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I watched him at training one day have about 20 shots at goal from his and other difficult positions. I reckon he got 18 of them. This shot was no fluke. Oh how I hope Harley gets better and plays for us. It would be truly exciting.

Not wanting to get all high and mighty, but comments like this are in bad taste I reckon. Whether were right/ wrong to trade him is irrelevant now. The bloke is clearly going through hell. All the best to him.

He's in absolutely ripping condition. For a guy that has had his battles, both injuries and self-induced, he's really giving his last chance at AFL a serious crack. I wish him nothing but the best of luck with regards to his legs. We will ultimately benefit from it if he makes it back, but the personal achievement it will be for him as a person will be massive, possibly life-changing.

Some ordinary comments on here. I wish and hope Jesse gets some form of happiness and peace back into his life. Forget footy, his well-being is the most important thing right now.

The same issues surfacing that were bubbling away at our club, that we weren’t allowed to talk about on here at the time. We made the right call getting rid of him. With that said, I really hope he can turn his life around. However, the influence he was exerting on other young players was why he was moved on. I’ll leave it at that, as I don’t want the mods here telling me I am defaming the bloke? Good luck to the kid.

Sorry but I don't see him moving. There's a few people in my household who get that far off the ground standing still with a look like that on their face after a nasty meal.

Freak

Media reports that said calf injury is not as bad as that reported by media. I'm glad we cleared that up.

Thanks to all who provide training reports over the summer, it's greatly appreciated to myself and others unable to attend. I have noticed almost every report touches on drills involving our ball movement, particularly forward of 50 and entering the forward 50. It seems as though the coaching team have identified this as our biggest area of weakness over the past two seasons. Having watched our rise and fall between 2018 and 2019 like a hawk, picking apart our strategy with and without possession to understand where we could improve, I landed on the fact that we are just so easy to score against in transition. When the ball was turned over, we simply had no capacity to set up and form of defensive mechanism to prevent a scoring opportunity for the opposition. Now, this was an area of concern for me in 2018 when we were supposedly flying also. We got torched by the sharper teams such as Richmond and Collingwood, hence the "they can't beat a top 8 team" tag that followed us the entire way through the 2018 campaign, right up until we beat an out of sorts Geelong and Hawthorn with no O'Meara and Mitchell with one shoulder. I'm curious to know if any of the track watchers can report on this aspect of our game. How is our team defence looking? Do we think it's simply a matter of fitness? Is there a significant portion of time being allocated to fixing this deficiency?

Not potting you but in my opinion tgis is completely wrong. Seems to be a common view, even from dees fans who presumably watched him a fair bit. Which I find strange. He was terrific last year. As he noted he had surgery in the preseason and so never got fully fit. Which made it hard for him to stay in games for 120 minutes. But he was super consistent accross the season and our best forward. His season was massively underrated. Was ok the previous year too.

Jesse is a rare cat. A unique footballer and a unique character. Been through a lot for such a young man and wears his heart on his sleeve. I hope he improves and we see him back on the ground soon. Wish him all the best.

Mr punch first ask questions later at his best. The way you present yourself on here suggests you don’t have empathy or you just have little self awareness, volunteering badge or not. As to Jesse, here is hoping you can find an outlet that brings you happiness, joy and satisfaction.

You are correct, but most of them don’t have their problems put out in the public space and splashed all over social media at such a young age. You showed zero sympathy with your comment re Hogan... I certainly hope you are a little more sympathetic with the people you deal with in your work as a volunteer.

Interesting seeing today's interview with Petracca. I could be reading too much into it, but he seems to have matured. Boyish enthusiasm replaced by steely resolve?

And here, once again, is the clear and primary reason 2019 was trashed. At the risk of repeating myself, of all objective statistics that predict success, or more specifically end-of-season ladder position, total games absent through injury (across the entire playing list) is the most reliable. We finished 2019 not just as the most injured club of the year, but one of the worst since stats became a thing. Not sexy, but the truth. This year is starting from the opposite side of that ledger.

Roos offered so little OTC he made Brown and Lyon sound interesting. Sadly nothing could save Healy. At some stage to get paid to talk about football you should probably offer more than defend, defend harder and have good culture.

A video paints a 1000 words. Here's 10 additional words: That is precisely why we want him. (Very) Rare talent.

As a well paid professional footballer I would wear MFC apparel and runners, rather than khaki shorts (for the 'jungle gym', as he called it) and birks, which can easily slip when sweaty. But that's just me!

There hasn't been enough full match sim to make any declarative statements and even then it's impossible to tell until the real stuff starts. That said, last year was a write off in terms of working out where the strengths and weaknesses lie, but if we go back to 2018 the biggest problem with our defending was midfield transition. Our forward pressure was ok and lifted in the run in to finals. Our backline had plenty of good moments, but it seemed they had to be super aggressive and go for the intercepts up the ground because if they sat back teams would coast through our mids. Tomlinson and Langdon are big inclusions to make sure the wings have proper two way run. Harmes to a half back flank I'd imagine is to get a player who can cut off a lot of transition attempts. Those 3 should be tasked with getting in the right positions to cut off the easy targets, which in turn hopefully forces long kicks to Lever patrolling half back or May at full back. The inside mids - as with all our players - are doing a heap of work on transition drills. Viney is clearly having a better preseason and can be really important in that part of the game. Oliver is fitter again and whilst he'll never be an endurance machine he has the burst and instincts to pressure. Brayshaw can't be as bad as last year. Petracca is the wildcard, in theory his aerial ability, reading of the play and burst should be as useful defending as attacking but he has to have the motor. Defensive personnel is a bit of a concern (2nd key defender, mid sized depth) as is finding the right mix between pressure and attacking players up forward, but the team is absolutely drilling two way work rate.

Alex pulled out of the AO with an injury before the tournament began. How Melbourne is that?

The Demons have so much potential upside this year, we can only hope they deliver: - Better drawer - Better pre season by miles or km’s for youngsters (getting to practice drills with a full team makes a significant difference in connection) - Appears Burgess is driving them to a new level of fitness that is better suited to our style of play, plus greater running endurance, leading to strong 4th quarters, rather than fadeouts - Fingers crossed, seemingly few injuries amongst our top 20 players, then depth looks a whole lot better, totally different team - Hopefully a settled back six of Jetta, May, Lever, Salem, Hibberd, (OMac or other), only Salem didn’t have serious injury issues last year - Oliver, Viney & Brayshaw in the middle, all having full pre seasons relatively injury free, Petracca better tank to spend more time in the middle. Max is max, and Preuss getting fitter as backup! - Langdon speed, ball winning & distance gained, Tomlinson endurance & coverage - Harmes providing flexibility and backup for backline, mids, wingers & even forwards - Forwards with TMac full preseason, Melksham & Weideman the same, starts to look very different, add Fritsch full time in the forward line, Petracca cameos - Then just as bonus, VDB, Smith, Jackson, Rivers, Pickett with hopefully players like ANB, Hunt getting back to their best, and possibly Jones having impact off the bench - Richardson joining as a coach will help improve our game plan, as he so easily picked us apart Maybe as a long long time Demon, I’m overly optimistic, or just thinking eventually things must turn, but it seems we have a massive upside. 2018 showed we could do it, from round 5/6 we played some exhilarating football smashing teams for 6 weeks, then the last 6 matches including two finals wins aside from the horror prelim, we had some terrific wins! The other factor is our star players Max, Clarry, Petracca, Viney, TMac & May are getting into the 24-28 age bracket, aside from Clarry at 22/23, that their bodies are strong enough they know what footy is about and should be ready to roll! Look at when the Tigers broke through, Rance, Martin, Cotchin, & Riewoldt all were over 26yo, look at Eagles as well, the Hawks threepeat, our time is coming Petracca will have a breakout year, so will May being fit and TMac will be closer to 2018 form, and who knows how well Viney will play after having an injury free pre season, his first for many years, even Clarry had the two shoulder ops at end of 2018, will be in better shape 2020 an even year, an Olympic Year, my prediction - a hugely improved year for the Demons! Top 6 maybe even top 4, memberships for family locked in months ago. Go Demons!!!!!!

Then round one ...

Looks to have matured which is good to see. Hopefully as a result his footy will be better and more consistent.

It takes time to get over the death of your father. It's an important stage of life . He's not up to the challenge yet so let him be.

In which case you should probably have been a little more thoughtful with your post.

Can u Amit you're wrong about Harley, and lyon was right about Harley, you are were wrong, just say I was wrong Lyon is correct.

If I didn't have empathy I wouldn't spend 25 hrs plus a week volunteering at the salvo's or working for another organisation feeding the homeless.

Apart from that, he’s been plagued by injury, lost his father after being on the other side of the country during his illness and was attacked in social media over his being seen smoking at a music festival (even lambasted for attending said festival while his father was gravely ill). The kid has been to hell and back... something that causes comments like drysdale demon’s insensitive remark, to make my blood boil!

Yeah. We'll need a 'Farewell drysdale demon' thread full of 'We got rid of him at the right time' comments, after that one!

Empathy is not your strong suit it would seem.

MFC got rid of him at the right time

Touché

Looks like he's running to me.

I would have thought kicking like this would have been out of the question if there were any concerns about his calf.

To be perfectly honest i don't think roos leaving is much loss. i rarely found his comments interesting or particularly insightful. And he often had biases that he struggled to hide.

Bennell pings off another after Kozzy

Easy transitions for our opponents arise when the ball movement into our forward line is so poor as to almost invite an easy repulse and transition. Moving the ball into the forward line with purpose and skill and holding it there will mitigate the problem. Get the forward line working properly should be the key. At that point, a single defender behind the ball is the best strategy to protect against transitions. 2020 Go dees.

Unlike some Ernest I actually think we are a good chance in game 1.

We need to win games early to instill confidence, belief and team spirit. And then we need to win games consistently, not one week on, one week off. We need a team of guys that will sacrifice all for the team, and do whatever it takes. Team not the individual.

Someone posted a really good analysis a while ago about how Tomilinson positions himself which prohibits teams from switching play or transitioning quickly from defense. I suspect we haven't picked him up for his ball winning skills.

I prefer to watch my sport stars play sport, the idea of getting to know almost any elite sportsman will end in disappointment. This guy seems no different. Stick to playing tennis mate and keep your politics to yourself

Peter Brukner - MFC Club doctor from 1987 to 1990 Garry Peter Lyon 1986–1999 Melbourne 226 (426) Good chance he is.

I too attended yesterday, The only benefit of the lack of some of the senior boys being at Melksham’s wedding weekend was that it made it easier to focus on some of the lesser lights. As far as standouts, Jetta has his step and bounce back and is far from spent. Smith and Lever both looked great until they had to kick to a target (heart in mouth stuff). Dunkley did not appear about (unsure if I missed or anything in it) but of those pressing Sparrow was just fast and clean in everything he did and has a nice mix of inside and outside carry. ANB has the pressure forward spot sewn up unless we play two (not unlikely) and Petty would be my first choice to partner TMac (not that Weid or Brown were bad). Other than the above Salem and Viney were in everything and Fritsch and Petracca did things on a different level than the rest on show.

Credit where it's due. This tournament he took down # 8 seed Berrettini, #12 seed Fognini, former #11 Sam Querrey, and took the GOAT to 5. For a bloke ranked #100 in the world, that's a fair run.

I think people need to let this one go.

Nah. It’s worth asking if Dan Butler, Sam Gray or some other stop gap should’ve been added but Jeff was done. Either way, I firmly believe once he gets over his untimely broken wrist Chandler will be ready to play. And a poor tank alone isn’t a huge reason to doubt Kossie