Theo

Swallow, Day, Bennell, or Gaff could go to the GC with their first 3 picks. If they select Gorringe there are plenty of other highly rated or All-Australian picks available. The second best rated ruckman is Scott Lycett (202cm 95kg). A tap ruckman that is good around the ground. The Dees would probably go for the best available player rather than a ruckman. Lucas Cook (KP forward), Matt Watson (194cm 99kg) could be a great addition at FB. Midfielders in Luke Parker, Shaun Atley, Brodie Smith, Mitch Hallahan were all selected in the All-Australian team and could be available in our first selection. I hope we go for a Gorringe or a kP player in Cook or Watson.

I would be very cautious about elevating Spencer the the senior list at this stage. Given that we will probably have a minimum of 2 or 3 picks in the National draft and elevate McKenzie, we will have to delist 4 or more players at years end. Miller, Bell, Johnson, and Dunn are the obvious ones that are out of contract. A decision will have to be made on McNamara who I believe is out of contract. There's very few if any others out of contract. McDonald and Bruce are on the veteren's list so they don't count. If we elevate Spencer we have very little room to move. I would take a punt and delist him with the view of selecting him as a rookie again if available. We will have a good chance of picking up someone like Daniel Gorringe in the draft who is All-Australian ruck and KP forward. A natural footballer, not a project player like Spencer. Big raps on this kid.

For those not attending the Scoprions game it is broadcasr live on Casey radio 97.7. I find it easier to listen live on the internet from 2pm. Morton, Jurrah, Maric Sylvia, Strauss, Warnock, Bail and Miller playing. Blease, Tapscott, Martin are in the reserves game at 5-45pm. (not broadcast).

Really??? We need a large bodied, strong forward and a second ruckman???! Who's this genius and why isnt he part of our recruiting department! Personally I don't want anymore project type players such as Martin and Spencer. I don't want any Neitz or Robbo type players who are no good defensivly and are out of the contest if they don't mark the ball. How about some good old fashioned footballers that have strong bodies, strong minds, excellent contested marks, good pace, good defensively, don't fall over after marking contests and love playing for the club. A larger version of Jack Grimes would be perfect. .......................

These [censored] poor efforts mean we will probably get pick 4 or 6 in the draft. I bet they pick another midfielder. DB loves midfielders. When I spoke to him just before last years draft I suggested we get a strong bodied KP player as one of our selections. He looked me in the eye and said midfielders win games, that's the track we will be taking. That's all very well but apart from Frawley we don't have any strong bodied key position players to help out the mids. Warnock and Rivers are not strong or smart enough. Watts may or may not make it as a KP. We are a light bodied team that is easily pushed aside and are mentally fragile. The mids would develop quicker if they had some strong KP's to help them out.

I stand by what I say above. I'm sick of these pansy efforts from players that earn more money than I ever did. I hate Collingwood, but I admire the way they usually give everything they've got, even with limited ability. I've had nearly 50 years of this crap and I can't take it anymore. Give me players that want to win, not pretenders like Miller, Warnock, Bartram. To be fair these guys try but have limited ability and always will have. We need a strong contested mark up forward to relieve the pressure on Bate, Jurrah and Green. The wrong Jetta went to Sydney when we could have had Lewis instead of Neville. Pathetic recruiting. We only took Neville because he was a good mate of Bennell and they didn't want to follow up on the pleas of Neville's Mom to draft Lewis. Neville's Mom said Lewis was the best player by far. We lack size and strength down back. Frawley is good but the rest are vulnerable and panic with stupid turnovers or free kicks when the pressure is on. We looked small and played soft today which is very difficult for a supporter like me to bear because this has been going on for years. We looked small in the 2000 grand final and we've looked small ever ever since. We could have picked a key position player like Tayte Pears in 2006, but oh no we picked the super strong, super quick Adam Maric. If you think this club will have a premiership in 5 years your'e dreaming.

Chris Connolly was a guest on TAC Future Stars this morning (CH9). Talked about Scully,Trengove,Grimes and Gysberts saying nothing more than we already knew ie According to Graeme Yates, Scully is the most focussed player he has ever seen or played with. As the interview was winding up he told Hutchy, Sheehan and Dixon to remember the name Jack Fitzpatick. He said that he will be a great Melbourne player. He also quickly made the comment that there are a number of other players yet to debut. No names mentioned. He really did highlight Fitzpatrick ahead of any other player.

Bloody stupid move on the clubs part in my opinion. Cheney could well have done as good a job as Warnock and deserved his opportunity. DB said matchups, matchups, matchups. A load of poo if you ask me. I went to the Casey game and Kyle did not look to happy when he arrived at qtr time. We had to play one man short until half-way through the 2nd qtr. I give credit to the kid he played a great game when he came on. Wasted $5k going to Geelong (Cale Morton said that he would have rather slept in his own bed and was amused by it all), now another 15k and who knows how much for the Tiwi Island goodwill trip. I don't wish to be a spoilt sport but the club has rung me twice in recent weeks for money which I am normally glad to give. It's hard enough for the club to balance its budget without looking like millionaires to the media and I'm sure some supporters. It just gets up my goat when we are still trying to finance debt and then throw money away because the damn emergencies don't matchup. Very unprofessional if you ask me.

The one player growing up that I thought was a cut above the rest was Ross Dillon. Recruited from Kyabram he played 85 games before he did his knee. In 1969 he kicked 48 goals fom CHF and 41 in 1970. A beautiful mover who was a fantastic overhead mark. Represented Victoria and South Australia at Interstate carnivals. Robbie Flower, Hassa Mann, Alan Johnson, Alan Jackovich, Brian Dixon, Ross Dillon, Garry Hardeman, Stan Alves, Garry Lyon, Todd Viney and Stephen Tingay were among the best I ever saw put on the red and blue.

I am a true optimist and believe some of our new recruits will be future stars, however I have been dissapointed with some of our players that just don't turn up to play. The West Coast, North and Carlton games were really dissapointing. Whilst we have a potentially outstanding midfield I don't have the same optimism in our backline that other posters seem to have. Warnock, Rivers, Garland, MacDonald and Bartram are serviceable at best and will play well against mediocre opposition but have been found wanting against the more talented forwards, particularly those with bigger bodies. Up forward Sylvia has been dissapointing except for the occasional cameo. Miller is hit or miss (more miss). Bruce has lost his mojo, PJ is a tarzan but plays like Jane and Dunn is a very good VFL player. Mind you I would like to give him a go at FF for 2-3 weeks. To be honest the real gems this years have been Jnr Mac, Green, Grimes, Frawley and Jamar. The young kids will hopefully come on in the next few years but I really believe that we have a great opportunity over the next 2 years to recruit for specific positions. We are likely to get pick 8 or 10 this year and Jack Viney is probably going to be a demon in 2012. We need to get some bigger bodies in our key positions to help out the midfield group. Bailey has said we we need another KP forward. I believe we also need a general down back like a Nathan Bock or a Brian Lake type. A strong marking ruckman that can play like an extra midfielder would not go astray either. Recruitment is the key, the only key and nothing but the key.

Podsiadly and Barlow developed in the VFL. Watts seems a bit overawed and lacking confidence at the moment. Cheney is the best contested mark in the team, if we can't find a spot for him down back why not try him at FF or in a pocket. I was at Casey last Saturday and he seems to read the play a lot better others in the team. I've been to 4 Casey games this year and he is consistently in the best players. Also, when Bail is fit he should be an automatic selection because we seem to play better with his run. Brad Green has been interviewed on 2 occasions after the Roos game and West Coast game. On both occassions he said the team did not turn up to play. What he really meant to say was that SOME players didn't turn up to play. If we can identify the serial offenders they should be dropped immediatly to make way for some of the consistent performers at Casey. I'm sick and tired of taking my kids to see the Dees when the game is as good as over by qtr time.

Dunn played close to goal and took some excellent marks in wet,freezing conditions. He was the difference between the 2 sides. Cheney arrived at the ground at qtr time and did not look too happy. Was told to go to Casey after being an emergency for the ones. Got on the ground half-way through the 2nd qtr and played well. The club will probably incur a fine for including Warnock who was not listed as an emergency. This club of ours obviously has bucketloads of cash, staying at Geelong, having a goodwill visit to Central Australia and the Tiwi Islands. I can't believe that Cheney wasn't included in the side to replace Frawley considering his form has been better than Warnocks. Martin was useless, Wona overweight, which is pathetic considering it's half-way through the season. McNamara was good, Maric did some good things, McKenzie was o/k but not his best game. Newton did his calf in the 1st qtr and was in his civvies by half-time. Strauss looked impressive in patches as did PJ. MacDonald tuned the ball over too often and Bell did not look fit. It was a good win considering the Hawks had a good team in

I'm sure the future is bright but if we take off the rose coloured glasses it is clear we are well off the pace when it comes teams like Geelong. Even Podsiadly treated our backline with disdain and he's only played a handfull of AFL games. Most Demonlanders rave about our backline and they are fine against most teams, but Warnock and Rivers have trouble with strong bodied opposition and Garland is not the player he was before his foot injury. We really need to strengthen this area. The positive out of the game was Gysberts with the most disposals (26) The negative was the senior players going missing again. How embarassing for the team to have a first gamer as nearly our best player. Where was Slyvia(again), Bruce, MacDonald, Jones. Did Jetta and Wona actually play. Honestly the Geelong players said they didn't play very well. That says a lot about us. We might be assembling a quality midfield but be have a number of holes to fill down back, forward and ruck before we can compete consistently with the top sides.

I think the players mentioned in this post don't have much confidence in their own ability. Miller, Newton, PJ, Bell etc. Or they just don't have enough ability at AFL level. Watching the Geelong game last night the players in both clubs (except maybe Leon Davis) ooze confidence with themselves and teammates. They also have big tickers and continue to present when it is their turn. At the moment there's a few serial offenders at the MFC that go missing and don't push themselves anywhere near enough. It's left to too few in particular the backline to keep us in the game. Scully was intervied after the game last week and said that the players didn't come to play. What he really meant't to say was that SOME players didn't turn up to play. Who are these serial offenders or those players who tease us with their ability one week but are very inconsistent and go missing too often. To name a few I would suggest Sylvia, Martin, Jones, Maloney, PJ, Dunn Spencer. Bennell also plays a very important role in the team but goes missing. I would not be too hard on him because I think he will develop into a very important player. For us to win we need every player to have an influence on the outcome. Each week the same players seem to feature in the best players: Grimes, JMac, Green, Bruce, Bate, Frawley, Scully, Trengove, Jamar. These players have confidence in their ability, if only a few others did as well.

Yesterday showed that there is no obvious forward line stucture. The opposition defence seems to dictate where our forwards stand. On MMM Garry Lyon kept yelling out to our forwards to get back to the goal square. Too often our forwards got sucked up the ground with the WC defenders. Looking at the Cats last night they just toyed with Brisbane. Always had numbers at the ball and a foward line that knows exactly where to go when they have the ball. Wouldn't it be great to go to a game with the result over at half time (in our favour). I hate hate Collingwood but I really admire the way they play and that you'll always get a contest. It's painfull going to a Melbourne game not knowing whether the've turned up to play or not. Scully said after the game that the players didn't have their minds right. This has been going on for years, we play well against teams we are not expected to beat and go missing in games we are extected to win. We need to isolate those serial offenders and send them to Casey. Yesterday was just hot potato footy. No composure, Handball, handball, handball few players wanted to take responsibity to make the play. As soon as they got the ball the first option was always to handball rather than look ahead and pick the best option. A 50-50 contest down the ground would have been better than a handball turnover closer to the WC goal. Anyway, another week of frustration. We'll probably end up winning next week in Darwin then we play Geelong at Skilled Stadium. Agh.

It was announced on Nine news last night that Justin Madden has unveilded a plan for a new suburb at East Cranbourne. The plan will include housing for 20,000 over the next 15 years. Three shopping precints (similar to the Point Cook model), 3 schools, 2 kindergartens and more than 6700 homes. However the planned East Cranbourne reilways station won't happen until 2013. MFC have got a great opportunity here to increase our supporter base. I hope the AFL Reserves competition does not come to fruition because our alliance with the Scorpions is paramount in building our supporter base.

There has been some recent murmurs about the AFL re-introducing the AFL Reserves competition. I heard on the 3AW rumour file this morning that a certain South-East Council with a ground named after it is not very happy with this development because it has spent a considerable amount of rate payer's money upgrading the facility for a certain AFL Club. Does anybody know what ramifications this may with our Casey alliance should this goes ahead?

Does anybody know where Daniel Hughes is? He is not on the injured list and did not play for Casey last week. Seems to have gone missing, again!.

People seem to forget McNamara. I listened to the whole game against Geelong on Casey Radio and he was clearly BOG. Bad Gotch gave him and Cheney a good rap after the game. McNamara is very versatile and could play forward or back. There is something about him I like as he takes the game on and is not frightened to take risks.

When I spoke to DB at training just before the National Draft I said that we needed a big bodied forward to help Watts and Jurrah. He said mids win games. Mids, mids and more mids is his plan. In the last few drafts we have Morton, Jones, Grimes, Bail, Scully,Trengove, Blease,Jetta,Gysberts who are all midfield typs. Watts and Frawley are the only KP players selected. Jurrah is not a KP player. At the game today we were seriously lacking in size compared to WC. Warnock is a good average footballer who was carved up by Natanui in the first qtr. Warnock is just not big enough to take on the elite in the competition. He really isn't a key position player. I noticed today that he Does Not look at the ball as it was coming into the WC forward line. On a number of occassions he had his back to the play just looking at his opponent, he had no idea where the ball was coming from. Result, outmaked, outmarked, outmarked every time. We need a general down back like a Nathan Bock. We also desparately need a big bodied, strong contested marking forward and a ruckman who can play like an extra mid who can kick goals and take marks. Spencer was useless today, never takes a contested mark, never kicks the ball. I cannot see how we can win a premiership with what we have at present. Sadly, with the compromised drafts I don't know where these KP players will come from.

All the players should do the right thing by the club and carefully select their partners. Having children to Liz Ellis, Sharelle McMahon, and Lauren Jackson shouldn't be too much to ask. The players can marry blonde bimbos as long as they father a son to an elite athlete as well. Genetic selection should be encouraged by the club. I believe the club should seek out prospective "elite gene" partners and introduce them to the players at social functions. The club could provide "dates" for all players that don't have wives or girlfriends. Matchmaking is the way to go for a dynasty of MFC premierships.

I was there too. It happened last week as well. Sent an email to all and sundry at the club including CC.CS,DB and the communications area Also vented my anger by phone. My email: I have just returned from the long trek out to Casey to watch the team train. For the second week in a row I have gone to Casey on the Monday to watch training and guess what NO training. I checked the website this morning 8-30am and it had training listed today at Casey. This was the same last week. Whilst training can change without notice I know that training times and venues are set well in advance. 3 weeks ago I spoke to a football staff member at training and he mentioned that there would be no training at Casey on 7 December. However, because the website said that there was I assumed that there was a change, so I went down to Casey this morning. Of course there were at least a dozen other poor souls waiting there to see the team train. These are some of the most loyal supporters who go to training most weeks as I do. I am happy to give money through debt demolition and the Red & Blue Foundation. All I ask is that this great football club communicate in a more professional manner with it's own staff and supporters. I did notice that when I returned home the website deleted today's training session. MFC Reply xxxx Thanks for your email regarding the change to training times. We've let you, and the other supporters who attended training at Casey, down here and I'm very sorry for that. It was not good enough by our team. Whilst there are occasionally unforeseeable changes, the issues of the last couple of weeks should have been correct on our website. We are very determined to ensure the training times and locations are accurate in the future. Again please accept my sincerest apologies for these errors and for the inconvenience you experienced today and last week. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you wish to discuss this further. Regards, Jennifer Jennifer Watt çGeneral Manager, Marketing and Communications

I spoke to John at training on Wednesday. I asked him if it was the same injury he had this time last year. He said it was. Stress fracture of the foot. Certainly, don't get your hopes up. When these type of injuries occur it's out for 3 months or more. In his case he has been out a lot longer. He is a high risk player now and will probably miss part of pre-season if not more. His is cycling at the moment and hopes to start running in a couple of weeks. He was running this time last year doing lap upon lap only to break down during the season. Maybe, he (or Newton) should remain as a delisted player with the proviso they play at Casey and we re-rookie him next year if he is over his injury.

He did ball work for 45mins then went on the bike ride. Watts, Maloney,Jurrah, and Jetta did solid boxing session at the end. Training staff guy told me that they ease the guys workload to avoid OP etc. All planned and structured. No problems.

The new boys just did limited work. Scully and Gawn went for a bike ride with Garland, Meeson, Watts, Hughes, Blease, Bruce and a few others who are on limited programs. Jurrah and Maric. Jones and Sylvia were in everything and look VG. To be honest all the boys trained well. Joel Mcdonald has fitted in well and is very approachable. Really nice guy. Congratulated DB on the draft. Asked him about any further changes to the list. He said NO. Done, finished, that's it, no more folks.