Its Time for Another

Not quite. He's listed as 186cm Nicholls 189cm which wasn't necessarily that short for even his era. '68 GF Don McKenzie his Dons opponent in the ruck was 188cm. 1970 GF Graeme Jenkins 193cm.

Does he already have players in mind for our picks in next year's draft. Has Hogan and now Jackson going home to WA impacted decisions on recruiting WA players if talent etc is even. Did it impact the decision not to take Allen. Did the intended move to a tactical sub have any impact on the makeup of the list and the recruiting

Spare a thought for this kid for a minute. One week up at schoolies the very next without any prior warning running around against the most elite athletes in the country and having no fitness base to be able to keep up. I know the feeling of trying to keep up with fit athletes when you're not. It's excruciating. It's going to be a tough summer for him catching up. They'll really have to nurse him psychologically as well as physically. It would break many young men. Wouldn't surprise me to hear that he's got a different fitness training to the main group until at least after the Christmas break.

They probably will in two years.

Reminds me a lot of Petty. I'd be very happy with a Petty Stewart hybrid.

He was on afl.com.au a few minutes ago.

JT was just saying he has played key forward.

Except Port have already given away their first rounder next year so at this point have nothing to offer.

One has to assume that the Club has done everything it could to get him to extend his contract before entering what is now the final year of his contract. I'm sure they would have preferred to have avoided another Jackson like circus but here we are again. Can't help feeling he's gone.

I'm no mathematician but I have heard of the law of averages and based on that law surely we are due to finally draft a successful key position forward. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't believe we've ever drafted a key forward that's gone on to have a career. Lyon and Schwarz didn't come in through the draft. Neiter was recruited as a back and started his career back before going forward out of necessity when Lyon retired. Robbo was brilliant but not a key forward. I didn't realise Neiter like Robbo was from Tassie. T Mac was recruited as a back. The only key forwards I can think of that MFC have drafted are not in order Newton, Molan Cook, Weideman and now Jefferson. My genius mathematical brain tells me statistically we are clearly due for Jefferson to be a Coleman medal winning success.

Wow! A training report from Goschs. How long has it been. Thanks @Slartibartfast and any others that can make it to training over the coming summer. Reports always gratefully received from those of us who can't make it.

I know it's laughable to make any comments off photos but....... his kicking action in that photo looks like someone who knows how to kick a footy. While he might look skinny from my point of view he also looks pretty cut for an 18 yr old. Skin folds already look pretty good. He doesn't look like he's coming in from a zero base like some other Rookie B's I've seen.

A Talking Heads song comes to mind in response to this post.

Does anyone know how this is going to work when they disagree. Who's decision is followed.

Jeez Picket you must be exhausted from all the warpaths you must have been on over the years if stuffing up picks is your criteria.

Anyone have any idea who the Jefferson and Cadman in next year's draft are and how they compare. Just wondering given we have two first rounders and two second rounders next year in what's regarded as a much stronger draft so plenty of scope to trade up to a much higher pick than this years. Jefferson looks like he's going to take a few years to fill out before he's going to be competitive. Wonder if JT and team would have an eye on that when deciding who to take this year. Wonder if there is anyone next year who could potentially be better.

Believe it or not here's actually science behind this. I worked with a cognitive scientist a few years ago who has worked with some of the top sporting teams in the US. He got them to implement telling jokes before going out to play. He explained that when we laugh we release endorphins which can help to relieve pain and trigger feelings of pleasure. It is also a very effective way of calming nervous players down just before they play and counteracts negative thoughts and fears. The Tigers got on to this a few years ago and you could see them coming out of huddles laughing. They actually specified players each week that had to have a joke to tell in the huddle. I don't know if that's the basis for the girls doing it but it probably is. I'm in awe at the massive leap in their standard of play even from season 6 to 7.

A mate spoke to a players father who said we had 11 injured players playing in the finals. We know quite a few of them like Lingers for instance carried injuries for a lot of the season. Injuries can limit how much they can train which in turn eventually effects their ability to run out games. Might explain a lot. More likely explanation than Cats got conditioning right and we got it wrong.

As Yogi Berra also said "You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you are going, because you might not get there."

As Yogi Berra said "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is."

rjay I'm interested to know what announcements you and others want from the Club. Roffey and Pert have communicated earlier in the year that the Club is negotiating with around 5 different entities to make it happen and any announcements have to come from the Govt and not the club or they risk torpedoing it happening. I can't think of two better people to be involved in this for MFC than Roffey and Pert given they've both been heavily involved in the past with the entities we're negotiating with. They have advised two very promising developments which make it still worthwhile pursuing. One is that the Govt has spent from memory over $100,000 or hundreds of thousands on feasibility studies with very detailed plans which Pert has seen and said would be incredible for the Club. Secondly that the Govt has just spent, was it $2.3million on Gosch's upgrade for MFC which is clearly a sign they are very serious about MFC staying in the area. What announcement do you want from the Club? They clearly can't say more than this. I'm as frustrated as anyone at the lack of progress and I'm sure Pert and the Board are as well. Unfortunately I suspect that the Govt's decision to get and fund the Cwlth Games has probably put this back several years. As far as I'm concerned I'm prepared to wait as long as it takes to get something within the MCG precinct or until we know definitively it won't happen. The AAMI training facilities may not now be cutting edge but as I understand it they are also not second rate. The Melbourne Storm have remained one of the best NRL teams using them. They are continually funded and upgraded by the four teams that use them. Goschs is now AFL standard. As I understand it the biggest advantage of the new facilities is the plan for them to be ours alone. The other advantages will be more about non football. Like combined Admin and FD, social club facilities, museum etc.

Agree. It occurred to me the other day just how lucky we are that Grundy happened to be available just when we needed him. Imagine what state we'd be in with Jackson gone and no Brodie Grundy. It's such a serendipitous gift.

Interesting. I've often wondered whether list managers divide the salary cap into areas of the ground and players get paid accordingly and how that gets effected when you have a player or players who are the best in the comp but in one area of the ground. For instance a few years ago May and Lever were probably our two highest paid players and I'd assume it would be unusual to have focused so much salary cap into the backline. We ended up seeing why and it's probably more than evened out now. Now we have two of the highest paid being ruckmen. I have always been a big advocate of the importance of having a good ruckman but I'm not as clear about it anymore given we've had the best on in the comp and arguably the best midfield for him to service yet it hasn't translated to stoppage dominance. Teams with average or poor ruckman have been competitive and even better. Dogs were interesting for a few years there being the dominant clearance team by a significant margin without having any decent ruckmen. Centre bounce clearances don't have an excuse, I realise some of this in stoppage clearances is due to our tendency to play with one less at the stoppage but still it's an interesting one. Will be really interesting to see what two elite ruckmen do for us. Especially when the opposition has to bring in their second ruckman against one of our two.

I realise talking about Hannan in a Hunter thread is getting off topic but I spoke to him in the preseason after this and told him no matter what happens to him for the rest of his career we'll all never forget this moment. He was thrilled. I asked him what he was thinking as he was getting closer to goal. He said if you have a look at it you can see me glance across looking for a better option. I really didn't want to kick it myself. He said the kick didn't go well off his boot and he was crapping himself it was going to miss. So his initial emotion was relief. Back on topic, I reckon by the end of next season we will be looking back on this trade and putting it up there with the Langdon trade as a quiet trade that turns into a massive bonus.

One of my greatest regrets. I started going every week in Robbie's first year but didn't keep the footy records. Would have loved to have kept the record of the games I had gone to. Also my members card back then which got you into every home and away game. They used to click off the ones you'd been to on your card. Oh well. Unfortunately I remember a lot of them. We lost 22 in a row in my first two years. We had one win to break that run and went back to losing.