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MFC employees probably shouldn't be relying on our website for training times.

Sounds like we’ve adopted the one d***head at a time rule.

His run without the ball, towards our goal, facing away from play with a backman running with him, then turn around with an explosive lead towards the ball carrier is the best I have ever seen any Melbourne player do (maybe excluding Jackovich) He did it enough this season to make me think he is a natural forward. He has the pace to put immense pressure on opposition rebounds. The way we bombed it into our forward line this year wasn’t conducive for crumbing forwards. It wasn’t a year for our forwards at all really. I’d train him with the forwards.

Arguably our most natural footballer. Reads the ball better then his opponent most of the time, marking and kicking is already of really high level. Moves smoothly and with confidence. I have no doubt he will go up another level. Love Fritta.

I keep going back to this but check out his marking stats once he was moved back into the forward line. For a guy with stick arms he can sure take a grab.

Very harsh. Cal is only getting better with more experience and has produced some very good stuff this draft period. How much did Burgo even do on the draft? His Burgatron was fantastic reporting but clubs were far more open back then and there wasn't academies and live trading to work through. Phantom drafts were possible, now they are just about impossible. Twomey is across all the names and has done a good job sniffing out some very plausible picks and trade rumours. The thing the draft coverage badly misses is Emma Quayle at the Age and Brett Anderson at SEN/Inside footy.

Don't get me wrong - I understand the logic of playing him down back given our injuries and lack of kicking skills. But he's such a natural forward it's not even funny - 20 goals this year despite such limited time in the forwardline speaks for itself. Will only get better.

I doubt they have the slightest idea what we are planning

Taylor has said on the podcast that he doesn’t see Jackson as a pure ruck, but as a key forward and ruck. He was glowing of his continued improvement post-champs, especially up forward. He’s certainly a unique talent. Young is a solid, meat and potatoes choice as a high level role player at half back. This is where it’s hard to select ‘best available’. Who is better, the high floor solid half back whose ceiling is known, or the unique but very raw key forward ruck whose base is low but ceiling is much higher? I think I hope that we pick Jackson .... just to watch this place burn to the ground on draft night! ?

Given that he was played in an unfamiliar role in defence he had a very good season. He should only be played forward where he can be really damaging. Gains separation, leads well to the ball, can take a great mark and is one of our more accurate kicks for goal. Looking forward to watching him have a settled and successful year.

Could be we're looking at Young ahead of Jackson in the draft and therefore Brown ahead of Murray DFA. List spots are limited and we have 3, 8, 97 and Bennell to accomodate. That leaves 1 free Senior list spot.

Just published: Live pick trading rules The answer to your question therein is: "The Giants could move on their first selection (Pick 6) in return for later selections, which would aid their second selection (Pick 40) in matching a bid. They could then look to leapfrog back into the top 15 after completing a deal with another club, following the closure of the loophole with the same club. Another option would be to wait until (after) the player has been bidded on, with teams able to make a live trade to downgrade while on the clock, allowing for lower selections to be used to match bids". The advantage to them is getting the Academy player on the cheap and getting another player in the draft. Once Freo or GWS trade out their pick (6/7)the club holding those picks drafts a player, Freo and GWS take Henry/Green on points when bid. So our pick 8 becomes the 10th pick in the draft. I am of the same view as other posters that once an Academy or F/S player has been bid on a club should not be allowed to trade out their next pick(s). There are more than enough advantages for those clubs as it is getting some of the best players year after year.

They do a few warmups then they did this for nearly half an hour, two teams only using handball, caught, missed target or dropped ball, turnover They hammered them Then same thing but kicking only Then individual skills, contested marking, tackling etc Preuss again used as a marking target

People are talking like this bloke is a complete potato. He did manage 3 goal 20+ possession games in consecutive weeks/wins over Brisbane and North back in April. And he also managed a 4 goal 25 possession 9 mark game at Adelaide oval on a Friday night later in the year. He kicked 21 goals in 16 games which is serviceable. How many goals did T Mac manage in his miserable 16 games this year?

As you can see from the pic, he's getting there, has no issue with the running Next the agility then they start the contact work He's not far off

It's surprising how little time he's spent playing as a forward at senior level. We've seemed to be determined to transform him into a wing or half-back for the first two years of his career. Looks so natural and comfortable up forward.

I'll be very surprised if we bid Henry at 3 or 4. He wasn't mentioned by Taylor at either 3 or 8 in the Road to the Draft interview. Jackson, Young and Green, then Kemp and Robertson IIRC.

Hi TGR. I'm still interested in your response to the above question. I, too, would like to know what you meant with the above. And, while you're at it, who's the trash? Or am I just wasting my time expecting you to substantiate your commentary?

Trac and Clarry of course in the handball and the competition for small forward has got Spargo , Bedford, Chandler and Corey Wagner lifting the bar each session

We lost our number 1 KPF in Hogan, then lost the depth of Pedo and T Smith couldn't get on the park. We were essentially 3 tall forwards down last year and haven't addressed this hole yet. We've got depth down back now, so I expect Petty to be shifted forward more. We need that forward depth, so signing Brown makes sense. He's nothing to get excited about, but he fills a need for us in terms of tall forward depth and a proven goal kicking option.

Sounds like he’s accepted responsibility for his poor year with coming back in not good shape, this pre-season you can’t knock his attitude. He’s doing everything he can to make sure he plays an important role for us next year, good stuff!

AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE RULES 9 May 2019

Back. Line breaker.

We'd almost have to win the flag to ever get in the conversation for signing a gun tall as a free agent. They come around so rarely and usually go to the best clubs who have won flags. Lynch - Rich, Buddy - Syd even Frawley to Hawthorn. Trading for talls, sure, but May and Lever are also about as good as we've ever done there. Trading for depth rucks is easy, trading for a Grundy style game changing ruck isn't. The only reason Jackson is in the conversation for pick 3 is because they think he could be a game changing level of talent. If they really are confident in that assessment then they have to pick him.

I'm very nervous that we are going to take him with pick 3. History says taking talls in the top 10 is a 50/50 proposition at best... going with small/medium type players is a much safer bet. I also think it's better to trade or pick up mature key talls as free agents rather than draft them. I'm really hoping we take Young with pick 3 and then if Jackson is there at 8 then go for it. FYI my brother is mates with Luke Jackson so I'll do my best to get inside gossip....

They took the opportunity to build him whilst he was off legs Really enjoying training with Nev and May

Not sure why all the angst towards Brown. He has proved over the last couple of years to be a good back up option for Essendon especially whilst Daniher has been missing. He would be more than capable of been a back up, put it this way his a better option than what Tim Smith would have been

That's how most footy fans react on the internet. Every player is either a superstar or a complete dud, there is no in between apparently.

After watching the NAB championship series again DD i've cooled a little on his worth in comparison to say a Henry or Weightman. It's not what he does when he gets it. Just the work rate (commitment?) to get to contests or present that worries me vs say a Henry or Taylor option. If we had a pick 20 to 35 he is more tempting. Henry is obviously Freo bound but ideal for us at 3 if he wasn't. Seems to be the No.1 silk of this draft along with Taylor (a tad more raw imv but does show a few sublime tricks at times also). I'm not convinced any small 'opportune' forward (Weightman/Pickett) or a ruckman are worth a top ten pick (Jackson) but then who else are we needing at 8? Kemp would be very handy but he's out for a year. Plenty of other reasonable options of course but many are inside mids. One who really impressed me in the NAB series was Schoenberg as a balanced mid option. Edwards as well but think he plays a bit more off HB and already flagged under father son i think. So do we just stick with Young at 3? His kicking is certainly top of this year's class but what else does he truly offer us? Is that skill, along with some reasonable intercept marking/tackling and distribution, enough? Personally i really think he would need to play as a balanced mid to get full value from him at 3 (hoping that he of course grows slowly / strongly into that role). Then there's Ash who had a stellar NAB series alongside Jackson & Henry. Ash was equally impressive as Young across the series in terms of damage + consistency off HB. Gould not far off those HBs...also very impressive in straight lines and accurate kicking/finish and impressive intercept marking (reading the flight). Stephens at 8? Looks good but also big moments of lappsing out of games or not really impacting imv. Or do we go for Kemp? After re-watching the final of that NAB series Kemp was certainly super impressive in helping Vic C get back into that match and won another on that final kick. But that was mostly as a medium forward. Barely saw him played through the middle. The other player that had an amazing final quarter out of the middle in the final was Isaac Wareham. He was the one on the end of the much talked about 45 kick from Young that helped put Vic C in front just before the last winning kick from WA a minute later. Just before that he was also the one getting the inside 50 to Kemp for a shot he missed to put us in front on a tight angle. I'm not saying you pick him based on that but he was certainly impressive in that short burst (eg; line breaking run, taking the game on & standing up under heat!). All very confusing really. I guess we just leave it to the experts and pray to lucifer!

Unreliable all right. Howe went to Collingwood for less money than what we were offering. Watts going was never about money, it was about running out of patience with an inconsistent flake. They say there's three certainties in life: Death, Taxes and TGR thinking he's the smartest bloke in the room.

This, and also he is a really good kick i side 50 so can draw defenders out of our inside 50.

What a pr!ck of a rule. Completely against the spirit of the bid/bid match principle and borderline draft tampering

Not entirely sure but I think picks need to be used in sequence for Academy players so if Freo hold 7 and 10 when Henry is bid on those picks are used. Any surplus points remaining gives them another pick further down the draft.

It's the amount of points of the pick used to bid minus a 20% discount from memory. So if we bid with pick 3, their pick 6 would be roughly sufficient. The whole point of it for GWS (and any academy picks) is to trade into a pick BEFORE the bid comes so they get an extra player in and then match the bid using a combination of lowly picks to satisfy the points. It's a loophole that will likely be closed in future as clubs find new ways to take advantage of it each year and render the intended concept redundant.

I'd be disappointed with the club if we draft Jackson with 3. He'll be undersized as a ruck at AFL level, and hasn't shown he can play as a key forward. He's mobile and athletic sure, but he's also a horrible kick of the footy and will never be a dominant ruckman at AFL level. He'd basically be playing as a negating ruckman who then becomes an extra midfielder. If the club doesn't value ruck work (Gawns strength), then it makes sense. He's definitely not the best talent available at such a high pick. Happy to claim that and cop egg on the face in future.

Yep, Adam posts on here as Supermercado. Demonblog is one of the best things on the interwebs.

The AFL brought in rule 6 to compensate the rest of the Clubs if a Club has the benefit of being able to have access to a Father/Son or Academy player. The AFL set up a points value for each pick in the draft. As an example of how it works GWS have the right to draft Tom Green because they developed him in their Academy. Any other Club can use one of their picks to bid for him. GWS then has to decide to give up enough picks in value to match the value of that pick or let the other Club have him. So for instance if we bid on him at pick 3 that pick is worth 2234 points. To keep Green GWS would have to give up picks they have to match that amount of points. They currently have pick 6 which is worth 1751 points, pick 40 which is worth 429. and pick 59 which is worth 158. They would have to give up all those picks and that would leave an excess of 104 points which is worth pick 64 so they would be registered as having used pick 3 in the draft our pick 3 would become 4 and they would lose their picks 6, 40 & 59 and get back 64. Hope that explains it. Same applies for Father/Son and NGA academy players.

You would get at least 2 years out of him and turns 30 at end of next season. There was something about Weid in rehab, from a hip cleanout and that could be a big factor with Brown, as he would be extra cover for a late start by Sam.

Seems the perfect depth player for his position. Not going to get excited over it but it makes sense.

Jack & Dworship have pretty much covered this but to extend a little.. The SSP begins from 1 Dec (ie; after all drafts are completed) and finishes on 15 March. Our first training session from then is Tues 3rd Dec which is the reason that date is being mentioned. I assume Bennell can do any official program/customised training with us from the 1st as deemed appropriate. My take is Bennell is then officially part of the club (albeit only under the SSP deal) and receives a base minimum salary up to the 15th (or more serious $$ if signed under a standard AFL contract before then).

I'll post some pics of Mr May doing the work previous to the video, probably tomorrow.

He’s put a $1m contract on his head to scare off other possible suitors.

I’m not sure if this is serious. We only have a limited number of vacancies (5) to go into the draft with and one has been set aside for Harley Bennell. If we are chasing Brown then it might be a sign that things aren’t working out with Sam Murray.

Solid backup at the very least.

These clips genuinely bring a tear to my eyes today, just as they did when No2 flanked the MCG wings most Saturday afternoons. Robbie was one of the few shining lights in the very dim decades of the 1970s and 1980s for the MFC. Brilliant from the start of his career, loyal until the end of it. He has few peers in VFL/AFL history. Thanks for the clips WJ. Timeless and priceless.

Having re-watched all available u18 championships i'm now a Henry convert at 3. Freo will no doubt match the bid but he is worth a try. Easily one of the stand outs in the championships along with Jackson and a handfull (or maybe two) of others imv. Ash also had a very good series. More so than Young imv who was ok but not sure he gets involved often enough to impact often enough, especially from a run POV. Not quite able to break free or get into space enough to receive and effect the contest if that makes sense. Can do so don't get me wrong and very worthy of top 10 to 15. Just not sure he is a clear No.3 after a full (and more considered/focussed) re-watch. And i'm not saying pick Jackson at 8 either as im still not sure we can afford a third ruckman nor need one with a top 8 pick. If i had more evidence he was a genuine forward prospect i would be alot more eager. Is Jackson worth a top 10 pick for a team that is in need of a ruckman? Hell yes.

I really don't know what you guys expect. Of course there will be these 'puff' pieces. What would you write if you were in the PR department? If they upset you so much, just don't read them. You know what they will say, so save yourselves the grief and don't look.