Leaderboard

Rawlings wasn't "moved on", he went to NM and was poached. So only one assistant was moved on and McCartney had been there for a long time. I would have thought that it was healthy to have a few assistant coach changes - new voice, new message and all that and I'm surprised it wasn't a few more. Jennings (I think) wants to coach his own team with a view to getting into a senior coaching position, Viney's role was administrative and Sam Pietsch was strength and conditioning. Yes 2019 was a horror show, I didn't enjoy it at all. But then when I realized that only about 4 players had uninterrupted preseasons and seasons I understood why. If we fall in a heap this season then it's a real worry but I'm pretty confident we won't.

If we were in Carltons position we’d all be frothing about this situation. The fact of the matter is that this is all the AFL’s doing. They gave Gold Coast too many concessions, too many draft picks that effectively made them not GAF about accepting something in the 2nd round offered from Carlton. Less concessions would have forced the Suns to work with Carlton but they opted to make Martins exit a drawn out and probably painful process for him and everyone involved.

Sparrow on the wing seems appropriate.

Que? I doubt he'll be better than any of Oliver, Brayshaw, Viney, Harmes in R1 2020. But as you say it gets thin after that so I think he would be a good addition to the list.

Fancy bothering to take a photo of that! God kids are soft nowadays. In my day we'd have carried a horse home on that little finger alone...

I blame Jack Watts

GWS may have to accept that, for the first time in their existence, they’re going to pay a fair price for the players they draft, like every other club (except GCS)...

I came across this YouTube video of the late, great Robbie Flower today. A wonderful person, a fantastic player and always a pleasure to watch. This is from his first season -

You better do some homework in the off-season.

One piece is never enough - you have to see him in colour too. This is from 1984 -

I haven't moved from Young & Kemp but note there is a lot of noise around Jackson & Pickett. Just on Jackson, I see a giant sized midfielder rather than an out & out ruck. If that's what the club thinks we need then so be it but I'm skeptical. I've seen nor read nothing in his short exposed history that indicates he would readily become a forward. And that kicking is a concern. On Pickett, yeah he looks to have some nice tricks but his best output has been at SANFL Reserves level. Reserves ! There are suburban comps in Melbourne who's top divisions are a better standard than SANFL reserves. Would have liked to have seen more in the SANFL firsts or the nat champs. Again, skeptical

I'm having some difficulty getting my head around the idea of a "powerful sparrow". Somehow, those words just don't seem to belong together...!

#getmissonback

Ok boomer.

McBean! A ready-made forward who can pinch in the ruck as needed. He can hold down the spot until Bradke gets his game together.

That several clubs are prepared to package up their mid teen pick for a top 10 shows there must be some real gems in the top 10 that won't be on the table at 14, 15, etc. Two top 10 players (@3+8) are far better for us than one top player @3 and two lesser more speculative players in the mid to late teens, especially now that we are likely to have Bennell. Unless we get an offer too good to refuse we take 8 to the draft!

Carlton will get a bad reputation to deal with in the future, at least clubs know if a player nominates us we have the reputation of getting deals done, players might be reluctant to nominate Carlton in the future because of it, Carlton didn’t want to give up pick 9 yet the the contract they are giving him would suggest he is worth every bit of pick 9

The squad was already out on the paddock when I arrived. There were 24 players, 5 coaches and numerous support staff. No Steven May, Nathan Jones, Jake Lever, Angus Brayshaw, Kade Kolodjasni, Jake Melksham, Aaron Vandengerg, Jayden Hunt, Alex Neal-Bullen, Harrison Petty, Ed Langdon, Adam Tomlinson or Harley Bennell. There was a also good number of administration people there. Noticed that Joel Smith and Tom McDonald are on a different program to the rest of the squad by doing some work in rehab. The simulations were going strongly and there were obvious changes in their methods. They were run by Troy Chaplin. The types I saw were, a group of midfielders moving the ball quickly by hand and then clearing to leading players on a call from the coaches. Then, two separated teams, one in the centre and the other in the forward area. The ball is given to the forward team. A fast spread and finding players to pick up entailed. They had to run very hard with plenty of communication to get to position, force a contest, fill space, create a turnover, hit players on leads and make overlaps. All ball movement was by foot. Joel Smith and Tom McDonald both participated in the contact simulations and played well. Thought Kade Chandler, Christian Pettraca and Oscar Mcdonald stood out with skills. Toby Bedford laid good tackles. Michael Hibberd reading the play and getting to many intercepts. Max Gawn leading well always giving an option. Jack Viney playing smart football. If second week in is much to go by, we are looking good. The training is well organised and they are pushing them. They then we're put through the running programs. Half doing fartlek and the others 80 meter sprints. Two coaches Troy Chaplin and Mick Stinnear were also running laps. I don't think Bernie Vince is with us this year. Perhaps Jordan Lewis has taken over his role. At the end, the squad had a moment of silence in a circle and in the middle for remembrance. After, Braydon Preuss did some leading and goal kicking practice. James Harmes and Jack Viney goal kicking at the other end of the field. Christian Salem, Marty Hore and James Jordan finished with some tackling practice.

indeed he looks surprisingly big. reminds me of when Frawley piled it on one pre-season then became an All Australian. lets hope its a sign, as half his problem is being pushed off too easily.

OK, OK - just testing everyone’s awareness.

Looks like we're going around in circles a bit here. Changes have been made and quite significant ones. Do I care about the Crowes? No... Whilst I don't think we were in crisis we had major issues. Do I think our preseason surgeries were an issue? yes Do I think we had other issues besides those? yes and we've started to address them which is good. Do I think there will be further shake ups prior to the start of the season? yes

Just as long as they’re not all inside mids. ?

And good mids can also play/rest forward. TBH, it is nearly, the more good mids the merrier.

probably be rested for hawks, but

AFAIK, the PSD is open to uncontracted AFL players and players who were not selected in the ND or RD. So Sokol has to register for the ND or RD first. Uncontracted delisted AFL players can be picked up in DFA or SSP so they don't need to go into the PSD like they used to, e.g. Bennell, Murray. Only players like Martin who are out of contract but not delisted can go in the PSD. So I think this pool is small to non existent. Therefore no-one. I could be wrong ...

Am I missing something? I never said there hasn't been significant changes. I'm not spinning anything. Need for change was identified. And they got on with making those changes. Mud season. But not just as a reaction to poor season. Reactive management is stupid management. I pushed back against claims of a 'brigade of assistant coaches being sacked (if you count Jennings there has been three who have left and only 2 sacked) and a 'mass exodus frpm rbe FD (viney, pitsch, the IT guy - small exodus). That is spin

Hopefully not a wipeout

Still astounded that Harley’s coming to us! He maybe 50:50 chance of regaining his form and his body holding up, but if it does... it’s equivalent to a proven top 3 draft pick, with years of development done, hardened and hungry for success. And would be THE pick of this years draft season. Like wow!

No one uses it anymore, it was going out of vogue and that was even before they introduced pre and mid season supplementary drafts, delisted free agency etc. Pick 1 or 2 is no longer a bonus (especially when melb doesn't take a ruthless approach to Martin)

Why bump a 5 year old thread just to make this inane contribution? Fair dinkum.

Our half-back line is going to look like an 80s porn film. I'll refrain from making any fisting jokes.

On Jordan - not to derail - but he is 2 months older than Noah Anderson and 1 month older than Tom Green (pick 2 and 3ish from this year). You have to think another year in the under 18s and he would have been taken a little higher than 33.

I would rather get 2 top class players, than be greedy and get 3 lesser players.

Another really good session For his admirers Joel Smith joined in some of the ball movement drills Hibberd in attendance, another one with a completely different body shape, looks super fit Viney, Gawn, Harmes there was well Weid, Hannan and Baker just light work Nietschke doesn't look too far off, so another new player, doing laps at full pace Petracca and Salem there, Trac was probably the stand out during the ball movement drills, Salem was his usual immaculate foot skills Another one who is looking good early on is Spargo, stronger and faster, did some really good ball distribution by foot

Shish-Kebab, 29 pages. Imagine if the guy was actually a good player?!

Check the goal against Richmond at 1.50min of this clip. As I've written previously on here, I reckon it's one of the best I've ever seen. He's out of position in a marking contest in the centre of the ground, effects the spoil and prevents a certain Tigers mark, keeps his feet and is first to the ball, sharks it over an opponent, streams through CHF and dobs it from outside 50m. As Bobby Skilton says in the commentary, it's football at its very best.

Weid looks big and strong, finally.

Sparrows have only small wings...

They’ve just had too many walk outs to not make a stand. Both there captains last year. The blues were both complacent and predatory in there approach and the suns can’t put up w that either. So i hope the blues pay a price. I found it strange that when the swans couldn’t land daniher, the news was all about how the swans let him down and how the dons wanted him more. But in THIS case none of that at all. if the blues wanted him they needed to pay the price... and they didn’t. for THAT they should pay the price.

When he celebrates a goal, he could hand out the high four and a halves.

426

Most of my fingers look like that normally!!

We are backing ourselves to rise further up the ladder next year. Our 1st might have been 10, 12 or higher. Yet in a draft where up to half of the top 20 are academy or FS, that could easily get pushed to 18 or 20. All hypothetical, but also quite realistic IMO. Good planning, I say

He doesn't kick so much as hack it. They were the best 3 kicks they could find in his highlight reel. Imagine the bad ones.

If we bid on Green and GWS don't match then this would be a huge coup for us. Green is rated on level with Rowell and Anderson. The comparisons to Cripps is real. Drums are beating that it's looking more likely we will bid on Green and GWS really considering whether to match or not.

316 years old. Never out of shape. Weight of leadership taken away from him. No rush for his old rig. Needs to be selfish for a year to get the max out of himself

Thanks for the training reports Sayy and the pictures, much appreciated. Someone asked if Jordan had bulked up but I am more interested in Sparrow. In know Burgess said last week that bulk isn't ideal for our game now perhaps he meant they need power and speed without the bulk. Back to Sparrow, last season one of the many commentators was asked, who of our crop of draftees would play senior games for MFC. Without hesitation he said Tom Sparrow who he thought was a steal. He likened him at the same stage to Dangerfield which of course is easy to say and Tom's year was cruelled by a knee injury. I would keep a close watch on this one as the pre season develops.

I agree, may have a lot of support from Clayton Oliver, as he seems to be paired up with him a fair bit.

Got there around 10am, it was beautiful weather out on the track. The ground surface was looking immaculate! About 26 payers in attendance today. Crossy was putting Neitschke through his paces with kicking, marking drills and then sprinting through to collect the handball receive and then kick it down the line. Later, Neitschke went on to do repeated 200 - 300 meter boundary laps at about 80% pace with about 2 - 3 mins rest between sets. He was cooked by then end of it... The main group were doing defensive drills ran by Chaplin. It was a 6 on 6 system where the players would try and move the ball out of defence by kicking laterally or along the boundary. Petracca intercepted the ball about three times so he was definitely switched on and moving like a cat. Players then switched into their runners and half did interval training around the boundary marked with cones. They would sprint 50 meters, jog 40 and walk 10 and repeat for about 10 minutes continuously. The other half would do 100 meter sprints with 30 seconds rest. They finished up around 11am and Preuss stayed back to do extra goal kicking and forward craft with Max Rooke. Preussy has lost considerable weight in the upper body and looking really fit. Salem, Hore and Jordon also stayed back and did a bit of ground ball touch skills. Special mentions go out to Hibberd and Sparrow who both looking in ripping condition. I think Sparrow may have grown a bit as i saw him running laps with Joel Smith who is 188 cms and Sparrow was just a touch smaller.

Good on him he stayed in footy and was not scarred for life by MFC fans.