bandicoot

I believe the move to AAMI Park will be one of the most beneficial things the MFC have done in recent times. Assuming that we get an equal and ample use of the premises, it will guarantee that our players are using the best facilities in the league. There is however a greater and potential non tangible benefit. This benefit will be our teams interaction with the other codes using this facility. It will give our guys a chance to mix with some of the best and most elite sportsmen in the world. It is the chance to chat with Billy Slater and Greg inglis. Muscat and Archie Thomson and some quality international rep rugby union players. This will allow our players to see how the others train and mingle with the worlds best. No other team in the AFL have this option and would secretly be jealous with this scenario. It will do wonders with the new crop to see A grade players day in day out.

Agree... For every session I did LJ will do 5. I think 4 months is probable... I wonder how much his unstable shoulder was playing on his mind in the other pre season games. Could explain his lack of performance.

For years I had an unstable shoulder whereby continuously popped out when moved in the wrong direction. I tried every exercise to try strengthen the ligaments however ended up biting the bullet and undergoing surgery. I underwent arthroscopic surgery to tighten the ligaments in June 2009. It was the most painful experience of my life and incapacitated me for a good 3 months. I Was in a sling for 8 weeks and only started proper weights training 6 months later. If LJ undergoes a similar operation he will be lucky to play a game this year. The positive is that my shoulder is 10 times better now than it was before (even though the surgeon advised me not to play physical sport) and am confidant with movements above my head. Poor shoulders for a footballer is a disastrous scenario unless you are a midfielder that can get away without much overhead marking i.e Judd. To a leading forward however, could be career hampering. Think Nick Holland who had his career cut short. Lets keep our fingers crossed that the prognosis is better.

In 2004 the Saints finished the year in 4th place and started their Premiership run. Their relatively inexperienced team managed to win 16 games that year. The 2004 team is listed below with number of games prior to that season. - 6 players with over 100 games - 6 players between 50 - 99 games - 10 players between 1 - 49 games Austinn Jones - 150 Nick Dal Santo - 26 Luke Ball - 16 Robert Harvey - 200+ Lenny Hayes - 93 Steven Baker - 70 Justin Peckett -150 Stephen Milne - 52 Heath Black - 100 Nick Riewoldt - 50 Brendon Goddard - 18 Brett Voss - 85 Aaron Hamill - 150 Stephen Powell - 90 Leigh Montagna - 13 Matthew Ferguson Sam Fisher Jason Blake Trent Knobel Jason Gram - 2 Andrew Thompson - 150 Kozi - 41 2010 Demons as follows: - 5 players over 100 games - 10 players between 50 - 99 games - 13 players between 1 - 49 games McDonald, James 235 Bruce, Cameron 203 Green, Brad 198 Miller, Brad 127 Davey, Aaron 119 Moloney, Brent 90 Rivers, Jared 90 Sylvia, Colin 87 Jamar, Mark 73 Jones, Nathan 70 Bate, Matthew 68 Bell, Daniel 66 Johnson, Paul 61 Bartram, Clint 59 Dunn, Lynden 52 Frawley, James 40 Morton, Cale 40 Warnock, Matthew 38 Petterd, Ricky 29 Martin, Stefan 27 Garland, Colin 20 Wonaeamirri, Austin 18 Bennell, Jamie 16 Jetta, Neville 15 Cheney, Kyle 12 Grimes, Jack 12 Maric, Addam 11 Jurrah, Liam 9 I don't believe that the 2004 Saints team was much better than 2010 Demons. Our expectations from the 2010 Demons side should be a lot higher than where they are at the moment...

It's not like a competing club cant rock up and see whats going on for themselves...

Can Someone video record some of Monday's training session and post it on youtube... Cheers

Great Photos... Can you add captions so we know who the players are... Anyone else with photos..? Maybe add them to flickr... Cheers

Photos... anyone???

I think its a picture of Johnny Cash.....

52k2 - any luck with uploading photos on flikr or photobucket etc...? Thanks

I was recently looking over this game and not only did we dominate the play but should have also won if it wasn't for our woeful kicking on goal. The result was 6 goals and 14 behinds Brad Miller was the main culprit with 1 goal and 3 behinds If he kicked straight we would have won the game. There were at least 2 attempts that were 35 metres in front of goal and were missed. What on earth are the Dees going to do with a forward who can't kick to save his life??? The sooner this guy is de-listed the better the club will be...

If we improved by 15% at both ends in 2009 we would have beaten: West Coast Dogs Hawthorn Richmond We would also have drawn with Sydney - 57 points a side This would have given us 8 wins for the year and 1 draw...

If we improved by 15% at both ends in 2009 we would have beaten: West Coast Dogs Hawthorn Richmond We would also have drawn with Sydney - 57 points a side B) This would have given us 8 wins for the year and 1 draw...

I didnt add Tapscott in my claculations so its safe to say that Scully, Trangove and Tapscott are likely to produce 30 goals between them. I would actually be disappointed if that was not achieved...

We can also improve by 15% on each end and we will be close to playing finals footy. 2009 Goals For 252 + 15% = 290 2009 Goals against 332 - 15% = 282 Even though we finished bottom in 2009 we actually improved year on year: 2008 vs 2009 Goals For 234 vs 252 = 10% improvement 2008 vs 2009 Goals Against 376 vs 332 = 12% improvement With a 290 goals for and a 282 goals against ratio we would have finished 8th or 9th over the past 10 years. If we improved by 10% and 12% from 2008 to 2009 it is very reasonable to assume that we have the ability to improve by 15% 2009 to 2010.

If we have a 20% better output we will be pushing for the eight. Is a 20% improvement likely>?

You are correct... Others in 2009 scored app 25 goals.... (exclusing Roberston) This would give us app 365 goals and potentially finish 6th :-) no harm in wishfull thinking...

In the 2009 Essendon finished 8th and kicked 313 goals. Carlton finished 7th and kicked 340 goals. Melbourne kicked 252 goals in 2009. We need to find 300 + goals for the year. Jurrah - 40 goals (20 in 2009 from 9 games) Bate - 30 goals (same as 2009) Watts - 30 goals Sylvia - 30 goals (17 in 2009) Green - 20 goals (12 in 2009) Miller - 20 goals (same as 2009) Wona - 20 goals Davey - 20 goals (10 in 2009) Pettard - 15 goals (kicked 20 goals in 2009) Scully - 15 goals Trangove - 15 goals Maric - 15 goals Jamar - 10 goals Johnson - 10 goals Bruce - 10 goals Morton - 10 goals Dunn - 10 goals Jones - 10 goals Moloney - 10 goals Others - 10 goals If all goes well we should be able to score 350 goals in 2010. This would definitely get us in the finals. Anyone believe that the goals above are unattainable?

I can not believe he has nominated for the national draft... No way will collingwood sacrifice its first pick on him.. Unfortunately he is not going to Melbourne... It's a little disheartening that he couldn't see our potential...

Morton and Grimes averaged 23 and 21 disposals per game respectively in 2009. This ranks them 1 and 2 from their class of 2007. Did anyone also notice that Grimes averaged 3rd highest marks per game in the whole league for 2009... He beat the likes of Brown, Lake and Mooney.

One of the worst defeats of 2009 came against 13th finishing Kangaroos. This defeat came from a team that is unlikely to push for finals in the next few years. I had a look at the 'highlights' of that game and could not find many positives. We had a real shocker and got totally outplayed. The reality is that we got convincingly beaten by a bottom finishing side with only a few games before seasons end. This is a very sobering thought for those posters thinking that we can push for finals in 2010. So WHAT WENT WRONG? There were 10 potential starters missing from the side. (half of our back line) Please let me know if the following players who were out of that game could have turned around the 62 loss? Rivers Garland Warnock Grimes Green Watts Wonaeamirri Jurrah Scully Trangove Can anyone else help turn around my sobering thoughts....

From Cameron Schwab's twitter "First look at the draft fixture today. Can't give much away, but looks ok. Good balance of games/time slots, some big matches at the G." Hopefully not too many Sunday's and a couple more Friday/Saturday Nighters

By the way.... Watts, Blease, Strauss and Scully have all played together for Vic Metro....

By next year will will have 13 top 20 draft picks running around on our side. This will be the most number of top 20 picks for any side. Our future looks bright and 13 is our lucky number 2003 - 3 Sylvia 5 Mclean 2004 - 13 Bate 15 Dunn 2005 - 12 Jones 2006 - 12 Frawley 2007 - 4 Morton 14 Grimes 2008 - 1 Watts 17 Blease 19 Strauss 2009 - Pick 1 and 2

The last 4 Years of picks are as follows: 2004 Type Pick Player Games Since Drafted National 13 Matthew Bate 47 National 15 Lynden Dunn 38 National 43 Michael Newton 15 Rookie 10 Brendan Van Schaik 0 Rookie 26 Matthew Warnock 19 2005 Type Pick Player Games Since Drafted National 12 Nathan Jones 48 National 53 Simon Buckley 18 National 60 Clint Bartram 42 National 68 Heath Neville 0 Rookie 9 Jace Bode 9 2006 Type Pick Player Games Since Drafted National 12 James Frawley 19 National 30 Ricky Petterd 10 National 46 Colin Garland 17 National 62 Isaac Weetra 2 2007 Type Pick Player Games Since Drafted National 4 Cale Morton 17 National 14 Jack Grimes 0 National 21 Addam Maric 4 National 53 Kyle Cheney 0 National 66 Tom McNamara 0 Pre 3 Stefan Martin 7 Rookie 3 Trent Zomer 0 Rookie 19 Austin Wonaeamirri 17 Rookie 35 Jake Spencer 0 Rookie 49 Shane Valenti 9 I can see at least 11 players from the last 4 years who can easily be 100 game players and big contributers. These players are the core for the future. There are not many picks here that I would give back....