Whispering_Jack

Well … I can say that fans flocked to Casey today and the club actually covered the event on its photo gallery. Training Gallery | Fans flock to Casey

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You mean this? Track watch | A mix of young and old impressing

There are more than 180 players at the various AFL clubs in the running for the 2025 AFL Rising Star Award. This year Melbourne has a relatively low number of players eligible for this year's award - 9 - compared to 13 last year. They are:- Jed Adams Kynan Brown Matthew Jefferson Luker Kentfield Harvey Langford Xavier Lindsay Ricky Mentha Oliver Sestan Will Verrall The 2 L’s - Langford and Lindsay - appear to be our best candidates. Your AFL team’s Rising Star eligible players and the top contenders for 2025

The Legacy Series | Episode 3 | Noel McMahen Premiership captain in 1955 and 1956 and MFC Team of the 20th Century member, Noel McMahen passed away in 2022 aged 95. This interview was recorded in 2020 before the club’s last premiership. Noel was born three weeks after the club won its second flag so his lifetime spanned 11 of the club’s 13 VFL/AFL premierships.

When did you get a dog?

In some good news for the Blues, the winner of Race 5 on the Gold Coast was a horse called Bosustow (SP $13.00). Fourth plagetter in the race was Cattogio.

Let’s face it, club presidents are a dime a dozen. Carlton will get over the change at the helm if it has to happen. A deeper problem is the injury situation and the fact that, apart from losing Newman who is a high value player, others of the calibre of Charlie Curnow and Sam Walsh missing the preseason lead up is a big blow.

Can’t spoil you with many photos from today’s session but here’s one -

Player info on Jenson Garnham Height: 187cm Weight: 86kg D.O.B: 19-08-2003

For those who like it colorful

Now official

Quite. But at the end of Round 6, every club will have played six games and it’s a good time to reflect on how the season’s going. I’m picking us to win our opening game at home vs GWS Giants. Geelong at the Cattery will be tough and if we beat the Dockers we should be well set towards a top four finish. I am however, still going to take things one week at a time.

Rookie Me Central write up on Melbourne’s train on player -

Article in today’s Herald Sun where a journo has a stab at the first six rounds.

The Herald Sun’s Josh Barnes has posted an article on Code Sports entitled “Track Watch: Christian Petracca trains days after cracking ribs at Melbourne training”. Summary - • Christian Petracca was on light duties but showed no signs of discomfort from his cracked ribs at Melbourne training. • there’s no plan in place to return the Norm Smith medallist to full training but he will be able to keep his fitness up as his ribs recover. • the club didn’t hesitate in getting into contact today, stepping into physical centre bounce and defensive set up drills involving heavy tackling. • other players in the non-contact group were skipper Max Gawn, defender Jake Lever and Taj Woewodin. • players who impressed were:- * Kysaiah Pickett – was impressive in bursting out of the middle of the ground in a centre bounce drill. * Tom Campbell – with Max on the sidelines, he showed his deft ruckwork in the centre. * Shane McAdam – was hampered physically to start this pre-season but he showed a flash of his goalkicking ability with a nice dribble goal from deep in a pocket. • Christian Salem limped off the track at one point, pointing to his lower right leg and seeking attention from the medical staff.

Better late than never … and quite frankly, there’s very little to report other than that training took place at Casey Fields this morning, that Tracc was there nursing his rib injury and that some photographs are on the club’s social media including this one of Clarrie in Raging Bull stance that gives rise for confidence ~ The other news is that the club has a new train on player in 185cm Dandenong Stingrays midfielder Noah Hibbins-Hargreaves (love the hyphenated name which is just so fitting for the MFC). The 2025 draft prospects training at your club this week H-H has been with the Stingrays program for a couple of seasons and was a regular them last year. He should feel at home training with former teammate Harvey Langford. As far as I know, he’s not tied to the club in any way and if that’s the case, he’s available to all clubs in this year’s national draft.

I would not be averse to him playing in that role anyway, notwithstanding the current rib issue. A great weapon to have there in the post ANB period and it would give our younger mids starting with Trent Rivers the opportunity to blossom in a new look midfield.

On cue - the second in the series The Legacy Series | Episode 2 | Hassa Mann

Welcome back to Demonland for those like me who have been on vacation. I’m posting this with some trepidation because of a certain amount of uncertainty surrounding the return of preseason training in 2025 after a flurry of weddings including those of our coach, one of our superstar players and a former premiership champion player and bloke, not to mention the recent mysterious incident that occurred on the Mornington Peninsula. I believe that the team reassembles this morning at Casey Fields (fitting because it’s the closest training facility to Sorrento). At least that’s what I was led to believe from despatches in late 2024, although the fog of the festive season and new year celebrations might be playing tricks on me. To add to my trepidation is this ominous piece of information gleaned from the MFC website:- “Some sessions in the new year are returning to Casey Fields and due to the nature of the facility those sessions will be closed to the public, unless otherwise advertised below.” Since I couldn’t locate any relevant information below, I can only assume that we won’t be receiving many reports from training if indeed, it proceeds today, especially given that this is the time of year when the snakes of Casey Fields come out of hibernation to congregate outside the fences of that facility. One of our regular correspondents has used the break to make a tree disguise but I believe it has yet to be tested as snake proof. So, in case there are no reports forthcoming on today’s activities, here is a picture taken in Bali to remind you all of what some of our players look like these days. Welcome to 2025!!!

Sorry, I’m on vacation and watching cricket. The only thing I can say at the moment is that I expect Clarry to get his five fer this year.

It took until right at the end of Robbie’s career for him to appear in a finals series and he never played in a grand final. In 1987, his last year at the club, the club made a late run for the finals and the theme at the time was for the club to “do it for Robbie”. The scenes at Whitten Oval at the end of Round 22 when we finally knew we had made it, were euphoric. But I have confess that we could have done it a lot earlier and better, but for a couple of odd coincidences - Odd Spot (1): Coincidentally, one of the other panelists on Episode 1 of the Legacy Series program was a client for who I acted in connection with a business transaction about a year and a half after I started my legal practice. I won’t name any names for professional reasons but he played in a drawn match in the final round of the 1975 season which resulted in his team keeping Melbourne and Robbie out of the finals (the Demons beat the Magpies in the same round). On the Monday following the game, the client attended my office and broke the news to me that he saved the game when he “touched” a shot at goal from a Carlton player in the tricky wind in the last minute of the game. He said he thought he might have been lucky to get the benefit of the decision which of course, kept us out of the finals for another 12 years! Odd Spot (2): Fast forward another three years and I’m now acting for a young footballer from Prahran who just played in their VFA premiership team where he kicked 4 goals in the Grand Final. He wants to play for Melbourne (I can’t mention the name for professional reasons but he became a football great who was a dominator in finals matches). He’s been knocked back after two preseasons with the Blues and wants to go to the club that his Prahran teammates John Townsend and Ken Emselle suggested he give a try. Carlton are bargaining for a trade - they want Tom Flower who kicked 5 goals in the final match of the 1978 season against Collingwood. It’s no deal. My client has to do the preseason with the Blues and kicks four goals in a quarter in an intraclub practice match that he was told was his last chance to impress the coach. His opponent in that fateful quarter was the club’s newly appointed captain-coach, A. Jesaulenko. The young player went on to play in four Carlton premiership sides including 1987. How different would things have turned out had he gone to Melbourne and played in the same team as Robbie all those years ago? Sorry Robbie and the Demon fans of that generation - I feel like I let you down.

Oops. I think you’re correct. Apologies to the producer.