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So went to my first training ever, was with my brother and my 16 month old kid, had an unexpected week back in Oz. I presumed there were some landers about but didn't have a clue to say hello too. We got there just as they were setting up. This is not exhaustive but the people we didn't see were Lumumba, Watts, Trengove, (Garland was doing the Tan), Pedersen, Gartlett and Lewis. Stayed till the end. Some additional comments about the running: Oliver looks like he has the most work of anyone to do fitness wise. It was a reminder that you are nude on the running track when the coaches are watching, there is no place to hide. He copped a very steady eyeball from Goodwin but was given some verbal encouragement at the end by everyone. Trac went out to hard early and was shot, when he finished last in the last lap he punched the ground and said 'I suck' he was not joking. There was love for him but you can tell he is driven, I do not expect him to be last for long, his thighs are amazing, he looks like he should be in a Marvel film. He wastes a huge amount of energy with his running style, being such a big unit I reckon he should cop some specialist coaching he will find speed from improved efficiency. Angus looks settled. Jones has the most perfect gait, he was torching Kent and he was running the wider track, is looking super fit. Kent is a solid unit, I really hope he can lift his defensive efforts this season, it is where I think he can really make a name for himself with his strength. Neal-Bullen is trying to be a small forward, (work in progress) his running is elite, he is not going to die wondering about his place, he is certainly trying to make the senior squad. Kennedy was 'clumsy' (this is by AFL standard) today, he seemed to have the yips when he was kicking for goal. He also is far from fit enough for the midfield at this stage. Melksham is a pretty ordinary kick, no better than McDonald, looks lean though. Hibbered was ok, the two category B rookies (names escape me Smith's son and the other one who were basketballers) both looked like they belong, could see them being players. Tom McDonald is a machine doing laps, fresh scar tissue on his shoulder on it is still angry from whenever it was done (I've never seen it without tape before). Coaches: Cross still looks like he should be playing and I'm sorry to say he is fitter than about 3/4 of the list. McCarthy was very verbal and chatting over the fence, unsolicited he offered that they were teaching them everything and made some quite negative comments about the Neeld era. He also mentioned that they are teaching the new coaches as well. I didn't get a read on Goodwin. I could see that he was taking the most interest in the contested drills. The culture was very positive in general I didn't see any sniping. Gawn has an amazing confidence and an even better desire to learn, no sign of hubris at all, very reassuring that his approach genuinely seems to be 'I will get better'. Stafford the ruck coach won a contest after McCarthy miskicked it, his words (first one in a hundered that I've won). Everything Gawn did he had a go, he was also doing some drills with Jetta who I rate highly but he was not going 100 % there were a few who seemed to be on various restrictions. Was a pleasure to see them using the footies, is funny I had always thought everyone would be a superstar in practise with the footy but you can see the decision makers from those that react and those that are natural kicks and those that are not mirror match play. Salem is the best kick we have, doesn't quite have the hoof of Bernie (and we are talking a shade of difference) but there is something about Salems hands, when he receives the ball there is this micro adjustment and the ball is perfectly centred in his hands (running or still) ready for the shortest ball drop of any we saw today. Has a very nice draw to his kick as well. While I was already a wrap for Salem, if he gets a tank he could be a more industrious Yze, didn't realise how much upside he had till i saw him kicking in person (my brother and I spent the afternoon trying to mimic his ball drop ) Hunt is bigger than I thought he would be. Hogan's stutter step isn't as bad in the flesh, he moves well but he really needs to go to a lab, he is still not kicking through the ball from a set shot, as soon as he does he will get another 15-20m distance. Still jet lagged, if I remember other stuff will write it up.

Disturbing image. Do the three of you fit?

Hogan, hero: loved colleague returns to The Age

A brief look in today. Officially a closed session I think so no media around. Gawn back on the track look good. Lots of small group drills. Practising contested marking, forward line movement, tackling, ground balls, spoils, short kicks inside 50, long bombs deep inside 50. The lot. Different coaches doing different drills and getting to work. Probably the most interesting bit was the running. Bugg, Maynard, Joel Smith, McKenna all went back to AAMI. As did Tommy Mc, Melksham and JKH who were in the rehab group. A group of Gawn, Hunt, Weideman, Hulett, Kennedy, Frost were doing timed 200m runs down the Punt road wing. Gawn just keeps pounding as the got in to the repetitions. Frosty started to struggle. The others battled on well. Dean Kent and Nath Jones were doing the same on the city side wing. Kent stuck with Jones for a few. Then Jones sat out and Cross took over pacing Kenty, he was working hard. Meanwhile the midfielders who doing longer timed runs varying from half a lap to 1 lap to a few laps. ANB led out most of them with White towards the front. Brayshaw was really strong as they went longer with Jones especially encouraging him (and all the guys) to step it up. Wagner, Salem, Harmes, Stretch were all running well and not far from the front and mixing the order with the first few depending on the individual set. That's the good news. I guess the less positive news was that Oliver was dropped early in the quicker repeats and Petracca was gapped as well. I was impressed by Max Rooke who took it upon himself to run with Clarry and then Troy Chaplin joined in too for a few laps. They had a big long run to finish and Oliver tried pretty hard to stay up to the group and then Tracc was back behind him, they were probably 100m or so behind over the course of 3 or so laps. Both are just heavier in the legs than most of our players and they run like it. To take the glass half full approach it really was impressive what both boys did last year at AFL level coming off limited preseasons and fitness bases. They got plenty of encouragement from the coaches and both shared a high five when the running was done.

I think that Parish's first season in football was better than Oliver's. Like Dr Evil has said below - I also think that Oliver's ceiling is higher and I am not unhappy with selection and would absolute not change our selection. If he keeps improving and developing the inside skills and ball hunting skills he showed in season one he will be something special. But I think anyone who thinks that Parish didn't pip Oliver in output in his first year is wearing Melbourne bias blinkers.

Nobody, I don't think, is suggesting we'd rather Parish to Oliver, but to say that Oliver is ahead at the moment is rubbish. 19 votes in the rising star to 1 backs this up. We're all excited about what Oliver will become but Parish had a better and far more consistent first season.

If anyone thinks Parish is ahead of Oliver in any possible way then they do not know anything about football. He is Diesel 2.0, only taller. He is the best, in close - quick hands type player, debut season I have ever seen at Melbourne. Think about it.

Comparisons with Parish are irrelevant. We have Oliver and I hope he becomes a great player. He has loads of potential but so do many others. Fitness and attitude to preparation and training are going to be all important. The drink driving thing is a storm in the teacup, the most important thing is whether it represents a pattern of poor behaviour, and, if so, can it be turned around. Hopefully, he will have a good mentor who can be a positive influence.

ASADA's role is pretty clear, they come in whenever there is a breach, or suspected breach of the anti-doping code. What should happen, but due to the idiots running the sport doesn't, is that the AFL should simply hand over what they know to ASADA and help ASADA wherever requested. ASADA then investigate and determine if a breach has occurred and then the defined process is followed, as it was with the EFC boys. What the AFL seem to think happens is they give ASADA some of the info, then blame ASADA for delays, then ban people for things other than anti-doping in order to try and save face. In terms of the Whitfield case, yes it is a potential anti-doping violation and as such should be handled by ASADA. The last comment I saw from ASADA was a week or so back when they said they were yet to receive all the information they requested from the AFL. They stated that until they had this information and time to work through it that they would not be able to make a determination in this case (sounds fair enough). The AFL have since banned Whitfield and the others on charges that are not anti-doping related (just like punishing the dons for non anti doping things to try and get ASADA of their case). Some have reported ASADA agreed to the bans but one of them was Robbo so I give that little weight, others have been far more on the fence in terms of ASADA's involvement. It was reported that Whitfield and the others would only agree once ASADA said they wouldn't pursue it further, again who knows how true this is, and even if ASADA do agree to that there is nothing stopping WADA coming in over the top of them all at some point. I would give it until either ASADA say they have agreed to this, or we are another few months down the track before I would be confident of what ASADA have or have not done in this case.

Reckon this covers it......

no reason he can't walk and chew gum at the same time, gv obviously, it's not one of the big issues but that shouldn't be a reason to do nothing. the afl is not going to come down on him like a ton of bricks if he brings it up as an issue

As much as its distasteful to suggest, but our club is talking shlt !! All the whiles evading the question. Poor form Mfc ...poor.:(

so was HIS court action against ch9. didn't turn up to three consecutive hearings. judge dismissed case.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2016-11-08/asada-waits-on-afl-regarding-whitfield-case From within linked article. "Now, later on Tuesday, the anti-doping watchdog told AFL.com.au that it's League headquarters holding things up. "On 31 October 2016, ASADA asked the AFL for its full investigation file, which we are still awaiting," an ASADA spokesperson told AFL.com.au. "Because the potential consequences for individuals are so serious, it is important that ASADA considers all relevant material before any decision is made about whether to take forward possible anti-doping rule violations. "In this case, as the information was collected as a part of an AFL investigation, due diligence requires ASADA to assess all evidence collected in its entirety." That was written on the 8th of November. Whitfeild was banned on the 15th or so. Big call for ASADA to go from not having the info to signing off on bans in a week!

Parish wil be good but lots can do what Parish can do. Very few can do what Oliver can do.

You can't substitute height and size. Oliver is both bigger and stronger than Parish. It took Scully almost 6 years to have an impact at AFL level as he was too small to compete with the bigger mids. The Dees can't afford to wait 6 years until Parish fills out. They needed a mid that has immediate impact i.e Wines Will be interesting to see how Parish deals with the pressure of a tagger and ability to shake off and make tackles. Oliver was rag-dolling the opposition in his first season.

The old " I'm an expert on drafting s after the event and having watched the players go around for a couple of seasons so i can make an assessment now but i really didn't have a clue then" game. I disagree - it is not one of my least favourite - it is my LEAST favourite - end of story.

The old 'we could have/should have taken player x instead of player y' game is one of my least favorite. I couldn't care less now. Oliver is ours and he is really good young player who has something about him that suggests a real x factor and untapped potential. He's also got a pretty wide competitive streak (not to mention a touch of the angry pills) which is exactly what Roos and Goodwin were looking for However it was clear when drafted he was a pretty immature young bloke. As evidence of that compare the draft night interviews of the Weid and Oliver. Now that's no bad thing in of itself but there is no doubt the club would have carefully considered that aspect and were well aware of what they were getting. We made a calculated gamble. They obviously have backed themselves in to get the development and support right. Which i really like (by the by i shudder to think where he would be if he arrived at the dees 5 years ago). If we deliver our side of the bargain the rest is up to Oliver. My gut feel is that most young men he will mature and work things out. All that said it is serious crime he has committed and he deserves a good wack from the club and leadership group. I'll back the club in to get that wack right.

you might well be right Rjay, i just wonder how many would rate Parish more highly, just at this moment. 2 years time i am extremely confident Clarrie will be ahead of Parish and looking really good for the next decade.

I think they are both talented young players. In making your point on Parish though I think you pushed it a little bit over the top by insinuating not all clubs would be keen on Oliver. If he was OOC I would be more than surprised if he didn't have the same level of interest as Parish. ...by the way, I haven't contacted all clubs to confirm my thinking here.

I decided to do a quick design. It's fairly similar to one of our recent away guernsey's, except for a bigger blue 'V' and also red sleeves. Thoughts?

I watched quite a few Essendon matches throughout the year mainly because I liked watching them lose. As others have said Oliver probably has a higher ceiling than Parish but the young Bomber did show an AFL maturity that belied his age and statue. He was disappointingly good.

You dee man DeeSpencer. Mint report. Thanks.

Beveridge probably wasnt the doggies first choice either. Carlton got Malthouse as their first choice and before that they got Pagan. So you need a bit of luck in these things ...not simply access to "first choice" . Dew was obviously his prime pick but I wonder now if he isnt at home wishing he taken the position now. Imo he blew that. That ex collingwood dude was rejected by a couple of other clubs and we just fell into Mathouses egotistic desire for a legacy. Goodwin on the other hand would probably be coaching Adelaide now if we hadnt grabbed him. I agree that its hard to imagine dee success anymore.....but Im as hopeful as Ive been since 1988 coming into a season,

I see what you did there

I think that we Dees supporters think this because we have seen him all his games close up and seen the sublime stuff he is capable of. I have watched quite a few Essendon games (I have no idea why) and Parish is very good. A few of my Essendon friends ( not sure why I have them either) rave about Parish. Without any evidence if you asked the so called "experts" who they would select now, I am not sure it would so one sided based on the evidence of one season. There have rightly been very good reviews on Parish's season. For me it is a no brainer but I am obviously horrifically biased on this one.

Why are we comparing Oliver and Parish? Did Parish also blow over?

Checkmate

Some people are never Saty-sfied.

Parish is not only outside - he gets his hands dirty inside as well. I still am very happy with our choice of Oliver (indiscretion aside)

very much so....................................imo

none of those things you bring up are individual awards bestowed by the sporting competion

I remember watching replays in the 60's and 70's....I never ever had trouble dishtinquishing between teams even Melb vs Fitzroy on black and white TV on muddy quagmires. Why do the AFL think that supporters are so dumb now that we can't tell the difference between sides.....How have we become so stupid lately that we need to be led by the hand by the AFL Some times I turn on the footy and it takes a minute or two to see who the side in mainly white is. I know that it is a marketing ploy for people to buy new jumpers each year but please Port Adelaide 8 year old supporter designed their home jumper in a competion and a simple turn around of colours with white for their away jumper..... I wish she was a Melbourne supporter.....We might get a better design

I think there's truth in that. Clarrie comes as an entire package. But poor preparation leads to poor performance - hopefully Macca can get through to him.

There is also inconstancy in the logic for Whitfield's reduced ban. In quotes I've heard from Gill, he states to the effect that Whitfield is less capable, because as a young person, he was lead by senior figures at the club - this defence did nothing for the Essendon players, even though as I understand it some challenged the club and sought assurances that they were not contravening the banned substances. Whitefield must have known what he was doing was clearly wrong, he is an adult, not a child and should not be given the soft touch he was. Saad is the one I feel most sorry out of all this. The AFL effectively ended his career over what I think was most likely to be an honest mistake. Even if Whitfield was suspended for the 18momths Saad was it is actually unlikely it would be as career ending.

Again I cannot post images, but check out the below for the case in point: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=melbourne+vs+st+kilda+2016&client=ms-android-alcatel&site=webhp&prmd=vni&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjs5f__l67QAhVBl5QKHcyOBhwQ_AUICSgD&biw=360&bih=515#imgrc=Sk6dWCC18roEGM%3A What irritates me is that in their email responses the MFC actually pretty much defend the AFL's policy, including defending Collingwoods token effort.

Again we can agree to disagree but being an AFL footballer is much more than just turning up and playing on game day or in season training. Every move is scrutinized by the press 24/7, 365 days a year. There is an expectation that due to this intense scrutiny and the fragility of every clubs brand that players must meet a certain standard of behaviour both on and off the field - 7 days a week , 52 weeks a year - Richmond's couple of alcohol incidents lost them the TAC as a sponsor, Essendon's drug problems lost them sponsors on mass ( albeit, their problems were "self inflicted club sponsored") Eddies rants have lost Collingwood sponsors over the journey. If players don't want this scrutiny and behavioral restrictions then they should go and play suburban footy. The argument that if you get arrested what business is it of my employers completely misses the most important point that different professions in different industries have completely differing expectations on an employee. ( this is not directed specifically at Oliver but footballers in general and addressing the flawed argument - "they are on their own time, they are on vacation" )

Sorry mate, i didn't know that i had to contact all other clubs before i could post a comment on here, Parish is a quality young mid and in my opinion every single club in the comp would be interested, i am not sure Oliver is quite there yet, but as i said in an earlier post i think his ceiling is much higher than Parish. so right now Parish is a good young player who may be slightly ahead and would attract a lot of interest on the open market Oliver is a talented young player who has the potential to be even better and i look forward to seeing how he responds to the drink driving thing and how well he goes this year.

Even though it clashes with St Kilda's jumper more than our traditional jumper. TheAFL's crude white for all policy is garbage.

I think we need The Ox to jump on the bandwagon re this jumper Emailing the club and the AFL is one thing but we need a constant media voice to get the AFL to listen. Remember the uproar before the 2014 Elimination Final which caused the AFL to back flip and allow Port (the home side) to wear their dark jumper even though it clashed with the Tigers clash jumper more than Ports white clash jumper which the AFL had originally told Port they had to wear

they would sue themselves? priceless

If it's not technically football season then I guess he doesn't need to show up to the club until 4PM on March 25. Or does he have obligations to the club in the weeks and months before then? I imagine your employment is not of the kind where you operate in front of 25,000 - 30,000 people each week, some of whom have your picture on their bedroom wall (god help them). He is known as Clayton Oliver, Melbourne Footballer, even when there are no games of football on. As such he is required to do things that we plebs in "normal" occupations don't have to do. If he doesn't like that, he can always drop back to the DVFL or the VAFA or some other league where he doesn't have these onerous responsibilities (and big pay packet).

I try standing up, but at my age, it is an effort

Love it - can't comprehend how club finds it so hard

Bang! And that's it in a nutshell. In the cosy brotherhood of the AFL, the real crime of the EFC is to embarrass the league. But like a bunch of blokes on a buck's night out, or at the cricket club on pie night, nah, we're all mates here, no harm done eh! We'll look after you because we're all in it together and we look after each other. No hard feelings. But mate, for gawd's sake, don't do it again. ASADA has forced their way into the clubrooms ... the bloody wowsers ... and tried to shatter the protective shield around the sacred brotherhood. They are not cool. They are outsiders. They tried to send the strippers home. They told Dabba's missus what happened on the golf weekend! They're a bunch of dobbers. They are not one of Us. For that they cannot be forgiven.

You choose money over supplying us with training reports?! Filthy capitalist! Shame on you, Saty!

I sent them the following: Good Afternoon, While I am sure you have received a number of emails relating to the 2017 clash Guernsey, I felt it necessary to also provide some feedback. I do not expect an email back, however as a paying member of the Melbourne Football Club I felt it necessary to voice my opinion on what I think is a really poor effort in the production of the 2017 clash Guernsey. I understand that the AFL sets certain guidelines for the types of clash Guernsey’s required, but I feel that this years’ is an extremely lazy effort at constructing a clash strip. I actually don’t mind the idea of having different strips as it presents a great commercial opportunity to sell more merchandise to fans. However, I can honestly say this is one of the worst attempts I have seen from any club in the AFL (including the Hawks Power Rangers effort!). It seems as though someone has just taken a white Guernsey (because we have to) and just decided to slap the emblem on there as they couldn’t be bothered thinking of anything better to do. The only thing I can think of that resembles this would be a cheap knock off singlet you would buy on the streets of Bali! While I understand that you will be unable to change the strip for the 2017 season, I do have some recommendations for future seasons. 1. We should look at involving the members in decisions on the alternate strip (as we are the ones who will be buying them). This could be done with a ‘create the guernsey’ competition or you could provide 3 options and let people vote. 2. We should look at only have a red clash strip. The Bomber’s colours are not too dissimilar to ours and they are able to have a red clash strip so why not us? 3. I have attached a concept for clash strips produced by another MFC member that I think would be much better options. The main reason is that they would both contain the red ‘V’ which I feel is synonymous with the Melbourne Football Club brand. I appreciate you taking the time to read this email and I hope that it does not fall on deaf ears. As mentioned I do not expect an email back but I just hope that the club will accept the feedback from the people who pay money to this club and who purchase your merchandise.

It's amazing how many supporters still believe Jobe has done a brave and noble thing by handing the brownlow back, and those supporters are saying Jobe has more integrity than Cotchin or Mitchell. I still feel strongly if he was doing this by choice and looking to honor what the award stands for and all that he claimed he would have done this the day the appeal failed, not months later when talk is getting around that he's going to lose it anyway, it's pretty obvious in my opinion that the AFL have tipped him off and given him the opportunity to look good.

This news is just so exciting I will have difficulty sleeping tonight. Yawn.

I'm glad Goodwin has made his gambling issues public. Like Schwartz, it does not make you a weaker person.Quite the opposite. I am trying to control my own gambling currently and am going ok so far.The main driver also being that compulsive punting takes up so much of life's most precious commodity- TIME. When I played cricket it was never an issue but my Saturdays soon became wasted on the punt. Former sport players are probably the most vulnerable as they look to "win" in something at which they no longer can influence. I urge any others out there to cap their punt in time and a fixed amount they can afford. "treat the markets like a cold shower- get in and out quickly." Or don't get into it at all. Thanks for sharing Goody!!