are guessing and using old info to fluff out a story. We started discussions with him 5 months ago so no new news on that one. Then everyone decided to wait a while...Jesse had seemed gung-ho but his manager tempered things which was the right thing to do by Jesse. The $700K, who knows where they plucked that from! Not much incentive to sign a long-term deal for someone who is already getting $500K!!! The HS have no idea what is happening at mfc!!

Doesn't sound like a long-term contract to me. If we're offering him $700K we're lunatics. Don't turn around and [censored] when his manager puts talks off for the season.

And you eat Victory donouts instead of commiseration donouts.

Think that's a bit of a long bow Chris. If he's not at the club and not training with the others or by an employee of the club, it's highly unlikely that a conversation about taking a break from footy before getting back into it would be in breach of the code.

Next he'll be doing that water into wine thing..... oh wait, he did that with Hodge.

Melbourne might well have been denied access to a top up player after losing Jake Melksham for 2016 but it will get eight of them from the Casey Scorpions for Friday's practice match at Casey Fields. The top ups are Conner Ambler, Aaron Cottee, James Freeman, Jake Lovett, Jordan Moncrieff, James Munro, Angus Scott and Kody Wilson. The game starts at 9.45am.

Good onya Wellsy. Proper tragic like me. Your hopes are one of four ways it will go next year. One way is to go backwards. Heaven forbid. Adrenaline rush (the sh!t yourself kind) just thinking that. Second, we flatline and win another seven games. Disaster. Third. 10-12 wins - probably genuinely exciting. Fourth way it could go is gangbusters! 14+ wins. Off the Richter stuff!!!!! I can't wait. I'm terrified.

" Internal valuations show there was a 27 per cent discrepancy last season in terms of what could be considered over-payment, but that margin is set to be slashed to 4 per cent this year, meaning, Mahoney said, "we are getting to the stage of paying the players what they are worth" Why aren't comments like this being raised to show that the current salary floor plus free agency is clearly not working!

Christ their team looks good on paper now.

rjay - I think that you are seeing more than there is here. I see it as him being a modest country kid who has risen far faster than he could ever imagine, and doesn't want to get, or give, excessively high expectations too early. He has certainly changed in appearance from the pre draft photos. Leaner and more athletic.

If Paul Roos wants to stay at the MFC he will stay at the MFC, i would be absolutely shocked if the clubs position was any different.

Red hair?

Jack Viney is in the top 3 most important players on our list, and the quotes in that article illustrate part of the reason why. ‘‘Jack Viney has probably been the one I’ve admired the most,’’ Oliver said. ‘‘Just how hard he is at training, and how competitive he is in everything he does. ‘‘He just hates losing so that’s someone who’s been a bit of a role model for me.’’

He took less money to play with the Hawks. He was atrociously dealt with by MFC. He was a much better player than he was given credit for.

Cheers mate. I went on Fox Sports last night after posting it on the Facey page. Turns out they were keeping an eye on me for a little bit (following me and all) and wanted me to post in The Crowd. Hopefully I can get a few more posts in in the near future.

To anybody who thinks we will eventually lose Jesse back to WA, he really likes Melbourne, didn't think much of Perth growing up, has settled well into the Melbourne lifestyle, especially the live music and coffee culture...has established really good friendships with JKH, James Harmes and Petracca....has total respect for one Nathan Jones and wants to give him the success he craves.........and wants to payback the club for the way they have looked after him during his back issues...don't think the money would be an issue with him....just got the feeling back in my arm after shaking hands with him and wishing him Happy Birthday on Friday