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I found the non-photoshopped image. Nice try MFC.

5 minutes in I forgot it was a clash strip... I supose thats a good sign.

i don't care what they're saying. i still reckon chip will stay.

Just beat me to it

Nice photoshop job MFC. I'm not convinced.

Check the "social" tab on the app or instagram. Big smile on his face in a photo with Nev and Tmac from the family day yesterday.

I was down from Sydney so went along. First time back to Western Oval since Rd 22 1987. Sadly still the highlight of my Dees following career. And I waited a long time for that highlight. Just a few observations. Firstly it was the first pre season game I've ever seen. I was incredibly impressed at the standard of the game for a first hitout. Still played at a ferocious pace. Obviously a bit rusty but still full on. Unlike many I have to say I was a bit disappointed at the way we played. While there were some great passages of play on the rebound where we moved the ball well and scored We seemed to go backwards a lot. A few times kicking from around the defensive 50m arc all the way back to fullback then getting stuck back there or worse turning it over. Jordin Lewis is going to be a huge asset. I'm more interested in the leadership he will bring. He showed how he just knows what to do in crunch moments. Eg saving the win by putting himself in the opposition goal square in the last 2 minutes when they were attacking and saving a couple of goals. Old habits die hard. I noticed his point of extraction from stoppages is to flick a hand pass backwards into space. Sam Mitchell would have been standing there whereas we often didn't have anyone set up for this so we would end up being under pressure and some of this great setup would end up being to the Dogs advantage. I know the stats say we did well in clearances but it was clear being there how much better their structure is setting up for clearances compared to us. They don't get too many sucked in to the contest and have a ring of players outside ready to distribute it around to then clear it with an attacking kick to space. Hopefully we'll learn from seeing this. I thought we would be doing it by now so a bit disappointed to see we aren't doing this setup and have too many too close to the contest. We are going to be competitive with any team at contested ball. Like plenty of others have said Clarry is special. Very special. Will be our best midfielder. No disrespect to Viney etc. The Weid is already solid enough to compete. He's bigger than Gunston & Watts. His 3 standout skills to me are his judgment to grab the ball at the highest possible point, his footy IQ and his kicking. He isn't nvolved enough yet but that's not entirely his fault. I was on the outside wing and he lead up there quite a lot in space and was repeatedly ignored. I suspect this probably happens a lot and we wouldn't know. It looks like he might have to earn the teams respect more to get the ball to him more. JKH an example of why you can't rely on training form. He just didn't seem to be able to get involved. AVB disappointing too. Doesn't seem to have the footy IQ to know how to get enough separation on his opponent. There are subtle overall improvements compared to a few years ago that I'm beginning to take for granted. Like level of competitiveness. More consistent 4 qtr performances, although there was a drop of composure at the end of the game. There's steady improvement not a leap yet which I guess I'm still waiting for. We are better but talking finals is premature. A lot of teams will be better this year. I'd only start discussing that after the halfway mark. Sorry if this is long winded but I've got a lot of time today. Being driven back to Sydney by my daughter on L's doing a max 90kph and regular stops. Go Dees

Melbourne Bitter. Because I'm Melbourne. And I'm bitter.

this was my highlight !!! my son getting asked to be Mascot for the day and my girls did the guard of honour too many thanks to MFC for this , on such a hard day for us

yeah dazzle, clear as mud

The reverse is true also. Others of us that have been posting here for 15 years are not surprised at all that you jumped on this rumour the minute it came to light. We all have our biases, you're no different.

Still quite comfortable with my initial call of BS - but as ProDee says, others can please themselves.

Last year we (just) beat the Dogs reserves. Without exaggeration they had 15 of their best team out. Chalk and cheese compared to their lineup this year.

Looks like the Melbourne Football Club SWYL abides

The MCG

Of course I like it, it's pretty much just our normal jumper. However with all the wind coming from the AFL regarding clash jumpers in the past, I'm surprised the AFL approved it. Just goes to show how arbitrary and ultimately pointless their policy has been on this I think.

Always enjoy attending this day, a great chance to rub shoulders with all the players who are very approachable and appear to enjoy themselves (Tommy Mac look bored out of his brain but I got a smile out of him). Congratulated JKH on a solid game and discussed his hopes of not just competing for the small forward position but hopes to play up off the wing too. Had some banter with J Lewis asking when he is going to update his Twitter photo of him accepting a medal for the Hawks, to which Jonesey got a laugh out of. Lewy said he doesn't use it and can't even remember what pic he has on it. Great to chat to some of the girls too, Daisy Pearce is every bit as popular with the kids as a lot of the senior blokes. Got some great pics with our kids with many of the players, thanks to the MFC for the opportunity for our kids to meet their heroes.

Of course it may be real, but I'm tempted to risk banning net week by starting a rumour about a high-profile player and seeing how long before SEN or some other slack journos fly with it. BTW, for those who think his ommision in itself was suspicious, how about : I was told by a source close to the club that Watts was in such good shape that there seemed little point in putting him in the team ahead of some of the marginal players who we wanted to have a good look at in a real game. Seems a credible statement.

The hair wasn't a good sign.

Garlett is important for us and adds the much needed x factor when in form. We look much better balanced when he is playing. However, the x factor is very much dependent on consistency. I would prefer a few goals each match than a bag and then nothing. A consistent Garlett makes for a very potent forward line and a very dangerous side. I also have no faith in getting a full season from Kent given the nature of his game and his injury history.

The most important part of that article from PJ is" "We're looking at that because this [the MCG] is our spiritual home and there is a great emotional advantage in solving that one". PJ gets it! He understands we want: a place to call Home, to have our colours permanently featured, to have pictures of our heroes deck the halls and above all somewhere to display our 12 Premiership cups and Flags.

It sounded like a campaign from post one. And you can bet he gets aggressive and snarky the more people call him out on it. I've seen this movie before.

Huh? I've always seen Salem as a hard nut

Despite some of the posts here I thought both Garlett and Brayshaw looked great. Brayshaw was in everything and his positioning and running were fantastic. Everyone was blowing out the cobwebs as you would expect in the first preseason game. If people are going to come down on occasional skill errors in the preseason they are missing the point. Chunk off the half back was a revelation. As was Salem in the midfield. I am really excited by the game plan and how it might look by mid season.

Late posting but was very impressed with the efforts of Hogan, Salem, Brayshaw, Petracca and Oliver and it was nice to see Garlett back and his unselfish goal assists in the first quarter which gave us the momentum. We are a better team when he is 'on song'!

What ? Salem's soft ??? This is one weird Sunday morning.

Salem should be one of our best mids as he can play inside and out and he's so clean with his disposal as a rule

Random musings for you to think about: Gawn played 59% game time and Spence 48%. So basically they were rarely on the ground together. Max will play around 80-85% game time in the season - does this mean that we wont play two rucks because effectively we didn't yesterday? Our leading contested possession winners were Viney (12), Oliver (10), Brayshaw (9), Salem (9), Smith (9) - great signs that Salem is getting a hard ball. O-Mac took 9 marks for the game. Which was more than Cloke and he is a marking machine. Salem had 4 clearances. Which was more than Jones or Oliver. Melksham was blowing out the cobwebs but had more rebound 50's than anyone else in the game. He also had 3 1%ers. While I'm not convinced he is playing round 1, not a bad effort from him. Brayshaw had 5 inside 50's which was only behind Dalhaus for the match. Jones (6) and Viney (7) led the way with tackles but not to be outdone were Brayshaw (7) and Stretch (6). The boys are adding a defensive mindset as well. What this all means? We moved Lewis, Jones, and Vince out of the fire and the young boys stepped up. Specifically Salem and Stretch who are outside mids, who showed a little more balance. Our top performers are becoming our under 23's and that is only going to make us better.

The new AFL live pass for 2017 is now officially an effing joke and massive ripoff. Where last season one could watch a match on a full size IPad screen, the AFL and Telstra in their money grubbing wisdom now limit live games to a puny 7 inch screen on tablet devices. Replays can be watched on a full screen size after 12 hours delay. Subscribers to their horror only found this out tonight while watching the Magpies/Bombers game. Telstra and the AFL did not warn subscribers this was going to happen apparently due to the new broadcast deal. Was slyly added in the fine print under terms and conditions. All we got was good news in the past few weeks about great new features that were coming with the new app. What a disgrace.

Will be interested to see Trengove get a run there over the next week or so. Strong overhead, elite endurance so he can get right up the ground and back, apparently training the house down. I actually thought JKH was ok on Saturday. Thought he did everything right, was fairly clean. I'm also fairly certain he isn't as slow as some suggest, we just haven't seen it yet. I love Harmes, particularly for his attack on the footy. But I'd say he's midfield depth at the moment.

While I think the 'tired players' thing was talked up a bit much at the end of last year, there is some case for it when you consider those last two games in particular. Bugg definitely faded at the very end of the season. Garlett was ill then a bit flat. Gawn's final two games were among his least damaging for the season. Hogan had clearly faded for about the last 6 rounds. N. Jones last two games, he was still getting it but not causing any great damage. Kennedy had a good first third of the season, ordinary second, and spent the final third of the season in the VFL. Kent copped a quad injury against Carlton and wasn't available against Geelong. Petracca was struggling to stay involved and alerts throughout the final games. Stretch's last couple of games were his least effective for the year. Vince had become quite erratic in his form in the late part of the season, those last two were poor. Even Viney was up and down for the last portion of the season, mixing some great games with some very ordinary. Wagner was another one who had faded late in the season and was back in VFL despite decent earlier form. Watts kicked just one goal in his final three games. Hmm, so that's 12 players who had a distinctly weak end to their season. I've actually turned a bit now that I've looked closer, and I'm more receptive to the idea of a 'tired team'. So, to the other part of the topic, how can we have any confidence it wont be just as bad in 2017? 1. Youth development. Yes, preseasons do make a difference, and especially for young players, which includes a big chunk of our list, on every line. 2. List improvement. Lewis, Hibberd and Melksham are all capable of contributing to run, have mature bodies and habits, and should between them play many more games than the entire 2016 group of delistings, to a substantially higher standard. 3. More rest. The steady stream of marks and goals from Jesse Hogan will give all Melbourne players more periods to refresh themselves during the course of each game, as well as allowing for better scheduling of interchanges without needing to sprint to the bench while play is on.

Roos is the master of smokescreens. Last year he said the players were tired after round 2. Round 2! He kept that smokescreen up for the rest of the season! Goodwin is playing his best 22 in the preseason comp because he wants them ready to go round 1 and win early season games. He has seen what the media (and fans) can do to a new coach if they lose quite a few early on. He will get a honeymoon period but it won't be a long one. He won't be worried about players tiring after round 12.

While it's no doubt a work in progress, outnumbering the opposition at the contest is very much part of Goodwin/McCartney's game-plan. Once the ball is won they try and spread in multiple directions and if there's a turnover the aim is to get back in as quickly as possible. There's no doubt that while they're mastering the new style players will get caught out of position or not get back into the contest quickly enough, but they were able to noticeably outnumber the Dogs at contests on numerous occasions. If we didn't have enough sweepers I'm sure it's something they'll address in their reviews. The Dogs game-plan is now second nature, while we're working towards that.

If you don't like it I doubt you barrack for Melbourne.

Is that Otto the Auto Pilot in the middle?

our colours. that's Melbourne not some team in a white jumper. love it

No need to photoshop. Jesse was definitely at the family day sitting next to TMac when I took my grandson through and we met Nev going up on the stairs to join them. The pile of bananas above TMac's right shoulder is the sign of authenticity. Notice also the signing pen in Jesse's left hand. By the way, couldn't meet a nicer group of young men who were wonderful to the youngsters. Glad they're ours. Go dees.

Not concerned. He played out the game and, in all honesty, his awkward walk and gait kinda make it look like he's limping all the time.

They talk about covering the train lines every year or two, and Eddie gets on the bandwagon as well as he will Want Collingwood as close as possible, but this is the perfect space for our base. It is next to the MCG, we could either move the admin into the new building or stay in the G, we could build a small stand including gyms etc, and it is in a highly visible space for advertising etc.

Yeah he could be out for the season. I also heard Petracca suffered whiplash on the dodgem cars at the family day in another silly pre-season accident.

We perfectly understand Foxtel is a business and is seeking to increase profit. No problems there. But there were two other parties in those contract negotiations, the AFL and Telstra. Telstra is also a business, but the AFL are supposed to represent the interests of the players, fans and the game itself. In the case of broadcasting via the app, they did not. They have limited the represented IT platforms, reduced the video quality, and absolutely stuffed up accessibility with the upgraded app. As far as apps goes, it looks good, but is too busy, too limited, and a lot of its basic functions are not working. No one on here expects a large company to be a benvolent society. But we do expect those people who are supposed to be representing our interets as fans (and it is our money that generates the game) to represent our interests. The current app simply fails at this.

Funny thing I just noticed watching the replay. Dahlhaus' first goal, the ball was clearly thrown to him from the player on the ground.

Just finished watching the game for the first time. Jones looks great playing as a half back. He looks set for another massive season. Also, a quick side note, if Jones plays at least 14 games this year, he'll move into 9th on the most games played lost with the MFC. Still only 29 as well. Speaking of massive seasons, Hogan looks set for a 60 goal season. Looks like he wants to prove a point. Contested marking and his improved set shot routine were highlights. Our other key forward in Weideman did some good things as well. I'd still prefer Pederson to play in the early stages of the season but I think the coaches are determined to get games into Weideman. I wouldnt complain at all if Spencer is in the round one team. If it means more of Gawn playing forward then yes please! More Salem in the midfield please. He has a natural ball winning ability. If you combine that with his disposal, then he'll be a serious threat this year. The rest of the young midfield brigade in Brayshaw, Oliver, and of course captain Viney did everything right to reaffirm themselves as one of the leagues most exciting centre bounce lineups. While he's no means a round 1 lock, Garlett still seems the most likely contender to be our small forward. Kicked an important goal and was involved in about four others. Looked back in 2015 form. Lewis will be worth every penny. He arguably won us the game with his spoil in the final couple of minutes. Melksham looked understandably rusty, but was involved in a couple of handy plays. Bugg surprised me. Looks in great nick and bobbed up for a couple shots a goal. Could be one to surprise this year. Both of the McDonald bros looked steady. (No terrible turnovers aside from one from Oscar) Cloke looked set to dominate but was fairly well held after half time. I would prefer Frost in the side to deal with the more 'gorilla' forwards of the league. While on the topic of our defence, Hibberd and Jetta will provide a massive boost next week providing they're both selected. Overall, a great first hit-out. Yes, the Bulldogs had a few significant players out (Wood, Bontempelli, etc), but the key spine of their premiership team was still intact. JLT or not, an important win going forward. EDIT: I can't believe I forgot to mention Joel Smith. He was absolutely everywhere in the second quarter. I counted about five or so instances in the space of seven/eight minutes where he was instrumental in the back half.

Salem was very good, I was critical of him last year but his sickness was the explanation. He was great in the contested heat yesterday.

There's still plenty of development to come, which will happen with more games experience and maturity, but I've never been more confident that very good times are just around the corner. Yesterday's game reinforced that opinion.

Repeat all season please:

Is it just the 'odd' mistake, though? I can recall a period in the third term where he made back to back errors, and ones that didn't seem forced either. I'm a Tom McDonald fan and I like what he brings defensively to the side, but if we can get the ball in the hands of our better users more often so he has to kick less then I think the side will be better for it.

Hogan looks so much more relaxed and he seems to have lightened up. Great signs that he has settled and bought in to the future of the team. He really is an imposing figure up forward.

Suffered the injury myself a couple of times but I was lucky. Never missed a single game of AFL football as a result. Then again, I'm a spectator and not a player.

Agree on Vince. Haven't seen the game yet as away, but was saying that in the last half of last season. He gets it and can kick a long goal, but he also turns it over and in defence that can be lethal. He is probably best now with bursts in the middle and spells in the forward half, where he can hurt the opposition with a goal. We have enough half backs now and don't need him playing there.