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The Master’s Apprentice. Good use of the shoulder. https://www.smugmug.com/frame/slideshow?key=K73hnC&autoStart=1&captions=0&navigation=0&playButton=0&randomize=0&speed=1&transition=fade&transitionSpeed=2&clickable=1 Another lesson ===> https://www.smugmug.com/frame/slideshow?key=x6jRWJ&autoStart=1&captions=0&navigation=0&playButton=0&randomize=0&speed=1&transition=fade&transitionSpeed=2&clickable=1

Jetta is one of the best small defenders in the competition and has been for three years now. He's not going anywhere near Casey.

There was a number of games last year where Jetta almost single handedly kept us in the game. He is now a top shelf small defender, and in my mind he would be the first back I pick each week. Extremely underrated

The problem is you (and me) see him for 2 hours on match day where he does some nice things and on other occasions he's looked slow and undersized (physicality) and gets exposed. The coaching group see him train 3 times a week and get to monitor his progression. They get to know the individual. His character, leadership, temperament, intelligence, willingness to learn, work ethic, etc. They see a player with flaws, but one who is continually improving and one they believe is on the way to becoming a backline stalwart for the next 10 years. Given their recent track record I'd be a nong to doubt them.

I've been impressed by Johnstone. I watched him in the rehab group before Christmas and he was having shots at goal and had no trouble from 50 metres. He's not looked out of place in any of the drills I've seen but neither has he ever "caught my eye". I don't really think we'll know where he fits until we see him in match situations. I've been a track watcher for some time now and I think judging players by there track work is fraught with danger. James Strauss and Sam Blease did some of the best work I've seen but only behind Jamie Bennell. Enough said. But unlike the past we have a recruiter who really hasn't put a foot wrong since his arrival. Jason Taylor and his team have done what few before have and that's nail the early picks. But more he's picked up some good players late. Oscar (who I rate more highly than most), Jayden Hunt, AVB and the like show he's able to spot talent. There isn't a player on the list now that I think doesn't deserve his spot. That's a long way of saying I like the boy and hold hopes but it's really too early to judge. Does that help?!

a very good question, picket i have my best people working on an answer but it might take some time

Hulett has been given the all clear. Melbourne Demons forward Liam Hulett escapes serious ankle injury

Quick observations on Johnstone from very limited knowledge: Aggressive and in your face Strong for his size/build and tackles to hurt Will be very good defensively inside 50 Can kick long for a small, but not a deadeye d*ck around goals. Will have his share of gettable misses Determined, but doesn't have any magical traits. Good at most things without a standout skill Speed good without being any wow factor The above are opinions based on limited knowledge. I like the selection and think he has the basic attributes to make a go of an AFL career.

A bit late to the party, but speaking from my own limited experience, I think there is some value in these camps. Around 2000 I went through one based in Lorne as an 18-year-old, run by a mob that had apparently put multiple AFL clubs through their paces a few times. I often think back to the self-belief it gave me at a young age, in terms of what I was physically & mentally capable of. There was also a focus on problem solving when fatigued & at times I stood up, giving others belief in my ability at a time when I was struggling to find my place and emerge in a core group of men much older and more mature than me. Very suddenly, blokes who had never really given me the time of day, were saying hello & knew my name. All footy clubs have their cliques & it gave me a profile. I had a greater understanding of their capabilities and temperaments. Bonding not so much, but maybe it enabled bonding at a later stage. Most of all, I still go to Lorne & marvel at my ability to run up and down those steep hills repeatedly over the course of a few days, carrying logs & various other objects on my back. I had never considered myself capable of such feats & the exercise had me pushing well beyond where I thought my limits lay. Something I definitely would have drawn on had I taken my footy seriously & made a "career" of it. As others have touched on, those operating the camps have the biggest influence on the outcomes, second only to the participants themselves. Approaching it with a less than ideal mindset will produce a sub-optimal result. And the facilitators must obviously be competent at the service they are attempting to provide, rather than just blokes with SAS experience on their CV who think they can make an easy buck by bullying civilians for a few days. Personally, I'd expect someone like McCartney or Goodwin to have participated in multiple camps of this ilk and have a great understanding of the value and benefit to gained from them, with the right facilitators. Criticisms based on injuries are narrow-minded in my opinion, and they can just as easily happen at Gosch's.

Wrecker 45, I am responding to your statement bolded above. America de Calli had already made the point below: "How can you believe he is the scapegoat when just about everyone else in positions of responsibility at Essendon were sacked or resigned swiftly? It took untill the bitter end and millions of dollars in his pocket to get Hird out of the club". However Wrecker45, you responded to his post as though you didn't read it, so I am again rebutting your statement that: "Hird could have handled it better but I truly think he his a pawn that the AFL needed to hang everything on. Particularly, after he wouldn't cop the slap on the wrist they were offering". You are again ignoring all the other casualties at the club which were mentioned by AdC, you are ignoring the fact that Essendon was fined $2 mill, you are ignoring that it lost draft picks, you are ignoring that the players were suspended for 12 months, (albeit by a WADA tribunal) and retired players had to step aside from coaching and other positions. You are ignoring the fact that the club is shelling out millions in compensation to the players. You are ignoring that Watson has lost his Brownlow. Hird himself resigned as coach before the player suspensions because the players were no longer performing for him. This was not a penalty imposed by the AFL. He kept going to independent courts and losing, so how can he be a pawn of the AFL. After all this, how then is he the scapegoat that the AFL needed to hang everything on? You yourself say"he wouldn't cop the slap on the wrist they were offering". So he was offered a slap on the wrist but 'he is a scapegoat"? (I know you say it happened because he wouldn't accept the slap, but that is still contradictory). Hird is just one of the many and continuing casualties of this program. By definition if there are so many other casualties, Hird cannot be a scapegoat As it happens, my view is also that he didn't intend to break the rules, but that is not a defense when the rules were broken under his watch and as a result of a program he instituted. He had responsibilities and he amongst others had to be accountable, - the Cronulla coach copped a suspension, what penalty did Hird get from the AFL which was worse?

i wouldn't put it past dank to have injected them with more than tb4. i reckon he was probably out of control and wanted results no matter what. only dank really knows what he injected and he's never going to tell the true story

Only going off glimpses in the main drills more so than any detailed look at them or anything from Friday but probably the best thing I can say about all of these 3 is they haven't looked like first year players in the drills. Petracca burst passed a would be tackler the other day and Keilty slid across and tackled him. Really good agility for a big. His kicking has looked solid and so has his decision making. DJ has a neatness about his decision making and disposal that is similar to Billy Stretch. Kicks the ball low and hard and on both sides. Tim Smith has found the ball and moved it on smoothly. None of the 3 have really jumped out with blistering pace or racking up the ball which are the 2 things that stand out in the match simulation training and the contested aspect of drills has mainly been in tight which doesn't favour a key defender or two forwards. For reference with Clarry this time last year all I could see was he had a bit of agility, his decision making looked decent and his skills were good enough to get the ball where it needed to go. It wasn't until the first intraclub that there was really any way of judging what he might do at AFL level.

This Danny Corcoran fella is a genius. Really knows how to run a football club- into the ground. I have little sympathy for any of them. His call of PTSD demeans soldiers and those who have experienced real trauma or grief. What JH experienced was a total loss of respect and credibility stoked by an ego that has never been in check. I noticed his egotism when I first saw him interviewed. His ego took him right up but he wasn't ready for the fall. A total lack any introspective insight leads to insanity or prison , or worse.

Enjoy è https://six6six.smugmug.com/frame/slideshow?key=36kZqg&autoStart=1&captions=0&navigation=0&playButton=0&randomize=0&speed=2&transition=fade&transitionSpeed=2&clickable=1

This whole EFC thing is a joke. The Board is ultimately responsible from an organizational point of view for setting the culture and allowing stuff to happen with poor oversight. The CEO carries the can as responsible executive. As an analogy, poor Jimmy Hird is just the confused 'sales manager' promoted above his capability. He was a great sales rep, but a crap sales manager. He had no idea that everyone else was doing all sorts of stuff. He is, however, accountable for his actions and those of his direct reports. At a minimum his lack of awareness and ability to ask simple questions of what was occurring is astounding. He had a lovely trip to INSEAD to do a management course whilst everyone else copped the heat. Even there he failed to learn about responsibility and governance. Little Jimmy sales manager was happy to take credit for the results, but had no clue about anything else. Speaks of over-promotion and under preparation of JAH. The whole EFC needed a revolutionary clean out (Bellamys is having the same thing happen now). However, the lack of ownership and accountability of all involved (even the GIll-fish and Vlad) is most galling. Blame everyone else and take no responsibility. Play the victim. Defend the victim. Enough. They should have been put out of business, not have turned over half their list by the time sanctions rolled around, got first prize in the beauty contest (draft pick #1) and be ready to move into the 8 already. The AFL have a lot to answer for, letting the EFC get away with the equivalent of trading (morally) insolvent. The destruction of records is a willful, criminal act. The 'heads up' given to EFC by the AFL is complicit.

Stretch played 15 of the last 16 games in 2016. Entering his third year, with another preseason under his belt, he's cemented a position in the best 22. As others have already said, he's rated highly internally and is only getting better.

Just back from training. Horrible to see Liam go down. I couldn't tell whether it was ankle or knee but he went down and stayed down for sometime before being examined and carted back to AAMI. The session was physically very demanding and different drills. WW has done a great job describing who was doing what. Hibberd and JKH in the main group and looking sharp. The rehab group don't look far away and were doing a range of contact drills. Standouts for me today were Max Gawn who just looks so fit, Oliver who was having no trouble with some of the running, AVB and Harmes who did well. Oh, and Hunt. Boy did he look good using his pace and skills. Hogan was also very good today along with the regulars like Lewis, Vince and Jones. Petracca and Brayshaw were also in everything and Petracca's field kicking was excellent. Any questions let me know.

Hulett injury has absolutely [censored] me off. He pulled himself out of a small group drill to have his left knee/ankle assessed. Hard to tell what exactly. Then he limped back to the sideline from the middle of the oval. Had a bit more assessment and ran some very slow run throughs at a long way below 100% intensity. All of a sudden he's back in the main group for match simulation training. He gets chased under pressure and tackled and his leg rolls under him and is down in noticeable pain and takes a while to get up and gets carried off. I just don't understand why in mid January you'd put a guy in to full match sim training when he's clearly not 100% and there hasn't been a great opportunity to test him? I get the desire to build more toughness in to players but this was silly. I'm angry.

Quiet confidence be buggered, this is as exciting list as the Doggies if not better for depth, I am predicting a top four finish, damn the torpedo's, damn the nervous predictions.I'm putting good doh on the DEES to utterly surprise and rattle the AFL fraternity and Blitzkrieg the finals! GO DEES!!

Their whole club should have been banned last year. 34 players guilty? Club instigated and lead doping regime? Losing 12 players, picking up 10 others and getting pick 1 wasnt much of a punishment. Whatever happened to "2 athletes in a team guilty = team suspension"? Lets not forget the previous punishments were for "bringing the game into disrepute" because they had no records...

Scapegoat is probably the wrong word, and don't get me wrong he should have been held accountable. ...but in this case the AFL were aware of the problem very early on and should have stopped it. To cover their own ineptness they wanted to make Hird the fall guy then move on. Unfortunately for all parties including himself he wouldn't take the fall. As you say the AFL is like other sporting bodies and can't be trusted to run a clean sport. I'm as sure as I can be that flags have been won by drug cheats... As for the Hitler analogy, nice story but not quite so sure it applies here.

You'd think Gussy would have a higher ceiling than Jones. Let's hope lives up to it.

Which AC/DC song is this from?

I think that the signing of J Lewis could be the best thing to have happened for our young brigade. I can imagine when any of them get ahead of themselves all it will take is a comment along the lines of "you haven't won anything yet" from a 4 time premiership winner to pull them back to reality. Based on that guys like CP5, Gus and other 2-3 year players can go to the next level.

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, Raze out the written troubles of the brain And with some sweet oblivious antidote Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff Which weighs upon the heart? Therein the patient must minister to himself.

I don't think injecting players with saline or vitamins makes them overnight muscle bound running robots nor causes the plague of soft tissue injuries many later suffered.

A Melbourne team without Cam Pedersen seems to completely lose its forward structure, so for the foreseeable future I'd like to put him there instead of Weiderman.

What struck me about the article is there is not one ounce of bitterness towards the club. Not that I would expect any from a top bloke like Jack. In fact the closing lines say it all about Jack: "Despite what he has been through, Grimes’ heart still beats true for the red and blue...I’m sure Melbourne is on the brink of having a really successful period, he said...I’ll still on the sidelines cheering for them and wishing my mates well.” Pure class.

Good to see sponsors actually want to stick with us now. Oh and we have found another sports person to give a melbourne jumper to. Canadian tennis player Milos Raonic. Hope he realises he is standing next to a superstar.

Six6Six - bloody fabulous effort in documenting what happens at training - then uploading it .Really grateful for it.

Born in what WAS Austria at the time but NOW Croatia. He however is deemed Austrian

Great photos 666 Fascinating comparing the bodies of Gus and Chunk with the stick insect 'saviors' shown in the current Jack grimes thread. The club has come a long way.

half croation, half austrian born in croatia......take your pick

Franky, every possible variation of everything has been offered up in this saga. The story you were told is a fairy story designed by apologists to protect Hird. "It was all above board but Dank took the money and ran." There are variations on the fairy story even. Such as, Dank knew all along "the good stuff" was prohibited but had EFC pay for it and then on sold it to bikies while injecting the players with vitamins. "It wasn't above board but Dank led Hird to believe it was. And took the money and ran." We'll probably never know the actual true story, until some player on their death bed spills what they know. (It won't vary too much from what we think happened.) It took how many years for Percy Jones to spill the beans on some minor scandal at Carlton.

I see Wagner as a HB, he has excellent endurance, seems to have a firm grip on the game plan, has an excellent left foot and, to reiterate the Goodwin catchphrase... has composure under pressure.

I think he is already. Fast. Great disposal. Accurate kick for goal. Great goal assist. Criticism, should have grown another few inches, to help his marking. Will be a good player for us.

Best training report I've seen all year!

Oscar's current update (13/1/17): "Oscar has really emerged again. We all saw really good snippets of Oscar’s progression last year. He’s bigger and stronger again, and has the capacity to run and still carry it. Oscar’s on the verge of becoming a very good player."

Brilliant WW. Love it. Thanks. From this and other reports from training this pre season it seems Goodwin's emphsais on quick ball movement is very apparent. if they get it right (and don't lose their defensive pressure) we could rack up some pretty big scores, at least early on when we might catch some sides unaware

Drove (crawled) past on punt road at 9:14am. Centre lane. Bus blocked my view. There were some men running around who looked like footballers. They were kicking footballs. One was Daniel Corss. He had a red MFC shirt on.

Hope they offer the discount to members that they did last year. It was an amazing offer.

I was one of many who thought it was a lucid moment in a terrible time when the two young Jack's were given the Captaincy of the MFC. Upon revision, it really just highlights how bad of a position the club was indeed in. Jack alludes to this. The burden he and Jack Trengove had placed upon them was clearly ridiculous. We as supporters were looking through our rose coloured Melbournefc glasses, thinking this was a stroke of brilliance and that the two young co-captains would provide the catalyst for bringing success to the club. How wrong we were. Grimesy was in the right place at the wrong time. A Demon tragic playing for the club he loves at the elite level - the stuff dreams are made of. Just a great bloke and I hope he has success with Hurstbridge.

I love Jack Grimes. Very proud that he played for this club. Very relieved he played 100 games for us.

Very sad it has ended up this way. That article shows what a humble, genuinely good person he is.

PS. The sledging Jack copped both as a Demon and when he got delisted was seriously unfair. The bloke is borderline Demon royalty.

In answer to your question, just get a bit bored with posters on here assuming a player can't change something, in this case Trengove's speed or as repeated ad infinitum on here the lack of. We have hardly seen him for a couple of years, he has for the first time in those couple of years completed all sessions before Xmas and is now starting into the build up to games, he knows he needs to improve the burst speed (like every player who has aspirations to play in the middle) so now he has the body that will allow this, he is working on improving, as he did today at training

In my view this camp was as beneficial to the new coaching group as it potentially was for the players. What better way to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your group than putting them under extreme pressure. I'm sure there was the aspect of new players bonding, but what better environment to fully understand your playing list and the best way to help individuals as you prepare for a new season. It's the sort of exercise you wouldn't do every year, or often, but there's a whole new dynamic at play with plenty of new coaches, as well as new players. People seem to only be focussing on what the players will get out of it. For me it's players learning about themselves, each other, and the coaches, together with the coaches learning about each other, the players and cementing the "why" of this group, which goes hand in hand with their collective goals. Unless you know the immediate goals of Goodwin/McCartney it's difficult to critique. You may assume what they're trying to achieve, but you can't be entirely sure.

Afl website just changed there story from knee injury to ankle injury, journalism at its finest

I have been spending my break re-watching our games from last season. Wagner's form in the first half of the year was excellent before season and injury took their toll. There will be some serious competition for small-medium size backline spots especially if we choose to play all three talls.

Stretch will be a walk up start into our best 18 by the end of this season He brings skills that we desperately lack, especially disposal efficiency!