Ron Burgundy

Do you think he's got a bruise today?

Surprised with Nicholson over Jetta/Terlich. Perhaps they see him as being better defensively than those guys - particularly given that Dunn and Watts will be the real distributors running off half back. Wish Dawes was playing. McDonald is obviously a big out.

I tipped Melbourne.

I actually don't think it was. I had thought Jacobs was an absolute lock for that spot.

Don't know if agree with this, RR. And, as an aside, I reckon Watts is more likely to be AA this year than NikNat - just a hunch obviously.

It's been a long time since our best 22 hasn't been completely obvious/predictably settled. We finally have some genuine competition for certain spots. Thank you Mark Neeld.

Expect Jack Watts to feature strongly in the B&F this year ...

From what I understand, it's not actually leg strength - hamstrings have more to do with it. And technique obviously.

I agree with your sentiment about drafting interstate players (ie, one can't be spooked about the potential 'go home' factor). That said, Gubby Allen said at a function I attended about a year ago that most clubs would've picked Jack Watts at number one. His testing was fantastic and he was seen to be a bloody good prospect at the time. Some seem quite conveniently to forget this now. To date, perhaps he hasn't quite displayed his potential - certainly not consistently anyway. Whereas NicNat has been bloody good during the same period of time - NicNat was way ahead of Watts physically when drafted though, and has been playing in a much better team and has been second string to arguably the best ruckman in the comp - material points of difference IMO. I reckon this year we'll start to see why Watts was so highly rated at the time. It's also worth noting that we recruited him to be a 10 plus year player for us.

We've made some terrible recruiting blunders over the years. To my mind though, recruiting Jack Watts at number one in his draft is not one of them.

The only thing preventing Viney from winning the Rising Star this year will be injury ... or suspension. He'll probably average 22 disposals (most of which will be contested) and 6 or so tackles each week.

The encouraging thing I take out of Robbie's post is this: "The coach is excited with the playing group and said success may come a lot quicker that we think, said don't worry about the negative headlines just focus on the club, he's very positive." That's a far cry from about 16 months ago when he came into the club, and expressed utter bewilderment at the professionalism, culture, fitness level etc of the list. As everyone knows, Neeld calls a spade a spade. He also commands confidence and respect, and strikes me as being very competent/capable. So, if he's positive, I'm positive.

Top post Robbie!

I have absolutely no idea what to expect this year. That said, I have absolute confidence in Neeld and his approach to rebuilding this list.

Yep - and those Kiwis are much better suited to the other code, not AFL.

We're now starting to see why every club, with the possible exception of Collingwood, would want Dave Misson.

I reckon Sylvia is very valuable to us. He'll be the Guerra type player we WILL need when we're having a tilt at the flag. Clearly we need to bolster the midfield, but it's not going to be Sylvia who fills that void. That's unfortunate given our expectations when he was recruited, but he's not turned into that player. Ironically, Sylvia's value will kick in once we have built a much better midfield. In short, we need to keep Sylvia and recruit a couple of really good, established mids at the end of the year to add to the talented kids coming through (Toumpas, Viney, Barry, Kent etc). You will then see a more effective player in Sylvia. I'd be extremely disappointed if he walked at the end of this season, particularly for no compensation in return.

Living in Sydney, I generally look out for Ben Hur's posts, particularly his training reports and his observations on new players to the club. Prior to the season commencing, it's pretty hard to get a handle on the new recruits from afar. And, in this regard, I find Ben Hur's posts to be very insightful. I don't, however, quite get the disdain for MFC supporters. It's footy - we're not dealing with sub particle physics after all. There is absolutely nothing intellectual about it. Most of my mates don't even follow AFL, let alone the Demons, so this is a little MFC community for me - and, with the exception of Stingray (who only signed up last week), I don't actually know any of you. That said, I know if the Dees actually managed to achieve the unthinkable and win a flag, it's with the real MFC supporters I'd want to share the glory with (ie, the Demonlanders) - not my friends, many of whom are very cool, intellectual, interesting individuals. In short, it matters not how intelligent the supporters are - it's the shared interest, the common bond/passion that I find addictive when it comes to footy. After all, why else support a club?! I cannot imagine casually strolling out of the G, having just won a flag, and not wanting to bear hug every other Demons supporter I see. The thought of not wanting to interact with, or talk to, any of them because I find them ignorant or stupid seems quite strange to me. What a soulless experience that would be. From my perspective, I have other interests, outside of footy, that fulfil my intellectual needs - and that's why one of my pet hates on this site are the constant references by certain posters to the perceived intelligence of other supporters. Given the subject of discussion (ie, footy), I find the continual references to lack of intellect to be ironic in the extreme.

I agree with this. That said, if we knock to off Port and then Essendon, I will literally be bouncing off the walls ...

Dave Misson's no muppet. The plan he's implemented for Clark APPEARS to be rolling out perfectly.

Thanks for the report KC. Clearly a fine recovery from you given that you were at a Buck's last night ...

My thoughts exactly. I can see why we went for Pedersen - but I've always been nervous about what we traded to get him to the club.

Have you recently updated your car, RR?

My thoughts exactly. We brought him in to perform, and that should be our expectation.

It's like they're trying to take our suburb. Unlike Carlton, Collingwood, Richmond and Hawthorn, we actually grew out of the MCG.