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Just dropping by for 20 mins. Intensity and enthusiasm excellent, however my attention has been drawn to the rehab group consisting of Wagner, White, Maynard, and Jayden Hunt. I spoke to him and asked if he had a niggle but he said he got a head knock and reckons he will be fine! Hogan training in main group looks like no concerns. Lewis hands are just as lethal as his left boot. Boys are up n about, great voice and they look ready to go!

Garlett was moving freely so was Kent. One or both will play round 1.

When you're winning it's called a "knock on tactic". When you're losing, it's called a fumble. I know what to call what I've been watching for the last decade.

Trengove seems to have the ball on a string. Everwhere he runs the ball keeps coming to him.

i would be very surprised if any taps weren't to our favour today Wrecker ?

Jesse Hogan is in full training.

Def not injured he is right amongst it at training.

Don't know company names, but aware the Club are progressing positively with a couple of suitors.

Found out this afternoon that we're having a girl. Due date is the first week of finals but will sign her up by Monday!

'ProDee', it's time to bring Raquel back. Trumps face is doing my head in... ...now before I get accused of derailing the thread, Smith is a big chance for round 1.

Garlett is a lock if fit, adds a lot to our potency up forward both directly and indirectly. Very undervalued by some on here.

I went for about 2 hours. It was a very windy session. Hibberd and AVB not present. Frost in and out of main session. Hogan had a tiny niggle on his hip at one stage, but joined back in shortly after and moved nicely. Didn't notice Trengove (other than copping a nice tackle from Smith). Garland won't play round 1 if they watch the film of this session (Smith also caught him in a good tackle). Brayshaw and Petracca are very hit and miss with their kicking. In goal kicking practice Bradshaw did two of the worst shots I've ever seen (including local junior football). Most players trained like they play apart from both the McDonalds who didn't make any massive errors in the match sim drills and Oscar was doing quite well with a few intercepts. Kent and Garlett will both play round 1, both trained well while they were out there. Hullet played as a backman in the match sim. Pederson was forward and took the only notable mark of the session.

Tyson doing a drill with coaching staff picking the ball up under pressure then kicking to a leading target inside 50. He puts them high up in front on his right and drills them in with his left. His radar is back. Missed about 2 in 20.

Will never watch that swill. Much happier seeing Steve Smith and The Big Show silence Kholi. A fantastic effort by the boys

If we're gonna play Spencer, it means we've already played into their hands.

In the first game against them last year when it was wet they just kept moving the ball forward along the ground while we kept trying to pick it up in the wet.

No i think you are right ie knocking the ball on being part of goody's strategy to keep the ball moving forward. it was noticeable in the JLT how often players elected to knock the ball forward, rather than grabbing it. The other part of the strategy is to have multiple players pushing hard forward to be in a position to collect the ball. Trac does it all the time. A spectacular example was the tap on by Harmes to Spencer, who goaled, against Wet Toast.

I just started a thread at same time. Purely to say Hogan is in full flight. When i walked past Hunt he was outside the boundary line half way between the 50m and goals, took about 3 steps and did a casual bannana straight through post height.

Spew-worthy. Hutchison, Newman, Maddern and Hughes are all pathetic excuses for hosts. If 9 insist on having an AFL show on a Thursday evening they need to scrap all of the above and start from scratch with a new format. I'd like to see Gawn concentrate on backing up last season rather than playing a character on a crumby expired tv show.

I'm fully Melbourne now mate. As a youngster I was Collingwood because of my Dad, then at about 10 or 11 I turned to Geelong when I started to really learn footy and also my Mum was a Cats supporter, but never really learnt a lot about them, but now I am all about the Dee's. When Dec was playing really good footy last year it reinvigorated my love for the game (I had lost it in the previous 4-5 years due to personal issues), and because I had watched so many Casey games and had been watching the young Melbourne players develop (Petracca, Oliver, Brayshaw etc.) I started watching more MFC games and became fairly invested in them. But when he was picked up, it pushed me over the line. I now know more about this club, its players, its history, its coaches, then I ever knew about anyone else. I can now name every player, their Number, where the majority of them came from, I have been slowly learning the history of this great club, and watch and read every thing I can. Melbourne is my club and I believe will be for now onwards, even if Dec ends up playing for a different team.

I feel like Smith would be an ideal matchup for Membrey. He is a great tackler who can play tall and small

I always felt Gawn played alot better when he was rucking full time and Pedersen/Watts doing the chop out in bursts. Spencer is still a big worry for me.

If Spencer spends more time in the ruck than Gawn, that would mean we have moved our AA ruckman to the forward line to accommodate our C+ pure ruck. This may sound a bit MFCSS but that is so Melbourne...

Thanks for reminding me again Saty, I'd forgotten.

Jack Watts was hitting them to the opposition.

He had a look at his left hammy with the medicos towards the end of Tuesday's session, assume because back and hammy are all related, sent for scan Training strongly today, no issue As I have said before players have to report even the slightest twinge

Hunt looks OK, I reckon it's just precautionary... saw him drill a torp from 65 with a slight breeze! Pedo looks a little saw in his strapped shoulder/ pec. Frost looks fit in main group. JKH jogging n walking laps

Of course he does. When the whole thing blew up, his first thought was to cover it up. He was prepared to let large scale drug cheating go unpunished, to protect the income stream. But. He tried to warn them off it, months before. And as he said, he didn't inject anyone. Who started the whole mess, who didn't heed the warnings, who recklessly brought this disrepute on the game, still affecting it years later, who has failed to take responsibility? The heat is not disproportionate. No, Oz head of News Ltd (EFC supporter and Hird tragic), pulling some strings.

Bit of a surprise that Hird suddenly turns up in the media. The AFL pulling some strings? I don't begrudge him a path back to good health but I really hope he doesn't use his column to preach about the drugs saga - a column of 'Fake Facts! Interestingly, EFC have scaled back the round 1 comeback campaign of 'welcome back our 'heroes'', walk to the G, etc. Maybe they recognise they aren't the comeback story of the Haw vs Ess. That honour belongs to Roughhead. And/or, the fanfare last week around the Wallis/Elliot/Gatto allegations have forced them to pull their heads in!

Contrast that article with the real comeback story of Jarryd Roughead: “I don’t think it will be emotional. It is a little bit about me (coming back), but I don’t really want it about that either..." http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/jarryd-roughead-doesnt-want-the-attention-to-be-on-him-ahead-of-his-afl-comeback/news-story/b385bddf1ef71429d793533db02da1b5 Roughhead is humble. Hird is still contrite. WE all know who the real hero is! It is sickening that Ess are still harping on 'comeback'!

No. Leave the game alone. Every freaking year the norbits that run the show want to tweak it, and they always get it wrong. Always. Leave it alone. It ain't broke, don't try and fix it.

Go the whole hog, make it a Sunday Twilight game. Gives us a clear advantage when we get there next.

You need a medal or medication to watch that crap. Not even the queen can save that show. Demonlanders are better than that.

I went to both games at Etihad last year. I said to myself the second time, I want to see if they learned anything from the first encounter (the one where Lynden Dunn had his papers marked). The answer is they learnt nothing and we were beaten exactly the same way. The most frustrating experience of last year. I will hazard a guess we will get done the same way. I hope not but can see it working out that way.

5 step plan to beat the Saints: 1. Shut down Riewoldt Bernie Vince is the man for the job. He goes up a gear when tagging and as an experienced midfielder he'll know how to hurt him the other way. We have to direct play through Vince if Riewoldt goes and sits behind the ball. Also we have to physically beat in to him - Bugg, Viney, Jones the men for this job - whenever he's around congestion. Tom McDonald takes the job if he goes forward and the other defenders shuffle over. 2. Pressure their defenders Roberton and Savage are quality ball users when given time and space but if pressured properly they can go to water. Brown, Carlisle, Gilbert/Dempster won't hurt us as much. Geary has killed Garlett repeatedly so if Jeffy plays he has to fired up. Maybe he can be sent to follow Savage to try and get ahead of the curve. Alternatively he could try and drag Geary away from the play and someone like Petracca could aim to get Savage deep in an uncomfortable match up. 3. Tempo footy We have to share the ball across half back at Etihad and wait for options or be prepared to kick to a ruckman down the line when required. Lewis, Jones, hopefully Hibberd, Salem - the better ball users have to be involved in getting the ball at half back, moving it around and then pulling the trigger on the corridor kick. The long kicks to the rucks just weren't working against the Eagles, so they need to make sure Gawn +/- Spencer are positioned correctly to attack the get out kick. 4. Isolate Hogan Carlisle and Brown give the saints far better key defenders than they've had before but Hogan can get either one of the one on one. He seems to like Etihad and the saints so get the ball to him 5. Stop their kick outs The Saints are one of the best at kicking the ball in after a behind. Often it's to Josh Bruce who runs a defender out of the zone and marks 60m out then they aggressively kick to players running to a spot on the wing. We have to study their plans and be aware of them.

They mastered it and the Doggies have taken the "handball/flick pass" to the next level. Whatever helps us win and win in finals.

Looking at the trends, look like approx. 2500 sign up either at the first game or the week leading into the first game, so by end March we should be pushing 38K. Hopefully by Anzac Eve game V Richmond we hit the 40K mark

Libba one of the best at the latter skill I would argue Ernest. I reckon they won a few bonus matches last year with their ring around the rosey flicks, scoops and tricks. I reckon we've also done a bit of work here over the summer. Hopefully we can do so to great effect on game day and match the likes of the Dorks & The Dogs and win a few more games as a result.

Seems to be an emphysis on tapping the ball along the ground to our favour rather than picking it up that i haven't seen before. Could be part of Goodwins plan or i might be reading too much into a training drill.

Max is a great personality and good for the club, but he (or the club) needs to pull back now. Sometimes less is more.

Just put wacky bumper stickers on the back. Opposition players that can read might get distracted.

An expectedly fripping encounter sure to frab the attention.

When I was a young lad I'd have dreams of me kicking ten goals in a Melbourne grand final win. I'm glad I sucked at footy, otherwise I'd have had to go on crappy shows like that and my kids would laugh at me

The comeback the comeback the comeback Vomit vomit vomit

Max effort was pretty cringeworthy. Seriously wish the club just ban our players from going on there. Its been a huge fall from grace to the point its actually quite sad the state its in now.

round 1 really does get blown completely out of proportion. 6 months of build up... id happily lose once we win the next 5 just one game of 22. if anything, the results in round 1 tend to be unusual/upsets as it is a frantic pace and the top teams can be off top gear *****really hope we win but