classy dees

Great post. It is really hard being so far away from all of this, but knowing we are all in it together does make it marginally easier. I hope you find someone in your neck of the woods!

Am based in seattle, so if any seattle based dees pleas reach out...Would love to find someone to share in all of this with!

Had a random wednesday off from work so popped down for a bit as well. Couple of other observations

- very big technique focus, across the board.

- Salem did everything. He seems good to go

- agree again re newton - he must be very close. so too ANB. he seemed to be doing a fitness test (he had a glove on, dont know if that is stylistic thing or an injury related thing) style drill along with Brayshaw, but he seemed to be out there longer. ANB looked fine and I would be staggered if he and Newton weren't in the 25 named on thursday and given we are travelling back from interstate, if we make changes for people to be rested i think those two might come in given the way they were training. They both also did did the run through's with a group of players who all played in the seniors last week (incl Viney, Jones, Tyson, Petracca, Garland, Jetta, Pedo). Salem did those too.

- Gawn just dominates at training. at any stoppage where two teams were practicing, whichever team had Gawn would win the stoppage. Every time

- Hullett is massive. Rawlings was really pushing him and Weed. Good to see

- Tommy Mac doing some really good work along with Jetta on coming across as the third man. Oscar Mac did an agility test at the end of the session and seemed to come out of it well.

- Watts actually has presence at training now. its amazing the difference from a couple of years ago. 

- Highlight was petracca being pulled back onto the track by Viney at the end of the session to do some one on one contested ball work. it was amazing to see, and would make any dees supporter as happy as a pig in mud. petracca held his own, but geez viney goes hard and doesn't care about size of his opponent.

Just watched the last 45 mins of training. Lumumba didn't train. He won't play. Salem was taking part in all drills and stuck around at the end of the session and did a bit of one on one kicking with Rawlings  

newton and ANB were in everything and did a lot of one on one drills

fairly sure those three will be the Ins on Thursday night. 

Brayshaw and trengove did not train as if they were going to play in the senior side  on Sunday. Both were involved in all the drills but finished up when the majority of the group did and didn't stick around for extra stuff after. Couple more weeks for those two I'd think. 

I've backed the players for far too long, only to see them throw up chicken hearted efforts time and again. No more. There is something seriously wrong at our club and has been for a long time. Neeld has my full support to do whatever he thinks needs doing to fix it.

I'll back him and give him his deserved shot but gee does he have a basket case to deal with. The on field performances have been atrocious. And I'm yet to see anything to remotely enthuse me about our future.

Eh... *shrugs*

0-7, playing considerably worser footy than GWS, GC, quite far removed off the pace.

I'm not in this anymore to have faith and just to stick by someome because they've got it tough. You can only have it tough for so long. Get the job done.

Melbourne is last on the ladder after 7 rounds. Accountability.

It's hard to get away from this. The proof is in the pudding and thus far we are by far the worst in the league, not one player on our list has improved, and we have half a dozen first round draft picks playing in the vfl because they haven't showed the necessary appetite for the contest or application. We are a rabble.

The club is on it's knees and I'm yet to see anything on the field that suggests the players want to survive. Neeld has his work cut out if he wants the club to survive and for supporters to retain hope.

RIP Jimmy. We will miss you. Your legacy will last forever

Our thoughts and prayers are with your family.

I liked how Bailey left Morton on him all day. Good learning opportunity. Didn't really disgrace himself either.

completely agree.

similar number of touches. beat him on occasion in one on one situations. also kicked one, and set up a couple as well (direct assists). definitely did not disgrace himself. would have gained a lot from playing on him. seeing jimmy talk to him after the game was poignant moment.

to fit grimes, JT, j-mac and moloney will be difficult

pj had a patch in about the second quarter where it was the best 5 mins of his mfc career.

simply brilliant performance. so fast, so aggressive, so attacking, and so good one on one. amazing. bailey's best win easily

6 - sylvia - in everything

5 - bartram - did not get beaten once all day. brilliant

4 - Frawley - superstar

3 - jamar - smashed them

2 - green - great up forward

1 - bruce - killed o'keefe

apologies to everyone else. everyone was brilliant

Bennell dropped?? You are kidding.

No injuries then no changes.

agree on both points

would love to squeeze bail and perhaps watts in, but going to be tough to drop players from yesterday's 22-man performance

martin was extremely important last night. he gave us flexibility, he gave us a contest, he gave us a different route to our forward line i.e. a longer ball to one on one contest in the 50 rather than the continued hit up of smaller targets and most importantly he allowed jamar to rest and ensured that we weren't blized out of the ruck when he was doing so. playing dunn against clark etc would have been murderous.

dunn's game tagging brennan was pretty good too.

too many supporters want 22 rock star footballers in the team. it doesnt work like that.

no offence to the OP, but i hate these threads of best 22 in 3 years time business.

im pretty sure if you went through the demonland archives you'd find one saying that we'd have a ridiculously good team in 2009 with guys like lynden dunn and daniel bell dominating whilst clint bartram was the best tagger in the league and michael newton was kicking 80 goals in a season.

the future is very very exciting, and we have soem incredibly good prospects on our hand. but we've won 1 games out of hte last 66. nothing to be wetting ourselves with...just yet.

we have 6 midfielders to debut next year all of whom we picked in the top 20 (blease, strauss and this years crop)

give it a few years and some good coaching and i done think our midfield will need any help...

exciting times!

Those close to Ball have caused him enough trouble and grief. If they want to help him, they should butt out and let him run his own life.

i agree. who are these idiots.

they have hardly assisted his position. and publically suggesting for a player in what should be the prime years of his career to sit out for a year is sheer stupidity. and how do they think that he will get to collingwood then? they aren't going to finish on the bottom of the ladder...

at 25 you should be able to make your own decisions and not rely on your dad.

I am not sure Hawthron did know the full story of Thompson at the time.

And if they did, there would be a legal storm over privacy issues of release of an individual's medical information. Not to mention discrimination in employment.

So why didn't North do their due diligence properly? The AFL is a small community and if North had done their research, the issue should have emerged.

so which is it Rhino??? if the football community is so small hawthorn would have known about it using that logic.

congrats jaded, just saw this and it is fantastic!

good luck for it. it is a great idea and there are some awesome designs there.

In my mind in a good side, he could be the best tagger in the league. Has the one on one strength, endurance, and ability to hurt the other way to quell the effectiveness of almost anyone. He'll continue to fill his role on the HBF, but as he starts to be surpassed by better players (Strauss et al), that's the role I'd like to see him move in to if he's still around.

he is our best gut runner. you watch bruce and he butchers his fair share of kicks but he runs harder than other bloke in our team. up and down the park, with his man, and one one one is rarely beaten. you dont get a reputation as one of hte toughest opponents from a champion of the game (brad johnson) for nothing.

probably our smartest player in terms of nous as well

just has a lot of his good work undone by virtue of his shanked kicks, which is a shame for him and the MFC

We've had the worst midfield in the competition, so why would you even think about a HBF over a proven mid ? Someone like Ball would be the perfect foil for Scully while he finds his feet.

agree on every point you make, but especially this one. this for me is the key.

What's going on here: http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/rfnews/de...5195743356.html

This article flies in the face of everything that has come out of the club in regards to Ball so far, and I cannot see us using one of the first four picks in the National draft to get him.

i dunno where the journo's got that from, but i am impressed by how hard we are going about this. sounds like they are going to leave no stone unturned in their pursuit with the proviso that it is on our terms (which are probably his best terms too, from a gametime and financial point of view). this approach should be commended

i was very young but that sickening feeling of seeing schwarta go down with his knee against sydney and then come back and walk along the mcc members on the boundary line in crutches will stay with me for a long long time.

They ca, and they should. And they WILL.

One big issue is age. Even in Ball comes in and plays 3 sensational years, and gets a couple of Blueys, by the time we look like threatening again his body could REALLY have let him down. In other words, he could get us there (to finals) but may not be able to make a difference on the day, should it be 4-6 years away as some have suggested.

That'll be a big factor I reckon.

true, but he could play a critical role in the journey. teaching and helping scully and trengove so that when we are ready they will be key factors.

yes we are rebuilding but you cant have everyone the same age. that is pointless. you only need to look at an ageing shane crawford to see that a 30+ has a role on GF day as long as they are in the right team.

if ball comes in and has 3 fantastic years, this footy club will improve significantly.

PSD is on the 15th Dec this year...that's a long time to wait!

in the event that both parties commit to each other, is he allowed to train with us before this date?

that is a great video. simply awesome

on the topic of youtube vids, has anyone ever seen the clip of bailey's speech before the west coast game that was shown at one of the big club functions (debt demolition perhaps)...

would love to see that.

but this video will be hard to top.

My mail is that Ball/Connors are absolutely furious with St. Kilda/Lyon. No chance to be at St. Kilda in 2010 given he was promised that at worst case, he would be organized in a trade.

lyon hardly sounded excited to still have him when interviewed straight after

A St Kilda supporting mate reckons he's contracted at the moment. But he couldn't be as there is no wayt that we could get him in the PSD if he was.

Can anyone confirm. Is he contracted?

that is crap. not contracted. your mate is either a dummy or delusional

We werent a crap club in 1998 because in addition to White and Shanahan we got Ox, Tingay, Lyon and G. Lovett back from long term injury. Pretty big gets.

Our list at the end of 2007 was far worse than 1997 and we are now 2 years into a complete overhaul of personnel.

I agree we should chase Ball but lets skip the hyperbole of heads rolling. Such grandstanding is usually accompanied by a lack of facts.

good post rhino. spot on

i'd love ball. he may not be in our next premiership side but he would help to speed up our improvement and take some heat off some of the younger guys. given we haven't sacrificed picks it is all positives.

still plenty to do though. but we have a strong position.

Always waiting for you to actually contribute something rather than sniping (or is it bitching).

no offence rhino, but you are hardly one to be able to have a crack at others for sniping.

He hasn't said that he won't, but he hasn't said that he will either......

....

If he chooses to play for us and nominate for the PSD, excellent, but we aren't there yet !!!

up until now he has wanted to play for collingwood. now that that is not a likely scenario things change ... it is a completely different trade-off.

your last statement sums it up nicely.

We shouldn't have to grovel.

If he wants to come to Melbourne, be a leader, get plenty of game time and get well paid, then he's welcomed to.

that is all we need to convince him of. no need to grovel

need to show him we are going in the right direction

EDIT: just listening to ross lyon. 3yr offer no longer on the table from them. he doesn't exactly sound enthused about trying to keep him. hard to see him staying