Ron Burgundy

I absolutely love Mark Neeld.

I hope so - I don't expect we picked a 25 year old out of the VFL to play at Casey this year. From the little I've observed of him, I reckon he looks good.

What's going on with Morton's hair? That alone makes me wonder why we ever picked him.

The list seems more balanced and the coaches seem now to have an operating rhythm with this list. The players understand the structures better and the fitness has seemingly improved, potentially significantly, from last pre season. That said, we are still likely to be a bottom-ish team - and that's not Neeld et al's fault - we were coming back from a long way behind the pack. Everyone seems to realise these things. But, it's not irrelevant to also reflect on some of the events of last year: - Jim Stynes passed away - Neeld's appointment was heavily criticised (pathetic stuff by the way) - Neeld was accused of racism (again pathetic stuff) - some of the senior players chucked tanties and refused to 'buy in' - the lemming that is Brock McLean was lead to water by the luminaries OTC and triggered the pathetic and wholly destabilising tanking investigation - one of our sponsors lost the plot Thus far, the new coach hasn't had to confront these issues. Fingers crossed, it will be smoother sailing off field in 2013.

Did Farren Ray play for the Saints? If so, anyone able to report on his game?

Ben, I'd be interested to know how you assess Pedersen's form to date and his likely role this year?

Welcome aboard Stingray. Whilst we clearly had a VFL standard forward line last year, I think we should have a reasonable forward line this year. Clark's form will be key though - I just hope his injury interrupted pre season won't cruel his performance too much this year. A forward line consisting of Dawes, Byrnes, Clark, Howe, Davey, Sellar/Pedersen is not all that bad, particularly with the likes of Sylvia, Blease and Kent playing in the forward half too. The delivery into it is obviously important though, so I still see our main issue being the midfield and the quality of the forward 50 entries will likely determine how sharp the head of the spear will be. As an aside, I had expected far more from Pedersen (early days I know), but his form to date has underwhelmed me. In fact, I think Sellar is in front of him, and that's not a great sign given that we offloaded Gysberts to get him and given that Sellar was probably more of a backline option for us going into this pre season.

Any passionate supporters getting on the cans in Moscow sometime soon?

Travis Johnstone. But it has to be the Travis Johnstone we observed in the second and third quarters in the semi final against the Crows in 2002 - not the TJ of much of the rest of his time at the MFC.

Mitch Clark, prior to his injury last year, was one of the most effective, power players in the league last year.

Totally agree. Hard for the AFL to manipulate the fixture in September if we're in the grand final each year. And that particular game's bigger than any other sporting contest in Australia every year. In short, we're sure to turn a profit and remain viable if we're consistently going deep into September. It's in our hands. That's why it's a huge relief we now have Neeld, Misson, Craig, T Viney, Brown and Rawlings in the football department.

Albeit with some exceptions, going into the game I think most people thought the line up yesterday was our 'second string' team. Following the game, I wouldn't be surprised if more than a few of them have just put themselves into contention for round one. And Kent would have to be one of those. Davey, Sellar, Jetta, Magner too. All good signs to emerge from a game in which I wasn't really expecting much at all.

Mayday.

I really hope Neeld, Misson, Craig, Brown and Rawlings will be long term coaches at the MFC. In fact, I reckon this coaching group is as good as virtually any other in the league.

It could also reflect increased efficiency from last year.

BH, I always look out for your view on matters relating to the playing list. In short, I respect your opinions and observations. That said, I think you're overly harsh on Watts. To me, he's not evolved into the player we had expected him to be when we recruited him (ie, Nick Riewoldt), but I think he has found a role which, albeit different to expectations, he fulfils very well. He's turning into this team's quarterback. He has great vision, beautiful skills and has class that is the envy of most other AFL players. He's not a crash and bash type, which may be a tad disappointing given his athleticism, but he more than makes up for it because of his other qualities. I think he is a very important player for us, and I'm predicting a very good year from him this year.

It's been literally ages since any new young draftees have made a big impact in their first year at this club. With the exception of Rivers, you need to go back to 2000 when the likes of Green and Bruce made an immediate impact. Fingers crossed that Viney, Toumpas and Kent could have a similar impact this year.

I hardly think that'll occur in relation to Tapscott. I remember the discussion pre draft in 2009, and no one thought Tapscott would be around by pick 18. He was hardly a controversial pick - in fact, to the contrary, he was thought to be a bargain at the time. He may not ultimately make it, but he wasn't considered to be a strange choice at pick 18. However, the likes of Strauss, Gysberts and Cook were thought to be slightly left field picks by BP at the time they were selected - hence, the discussion about those players often leads to "why didn't we pick [insert name of more obvious selection] at their pick".

I agree with this, although I suspect Matt Jones might be the one who really excels in the midfield. That said, I've always had high hopes for Evans and he got my vote in the poll.

Probably stated it a million times before, but I still can't believe we didn't pick Zaharakis with pick 19 in his draft. That said, I really hope Strauss has a break out season - he is, after all, a 'nice kick'.

I think it's unlikely we would've been able to secure Hogan with pick 3, Toumpas with pick 4, Dawes and Barry with pick whatever (13/20) and Viney with pick 27, if Hogan was eligible to play this year. In short, the whole deal we structured was probably based, at least in part, on Hogan not playing this year. This being the case, particularly given the spectre of cheating that seems (wholly unfairly) to hang over this club, I think we should probably just accept what we willingly and knowingly signed up to a few months back. That said, I love the look of the bloke and wholly accept Ben Hur's view that this guy is going to be a superstar, the likes of which this club has not seen for decades.

Pleasantly surprised Frawley's injury hasn't turned out to be as severe as it looked to be at the time. When he went off, I was fearing a long stint on the sidelines.

On reflection, I tend to agree with you Fifty 5. At the time, I was extremely underwhelmed by our performance against Richmond. It had all the signs of our loss to them last year, which I think was the worst game I watched last season. Simply hated that game. That said, as you've pointed out, we had our B team, we'd just played a half of football and, fortunately, they did work out how to stop the bleeding in the second half, which is probably a good sign. To me though, it really illustrated our lack of depth in the midfield. I like the look of Evans and Matt Jones, but they desperately need better midfielders around them to do well, ie, not the likes of Couch and Magner. Pedersen's performance also concerned me - I had hoped for much more than he delivered. In short, the game against North was really good IMO. But the Richmond game gave me tremors - I hope you're right in the observations you've made about it.

It's possible he'll be my favourite Demon by the end of the season. He's a little ripper. The 2012 draft 'week' could possibly be the best ever for this club. Hogan, Toumpas, Viney and Barry - hopefully all 200 gamers for this club.

Jones didn't rate the tatts on Martin's neck - he's more of a sleeve kinda guy.