deespicable me

It's easy to see who are the weak squibs of the media world are when they pick on the smaller clubs for news items. They only ever have good news stories about Collingwood and Hawthorn. If a bloke hasn't signed at Melbourne he's "far from certain" to do so. If a bloke hasn't signed at Collingwood then "he really wants to stay" and "it's just a matter of dotting a few i's and crossing a few t;s". Weak and pathetic dogs. It makes our marketing peoples job so much harder to do. Especially leading into the season when you are trying to sign members. Jackson or Barrett should be calling out and confronting the weak ***ick.

I was there for about an hour and a half from 10.30ish and the match sim was under way. Just some observations and a spoiler alert, I can get pretty excited at this time of year, so maybe the hard-boiled cynics should look away. For me, lifes too short to be pessimistic. The coaches seem to want the players to take it on and use the corridor more, I think we may see the team play some really exciting footy at times. There were some ugly turn-overs at times but there didn't seem to be any chastising for mistakes and we were much more effective near goal. Max Gawn was clearly B.O.G for mine. He completely dominated Spencer and before anyone says "so what" Spenser is a big, competitive unit but Max was just too strong and his use of the ball at tap-outs was superb. Just to emphasise the point, last year Max wasn't quite as fit and was not our first choice ruckman, definitely behind Jamar and probably equal with Spense. This year he is the man, he knows he's the man and he looks like he's capable of delivering. His taps and the way he combines with Viney especially will give us first use of the ball in over half our games, a big advantage. We can't help but have a better midfield as a result. I think he's potentially our most important player and if he stays on the park I predict All Australian. Viney was great. He looks super fit, is totally committed and should definitely improve on last year. He can still butcher it by foot and is much better by hand, I would prefer he handballs as much as he kicks, maybe even more. Frost looked good down forward. Kent took a mark on the 50 near the boundary and spotted Frost way over the far side and nailed the pass to Frost who took the ball very high. Later he roved a ball in the pocket and kicked it to a player which ended in a goal. At one stage he cordoned off Jones (chunk) who was trying to get it down the line but rather than just keep Jones honest Frost hunted in on him, caught him and won the free. He looks hard to match up on, he ran and ran and although raw and a bit dodgy by foot he is probably the second tall in the forward line, with Watts third. Our forward line looks O.k. with Hoges, Garlett, Kent, Frost, Watts probably first five in and big Max coming down at times as well. Lastly I was impressed by Wagner. He is tall and a natural defender, he got a bit of it and tackled and punched well at times. He is someone to watch at Casey for the first half of the year and will probably be a chance of a game in the back half of the season.

I would like to have a go. Haven't played for a long while so my team name can be "Olivers Twist"

I'm of the belief the Essendon players won't sue because the AFL will pay them full salaries for the year. The AFL seem so keen to protect and nurture Essendon through this whole episode, and the sycophantic press and that idjit Paul Marsh continue to cast doubt on WADA and say how unfair it is on the poor players. The "poor" players will be kicking it up on fully expenses paid year long trips overseas "ala" James Hird. It stinks.

I like this idea, rather than having two byes in a year , (they are really boring weeks when there's only 5 games on) make bigger lists and make players have rostered days off.

what happens when the player on loan does his knee in round 21? I'm looking forward to some monumental losses by Essendon, hopefully starting in round 2. I'm hoping for a non-competitive team of mercenaries jumping sideways to avoid contact and giving us all great comic relief after the crap they've dealt the comp over the last three years, led by that great clown prince Goddard. Watching Goddard walk off dejected after each loss will be great viewing for the more sadistic amongst us, of which I'm one. So no, Terlich is too good for them I say.

I think this article will give you an insight on how close you'll get to the facts. http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/?u=89086118d3095e23cee1952db&id=dd478cc745&e=f15bb52e39 Tracy should ask Sir James what he's going to do now they've put up all those protective barriers on the West Gate Bridge.

I'm not sure but White might be in the same mix as well.

The beauty of the decision is I actually believe it is a win for the little guys. How often when there is a whiff of wrong-doing do the people paid to derail these things, to sweep it under the carpet and keep it away from public consumption win the day and "bad" people get away with their acts of low moral, disgusting practices. Even now Hird is suggesting it was a miscarriage of justice, and journo's that were / are compromised by their false and slanted reporting are wringing their hands and bemoaning how this could have played out the way it did. And you're right, dieter the stink over the game is worse than a hot day down at Altona when the seaweed goes off. But me I'm happy. One of my pet "hates" is people in high positions of responsibility shi##ing all over the people they are meant to be taking care of. Thinking they are beyond reproach. I reckon it's a win for the people, even Essendon supporters, who at least now can be rid of that disgusting human being and understand what he did to the club.

I know Wattsy said we want to concentrate on the positives of 2015 and as a team and players, confidence is a wonderful thing, so I am happy for them to do that, but as a downtrodden MFC supporter I am one who often sees the glass as half empty (not alone there). Last year Cloke of Collingwood had his best game of the year against us, Daniher of Essendon had his best game of the year against us and Carlton had their best win of the year against us. We have to beat the teams near us on the ladder. It could be argued we caught a couple of sides well below their best last year and had good wins but we need to beat teams when they are bringing their best. We failed badly at that in 2015.

If Essendon are just starting on a similar re-build that we did when Roos first arrived, then they should hopefully be 2 to 3 years behind us in developing a successful team. This draft has tied us to them a bit in terms of how their two early picks go versus ours. Oliver will get compared to Parish and Francis as we had a choice of three and Weiderman will get compared to Harry McKay and Curnow as they were the three tall forwards in the mix for our pick 7 and again we had the choice. Because we are probably (hopefully) ahead of both Carlton and Essendon in developing a successful team our picks should be given every chance to flourish. I especially like how Weidermann can be introduced to the team slowly and he doesn't have to be the main man at all with Hoges commanding the entire defence of all opposition teams. So if they are a bust and some of those other guys are clearly better in a couple of years then I'd say Taylor and co. will be viewed poorly by many on here. Lets hope our recruits go well. I like the Bullies recruiting in the last few years, I think they might be viewed as the top team in the recruiting wars at the moment. It can change quickly though.

Maybe their CEO put in an injection of funds.

I went down for a short time. It was the second time this pre-season. The notable missing player for me was Aaron vandenBerg. I have seen Christian Petracca and he seems fine, just on a modified program, but I have seen neither hair nor hide of VDB and considering he has been MIA since the Collingwood game in June I hope he is OK.Actually seeing him in the picture above means he is at least around. Hoges was running laps by himself. Looked fine, all limbs in fine working order. They were doing a ball movement exercise when I got there. Split into 3 groups, attack, defence or off. The ball would be kicked down back to an attacker and the attacking team would try to move the ball the length of the ground and score. It was good to watch, lots of running, switching the ball across the ground and fast movement. Sam Frost is back in full training and was good in this drill. Ben Kennedy is possibly the smallest player on our list along with JKH and Viney but he looks very fit and strong and was doing everything he could to impress the coaches and his new team mates. All you could ask at this stage really. Jayden Hunt is very quick. He did a one two with Frost at one point off half back and burnt off his opponent then kicked truly to a leading forward. If they work out how to use his speed there is a chance he can make it. Oscar Mac is taller now than his brother. Looks to have put on height and weight quite naturally, his potential is sky high. The next drill they did was moving the ball the length of the ground via 5 small groups. As you kicked the ball to a player leading from the small group ahead of you you would then run forward to join that group and wait a go before leading, marking swinging on to your left or right and kicking to a player leading from the next group, then running forward to join that group they would eventually make their way down the ground where they would have a shot at goal and then jog back to the other end to start again. About 5 balls in play again there was constant movement. A lot of passes were going astray before I realised they had to swing at least half the time onto their wrong foot. Gus was good on both feet as was Viney. White was pretty good. The highlight was big Tom McDonald kicking on his left. You reckon he's bad on his right foot! Wow. He sort of jumped in the air and would kick the ball with both feet off the ground. Anyway before anyone bags him he was the only senior player there joining in with the newbies so all credit to him.

I was once convinced Roos was going to deliver us a premiership like he did the Swans, Jackson was going to take us permanently out of debt and transform us into a power club and that Hogan and Petracca would become top ten players of the competition and play in multiple Demon premierships. Seriously delusional.

A little bigoted to our central Gippsland friends there dee-luded. I like the look of him and if we do pick him I hope he "judges" all his opponents to be inferior to us and his "narrow mind" focuses on the success of his team.

Lot of hand wringing here. If we get Melksham, Kennedy and Bugg, and hold on to pick 6 then that will be O.k. I haven't seen any trades to or from us that is going to change the fact that the improvement to playing finals is going to have to come from within.

Yes. I agree I have a solution. I'm not sure what Total Player Payments (TPP) are for each club but for the sake of argument lets say they are around 15 million. That's 270 million per annum in player payments across the competition. Wow thats a lot. Anyway soon enough Paul Marsh is going to come knocking on the AFL's door looking to increase that amount on the back of TV rights. All the arguments of money to clubs versus money to players will come out like "we put on the show" versus growth and stability for the clubs etc. Well what I propose is for the AFL not to give the players a payrise directly, but through the creation of a Loyalty Fund. So if there was a proposed 10% increase in wages this would mean each year 27 million is going into this fund. It could be like an addition to superannuation, a players money is kept for them until they finish their playing career. The Loyalty aspect is that the more years service you give to a club, the more money gets put aside for you. For instance after 3 years service $20,000 per annum might get put aside and for an 8 year player at the one club it might be 80-100,000 per annum. As an example Boomer Harvey would have a nice little nest egg wheras James Frawley is having nothing put aside for him for the next 3 years as he starts again at Hawthorn. As a result players will get rewarded for loyalty and the better clubs will be those that take good care of their loyal servants. Fans can engage better with their team and the whole sordid meat market scenario of trade week will disappear somewhat. What do you reckon?

The fact about a ladder is there is always someone down the bottom. The trick is getting them back up out of the bottom four. Your simplistic solution is not easy for a bottom club. Think about Richmond or North or us next year against Carlton. They are must win games. There is a natural "survival of the fittest" mentality that makes people want to keep a loser down. Its hard for them to get back up off the back of 100 point floggings and seasons that are over as far as finals are concerned three weeks into the new season. The governing body has to protect the weak, your solution of "throw them to the wolves" will create a lopsided, boring competition.

Pedo's game against the Dogs was terrific. After that game I thought he had moved ahead of Dawes. I'm not sure he has a lot of self confidence. I'd love to see him get really fit and be told that second forward spot is his. He may have a gun year yet.

I think he is in a similar class to Dawes and Pedo. If I rated them (and I can imagine others rating them differently as they are all pretty similar in that they have good upside but they can have games where their negatives can be glaring) then I'd probably put Casboult on top ahead of Pedo then Dawes (who never ever kicks enough goals to be considered a good forward). To give it perspective I would only have Cloke marginally ahead of Casboult, but apart from his game against us I don't rate Cloke. I don't understand why Carlton are ditching him, there must be more to it because he is a reasonable footballer. Mature forwards aren't easy to find. I reckon he would be a good pick up for the right team. For us we would definately need to move on either Pedo or Dawes, preferably the latter and considering Casboult is not a huge upgrade we couldn't pay Carlton or him too much to get him. Given this scenario I don't think we will go hard enough to get him. I reckon he is a great pick up though.

I hope we pick where Howe goes rather than him, depending on who can offer the best trade. As a member I don't think we should be bending over backwards to get Howe to his club of choice. Ship the #$$%^$@ off to the best offer.

This is true, especially 10 teams out of Melbourne. Unless the AFL can create a better equalisation formula they mose well send a couple of Melbourne teams to the wall. Wallowing down the bottom of the ladder is no fun. Actually I think they have a real problem in the two Northern states as well, and there are too many teams who can't stand on their own feet without AFL assistance. Queensland is a basket case. The Hollywood lifestyle of the Gold Coast players on money given to the club from the AFL is a bad look. Brisbane are really struggling to hold players. And no-one particularly cares least of all the people who live there who don't give a fig for AFL. And yet we don't have a team out of Tassie. Oh thats right, Hawthorn have rights there, we all have to leave that alone. Actually it's all a bit of a mess really. Thank goodness for TV rights

A lot of posters, public and most journalists and commentators won't agree with you but people should ask themselves "what do Hawthorn need to add to their team to be a top four contender next year?" The answer is obviously not a lot. Now ask yourself "What do Carlton or Brisbane need to add to their team just to get OUT of the bottom four next year" and clearly the answer is lots. And yet the difference in drafting scope for each team, apart from subjective pick numbers is very little. As good as Hawthorn is, and they are indeed very good, they are now in a position where they can pick and choose as managers parade free agency players in front of them and take their time developing a John O'Rorke, Will Langford, Sicily (gun) or Jed Anderson. Have ready made players on the fringe of the team like Schoenmakers, Simpkin, Hartung or that bearded Jesus looking guy (maybe it is Jesus) ready to go when there are injuries or rotations against weak teams. Hawthorn don't need high draft picks. Look at Carlton. Liam Jones. Vojo Rainbow. Watson. No forward line. And yes all those players they gave away to other clubs. With Henderson and Yarran, both around the 25 age mark and ready made footballers about to join the long list of players that are better having moved away. And yes like us, they were crap at picking, developing and holding onto talent. But that doesn't mean they need to spend the next ten years in and out of the bottom four. (as much as we wouldn't mind that scenario at all I'm talking about the health of the competition) But surely people can see given the system as it stands the people now in charge of Carlton and Brisbane will need to be almost geniuses to get anywhere near the top four in the next five or so years. I think thats pretty depressing and potentially very damaging to the health of the competition. So yes I agree, the bottom teams should get 2 or even 3 picks before Hawthorn gets their first.

I agree with your point, Hawthorn have been fantastic. But.. It is not a question of Hawthorn. It is a question of the AFL. As a governing body do they want a lopsided competition or an even robust competition? For the first time in a long, long time I din't even watch the game today, I find it boring. I would have thought if the AFL drew up a charter that stated what they stood for and their responsibilities, they would have near the top that in the next ten years the governing body should strive to create a competition where we have ten different premiers and eighteen different grand finalists. Now I know this would be close to impossible to achieve but at the moment I think we are so far away from this ideal that the whole competition is bordering on being non-competitive. At the moment it is a contrived corporate politicised competition. The game needs to be given back to the fans, the fans of all clubs should become the number one priority for the AFL, not just a chosen few.

I like that we're moving him on. AI don't think he will hurt us at another club, he's just not that good and hopefully he can become a servicable player and remain on THEIR list for a while