drdrake

It was a good hit out, I think the 8 eighths was needed due to the no interchange, a couple of players swapped at the breaks but of the 32 odd players that played only a couple had a rest. We didn't use any Casey players and he had a number of players missing. A couple of changes in our set up, we always had two forwards in our attacking half, they didn't push up as a high giving us options for the long kick out of off the backline. On the defensive side it seemed we always had a couple players behind the forwards which meant we didn't get opened up if the other team worked through the zone. That was good to see, to many easy goals last year because we had opposition forwards behind our zone. The other highlight was the body use to try and create space for your team mate. This was all over the ground and very good to see. Our forward structure we will be starting with three talls in our forward line if fit expect to see Watts, Clark and Martin/Jamar up forward.

Rhino, my understanding is we don't use the compo picks for F/S selection it will be just a normal draft pick more than likely our first round pick. I like Gaff as a player and WCE would want our compo picks but Essendon might have the same once Hurley goes to GWS.

It will be interesting to find out it is full match practice with AFL umpires, stoppages and so on or if it will be like the match practice at training when they have no stoppages, the coaches determine the starting and finishing point of the play. I hope it is a full match and not the later.

The cap is widening because a lot of members are waiting to see how we play, our Administration has done a great job over the past 3 years in building interest in our club, both with new supporters and the media. There was expectations that our club would take further steps forward in 2011, this didn't happen. The Club knows it can't put the same positive spin out there for 2012, it has to now rely on the on field performances to grow our club and membership base.

I agree Utah he is another player we want to be delivering the ball to our forwards. Like Sylvia he is best suited to a role that sees him working between to the 50m arcs linking our rebound to our attack on a wing or that High Half forward role, you would love being Clark, Watts and Jurrah if you can get the likes of Sylvia, Blease and Tapscott delivering the ball to you.

He might be in his 9th season but his first 4 was over coming and managing OP, from Memory it was only about 2-3 years ago he had the operation to fix this. To me Col Sylvia is a midfielder that has had to spend to much time playing deep forward due to injury restrictions and our lack of key forwards. The ideal role for Col is that high half forward that plays more like the old fashioned wingman linking the backs to forwards. I would like to see him spend more time in the midfield but once again you want him to play that old fashioned centreman working between the defensive and attacking 50m arcs. We need Col delivering the footy to our forwards and also work to be able to kick those 50m+goals. I think we are still to see the best of Col, hopefully we can get 8-10games of the very good Col and only 1-2 games of the very bad Col in 2012. He is the most dangerous player on our list when playing well.

Our most damaging and dangerous midfielder is Col Sylvia, hopefully he can get his head right and the new coaching staff can get his best more often, he has all the attributes to be an elite midfielder, his first 4 years at the club he was limited by injuries, to me he is a midfielder resting forward and not the other way around. The last two years we have seen a couple of games from him that teases us, hopefully he can become more than a tease. I've had the opinion for many years that our midfield is to one paced we have the grinding type midfielders rather than the explosive types. Once again Sylvia is explosive can get away from the contest and the other is Blease but he will blow up to quick playing in the midfield for now. We tried adding Davey to give this speed worked for a little while then he started getting tagged and it was all over for him. I'm OK with what we have in our midfield all we need to do is add some outside quality and we will be OK. The best way to beat the zones is to have some players that can take it on with speed and skill, the old run and carry like any sport that has zones its about drawing the zone to you to create space.

I enjoy watching the intra club matches, it is alwasy interesting how the teams line up, last year for example is was our best 18 V the rest, great for working on set ups but you don't get a lot out of it. I would love to see over starting forwards against our starting backs with a balanced midfield, with that in mind and depending on the fitness I would like to see the below line ups Red Team(kicking Down) Bartram Frawley Garland Grimes Rivers Bennell Bate Jones Bail Dunn Cook Petterd Lawrance Williams Fitzpatrick Martin Magner Gysberts Blue Team Strauss Davis Sheehan MacDonald Sellar Morton Nicholson Trengove Blease Howe Watts Green Davey Clarke McDonald Jamar Moloney Couch The rest to form the benches plus a handful from Casey I have McDonald in as the resting ruckman, same as Fitzpatrick

Not only that it will effect the off Field team's ability to achieves their goals of 40,000members and a FOJ sponser

We all want a star to be in our midfield, but I would take 4-5 very good midfielders over a star any day. I think we have 4-5 midfielders that have the ability to be very good AFL midfielders Trengove, Sylvia, Moloney, Gysberts, Jones, Mckenzie and Viney in the ranks add to this a very good ruck combo in Jamar and Martin. We need to add a little depth and outside quality and our midfield group isn't far away.

For those who just dismiss the NAB, for the last 3 years the teams that have played in the final have made the final 8, I think in their respective years 5 out of the 6 teams have finished top 4 that year. Gone are the years when the bottom team wins to cup. Winning is something we have to start doing, confidence is an amazing thing, this year especially the playing group has to gain confidence in the new game style and get reward for their increased efforts over pre-season.

We have 7 weeks until our first game for the 2012 season starts. We have all read training reports some attended training and once again our expectations are high, all of the posters on the site and any supporter of the MFC are bitterly dissappointed with 2011 a year that delivered one thing, a new coaching group. With 7 weeks to go the club has a lot of work ahead of them On Field Starts at Casey next Friday, then into the NAB cup. It would be nice to knock off Collingwood or Hawthorn plus beat Gold Coast and Brisbane. It will be good to show some form in the preseason. Looking back over last year alarm bells should of been ringing when Essendon smashed us followed by Brisbane beating us. Our Preseason form over the past 4 seasons have been a true indication of what was install for that year. Off Season The halls at the MCG should be buzzing, so much has to be acheived over the next 7 weeks. Starting with a sponser, followed by a big membership push we need 16500 members to hit 40,000, the goal over the next 7 weeks has to be to pass 2011 total which means we need to average a little over 2000 members per week. We have family day, A breakfast next week, the Mates of Melbourne Function, the season launch. To me to 2012 pre-season our club has had the head down and bum approach we haven't seen the club in the media pumping up players in fact the opposite, we don't have to worry about GWS poaching a player, we haven't seen a big media push by the club only a few announcements the hype isn't being built up by the club like it has over the past. It seems to me the club wants the performance of the onfield group to start driving our club the administration has done all it can over the past 4 years. Once again I'm excited about the start of the AFL season, the next 7 weeks are just as important as hopefully the 24weeks that follows.

Col Sylvia he will realise that he is turning 29 and wasted his enormous talent for the past 10 years.

Don't we have someone on our board that works or did work at BHP, they are only made 9.3billion for the first half of this financial year. A lazy 2million a per year to us wouldn't hurt and if we are focusing on China BHP makes most of their money from China.

I believe Davey is back training with the main group, Sylvia was with the main group for a couple of weeks but I believe he injuried a quad, shouldn't be to far away. Tapscott from what I have seen has been running since December he is another that wouldn't be to far away. I posted before Christmas the only players that hadn't been running were McKenzie and Spencer add Gawn to that list. I don't know his injury we know he suffered from OP last year, I hear he is running since Christmas so hopefully he can get a couple of games at the end of the Preseason.

Wasn't Collingwood doing it today also

The Medical team

AGM's aren't meant to be the most exciting things to attend. It is all about motions presentation of figure and a bit of fan fare. I was thinking this yesterday and readuing most reports on last nights AGM, the club is approaching 2012 a lot differently that the last few years. We haven't had the same media attention on preseason or off field acheivements, it seems North Melbourne and Richmond are the ones beating their chests and we are hapy in the background doing what we have to to get better. It is like the club is in a good place and we are not doing the hard sell to the football community. I like this approach instead of greating the hype through media we will hopefully start to realize our potential on field.

Thanks Jimmy and all the best. The Heart and Soul has to start coming from our onfield performances rather than an off field person. We have enough good people around the club off field, it is up to our footy department to drive this club forward.

And if we can improve or maintain his records at a reduced weight therefor increasing his power to weight ratio he will be better for this.

I posted this last week, Moloney was to top heavy last year and he looks like a to me that he has addressed this. There is a big difference between muscle mass and strength. Just because you have big arms doesn't mean you are strong. It is all about power to weight ratio, some blokes cant put on weight but it doesn't mean they are not getting stronger.

This would be the response We are in the final stages of negotiations, we are hopeful of having this finalised in the upcoming weeks.

Wrong, the reason why Morton cops it on here is he has been extremely disappointing and if he wasn't a first round pick he would have been delisted on his form over the past 2 years. As an underage footballer Cale was rated extremely highly and over his first couple of seasons he showed enough to indicate he would make a reasonable AFL footballer. I don't know what happen but he has became a shadow of the player he was when he arrived at the club. Hopefully he can gain confidence this year as show some form.

From those Photos all our guys are bigger through the shoulders and considering the amount of running they have been doing this is good. Our players just look different players to what we saw last year. We expected to see good body devlopement from our younger guys but even Green looks bigger and Moloney looks in better condition not bigger, it looks to me his body shape has changed not so top heavy more balanced with his muscle mass.

A lot of you must have high blood pressure a lot of stressed people over concerned about this topic . Ok it would be great if we all knew the sponser if we have one, I don't really think we are losing out one merchandising revenue because we don't have the sponser signed away. If it gets announce today tomorrow or mid March as long as he get one who cares.