Tough Kent

Olympic Park at 10.30am.

By accident I ended up watching a very light session the boys had this morning. The senior 22, Dawes and the emergencies trained separate to the Casey lads. Ben Matthews walked them through some stoppage work which required all players to set up in their positions. vanders started foward, which tells me he won't be the sub tomorrow, and he was part of a 4 man forward line consisting of Hogan deep, Frost and Kent. All other forwards were up around a congested stoppage area. Howie was set up in defence. We'll just have to wait and see but I'd be pretty confident this will be how we'll start tomorrow.

Player initials???

Assessing players' games is subjective. Viv was good but easy to miss and little hurt factor. Viv spent the majority of his ground time on the ball and at stoppages.

My thoughts: Bernie had a great first half and did what he wanted but he ran out of legs. Also had a hard tag in the 2nd half. Short of a gallop and I'd be surprised if he played round 1. Kent did enough. Didn't have a lot of the footy but looked dangerous when he did and had 4-5 shots on goal. JKH had a better second half but would be behind Kent in my eyes. vandenBerg did some nice things but came in and out of the play. Looks underdone and would be surprised to see him line up next week. Michie was solid if not spectacular. Good at the contest but needs to find more easier ball. Riley impacts the play when involved through physicality and ferocious tackling. He just doesn't find enough. Fitzy was solid down back but his overhead marking continues to let him down, Several times he contested balls in the air and let it get over the back for Williamstown crumbers. Angus had 26 possessions and 2 goals. Class. His ability to spread from a contest at speed surprised me. He used it well apart from a few errant handballs. Gus was fairly vocal at the breaks too, a real leader in the making. Max King good below his knees for a big guy but a million miles off.

As things stand, if you looked at all our games now and determined a favourite in each one we would go in favourites in two of those games. Yet people say that 8/9 wins would be a par??? I don't understand that thinking.

Kudos to the club. They responded to my email and have arranged for me to have 300 scarves to distribute to students at my school. Thanks to Georgina for making this happen. Time to start converting the kids of East Bentleigh to the MFC.

Fair enough, but I know that the club are aware of 'Bin-Gate'. I don't want to cause any further embarrassment.

Say what? I'm lost.

I just spoke with Georgina at the club and fired off the below email to her. Here's hoping for a positive response. Hi Georgina, My name is........ I'm a long time member and player sponsor of the MFC. I'm also a teacher at .......... Primary School in East Bentleigh, a school of over 600 students. I was wondering whether you had any merchandise (E.g. old scarves) that you could donate to our school so that I could use them as gifts for students in order to convert them into MFC supporters? A lot of the students come into prep and have no particular allegiance to any AFL side. What an opportunity to hand them a red and blue scarf and get them following the Dees! Let me know what you think. Kind regards,

I can guarantee you this. I am a teacher at an East Bentleigh school of 600 kids. A lot of kids come into prep having no allegiance to any AFL team. If the grade 6 teacher could flick a heap of them free MFC scarves then I reckon we'd pick up a few supporters out of it. It's a bloody waste!

It was an enjoyable night. Keep an eye out for a new video to be released by the club about our link to the city of Melbourne. Goosebumps stuff. The highlight of the night for me was breaking bread with Chunk. I can now say I've had dinner with a 3 time Bluey winner!

You would not meet a bloke more passionate about the club than Col Garland. He has an intimate knowledge of our club's history and puts a lot of time into programs such as Read like a Demon. Col bleeds red and blue.

I think the reason he was let go from MFC in the first place was that he never made the effort in his preparation or in his re-hab to get himself into that sort of nick. Stef has to take some of the blame. Credit to Brisbane for getting him into that sort of condition. No use looking back but why couldn't we at the time motivate him to get serious about his footy? If he was with us now it would be a different story.

Well they'll be paying out of their eyeballs for him considering he's contracted until the end of 2016. http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2014-01-09/jones-kent-sign-new-deals Dean is very happy in Melbourne.

We have had one in different guises the last few years. They are genuinely a good night. Not happy about it being on a Monday night though.

I just saw a photo of young Josh from a recent wedding and he is a man mountain. He has a lot of slimming down to do before he could play the modern game. A lot!

No doubt. Just pointing out that 12 months is a long time in footy. Blokes we're pasting today may be offered 3 year deals by season end.

Wow, a lot can change in a season of footy. This time last year Col Garland was coming off a year where injury cost him a Bluey. Now people are suggesting he is on notice. Competition for spots really does create pressure to perform.

I know for a fact that the club's multi-media people peruse this site.

Whingers? Or just supporters who love to watch their team at every opportunity and give the club every opportunity to grow?

You want to talk abut the club missing the boat by having the intraclub at 4pm on a Thursday. How about them having the Season Launch on a Monday night???? It was such a fabulous night last year on the Friday night, where you could let your hair down and enjoy your $250 worth of food and drink. I know availabilty of the MCG and perhaps cost must have been a factor here but Monday night for a formal funtion? Lost income to the club, no doubt.

He has done some sessions down at MFC this preseason. He has a man's body already. Will spend the year the majority of the year at Dandy Stingrays rather than at his his school Peninsula Grammar. His sister is a highly rated rugby player. (Useless random fact.)

Does anyone know if there's an element of truth to the rumour that Frawley was ready to recommit to MFC but it was suggested by the club that Hawthorn might be a better fit for him??? (Read that as we'd prefer pick 3 at this stage, Chip!)

Thanks GRRM. A most insightful post on where are draftees are at.