old55

Petracca for Frost is a no brainer. We will lose something defensively but gain so much more attack. Oliver has to play full stop. I love Brayshaw but Oliver just has to play. Trengove is a better player than Bugg and I can't see the downside. The short break warrants the changes to the winning line up.

Tremendous kick but definite weakness in the contest. Poor effort against Lloyd and fell over again. Over rated IMO.

INB4 R6 Team selection - if we have a good win this week and no injuries, next week's selection with Oliver rested and Petracca raring to go could get even more interesting! They're the sorts of problems we like to have!

Thanks - I like this analysis. We're a year younger and a season's less games again like last week. This time next year we should be as mature as the Collingwood and Richmond sides are now.

Agree with this strategy. Casey play Saturday night, it makes sense to use ANB as emergency for Garlett for Sunday night and miss Saturday night's game. He is fully match fit and has great endurance - a week off wont hurt his preparation. If Petracca is emergency and Garlett plays as hoped then Petracca misses a week's conditioning and that's not good for his preparation.. Mahoney: “We now consider him as available for selection and if Jeff is unable to get through tomorrow's main session, Christian will be a chance to debut." “Alex has played at a consistently high level at Casey for the last few weeks and comes into the squad.”

Unleash Petracca thread?

And while we're on that theme I was very disappointed N.Jones missed the captain's goal sealer too.

That's not what I said.

Little league error that directly resulted in a goal. Rule #1: don't fall over - see BenKen. I picture players like Salem on GF day - that's not acceptable.

Fall over chasing Varcoe was very poor. Would not like to see a repeat. Frankly if Matt Jones had done that this place would have burned him at the stake.

I have no problems with this article: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-season-2016-alastair-clarkson-talks-with-hawthorn-drag-on-20160418-go9eg7.html

Puzzling recruitment by Collingwood. IMO they don't need his type of medium marking forward when they've already got Elliot and Fasolo, and Swan was going to play forward as well.

Good to see Max King playing. There's a clear role for him in the MFC 22 if he's good enough.

Roos will ask the players to man up but they'll refuse apparently.

My reading of the VFL report is that it's pretty clear he's some way off. Christian Petracca: Christian was solid again. He’s come back from a long layoff and it was his second game back. He increased his game time. We’re just letting him feel his way, as the most important thing for him is to build his tank, game time and his conditioning. He’s been able to do that the past two weeks. He’s got some things to work on, but in regards to playing his role, his ball-winning efforts and his ability to get out of tight situations, particularly around the footy – his game was a highlight. He also finished off his work well and pushed forward to kick three goals, so he was one of our better players.

Pedersen or Frost or Dawes - fwd/ruck. None of them are up to it and are just a bridge to one of the Kings or maybe the Weed (although not clear he could ruck). It's a big set-back that Mitch did his knee - he may have got a taste later this year. I'm not sure where Max is up to but it is his 3rd year. Spencil is purely Gawn back-up - 1st ruck. The FD would have known this in the last recruiting cycle but it's not easy to get a better bridge than those guys. Lewis Jetta for Callum Sinclair is the going market, we don't have a exact equivalent to Jetta but think Salem for Sinclair (who is "adequate") and you get my drift. We need to manage the pain until a King is ready and if neither of them make it then we will need to pay the trade price.

Calling Webber

In Sidebottom Out Vince. Not helpful.

$7 bottle of whiskey?

Tremendous news that Trenners seems to have pulled up well after the match and is in full-training: I reckon that's another real milestone and now I'm starting to believe! Go Jack!

Essendon did play well IMO and but for conversion - particularly Joe Daniher 2.4 and at least one out of bounds - deserved to win by a lot more.

As disappointing as MFC was on Saturday. Essendon were very impressive. They'll win more games this year and are not the basket case that people forecast. I think they will really start to struggle in the 2nd half of the year when their veterans and youth tire.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-season-2016-christian-petracca-dominates-in-vfl-nears-melbourne-debut-20160405-gnz3di.html

Any word from training watchers how Trenners has pulled up after the weekend VFL practice outing? That's really the critical test. It is pretty predictable that a player of his capability will dominate that level. It's his foot recovery that matters.