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Really need Tom to get back to match fitness. There's a lot at steak

Just bumping this because of how much I’m loving grundys instagram engagement. He’s always quick to give a teammate a pat on the back or pump up. From my cheap seats reading his comments, it always appears perfectly genuine and very aligned with the good team ethos we hope for. The itch to see his cohesion with clarry at stoppage and petracca in general play is starting to overwhelm me. Bring on round one!

Unless they're well done.

I wish we had / I hope we do keep Kozzy Burgess.

Butchered that one

And though he didn't live up to the hype, he played some decent footy for us in his later years, especially 1973, 21 games, 24 goals 6 Brownlow Votes.

Stand by for a special Picket Fence Steakout and report at Collingwwods training. Hopefully I can report on jack being burnt to a crisp! 😜

I assume they both have the same coach?

I feel like Tom’s level of professionalism can never be questioned.

Particularly unselfish player for a forward, in my view. I wish him well.

Being a fantastic clubman and a great 2nds player is where the similarities end. Tilbrook was as tough as nails, bash and crash. Even tried his hand at gridiron

And (belatedly) the Herald Sun has confirmed in an on line thread entitled “AFL off-season: What your club’s players are up to over Christmas break” “THE BRAYSHAWS “As they usually do, Angus and Andrew Brayshaw did their 100 100m runs on Christmas Day. “The Melbourne and Fremantle stars gruelling session at Christmas have now been replicated by other players keen to get an edge on the rest of the competition”.

No harm in Tmac doing extras with a trainer and getting full confidence in his movement. Was a shock to hear that the screws snapped in that incident in the final (vfl) without any damage to the bones. Whilst I love our full list, the selection squeeze is going to be brutal in 2023. Hoping everyone embraces it and we crush teams at both levels all year long

i take it that was a roast?

Wagyu doing training with a filth player TMAC?

I opened this thread hoping to g read a meaty discussion on Tom’s fitness progress and all I get are weak puns. Disappointing.

I acknowledge it was a poultry attempt at humour

https://territoryfm.com/archives/podcast/smwyg-jay-washington-a-k-a-black-ivy The common link. Maybe Darren Burgess knows the PT from his days at Arsenal and recommended him to Tom. Tom worked with him the previous season too. It also makes sense that if he has 2 AFL players in his stable that they train together.

I love that we like to make jokes about things like this. I like it even more that players from different teams can train together.

Correct. You push the rules and situations to try and win and it’s up to the officials to enforce the rules and ensure the game is played according to the rules.

Absolutely there will (hopefully) be lessons learned from the physical management in 2022. But Burgess wasn't there. So blaming him or assuming what he would have done is just silly. That's the part I disagree with. You're right with the coaching staff point, we don't know how much say Griffith was able to have in terms of selection etc, I would wager not much given what we know about Goodwin's stubbornness with such matters in the past.

So Burgess took us from a physical rabble to a team that steamrolled into the finals and won a flag, but now he's to blame for a season when he wasn't even there? Come off it. I agree on the resting players and lack of rotating others through, but to blame someone who wasn't even there is ridiculous.

Sam Weideman another young man with plenty of class who acknowledged our club in glowing terms, helps explain why he was loved so much by his teammates, he sounds as disappointed that he didn’t quite make it as we are. Good luck Sam.!!

Agreed, the end is nigh! He seems like a thoughtful and team oriented person. Even better, he's often informally training with some of the other boys which bodes well for cohesion. In that first week he understandably seemed sad to leave the Filth after 10 years and a bit uncertain about us, but now he seems very comfortable with us!

The other consideration in comparing 22 to 21 is to look at what the players had had to face the previous season. In 2022, we'd come off a long season of 25 full-length games, many of them high pressure/intensity. Contrast that with 2021 where we'd come off 2020's 17-game season of shortened games. Little wonder we were flying in 21 - and that it all caught up with us in 22. (In the various 2022 post-mortems this hasn't been discussed enough in my opinion.)

Thanks Lord Nev, on bestowing your 961st facepalm upon me (I'm sensing a theme here 🤔) I believe a prize should go to the 1000th which shouldn't be to far away. I'm certainly going to give it a crack.

So in sense it's like a thief and it's up to the police to catch him.

can't have tmac getting too beefy

Steak puns are rarely funny

I can't complain, we got a flag and he was a key player. Would loved to have kept him. ...but is the hype bigger than the individual. When it gets to a certain level I would say it always is.

And like in the BBL they are enforced selectively.

Clearly something went wrong after half time in the second half of the year. My query though is these fade outs did not exist in the first half of the season. So what went wrong mid season was it the loading, the accumulation of injury not allowing us to finish out games or a combo of mental fragility and teams knowing you could put us to the sword after the half? I would suggest its a bit of each. Some of that is on Griffiths but not all necessarily. Burgess was clearly a massive loss as he was the best in the business but Griffiths did work under him and now has a season on his own to tune his approach.

It's not him cheating it's the umpires who allow him to blatantly get away with it.

I'm just glad it wasn't the video Jake Meklsham has of Simon Goodwin.

They had a game plan?

Just trying to make you happy 'Bring Back'...

Burgo’s system burnt the players out and no wonder he left after a couple of seasons. His method has a short use by date and he knows it. He’s another Ross Lyon who flogged the players to the limit for short term success. It was reported that Griffiths closely followed the Burgess system. The players were broken by mid season and it was inexcusable no one saw it coming. Barely any players rested for niggles and minor injuries all season. Only one debutant and bench players knocking on the door rarely used. Blame should be shared by the coaches as well for inflexibility and hubristic selections. They just thought “bang, bang bang” would happen on the flick of the switch till the very last.

Burgess was a massive loss and everyone here acknowledged it as being a potential major setback for the 2022 season. Blowing 6 games whereby the club had at least a 4 goal lead in all of them is not a stat that could possibly reflect well on Griffith's commencement at the club. Happy for someone to dispute this.

Long time since I have posted, but given my love of all Kozzie does, and the fact my child adores him, I have a real interest in his staying at the club. From what I know, PA believed they had Kozzie over the line last year, but they even admitted they weren’t sure how they would please us if we required a player in return for kozzie. They will still try though. People need to remember that Kozzie is not from SA, and his family are mainly in WA, so the pull isn’t as big as people make out. Demons are doing all they can to keep him, and he loves the club, so I feel we are in a strong position to keep him. Having Burgoyne come and train is a way to help him stay as they are close. On that, keep an eye out at the end of the year for another of his mates who I believe wants out and is keen to come to Melbourne. (unsure if any of this has been posted, as I can’t be bothered reading all posts from the last year that I have missed!)

The boys are training at Gosch's on Monday. The session will commence at around 9:30.

I was a big Jackson fan, but he departed disgracefully and disrespectfully on many levels, so I feel accordingly towards him now. I never liked Weidemans footy besides seeing a little potential (should have tested him in defense though) but the classy way he just departed, like a real man with fine character, leaves nothing but complete respect and best wishes for Sam.

After all that I hope TMac snags a few this season.

Fair suck of the sav...

Strange story this - given TMac looked like he was pretty well right already just before Xmas. Melbourne veteran Tom McDonald closes on full fitness

Melbourne veteran Tom McDonald closes on full fitness

Y’all need to get searious And is that Jaeger O’Meara presenting the news story on 7?

Yes it’s funny to get a vibe about a boy I haven’t even seen play, in a footy sense of course.

I'd like to feel the same vibe about him but problem is it seems no one on here has ever seen him play? So hard to know what's hea playing style is like. Is he quick? Good contested mark etc.

Another thoughtful & appreciative farewell message.