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It wouldn't neceesarily be to study a sport, maybe technology to enhance the studying of the game Seen all sorts of things tried at training, drones, body and head cams, a sort of whiz bang GPS, the guy trialling it for the club lost me after 3 words when I asked what it did 'better'

The difference between Kolodjashnij and the Viv Michies of this world is that Kolodjasnij was a genuine top 10 talent. At 190cm with good speed and a lovely left foot kick there are already AFL attributes for a club with good development to work with. Judging Kolodjashnij on any output in 2018 on the back of concussion issues and the demotivating workplace that was the Gold Coast Suns isn't the smartest reasoning. The fact that he came second in the 2015 B&F behind Ablett in just his second year shows his high level talent. His Brother, who wasn't considered to be as talented as him and went at a pick in the 40s, just finished 8th in Geelong's B&F. I reckon Kolodjashnij is a great get by the club and I'm very confident he can become an important player.

Change jobs.

You would never forgive yourself if you gave up the opportunity to be at the G to watch us win a flag.

Why always so defensive in this way? Maybe he doesn't have the opportunity to ask? A non-condescending way to reply would be to say that you chatted to Jennings and got the impression that clubs want to investigate every new 'approach' as professional sport changes daily...

Thanks for your critique. Very diplomatic. Spur of the moment can bring you undone.

What's this suggestion aboot. ???

Call in sick. We used to take our family holidays in the September school holidays. No holidays anymore. They’ll get over it eventually.

Well, it must be the off-season because some of what I've just recently read here is way out of kilter with what I saw this year. Petracca's form of course fluctuated but what a few gems he produced (especially kicking to advantage within range and baulking/handballing again to advantage in close contests. And when he did the crowd exploded and his teammates got around him big time and everyone lifted. Not every player will play a robotic game and "play a role" consistently. He adds an X factor that most teams envy. There's not a lot to worry about Petracca come 2019 given a full preseason. PS ...I noted a number of posters had Charlie Spargo as emergency in their best team. This kid is in my best 22.

I select is s dud product .the vic gov site is better if choosing gas and electricity. I went through all of my bills/ deals with Iselect and they couldnt better any if the deals id found myself , why? Because they only have certain companies they want to sign you up with , not a genuine ‘choice’ site But thanks for the sponsorship!!

Even if Kolodjashnij turns out to be Viv Michie reincarnated, so what? The risk is super low but for the reasons outlined by ProDee above, the potential upside is enormous. The only thing at stake is the emotional well-being of fans who can’t cope with their own disappointment. I’m prepared to back him in; I think he will prove to be a great pick-up. If I’m wrong, oh well. This is sweating the small stuff.

Pick 53

Its a bit like harking back to the days when umpires wore white and were not miked up, when the football did not have a sponsors name, and the ground was unmarked except for boundary lines and centre circle, when goalies wore hats and long coats, when boundary fences and stands only had supporter banners, when there were no migraine inducing flashing advertising signs for Chemist warehouse around the ground, when we had a marching band rather than over-hyped manic loud ground announcers, advertising and other ground entertainment blasting us out of our seats and to the bar, when we had no betting advertisement bombarding spectators, when we could sit at half-time with our thermos and fruit cake and discuss the progress of the game with our family, friends or bloke sitting next to us. When we had time, space and peace to reflect on the game and when our senses for the contest were heightened by the lack of distractions, when we had a reserves match or last quarter to watch to get us in the mood. You can't tell me that for those that love the game and the spectacle we are better off. The seats may be more comfortable and the toilets better, and the food and bar facilities better, but is our experience of the game better? Everyone says that its progress, that you can never go back, and that we are better off as spectators. In financial and materail terms, we are better off, but is the game and the spectacle better off?

MELBOURNE champion Garry Lyon has implored Christian Petracca to return to training early, urging the hybrid Demons forward to replicate Max Gawn’s off-season example in order to get the best out of himself.

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2018-11-05/returning-to-the-track Melbourne’s first-to-fourth year players still have a few more weeks to cool their heels before returning to training on Monday November 19. The senior players are due back on Monday December 3. Injury list: A number of players underwent post-season surgeries including Jack Viney (ankle), Christian Petracca (knee), Mitch Hannan (knee), Clayton Oliver (both shoulders), Aaron vandenBerg (shoulder), Jayden Hunt(shoulder), James Harmes (shoulder) and Neville Jetta (shoulder). All the players listed are expected to resume full training post-Christmas. Draft picks: 23, 28, 54, 62, 91 Major off-field moves: Following Peter Jackson's planned departure at the end of the season, Gary Pert has taken over as CEO as of early October. Melbourne's coaching staff has had little turnover and is locked in for another season. Round one: Port Adelaide, MCG, March 23, 1.45pm. 2018 Premiership odds: $8 And another thing … Melbourne coaches have covered all parts of the globe in the off season. Simon Goodwin(London), Craig Jennings (Japan) and Troy Chaplin (US) embarked on study tours to gain insights by visiting sporting clubs in those countries.

I just don’t see it with Valente. I think he’s too slow to be an effective AFL player. A bloke like Jordan Lewis might get by at that speed now, but he hasn’t always been that slow.

Weed...

Miss the GF - hopefully watch the win on TV. Made same call on smaller scale this year - forgoing Week 1 for wedding in Canberra. Pretty sure we’d win when I knew I’d be away. Rather watch a win on TV than witness a loss

Complain that we should have won by more

Looks pretty straight forward on paper but I wouldn't be overly suprised by a Titans & even Browns upset

This guy sounds like he’s on a one way trip to a mental breakdown to me, but that’s 100% rank amateur psychology for me. He’ll have no trouble adjusting to the professional demands of AFL footy, but he’s going to be culturally different to most footy players. Who knows what effect that will have - he may end up a social outcast or he may be able to positively influence it, or it might not have any effect at all. I don’t feel like any of us are in a position to tell how his fastidiousness will translate in to an AFL career, so I can’t conclude “steer clear!” or “get him!” like so many of you seem confident to do. It’ll be interesting to watch play out all the same.

This story mentions "Chaos" so this sport HAS to be what he is studying doesnt it? (Did anyone else get sick of Fathead commentators always talking about "Chaos" ball late in the season during our games?)

Having said that I also think the Panthers were being overrated a tad. Their wins haven't been all that impressive

IMV... he's still playing like an amateur... with amateur style thinking. Because, I think, of his huge natural gifts, which he was born with. I want to see what it is he has built onto his body, and his game, by his own mental efforts... onto his base, of his natural conception gifts. He still carries too much puppy fat...condition, on his frame. He is nowhere near, 'cut' enough. .

Yeah "once in a generation" key forward is pick 2. How good must Walsh be?

We have 8 list spots. No team should ever be adding 8 x 18 year old players to their list, yet alone a team that is hopefully close to contention like we are. A fifth of the list as babies in one season wouldn't be smart. Bargain basement retread players usually fail but so do the late round picks that take their spot. This year we've got enough list spots to add a couple of late round or rookie picks as well as a couple of mature players - be they delisted or state league types. Apart from mature depth that might contribute to the best side and play a number of games we have to add some older guys to strengthen the training standards, strengthen Casey and be low maintenance. I very much doubt we'll only add kids so my guess is the club is just waiting until draft night to weigh up the pros and cons of delisted players v state league players.

I miss looking at the scoreboard and seeing: A 1.7 B 2.5 Then going through the record to find out who the hell A & B are.

I agree about the saturation issue. I'm no fan of Thursday night football (unless it's a special occasion, such as the night before Good Friday or ANZAC Eve) as it has the effect of diluting the weekend. I'm also not psychologically ready for it. It's the same with cricket. Why we're playing international cricket in Australia in November makes no sense to me. Clearly the Australian public isn't ready for that, either.

Take a look at his 2017 goals... Compare them to many of his goals from this year, where he was often looking to dish off, or played on to kick around his body. Also, in 2017 he kicked 26 goals, 6 behinds. In 2018 he kicked 19 goals, 23 behinds. It's confidence.

Agree mate. Don't get me wrong, I still love footy and going to the game is the ultimate experience. Despite my nostalgia, I don't hanker for the past. When the ball is bounced at the beginning of every match I still feel nervous and excited. However, I do find all the distractions a pain, such as the incessant advertising, entertainment, noise and other marketing ploys. I also think that due to the saturation of the sport (extended seasons/fixtures/matches played 4 and 5 days in a row, media coverage etc) the sense of freshness and anticipation we have when we go to a game is now a little blunted. Its like obesity,. There is so much food that people eat more, when less is better. Our health improves and we live longer lives by eating less.

Totally agree. I think when talent isn’t fulfilled many just trot out the ‘not training hard enough’ despite little evidence from training he isn’t going 100% Watching every game closely I see a talent who gets elite numbers for a half forward (you can back him in for 20 possies), a player with little confidence when shooting for goal and a player without the tank to play as an on baller. He doesn’t quite have that acceleration I heard about as a junior either. I think like Ablett he will have that breakout year when he simply gets more of the ball, not being more exciting. Even if he just gets his kicking confidence up (e.g Hawks finals was sublime at times) he will be better than Robbie Gray. But will he ever become an on baller? Hmmm there are comparisons to Martin but he was doing major midfield minutes at the same stage. Perhaps he just wont have the tank.I’d like to see him play wing more and have more ability to run and carry.

And on Harmes, I'm hoping he doesn't take his foot off the pedal either and re-doubles his efforts to improve even further. If he gets to A grade, with a fit Viney, we'll have the best midfield in the competition (if we don't already).

I think it had more to do with Max turning things around from being lazy/making poor choices, whereas Jones, ANB and Stretch have always trained hard from the start. Gaz just making a point that CP can turn it around like Max if he wants to.

I watch Garry Lyon train in the old days and he never pushed himself either so he knows what a waste of talent is when you think you can just turn up and perform. One of the great athletes of all time Carl Lewis used to have a saying 'when you are number 1 you have to train like number 2' also Jesse Owens had a saying 'that people say I am lucky but the harder I train the luckier I get' the saying's are basically true but lazy sportsmen blame other things for their failure to get to the top of the heap.

I think a pass mark is top four finish in the regular season and then to make a prelim. B Making the Grand Final. A Winning the Grand Final. A+

100% agree with this.

This is the first time I can ever recall our fixture being a commercial positive. There's little point in analysing based on 2018 finishing positions as there are going to be good teams from 2018 who slide and teams who right now you might think will suck but who ultimately make the finals. It's the other aspects of the draw which interest me. The things I've noticed are: It's great to have home games against Essendon, Collingwood and Richmond. However, the Collingwood and Richmond home games aren't until Rounds 20 and 21, and our home Friday night game against Sydney isn't until Round 22. Those games pulling big crowds are therefore contingent on the sides (us included) being in contention at that stage of the season. Would obviously be better to get those big-drawing games up early when all sides are in contention by default. But a positive overall. Three Friday night games and a Thursday night game is great, but only two of those are at home, and one of those is the Round 22 game vs Sydney. North Melbourne, by contrast, has three home Friday night games against Hawthorn, Richmond and Collingwood. So there's still room for improvement there. 13 FTA games is a massive win, and 12 MCG games is an improvement on this year. Our interstate games are all on FTA, I believe, except the Round 8 trip to the GC. That's another massive win, allows our fans to be able to watch us more easily when we're on the road. The back-to-back road trips to GC and then West Coast is bad, and the fact there's a six-day break in between makes it worse. We get two blocks of three consecutive MCG games (5-6 and 20-22). Nothing like Richmond's seven consecutive MCG games to finish the season, but again better than this year when we only had that once. The seven road trips this year are more evenly spaced out. Recently it's felt like we've had a good run of Melbourne games to start the year and then lots of travel towards the end of the season. In 2019 we only have to leave Victoria three times after the bye, one of which is Hobart and another of which is Alice Springs I doubt we've ever had a season in which we've only played 5 Sunday games. We had 11 this year. More Saturday games is great commercially but given our supporters are so used to Sunday 1.10pm and, in particular, 3.20pm games, I wonder how our attendance figures will go next year. Ultimately feels about right for us in 2019. Would prefer to see more home Thursday/Friday night games, especially given we're away in both ANZAC Eve and Queen's Birthday, but it's hard to complain given where we've come from.

I fail to understand why you'd think that. It's as though an assistant coach is not allowed to have an opinion, or, even worse, such an observation must not be made public. It's as plain as day that the Melbourne brains thrust had no qualms about his imminent departure so there must have been issues. If there weren't the 'issues' rumours would not keep bubbling to the surface. His dummy spits when umpires failed to reward him surely must have been one of the issues, an issue which Jesse seemed incapable of addressing. Or, maybe it was his 'Kicking 'Coach who despaired Jesse would ever lose that convoluted inclination to hold the ball as if he was going to kick it with his left foot...

All we need next season is for Sammy to average 2 goals a game, to go with TMacs 3, which I think is very achievable given our strength in the middle. Assuming they both play 22 games that would give Sam 44 for the year and Tommy 66. Then we just need the usual suspects to bob up here and there like Nibbler, Trac, Hannan, Vanders, Spargo & Melksham.

Always liked his courage in the air. First couple of AFL games this year I thought he was holding back when team mates were in the marking contest. Last couple of games he went hard at everything regardless.

2019 season.... Freo will beat up on weaker sides at home and Hogan will kick 5. He’ll be the star that the club didn’t do enough to keep. Freo get challenged by stronger sides at home or when on the road and Hogan fails to impact the game. But it will be the midfields fault and Ross Lyon’s gameplay, not playing to Hogan’s strengths. If he stayed at the Dees he would have no where to hide, inability to perform would be seen as exactly that, playing for Freo gives him an out. Once in a generation players(forwards) can take the big pack marks, kicks goals without having to be 20-30 metres out directly in front, kick goals from out side 50, kick them when the game is in the balance and dominate the big games.

I have just read this piece and it truly resonates with me on several levels. Although, the wisdom of Steven May’s recruitment will ultimately be determined by what he achieves on and off the field for the club in the future, his story puts paid to any debate about who wins in trading. If it’s all about what a club gains and adds to its community then we have added a wonderful asset to the Melbourne Football Club for the next five years.

Yeah, nah. We targeted May, because we had a weakness in the backline that kind Freddy could see. Mahoney acknowledged this in his SEN interview. Our 2019 backline (when Lever's back) will be the best I've seen following the Dees (memory early 70s). Let's give it a go, shall we.

A brief summary of the kind of character we're bringing into the club.

I'd like to see Charlie Spargo in the Ruck. Equally pointless, but pizz funny.

Interesting. He seems introverted to me. Not the comfortable in the spotlight. Bit like dusty martin. When he accepts it he might go to another level.

In my heart of hearts I never really got too attached to Jesse, hence his departure has left me feeling a bit... meh. I took the Scully departure very, very hard and the sight of his malnourished face still makes me clench my fists, but with Jesse, this always felt somewhat inevitable. I feel sorry for the kids with the number one on their guernseys, who are probably experiencing their first taste of the tragedy of a beloved player departing the club, but it's great to see May and KK already making statements about their excitement to be joining the team. I don't wish him ill (Scully, Howe, Frawley), but then again, I also don't wish him all the best (Trengove, Watts, Tyson). He's just another player in purple now.

Hijacking the thread a little (I’ll create a new one later) but I’d give Preuss 12 so he’s next to Max in the locker room.

Often you look at old clips and it looks like old fashioned football. Sean Wight could slot easily into our current side. Goodwin would love him.

It's worth re-iterating that Steven May chose MFC over offers from Collingwood and Hawthorn who also made finals this year - really who would've thought that even 2 years ago? And he cited the key reason was "the guy" Simon Goodwin, that means he preferred Goodwin over Clarkson and the reborn new age Buckley! Wake me up, I must be dreaming!