Whispering_Jack

And so we move on to another day.

Melbourne held its first intraclub practice match this year on 19 February and, as it has on more than one occasion in recent years, had to rely on top up players from the Casey Scorpions (10 this time around) to make up the numbers. Games such as these are hardly a good indicator of what's to come because the pressure level is generally low - they've often been described as akin to dancing with your sister. But you need to start somewhere. In the distant past, all pre-season practice matches were of the intraclub variety. Clubs would reassemble in February and play these games from mid-March. The exciting part was that there were many new faces in pre draft times and you would hope that someone would be plucked out of obscurity and become a champion. More often than not a player would put in a stand out performance in an early game and then fade back into obscurity or disappear altogether once the more seasoned players regained their fitness and took their rightful places at the forefront of the team. Things are different these days and you get very few surprises when the team has its first competitive run for the year. Melbourne's opening run at Casey Fields gave us a good sight of its signings from other clubs - Lumumba, Garlett, Frost and Newton all showed that they can play. We saw good form from some of the more experienced lot, a bit more promise from Tyson, Viney, Toumpas, Salem and one or two of the others in the younger brigade (Hogan anyone?) and you might add that the one real surprise packet was Billy Stretch although he does have a year's football at senior SANFL level under his belt. So what was it (if anything) that we saw from this week's intra club practice that gave you an insight into how the team will fare in 2015? Was it a particular player or group of players or a change in playing style that convinced you that things might be different to the way they've been for the better part of the last decade? Or do we simply take nothing away from intraclub practice games?

West Coast 3.2 4.2 5.5 7.7 (49) Indigenous All-Stars 1.2 5.6 5.8 5.11 (41) Goals: West Coast: J McGovern, B Sheppard, S Wellingham, A Gaff, J Cripps, R Powell, T Lamb. All-Stars: Shaun Edwards, L Jetta, S Yarran, J Pickett, B Hill. Best: West Coast: C Masten, C Sinclair, S Wellingham, W Schofield, R Powell. All-Stars: S Burgoyne (Polly Farmer Medal winner), J Harbrow, J Martin, S Hill, S Yarran, N Jetta. Crowd: About 10,000 at Medibank Stadium.

At half time the Indigenous All Stars 5.6.36 lead the Eagles 4.2.26.

Remember this guy? Former Bomber Mark McVeigh unlikely to coach in NAB Challenge opening rounds

And here's a piece of the delightful culture of football up north:- Karmichael Hunt charged with supplying cocaine

Thanks for your contributions - they've all been most enlightening when added to the following media - Hoping for Hogan heroics Hogan, Garlett shine in intra-club Photo Gallery I'm currently in Aukland on vacation so, assuming there's no MFC training today, I'm thinking of emulating TDI who reported on Richmond's training last Wednesday by taking a look at a NZ Vodafone Warriors training session (if I can find one)

It's not a final ruling only a ruling that the case can be heard. There now needs an adverse finding against the CAS ruling for the athlete to succeed and that would be on the facts of the way in which the hearing was conducted. The article covers proceedings in a German court whose procedures are different to ours. It therefore won't have much bearing but, depending on what happens with the Tribunal result, it could encourage one of the parties to draw it all out a bit longer.

Jesse Hogan kicks three goals in Melbournes intra-club match

Rumours that Colin Garland injured a hip at Monday's training appear to have been exaggerated if he's playing today.

Sounds like 10 Casey players have been seconded to play in this game which suggests that we're resting/rehabbing a fair number of players at the moment.

Can he take a mark?

After the debacle on Monday, I hope the club has decided to persevere with the concept of training. Looking forward to informative reports and trust there will be no personal attacks on those who take the trouble of informing us with their reports. No problem with criticism or discussion but zero tolerance for rancorous posts attacking our players or those who post reports. Thanks

Had a busy day and only now had the opportunity to go through this thread fully. It's clear that many posters here are fed up with the petty sniping going on in these training threads. Next time, bans will apply. Thanks.

Sam Frost did a hammy too apparently.

Bob, I don't quite get what you're saying but I'll accept what you say in that you weren't suggesting that David is behind the possible leaking of this information. I think it's become clear from the Essendon doping saga that various parties in the football world including committees and boards leak information to the media. The Bombers have been masters at it over the past two years, mainly because they have no shortage of useful media idiots willing to push their cause. Much the same has happened at Melbourne over the years - you don't have to be "Blind Freddie" to know that various groups at the club including Boards going back in time to well before Gutnick were able to get certain messages across thanks to friends in the media. In the case of all clubs the practice can sometimes be justified as being "in the interests of the club" (and often this depends on which side you're on). I can see that it's finally dawning on you that the club has a propensity to shoot itself in the foot just when things are looking to be on the up and up. Unfortunately, it's a phenomenon that's been around for half a century - some call it the Norm Smith curse. I just don't see that your paranoia would be assuaged by David Thurin leaving - I personally believe he’s been a competent board member who worked hard and made a major contribution over the past seven years (not just monetarily - he put in a significant amount of work towards making the debt demolition a success, without which we probably wouldn’t be discussing anything about the club).

The President of Athletics Australia who slammed the concept of different punishments within world sport is David Grace QC who happens to be representing the majority of the 34 players in the anti doping case currently before the AFL Tribunal. David is of course arguing that the players are not guilty as charged but if the Tribunal comes up with an adverse finding he's going to be in a position where he would be arguing in favour of penalties that IMO would be embarrassing to ask for. International athletes found guilty in these circumstances often lose their medals, prize money and routinely are barred from competing for 18 months to two years. Looking at recent cases affecting our sport, we have VFL player Wade Lees 18 months for mistakenly purchasing a weight reduction supplement that was banned (he never received the order, let alone used it), St. Kilda's Ahmed Saad 18 months for mistakenly taking a supplement which was banned if it was in the system on match days. Then there's Jarrod Bannister 20 months as above. The signals from the Essendon camp and their media groupies are that if found guilty, they will be getting six months backdated as far as possible to make this a Claytons penalty for a year long systematic injecting regime. Welcome to Planet Bizzaro!

As I understand it, the only member of the last Board remaining on the current Board is Dr. David Thurin with who I have had a few discussions from time to time about the club and have noted that he went to great lengths explaining that he couldn't speak on certain matters because they were confidential within the club. I know from another source that he is so secretive on the issue of club matters that he even refused to discuss a player's injury with a colleague in the medical fraternity. That being the case, I believe your comment is completely out of order.

Mind you, we've only played them once in each of the last two years and we've been horrible ourselves in that time.

Problem with that is that previously it was reported that Melbourne had been investigated and cleared. The allegation regarding Jack Trengove was that he had been implicated because Dank had recommended a cream containing AOD9604 which ASADA CEO has subsequently informed would not be the subject of further investigation so the above claim sounds a bit suss to me.

The opening fixture of the 2015 season is the Indigenous All Stars v West Coast Eagles game to be played on Friday night at Medibank Stadium, Perth. Before the game, a squad of 59 players will attend an Indigenous Players Camp with only two Demons, Nev Jetta and Jay Kennedy-Harris representing the club. Jeff Garlett is apparently unavailable. The 59 players are: Adelaide: Anthony Wilson, Charlie Cameron, Cameron Ellis-Yolmen Brisbane Lions: Josh McGuiness Carlton: Clem Smith, Chris Yarran Collinwood: Travis Varcoe, Tony Armstrong Essendon: Courtenay Dempsey, Jake Long, Shaun Edwards Fremantle: Michael Johnson, Stephen Hill, Alex Pearce, Danyle Pearce, Michael Walters, Brady Grey, Jonathon Griffin Geelong: Matthew Stokes, Zachary Bates, Nakia Cockatoo Gold Coast: Jarrod Harbrow, Jack Martin, Brandon Matera, Steven May, Jarrod Garlett, Sean Lemmons, Timmy Sumner Greater Western Sydney: Curtly Hampton, Zach Williams, Nathan Wilson, Jeremy Finlayson, Jarrod Pickett, Paul Ahern Hawthorn: Cyril Rioli, Shaun Burgoyne, Bradley Hill, Jermaine Miller-Lewis, Jed Anderson Melbourne: Neville Jetta, Jay Kennedy-Harris Port Adelaide: Chad Wingard, Jake Neade, Patrick Ryder, Brendon Ah Chee, Nathan Krakouer, Karl Amon, Jarman Impey Richmond: Shane Edwards, Nathan Drummond Sydney Swans: Adam Goodes, Lewis Jetta, Abaina Davis Western Bulldogs: Brett Goodes West Coast: Josh Hill, Sharrod Wellingham, Jamie Bennell, Malcolm Karpany, Murray Newman

An interesting piece in The Guardian- Just not cricket – how Channel Nine is destroying a legacy

I think rpfc has it right. Also, you can't guage Jimmy Toumpas on his first two seasons which were interrupted by lack of a full pre season and by injury. I saw a fair bit of him in his last year at under 18s for SA and I wouldn't give up on his capacity to become a valuable player in his own right and one with enough different attributes to Jack Watts as to not make them mutually exclusive of each other in a footy team.

Why? Jack Watts is still on our list and turns up to training, doesn't he?

Since he came to the club as coach, I've always believed that Roos will either make or break Jack Watts who is now at the right time of his career to show what he's made of and in particular if has something to offer the club - if he doesn't do it this year after two seasons under Roos, then I think he will be on the trade table. I look at it in a similar vein to the position of Bryce Gibbs at Carlton last year in his second season under Malthouse when he finally stood up after his ability to justify his #1 draft position was continually under question at his club.