joeboy

Long ago , before the Tigers , Magpies , and whomever else now calls it home , the MCG was our sole domain , so much so , that spread across the ENTIRE front ledge of the outer stand , now known as the Southern stand , was a professionally written and attached sign that read :

Forever Forward Dashing Demons , The Greatest Ever Exponents Of Professional Football .

Now I'm not very good as guesstimating distances but there wouldn't have been much change from 200 metres , so it was obviously an imposing sight .

I know a sign like this is obviously inappropriate and probably even ' daggy ' ,but what can we now do to make a similarly obvious statement , now that the 'wandering son' has come home ?

I noticed Liam doing lots of hugging and high fives with a number of team mates prior to the practice match against Footscray and I can vouch for the 'freakish things ' he does 'on the ground ', having watched him on many occasions 'glide' through training manouvres and handle the ball as if it's on a string.

Alarmingly our fadeout in the last quarter has been evident in 4 of the 5 competitive games we've played and lost this year .

- final quarter against Hawthorn , where we gave up a 5 goal lead at 3/4 time and lost

- final quarter against Sydney , after being even at 3/4 time and lost

- final quarter against Footscray , after being within a goal at 3/4 time and lost by heaps

- final quarter against North , after being close at 3/4 time and lost by heaps .

Yes I know there are extenuating circumstances and the young players should be commended for their competitiveness , but the facts are that we appear to run out of steam !

6 - Moloney

5 - Petterd

4 - Jones

3 - Cheney

2 - Bartram

1 - Johnson

Bartram - excellent tagging game

Bate - a poor return

Bennell - debut to forget

Bruce - not as prolific

Buckley - not a backman

Cheney - showed great endeavour

Davey - a major disappointment

Frawley - excellent first half

Garland - better against talls

Green - missing second half

Jetta - some creative possessions

Johnson - not a ruckman

Jones - excellent first half

McDonald - never stopped trying

McLean - continued poor preseason

Miller - tried but failed

Moloney - probably our best

Morton - rarely looked interested

Petterd - only dangerous forward

Rivers - got through game

Warnock - was not beaten

Spencer - continued to contest

Us:

Round One Squad

B: J.Rivers, M.Warnock, C.Bartram

HB: C.Garland, J.Frawley, B.Green

C:A.Davey, B.McLean, B.Moloney

HF:C.Bruce, P.Johnson, C.Morton

FB: Miller, M.Bate, R.Petterd

Foll: J.Spencer, J.McDonald, S.Buckley

I/C From: J.Bennell, K.Cheney, N.Jones, N.Jetta, S.Martin, L.Dunn, J.Meesen

no Aussie ,no Grimes , no Robbo , no Whelan , and no Sylvia , otherwise our best possible .

I personally don't take much heed of omens , but by the same token I hope the photo that appeared in yesterday's HeraldSun was not prophetic of the season ahead.

In a cute photo of little babies adorned in the colours of the 16 AFL teams , guess which colours were being worn by the only baby to be crying ?

Yep , the little red and blue crybaby !

I just had a set of new Hankook tyres fitted to my wifes 4WD.

Just before the MFC announced Hankook as a sponsor, I was in the middle of shopping around for the right tyre v price. (If anyone has done this it is not a great deal of fun).

Upon hearing about Hankook backing the Dee's, I simply logged onto their website, put in my postcode and called ther nearest supplier (the closest was a couple of km's from home in Carnegie). To my great delight, not only did the guy instantly recommend a tyre, but it was nearly HALF THE PRICE of the equivalent Michelin, Goodyear, Pirelli or Continental tyres.

The guys who fitted the tyres were also sincerely pleased that I chose Hankook because of MFC association.

I've been happily using the Hankook tyre outlet in Carnegie for many years

Stkilda had some sort of day as well i saw a quick highlight of on the news. I would say we had 10 to 20 times more people for our media shots and theirs looked empty. Well done to all for marketing, venue etc!

1000 memberships in a day is great. I wonder how many new members for the weekend in total as nearly all the crowd at casey was MFC.

Yes I also saw highlights of what looked like an underwhelming crowd at the Stkilda Family Day , but the accompanying commentary suggested a crowd around 7000 .

Go figure.

Buckley - excellent early on

Jones - too many turnovers

Bartram - held Aker well

McLean - poor in conditions

Bate - had little influence

Miller - undisciplined and quiet

Frawley - continued to impress

Morton - conditions didn't suit

Dunn - good linking game

Petterd - good until injured

Green - classy and safe

Garland - just so safe

Bell - was rarely noticed

Moloney - many wasted possessions

McDonald - was rarely noticed

Cheney - calm and confident

Meesen - not totally useless

Rivers - reliable and assured

Newton - didn't impose himself

Bruce - good ,not great

Martin - continues to impress

Davey - worrying late injury

Warnock - safe and confident

Jetta - clever and dangerous

Spencer - conditions didn't suit

Bennell - clever but limited

I was rebuked recently ( probably correctly ) for making a disparraging ( humorous , in my opinion ) remark about one of our players ,yet there appears to be no abatement in the negative comments being directed towards Jamar at present .

Are any of the moderators issuing warnings as they did to me ?

My information directly from an MFC director is that the final details involving dual sponsors are still being worked through but the money involved is significantly less than we'd have received from Mission Foods.

Jones - another poor game

McLean - enthusiastic but limited

Miller - aggressive and involved

Frawley - was rarely noticed

Morton - poor ball disposal

Johnson - an average game

Sylvia - outstanding second half

Dunn - was rarely sighted

Petterd - needs to settle

Grimes - poise and class

Green - good first half

Garland - strength to strength

Bell - good before injury

Moloney - needs more time

McDonald - was rarely noticed

Cheney - excellent football brain

Meesen - tried , didn't fail

Newton - probably on field

Bruce - occasional clever glimpses

Martin - calm and confident

Davey - worked into game

Warnock - possibly our best

Jetta - reason to enthuse

Bail - can get ball

Spencer - gangly but effective

Bennell - has indigenous magic

Valenti - little game time

Strauss - excellent under pressure

His mother was one of the gladiators in the tv show of the same name.

One thing today has decided - Valenti's career (at MFC at least) would have to be over.

As soon as a chance comes to elevate a rookie, it'll definitely be Spencer, NOT Valenti.

His only hope is that an existing MFC player goes down with a season-ending injury, that way Spencer will take that player's place & Valenti will be elevated at the season's mid-point according with the new rule.

Shame cos Val could be a gun.

No he couldn't .

Undersized and slow - just a player with a good build

20+ years of following this club & they're still finding new ways of breaking my heart.

It's a fine line between heaven and hell !

If we'd held on for a couple more seconds we'd all be in ecstacy even though we'd only won by a few points .

6 - Green

5 - Spencer

4 - Garland

3 - Frawley

2 - Miller

1 - McLean

We played safe and we lost !

A nice piece about the Dees but I'm not sure what was thought-provoking.

I agree. There was nothing particularly illuminating or enlightening about this lightweight piece .

I think it just gave Flanagan an opportunity to have a few ales with an old mate who happened to barrack for the Dees .

Hey we will be playing heaps of young players this year for you to look at.

Class of 2006 and 2007 can be put on show now. looking forward to seeing Grimes Petterd and Spencer play. Lets not forget most of our back line is very young, so there are a lot of positions up for grabs.

Anyone know when Maric will be back? People want to see Struss and Blease play, but remember he was around the same pick (2nd round) last year. With VCE over this is his turn to show us what he can do and attempt to play regular senior footy.

Maric trained at full speed today .

Those are actually pictures from Monday's session.

There were 3 official - looking photographers at training today along with a Fox Sports' vehicle .

joeboy, are we talking about long kickouts?

The short kickout to the back pocket is all too predictable.

No , I don't think Spencer is quick enough to drop in short ; the kicks to him were invariably to the flanks .

How did Colin Sylvia and Aaron Davey go at training?

Sylvia was not as outstanding as he'd been at other sessions , whilst Davey was SMOOOOTH in everything he did.

As expected an obvious rise in intensity was evident from the outset this morning.

The standard was significantly up on the five previous sessions that I've attended.

Of the players who would have been walk up starts for Saturday's match if fit ,who were not training ,were :Junior, Jamar, Robbo, Wheatley, Watts and Rivers.

Today's session was the first time I'd actually seen Jurrah join in all exercises and he was used in strategic plays so he might even get some game time on Saturday (though my money is on him not being selected due to 'conditioning')

Spencer was often used as the go-to man at kick outs, with the crumbers running next to him, for obvious reasons.

IMO the training standouts today were McLean, Valenti, Garland, Aussie (whose skills are sublime for so early in the season) and ... Newton (unlike the weekend's game where he was crap, today he was holding his marks on the lead, and showed agility, strength and interest).

BTW Rivers was walking laps, slowly, but without a limp; Wheatley and Jamar ran laps then went on a bike ride to the local pool (after asking permission); Robbo was running laps and having goal kicking practice, but still appears proppy and somewhat hefty; Junior was not sighted (by me).

You were looking at the wrong boy he has bulked up and played well.

Not from my observation .

He DID play well but he HAS trimmed down .