Gator

What's your metric ? What's the league ''average'' ?

What are you insinuating ? Is it with regards to the information that was rightly corrected ?

What an asinine comment.

The positional changes are really nothing more than starting points. In the match simulations I've seen Langdon has been everywhere, i.e. centre, back pocket, wing, forward pocket. He's been relishing the freedom to link up all over the ground. And he's been a revelation in this role. He and Pickett are providing some welcome fast feet around the ball. It's similar with Windsor. Plenty of attacking thrusts start across half-back and having Windsor in the thick of it and breaking lines is worth a try. He'll still be running through the wings and centre.

Jon Ralph has a training report online which I've read. From supposed reports from ''track watchers'' he lauds Aidan Johnson's performance and says he's pushing for round one. Johnson was very quiet. He also states that Mentha kicked 3 goals. He kicked one, but he did some nice things. The White team only kicked 5 goals. George kicked 2, Mentha 1, Yze 1 and Culley 1.

Langdon was terrific in an all purpose midfield role (mid/wing/half-forward). I can't remember more than one CBA clearance, but he may have had more and attended quite a few. He, Billings, Rivers, Salem, Bowey, and Oliver (after a slow start), got a heap of it. But so did Viney, McVee, Sharp and Howes. They spread it around and most of team Blue got plenty of touches. Sparrow played mainly forward. I did see him attend a CBA, but he wouldn't have had many. He kicked a nice long distance goal much to the delight of his Blue teammates. I didn't think he did a lot, but he did some typical Sparrow things without getting a heap of it. But you do miss stuff watching at Casey. Howes played as the third tall on Yze. Yze kicked a nice goal from just outside 50 after a Howes infringement. But Howes was good, especially early on.

He played off a wing and used it well. He's got quite a lot of competition for his outside mid role, but I think he'll be a player. Just has to do his apprenticeship.

1:32 is your clue.

Today’s MFC main session: Rehab: Lever and Spargo running laps. Lever was running short distances at a fast click as well as having kick to kick with a trainer. He seems unimpeded. Petracca, Chandler, McAdam and Fullarton doing non-contact kicking and handball drills on the adjacent oval. All moving freely at pace. I didn’t notice Windsor, Melksham, Verrall, Tholstrup or Kentfield, but it could have just been an oversight by me. Today’s main session comprised of 3 x 20 minute quarters of contested match simulation under the guidance of two AFL umpires (no boundary umpires). And it was very much a probables vs possibles for round one, which is why Pickett was with the possibles. So when you’re trying to drift off to sleep at night while picking your best team from the backline to the forwards keep the following in mind. Probables – Blue: May, Petty, Howes, Salem, Bowey, and McVee in defence; Gawn, Oliver, Rivers, Viney, Langford, Ed Langdon, Sharp, Billings, Sparrow, and Lindsay rotating in the mids, and van Rooyen, Turner, Jefferson, Fritsch as the main forwards. Ed Langdon, Lindsay and Billings all spent time on the wing. Langdon and Billings also occasionally rotated through a half-forward flank, while I noted Langdon attended a lot of CBAs. Lindsay was predominantly just wing. Along with Ed Langdon, Oliver, Viney, Rivers and Langford had the bulk of the CBAs. It was quite noticeable that Blue had a heap of left footers: Viney, Langford, Lindsay, Billings, Salem, May, Fritsch. Just need to get Chandler and Brown into the team. • I’m saying Ed Langdon, because a lot of posters are saying Langdon when they mean Langford Possibles – White: McDonald, Pickett, Brown, Adams, Laurie, Woewodin, Mentha, Campbell, Hore, Moniz-Wakefield, Johnson, Sestan, George, Yze, Culley, plus a few other Casey players White got off to a flyer with the first 3 goals. George kicked 2 (one lead and mark and the other a good crumbing goal) and Mentha one on the run from about 40 metres. Gradually Blue wrestled control and ran out 38 point winners (10 11 71 to 5 3 33). I don’t believe there were any injuries, although Viney copped a high one, which set him back in his tracks. I think he was fine. Lots of switching with short and long kicks before trying to spot up forward leads if possible, or long kicks when necessary. The game was a bit scrappy with some skill errors, including dropped chest marks (my pet hate), intermingled with some quality ball movement. Gawn and Campbell nullified each other. Gawn wasn’t able to take his trademark contested marks, but I never expect ruckmen to be marking at their best in early February. Ed Langdon was prolific. He was constantly an option and seemed to be relishing a bit more freedom through the midfield. I was surprised by how many centre bounces he attended. Lindsay didn’t get a lot of it and made a couple of errors but generally used it well. Langford was busy and contested as you’d expect. Took a nice mark and kicked a goal from a left foot snap 35 metres out. Billings was one of the busiest. He’s finding the footy with ease and was used a lot. Salem is also finding plenty of it. Bowey also got a heap of it. May was his intercepting self and uses Salem and Bowey as the outlet kick. McVee was also busy. Howes was good. He links up well with his fellow defenders. He seems to be having a very good preseason. Petty did what he had to do, which wasn’t much. Rivers and Oliver were the best mids for Blue. It’s great to see Oliver looking like he’s back to his best and Rivers looks a natural mid to me. Sharp was neat. Did a great spoli which became a mark deep in defence and 30 seconds later was hitting van Rooyen lace out in the forward pocket. The tall forwards were pretty quiet. Jefferson took a double grabber 35 metres out and converted. He also kicked one off the ground in the last. I thought he competed well. Van Rooyen kicked a nice goal from a difficult angle, and he also went up against Johnson in the ruck for a while. Turner was quiet. Fritsch was the most lively of Blue’s forwards. He also got on the scoreboard. I liked the look of Culley. A very tall mid, but looked good. Kicked a goal for White. Lastly, a special mention to the brothers. Pickett was fantastic despite getting caught by Langford. He played 90% in the midfield and was just so clean, quick and creative. His delivery was very good. He teamed up well with Mentha and George, who both looked likely. He’s got a touch of class Mentha and the more nuggety George also looks like he could belong at AFL level. They were up against it with a strong Blue backline and White had no key talls to crumb off, but both looked dangerous and had multiple shots at goal.

Why would you think I'm referring to Nick Riewoldt when I specifically referenced Jack Riewoldt (pick 13) ? The skinny King twins haven't lived up to their reputations due to their lack of physicality and contested ability. You do realise that's exactly the point I'm making ? Even then Ben played games in his first year and Max would have except for an ACL. If 2025 isn't important to you for Jefferson what year is ? There are mature aged key forwards who entered the system and succeeded, i.e. Podsiadly, Mihocek, Ben Brown, but how many were drafted at 18 and didn't play a game in their first two years and went on to be successful ?

May wasn't the same after two of his ribs were fractured early in the season. It's been reported he's in better shape this preseason than he has been for some time. I'm expecting a good year from May.

If he was good enough he could have played year one. Like a skinny Riewoldt did and like a skinny Amiss did. Jefferson is 21 before the start of the season. Jack Riewoldt kicked 78 goals as a 21 year old and Franklin kicked 108. Now I'm obviously not comparing him to those two players. My point is that some supporters spend their lives making excuses for players. Jefferson has no more excuses and he never really has. The skinny kid argument has always been BS.

This has been an excuse for this bloke for years, but in my opinion it's completely overblown. He's been physically capable of competing for most of his time at Melbourne. I don't buy into the ''skinny kid'' stuff. Jye Amiss was just as ''skinny'', if not more so, but was able to perform well as a teenager on his way to 41 goals in a season. What he does need is a mindset of yearning for the contest. You'll never make it as a key forward in the AFL unless you embrace the physicality of the contest. Caddy does and so does van Rooyen. Neither have more talent than Jefferson, especially Caddy, but they have the requisite desire to compete, to hurt, and to commit. Jefferson has the talent to make it and I'm sure we all hope he does. It's a big year for him to show that he's made inroads. Needless to say, I'm dubious.

You're off the mark here. Robertson kicked over 40 goals in a season six times. He also kicked 73 goals in a season. He won a best & fairest. He kicked 7 goals in a Queen's Birthday match and 7 goals on Matthew Scarlett in a stunning win at Kardinia Park.

Schwarz shouldn't be in the side. 59 games and 61 goals in the 2000s doesn't cut it. Rivers hasn't done enough. Howe ? Defintely no. He failed as a forward and was OK down back, but not enough to be in the best defence in the last 25 years. It's harder to say who should replace them, but unquestionably James McDonald makes the team.

I take a more hardline approach. He's going nowhere at the end of 2025 unless the club is satisfied in a trade, which is highly unlikely. It could well be different at the end of 2026 with only 12 months to go on his contract. The club may be more pragmatic then, but not at the end of this year.

That's all well and good, but when you sign a contract extension 21 months ago until the end of 2027 the decision where you play is really out of your hands. And he can't have been thinking about a move for very long considering he extended not all that long ago.

Supporters seem to expect that match simulation will be the same quality as two AFL best 22 teams going head to head when in fact it's between some AFL calibre players and at least half the list who are depth, not quite good enough, or junior players learning what AFL footy is all about. They're also judging 30 minutes to an hour, or so, of match sim condensed into 6 minutes of video. It beggars belief the conclusions they're capable of drawing. Btw, what teams aren't making mistakes at this time of year ?

I wouldn't take any notice of the above report. Firstly, we don't get to see other clubs train and secondly, it's all completely subjective. Btw, the person signs off mentioning the ''Melbourne Demons''. I've never heard a supporter refer to the club as the ''Melbourne Demons''. It's a very odd thing to say about the club you follow.

When it comes to speculating on ''mental health'', which was the post Pickett was responding to, I agree with him. No need.

It might be how you rate them, but you're clearly wrong. With regards to Hill, Pickett has him covered for disposals, goals, clearances, inside 50s, tackles, tackles inside 50, metres gained, score involvements and just about every other relevant statistic.

You're usually pretty circumspect when it comes to the Dees, Tony. This prediction surprises me.

When have I questioned our last 8 years ?

Choosing the beginning of the AFL era is about as nonanomalous as it gets.

Which year suits you best ?