John Dee

It wasn't so much as fitness, more the lack of match practice that showed.

It was not windless, there was a moderate SSW wind blowing all day; those ensconced in the comfort of the grandstand would not be aware of this. I spent the entire day on the outer wing near Goodwin and McCartney, Saty came by on his scooter every now and then. Brayshaw will be a beauty. I wouldn't rush him but it is up to the match committee. Saty has described the bit where McCartney coached him over the fence - Brayshaw had just done very well against the odds and got the ball out of play, directly in front of the two coaches. He was just having what most would consider a well deserved breather when McCartney yelled at him to get to go again and get to his assigned spot for the throw in that was about to take place. Casey held sway for most of the first three quarters, mainly due to poor kicking for goal by Willy. Having said that, Casey's kicking for goal was nothing special, either. In the last quarter, Willy got right on top. This coincided with the majority of the Melbourne players showing that they were seriously short of a gallop. The move of Fitzy into the ruck to the detriment of the defence did not help. Of the Melbourne contingent, most showed that they lacked match practice. Kent was particularly rusty, he was responsible for a couple of missed goals that he would normally slot. vandenBerg looked ok, JKH also. Michie does a lot but does not seem to overly influence the game. This was the first time I had seen Max King in the flesh. He is an interesting player.

Mythbusters proved that you can!

The AFL is squeaky clean when compared to bastions of corruption like FIFA and the IOC.

Roos does not give a damn about practice matches. In fact, I think this is the only one that any side he coached has ever won. In his time in Sydney, he went out of his way to lose these sort of matches. That is why we should only really look at the first half, and make pretensions of dismay at the second half. The first half is the way he wants us to play. In the second half, he took off our best midfielder and shuffled the other players around. That is what you do in a practice match, practise!

He played for Casey.

Actually 10AM is four bells.

He has accepted the one match, and will be unavailable for Round 1

I agree Ron, there is quite a resemblance!

I've seen a lot of players much worse than Magner play for the Melbourne Football Club!

8 wins and having a crack in every game.

Once you are there The Dump is a great place to watch footy. The problems are in getting there and getting in once you are there.

I was on the outer wing as I always am whenever I go to Casey. The rehab guys, Fitzy, Watts, Vandenburg, Hunt and another I could not identify where doing repeat sprints up and down the boundary under the instructions of one of the phys ed guys; it was brutal. Vandenburg is a big unit. A couple of times he deliberately started about two metres behind the rest and made himself catch up by the end. The sprints were about fifty metres. During one of the drink breaks, Watts noticed the guy near me had two little kids, about three and five, wearing Melbourne jumpers. He jumped the fence and came up to talk to the kids. The kids were speechless. I have always been a Watts supporter, even more so after witnessing this.

I'll be there!

Jeremy Howe

I smile every time I see it because it once happened to me. I had replaced the keyboard and rebooted my pc and it came up with the very message - Error. Keyboard not found. Press any key to continue. After a while, I gave in and hit the space bar; the pc then booted up, without the keyboard.

1. Hogan 2. Toumpas 3. Salem 4. Gawn 5. Frost

Three of the top eight young guns are Dees. No great surprise. The surprise is Aaron Vandenburg at #13!

He got drafted by somebody; I'm sure I saw his name.

I am quite partial to tobasco.

Petracca Brayshaw McCartin

Russell Robertson

James Harmes

I presume that the rules for the Crows are the same as ours and that they could have carried him on the Rookie list for another year. This would not impact their draft or primary list. The first thing I would be doing would be to find out why they didn't.

We will not use this pick on Jetta, unless this is our last pick. If we want picks in the PSD, we will have to pass on a live pick. Rookie upgrades are locked in to your last pick(s).