Rodney (Balls) Grinter

No problems with playing devils advocate, but I don't think it's a very credible position. Paul Roos use to put out that line based partly on his Sydney record (and playing group situation), but then Brayshaw and Oliver played a bunch of games in their first seasons and had Trac not done a knee, he would have too. I don't think anyone believes it. Similarly Sydney's young guns since like Heeney and Mills played plenty of games in their first seasons, because they were sufficiently talented and ready. If you don't back top ten draft picks to be pushing to make some kind of impact, then were you really right in picking them there? I doubt there would be another club in the AFL that that didn't publicly rate and talk up/back in their first round picks to debut in their first season at some point.

With what Josh has said, I can't see the MFC backing out from here. Is that the end of the story - no. Is this a fairly tail in the making - I have no idea. My take is that all up, this is a win-win situation. In the worst case event that Hadley's footy career eventually reaches a dead end, the MFC gets a heap of free 'feel good' publicly from signing him on and that publicly does have a tangible value. Even in this scenario, Harley gets the financial, medical, institutional support and comradery afforded to him by the MFC and a chance to put in place some more pieces in his life post footy. Best case scenario is a MFC flag, Harley becomes a star reborn and of course everything else in between is probably the most likely scenario. Anyways - why not us? Go Harley - Go the mighty Demons!

Not quite sure what you are getting at here. "There are no expectations on the trio to dominate at senior level in the early stages of 2020, but they have shown plenty of promising signs heading into their debut season." That reads like a lid on kinda statement to me. What should the club say: "You know we got a pick 3 and pick 10, but now that they have trained with us a few times, they really don't look like they have much talent, so don't expect them to be picked anytime soon, maybe if ever".

Good move. They will probably still get a bigger crowd than at the Sydney Show Grounds.

I must have watched this clip a good 10 or 20 times now. Absolutely mesmerizing stuff. Would look even better in a red and blue jumper in frount of a packed MCG! Got me thinking about just what a good player he is. I was disappointed when we missed out on Prestia, but if Harley can get those calfs right, just what a prize recruit he would be. It's been so long since he's been injured that I had to remind myself just what a gun player Harley has been in years past, so went browsing YouTube. Found the below video which certainly backs up others comments about the shot on goal from the boundary being no fluke. Interestingly part way into the video it make a mention of him having problems with his calfs way back then. Let's hope the operation he had has nailed the main source of the issue.

Interested in your thoughts on Harmes switch to the backline in particular Spencer. I must admit I've been a bit perplexed by the reports of Harmes training with the backline. He adds so much grunt and line breaking ability in the midfield that my first reaction is why would you want to take him out of there. But I'm guessing that we have plenty of other grunt midfielders that with the benefits of a decient preseason could fill that void (your full post seemed to alude to that as well). I'm also guessing that line breaking ability of Harmes could be used to good effect to launch attacks from the back half (he probably has better accuracy, vision and ball placement with his disposals than Hibbard) and that they could also still inject him into the midfield in bursts if the need arrises to exert a bit more dominance in there. What attributes of Harmes in particular do you see that have driven this move to the backline?

Sorry guys, I think I need to put my hand up here and take responsibility for putting the jinx on poor old Maxy. ?

KC - would your thoughts be that Courtney and Smith would mainly play in the 2nds as backup/ development type role for Casey. I'm not sure I can see how he'd regularly fit into a side that is likely to have either or both Preuss and Jackson holding down the ruck for most of the season.

I was a bit doubtful at the time, but I think on balance, getting both pick 6 and 23 (or whatever it was) and then Steven May was a pretty fair trade in retrospect (perhaps more than fair in our favour - only time will tell completely). As a Melbourne supporter, I was pretty dam disappointed that we were loosing a once in a generation CHF in the Johnathan Brown mold (I do think he was on that kind of trajectory at one stage). So I can imagine that asides from the other stuff he has had to deal with in his life, I assume it could also be pretty depressing and frustrating dealing with this lingering foot injury which also seems to be holding him back in a playing capacity. After putting in so much hard work and sacrifice in his early years and being set for great things, it must be pretty confronting for him to deal with, that his career may not pan out as well as everyone expected. It's not that other people don't deal with adversity in their lives (I think we can all think of numerous MFC past players cut down by injury and struggled with personal truma behind the scenes) but I put myself in his position and can well understand that even asides from his other health and family tragedies in recient years, just dealing with the realities of setbacks in his career would be enough for a lot of people to deal with - he is human after all. In times gone by, in the VFL days pre internet etc, he probably would have dealt with all this mostly in private. In VFL days he might also have had more other focuses in his life like a job that would provide some balance and purpose to his life outside football. I hope that his family, personal friends and both the Freemantle footy club and his friends at the MFC get around Jessie and provide him with the right sort of support and influence to help him on the right track. I'm not making assertions that this is an immediate concern for Jessie, but you only need to look at the tragedy of what happened to Ben Cousins to see that the wrong kind of influences in this situation can have some pretty bad life outcomes. Who knows what the future holds, Jessie may well come through the other side of all this and still become an undisputed champion of the game that the expectations thrust upon him, but if not and he were to either give up the game or just play out his career as an average player that didn't seemingly reach his assumed ultimate potential, he still has still had a football career to this point that most people would be envious of and there are other things in life asides from just footy.

Beat me to it. My favorite part of the interview as well. I know they are just words in a sense, but from the reports about his application to preseason and the reflex in which it came out, you could tell there was some real conviction behind it. Trac is often stated to have an infectious personality, so let's just hope his attitude and application spread like a corona virus in Wuhan throughout the group (figuratively speaking!).

Yeah, don't know about that one. I'm sure he'd offer some great insights, but think he'd put me to sleep with his monotone slow drawl going of the clipits of his press conferences that I recall, although he does also have that bit of a tendency to err on the whacky side of the ledger at times too, so could work.

6' 2" and looks to have a pretty solid and strong frame on him, maybe we could sign him up as a category C or whatever that international recruit thing is. He sort a looks like a footballer if you can get over his awkward handballing style (big Jimmy learnt how to sorta bounce the ball eventually didn't he?) Think we could offer him something financially competitive with what he's paid as an international tennis player ? ...Tennis player Tennys - sounds a little bit like ATM machine. Roger certainly had some fun with it!

You're right, it was a stupid call. I didn't realise it was actually his wedding. Just seems that as supporters we get treated a little bit like mushrooms sometimes, which is quite reasonable in a sense, as players are entitled to some privacy, but it does get a little frustrating. Also me just going a little stir crazy waiting for the season to begin.

Convenient wedding. Out of the injuries we have, Melksham is somewhat a worry for me. I'm hoping that it's just a case of playing it safe and the Milkshake man plays another great season for us, but being the gun, pivotal kind of player that he is, it does worry me that he isn't out there. He may not quite be on the Maxy kind of level of influence, but I think it's just as important that we have Melksham out on the park as Steven May. I actually think that Melksham is almost the general of the forward line as much as we are looking for May to be the general of the backline.

1. The presentation is better than steamed two headed Yangtze river fish platter. 2. You can get it in a two for one deal adventure tourism package with a 4 week stay in an isolation ward of developing world hospital thrown in on the side. ...

Lol. Love your work worship. Similar to your comments elsewhere, I do wounder if and how anyone could get much understanding of game plans from watching training drills and even circle work or match sims. I guess the well trained eye might make some pickups about these things, but then, I guess that Richmond aren't exactly going to go changing their set-up based on what they just saw a 17th placed Melbourne's training. I'm guessing the valuable information is all the verbal instructions delivered by the coaches at the huddles on what we are trying to achieve which can't be spied from the outer. As @Earl Hood so poignantly noted, it's only if we can actually translate what we do on the track to matchday that anyone will take serious notice and there are no secret games, so the tactical game plan stuff is well on display for all to see then anyway. I'm not totally dismissive that tactical initiatives at this point in the season can't / don't make a difference but agree with you that it's beyond most casual observers to pickup.

Which Selwood? I'd hardly consider May and Melksham as peripheral for some that have spent, or are presently spending stints in our rehab group, though hopefully they are back our of it soon enough.

Concussion, broken jaws and a kick square to the nuts - the Brayshaw boys seem to get all the most unpleasant of blows dealt to them.

As preseason roles along, the start of the season is finally within sight. Not that I put huge weight on the outcome of our first preseason game, but I'm personally hanging out to watch some footy again and that preview of the state of the side and how individual players are tracking in something with less resemblance of a training run. Also a good point to sit back and understand how the fitmess of our list is tracking for Rd 1. What is the potential lineup of fit and ready to go players? Interested on others thoughts and assessments of all of the above.

As your earlier comments and the one above both alude to, being awarded the free kick or not is almost just the icing on top, but the physical presence and pressure that gets applied through these acts is priceless in so far as the impact it has on the opposition's psyche.

Or from a MFC perspective, channel his inner big Carl!

Ed Langdon added to the list of MFC culprits. He and Jackson need to follow the lead of Mitch Hannan by tidying up their long hair do with a neat short back and sides, us being the gentlemens club and all. Barassi wouldn't have had a bar of this long hair hippy nonsense (take note Goody), no wounder we had the season we did last year.

Yeah, I know, but in the tradition of Australian journalism, why let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Merged topic from discussion in a few threads. Early candidates are: Ben Brown Brodie Grundy Luke Jackson Max Gawn Nathan Jones Dyson Heppell James Worpel

At which point they should like suspend any Essendrug side from competing in season 2020, no top-ups, just no Essendrug FC.