drdrake

Just because you don't have a membership ticket doesn't make you less passionate about the team you support. I'm a member of MFC have been for a decade now and love going to watch the footy. There are a few reasons why I buy a membership, one is to guarentee my Grand fianl ticket should the MFC make it, I don't have to que up for a ticket, I get to sit with the same people in the same seat and to give my liitle contribution to the club every year. This doesn't make me more of a supporter than someone who is a non member, it gives me privledges they don't get but we all share the same passion. The fair weahter supporters our band wagon supports are fans when they only come out of the wood work with the club is flying.

Pickett will be named but wont play, Holland will only play if Caroll our Rivers doesn't, get set for the return of the Biz.

Although our players look like they have all trimmed down, you can still maintain or even increase your strength. Muscle bulk doesn't always equate to more strength. If we have increased our fitness does this mean we can cross off ND excuse of 2006 that we run out of legs, every game we lost we ran out of legs according to ND.

Hearing St Kilda's Injury problems I don't think Gardiner will play, that was my match up for Holland. Whelan Carroll Biz Bell Rivers CJ Green Mclean Johnstone Robbo Miller Bruce Davey Neitz Yze Jamar Mcdonald Jones White Moloney Bate Buckley Buckley wont play more likely Pickett or Ward will, at this stage in is more likely to be Ward. If your picked you would want to play well with Pickett and Bartram at Sandy, along with some handy types in Sylvia coming back from injury, Brown, Ward or Buckley, Wheatley, Holland, ferguson all capable of holding their own at AFL level. Also a kid that could be anything in Newton if he gets his confidence up at Sandy he could get into our AFL team.

Ward's disposal yesterday was terrible in the style of game the MFC is trying to play their is no room in the 22 for him, he just turns the footy over a large percentage of the time. The only way I would play him is if we have to due to injury or he gets a job on someone. You just can't have someone in your team that consistantly turns the footy over, this goes for Nathan Brown as well, I'd rather see Bell, CJ and Buckley play than Ward and Brown.

Just back from Geelong and saw a very uninspiring game of football. Geelong kicked with the aid of a strong wind in the first quarter and we did OK except every time we got the ball on the wing we had no options. We either had all pushed up the ground or Neita and Robbo were still a kick and a half away. Trav was our best player, he got heaps of the football and generally used it well. Miller presented well and would have taken 7-8 marks. He took a good contested mark in the third quarter and went back to kick a goal into the wind from about 45m out. Moloney was in our best - in fact our midfield did OK today. Jones was good, Brock got his hands on the footy but looked like he needs another run, CJ was good - a very smart footballer who set up one of Robbo's goals when it looked like Geelong was going to clear. I like the look of Buckley - speed and nice skills. He won't play round one but if he can hold his form with Sandy he will play this year. Rivers went off at half time only to return in track suit pants, I didn't see anything happen to him, maybe it was planned to play him a half and Ferguson a half, Ferguson got towelled by Mooney in the last half after the hairy cat was ineffective in the first half. Biz started well generals the backline, Ward and Brown showed today why they shouldn't be in our best 22, Ward got a bit of the footy but never hit a target, Brown just makes bad decisions. Davey didn't get a kick, Neita had little impact our rucks continue to be a concern, Jamar did take a couple of nice marks but both him and White had little impact. We should haveran over the top of them in te last quarter kicking with the wind but it looked like the players were starting to think about staying healthy for round 1

Dunn has always looked more comfortable closer to goal, were Miller looks his best on the lead around midfield. Both aren't that good in a contested Mark, as stated Miller wins as a Lead up CHF but Dunn is better at ground level and has goal sense. I post in my starting 22 for ST kilda that we play 2-3 HHF and for fo the traditional CHF because we don't have one. Robbo, Bate, Bruce accross HFF with the late Bruce and Bate playing more a a midfielder role that works to become the link between coming out of defense and setting up attack. If we need a strong presents upfield let Neitz gat out to CHF5-10min per quater and send Robbo to the leading FF role. I suggest that we play Bate like O'Keefe from Sydney, someone suggest that it works for Sydney because thay play on the small SCG, IMO it will work on the larger grounds because you have super fit tall midfielders playing this role not many tall defenders will be able to run with Bate/Bruce. The defenders may not run with them and zone off, bad move Bate can kick 55-60m and if you leave him loose he will carve them up and Bruce has the footy brain to do the same, no AFL coach will leave Bruce by himself he can all so kick bags of goals on his day. I think we are all looking for the J Brown, Carey type we don't have one so we need to find what suites th MFC.

Round one we still need to get through saturday with no injuries but I would like to see the below line up B:Whelan Carroll Ferguson HB:Biz Rivers Bell C: Green Mclean CJ HF: Robertson Bate Bruce FF: Davey Neitz Yze R: White McDonald Jones Int: Jamar, Johnstone, Pickett, Brown Why do we need to play a big CHF? If Robbo is fit push him out to the HFF, Bate to play a similar role to O'Keefe from Sydney, a hard running CHF that plays more like a midfielder and have Bruce on the other side these three are all about 190cm and can run especially Bate and Bruce not to many defenders would have the stamina to run with these two all day. To mix it up during the game Neita can come out to CHF and Robbo back to FF. Pickett to pinch hit HFF 5-10min burst.

I watched two other teams Geelong and Brisbane last night in the first game I've seen this season, I hope our run and carry will be better than what I saw last night, even though I couldn't care less who won I was frustrated watching this game style that was poorly executed. If you turn the ball over playing this style it is going to hurt you more than kicking the ball 50m to a contest.

This is a good concept, even if we get 10,000 MCC member paying $40.00 thats an additional $400,000 into the bank. The bigger issue is the money the MCC pays the clubs that have the MCG as their home ground. If the MCC has 25,000 MFC supporters, and a total of about 60,000-70,000 total members why then is our ground deal well below Collingwoods deal. You can't base this on gate receipts because that goes to the clubs, maybe the catering deal, the pies pull larger crowds so more money is spent on food and drink. I remember last year they mentioned the ground agreements and the Pies are getting about 2-3Mil per year more that the Dees. Thats the difference in us post the large profits they do.

Thanks Ian Johnson, good to have a Melbourne supporter in high places. Might have to enter this into my Diary and get there.

If you have foxtel the Cam Bruce interview is on the FSN channel with some good snippets of training.

Let the Victory play all their games at Telstra dome, you hear many AFL clubs say that the break even point at Telstra dome is around 30,000, I would assume the Victory would be the same, why wouldn't you want to fill a 20-25,000 stadium every single week get a good return rather than be concerned about losing money if you don't get above 30,000 people at Telstra dome. Scrap it all, develope a new stand at the existing Athletic track, that can hold the Storm and MFC Admin and Training Rooms, where not going to use the playing arena anyway, and donate the savings you will have to the MFC and Storm.

Why is the 2007 family at the Junction Oval? Why can't we have it at the MCG or the parklands around the MCG? Pick a day when there is no cricket on, there are plenty of weekends between now till the season proper starts and have it at the MCG. Plenty of parking easier access with public transport and it is our home ground.

I think everyone is rating Fremantle to high, they have made the finals only twice, the only reason they finished top four last season is because Melb, St Kilda and Collingwood dropped the ball. They still don't play well away from home, although they are getting better, they have to play the Eagles twice at Subi, these games may determine where they finish. If they can win one they might finish top four. Eagles St kilda Melbourne Sydney Adelaide Fremantle Bulldogs Geelong

Interesting article in the Herald sun today about the Dockers. As a MFC supporter the thing that stood out to me was the statement that LG Sponsorship of Fremantle is the most valuable football sponsorship in Australia, across all codes. How valuable was assesed would be interesting to know. I wonder where our deal with Primus ranks.

A couple of points on the above, I think Yze is in competition is with Pickett not Robertson, both Yze and Byron go missing and can be very lazy footballers. Do you want to retire David Neitz at the season's end? Neita is turning 32 yo his domain should be from the goal line to 35-40m out, if he has to lead up like Barry Hall does up on the wing and working hard back the big Neita wont see the season out. Bruce as a third tall defender, you may as well put Yze back there, Bruce is a soft fringe player, put him on a player that likes body contact and they will kick bags on him.

With our list now giving us a few tall defender options I hope that we never see Miller back there again. Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Miller only join in full preseason training late last year due to OP or some other injury. I like the idea of the three talls in our forward line Miller playing his usual lead up role Dunn working around the 50m arc with Neita behind him, Robbo floating around Davey on the ground crumbing front and square and not up on the wing, Pickett or Yze rotating through the other spot both extremely dangerous on their day, try stopping that forward line. Ward should only be a back up option only, it is time for Bell or CJ to play ahead of him. Jones, this guy will be a big player in our midfield this year, he was so impressive last season that I can't wait to see him play in 2007. The hardest decision is if to play Holland, Bizz, Ferguson, Warnock or Frawley. Holland got smashed against the saints last year, the only way I would play him if he can play on Gardiner.

B Whelan Carroll Ferguson HB Green Rivers Bell C Johnstone Mclean Bruce HF Robertson Miller Davey FF Dunn Neitz Yze R White Mcdonald Jones Int Jamar Bate Sylvia Pickett

One thing White does and Jamar to a certain degree is when they win the hit out cleanly it usually is an effective hit out to our advantage, that is the key stat, a ruckman can win every hit out but if it does give your team a advantage it is pointless. It would be good to find a stat for all the competition ruckman for this.

It reads a lot better then 0 disposals in two grand finals.

Isn't it funny how three years ago no one wanted to draft skinny quick aboriginal kids because Leon Davis couldn't get a kick in games that mattered. Bring in Davey who has dominated since his arrival and now every club is looking for that type of player.

Its a shame Brad Millers ability as a footballer rules him out as a captain, I think he has most of the attributes to be a captain but is missing the one big key that is to be able to turn a game and dominate. A captain has to have a tough presence about them. Besides Junior who is a bit old to be our next captain, the only player in our leadership group that is tough doesn't take a backward step, can turn a match as he did against St Kilda is Brock. IMO this guy has all the attributes of being a great leader. Hopefully Neita can captain until the end of 2008, then Brock is our man.

His claim to fame prior to Hawthorn was coaching a Stawell Gift winner, I can't remember which one it was mid 90's. I trained as a sprinter for a few years and I remember going to a Hawthorn/Melb game and Hawthorn did sprinting drills as a warm up, high knee lifts, bounds and a few other things I had a good laugh and knew we had the game won because they would be spent after doing this. Conditioning coaches that have a sprinting background have not had a lot of success at AFL clubs. It is hard to go from training someone to be fast for a certain distance 100m 200m 400m to coaching football teams it is constant running with short bursts. As previous posters have said the Hawks soft tissue injuries where high when this guy headed them up. Hopefully he has learnt new training methods and trains them as footballers and not sprinters. I am really concerned about this appointment, especially the issues we have had with OP to our younger players over the past 2-3 seasons.

These are good decisions to be made, I think our forward line can set up as below Miller Davey Pickett Dunn Robbo/Neitz To create space for Neitz and Robbo, play two CHF, Miller playing his usaul CHF role up high leading onto the wing, with dunn behind him lead around the 50m-60m area.