Craig Drinker

22 minutes ago, hemingway said:

Whats more depressing than losing?

Reading the negativity, criticism and bagging of players, coaches and Club.

There are winners and losers in football as there is in life.

In many countries there is poverty, deprivation and a life without future. However, people remain happy. They have faith, hope, patience and also optimism for their future or their children's future. 

So if you see no future for the MFC and if all that comes to mind are negative thoughts.....then for God's sake give it away. If there is one worse thing about watching your team go down at the MCG, its sitting near a bunch of whinging Melbourne supporters bagging their own players. I can think of many occasions when I have got close to decking some of our supporters for the comments that they shout out. 

Have faith, optimism and positive thoughts or give it up and make your life and the life of family and friends a happier one.  Did the Bulldog supporters give up on their beloved club. No, and look what happened. After years of frustration and disappointment, they won a flag. 

Losing brings disappointment and frustration. It dents your expectation, confidence and hope. However, there is always next week and a win will bring renewal of these things. The best posts are those where their authors have constructive comments about where improvement can come from, such as selection, team balance, game plan etc. See the upside to this young side and coach, and appreciate that this is still a developing list with lots of improvement still to come.

  

Amen Ernest! Totally agree.

Constant bellyaching is counterproductive.

1 minute ago, Ted Fidge said:

Who was his brother? Epic? Legendary?

I think he was a tailor of some sort?

Dud thread.

On 16/04/2017 at 2:53 PM, Goffer said:

My family's from Galway, so the old man hates Mayo with a passion. I think he's started to feel some real pity for them though, even going so far as to barrack for them during the All Ireland last year. It'd be like MFC supporters cheering Collingwood in a GF because they had lost 8 in a row and they were starting to feel sorry for them 

For what it's worth I prefer Mayo to aioli.

My view on Oscar is that he offers a fair bit but is still a work in progress. The occasional spell in the twos won't do him any harm at all.

The thing that keeps freaking me out is I can't stop likening him to Prince George from Blackadder when I see him running around on the field.

I better check my medication!

Does Trengove get a run before Petracca?

I think Dawes would be most under the spotlight. Seems a great bloke but just doesn't provide value for money.

I disagree with many re Grimes. There would be plenty of others under the spotlight before him. I'm not sure where the "He doesn't read the play well" fantasies are coming from. He is one of the better 'sweepers' we have in the backline.I hope he remains a one club player because there is a lot to like about him.

I want to see value in Spencer but I just need someone to convince me. I would rather have a competent/skilful backup ruckman than the 'wrecking ball' variety. I was surprised when they re contracted him.

I must give him credit though for his pace, given his size and his tackling.

From my understanding the pre season draft is for players who have already played who can then be drafted onto the senior list, not the rookie list. The national draft is only open to players who haven't been signed to a club before.

Thanks Chris! That sounds good to me.

Hey Demonlanders,

Got asked this question at work but wasn't sure of the answer (mind you I'd had a couple at lunchtime). I know that someone on here will have the answer.

What is the difference between the pre season draft and the rookie draft? The best I could offer was that the players picked in the PSD could play straight away and the rookies would have to wait for a promotion to the list via and injury to a listed player or otherwise?

I don't really understand the pre season draft. Please enlighten me.

We should be on the lookout for a backup ruckman that can go forward and kicks goals. Takes the pressure off Hogan a bit. Unfortunately Spencer doesn't offer this.

He is more of a 'wrecking ball' type ruckman that is not a great kick and might take a mark once in a fortnight. We are a bit light on for a bit of quality in this department and I hope the club are addressing this.

For those in the know, does King provide and option here? Is he coming along at all?

You make a fair point Daisy. If only there was a way of locking in with the Melbourne CBD part of those boundaries ...............?

Jumping topic , but still sticking with the next thing on the agenda:

I think it would be huge if we could convince the Melbourne City Council to adopt the Red and Blue colours. Therefore when ever the Melbourne City Council's brand goes out into public it is accompanied with the Red and Blue colours. The hope would be that in time everybody (football people and non football people alike) would associate Melbourne the city with red and blue and recognise the tie in with the MFC.

We could also help the city of Melbourne with a new logo as the current one (the one they use at the tennis and Grand Prix etc) is outdated and atrocious.

I understand this would not be an easy thing to achieve(there may even be big hurdles in the way of it happening) but it could be a great branding idea. I have passed this idea on to the club and they have at least acknowledged my email. Just a thought. Who knows?

Another clone of Brayshaw would be nice. Glad we've got that lad.

Me too and it is improved further by having another top pick in the first ten. Non other than Christian Petracca. He surely must be regarded as a new addition to our squad. If he is as good as Brayshaw I will be delighted. Fancy, 3 recruits in the top ten. Wow!!!

Might be able to add Trengove to that list of new recruits. Fingers crossed.

Bigger forwards:

• Dawes
• Pedersen
• Watts
• Frost

Medium forwards:

• Garland
• Dunn
• Harmes

Smaller forwards:

• Garlett
• JKH
• Kennedy
• Kent
• Petracca

There's a few options there none are amazing but the one that intrigues me the most is Harmes after his marking against GWS.

Petracca more likely to slot in the medium forwards group. Bit light on for the bigger guys imo if there are injuries (Dawes springs to mind). Hope they can fast track King.

From all Roosy's talk on TV you expect us to be recruiting players with good leg speed and endurance. Players that can't run won't play, paraphrasing Roosy.

Kind of agree with that philosophy. However, we do seem a little light on for key forwards. I think Dawes is too often injured and doesn't provide value for money.

Who can we trade for? For any well informed Demonlanders -any key forwards upcoming in the draft that we should look at?

Elsternwick Park is awful.

You must remember 100+ years ago the whole area was swamp land. It is the lowest point of Melbourne.

I live down there and it is not the place to build a state of the art training facility.

St. Kilda can have it

But yes it is close to Wong's Cafe..

Can't believe Wong's is still going.

How is the food these days?

Remember going along with the old man as a kid in the days before take away containers. We used to bring our own steel pot along and get them to fill it up with Chicken Sweet Corn soup.

They used to have an Australian menu available too for folks that couldn't cope with Asian food i.e sausages, chops etc.

Never did understand that, I always expected Chinese food at a Chinese restaurant?

Delicious!

Socrates never made such a mistake.

Neither did Bill and Ted.

I was punching the sky like a wild man when Petracca fell to us, but now all I see is a talented kid who will likely be playing against us in two years time.

I hate this current footy climate.

Loving the pessimism! That's something special!

From those reports, it is good to hear Jimmy Toumpas is relishing the 'dog house' drills.

If we can get Toumpas accustomed to physical contact - then the sky is the limit.

Toumpas is completely deficient inside of a contest, it is an area of complete weakness for him.

I think if we can get Toumpas to play without fear of contact, that it would go a LONG way to improving his ability to find the pill.

As good as he is on the outside, he is only on the outside due to fear. MFC can't have players who wait, our mids will have to be versatile.

Jack Viney has the complete opposite problem to Toumpas - in that Viney needs to sometimes not go in, and actually spread more.

Rubbish! But beautifully articulated.

I think Jimmy, if he has a strong pre season will give a strong showing in 2015. I think he will thrive on the competition as he seems pretty driven. For me lack of fitness was an issue for him last season and the high expectations put on him (mostly by himself it seems).

I think Jack Viney will be the other big improver. He is a great competitor.

Can't wait for season 2015 to kick off. Even excited to follow Casey in 2015 with a new coaching group.

LH..what youre implying and what OD has said are not actually mutually exclusive.

Roos is definitely trying to work his magic on Toumpas, and he;ll need to. As OD rightly says its talk and talk is peanuts really but as you rightly suggest also , talk is possibly all we have to work with in that respect currently. So talk it is.

I have my doubts about the Toump and am happy to be wrong. Lets hope I am

Please remind me how many seasons Toumpas has been at the MFC and how many full pre seasons he has taken part in?

I'm in the camp that believes Toumpas will be a quality player given the right development and reasonable time frames to prove himself.

Yeah I know and really didn't do much wrong against the Eagles, so fair enough. I'm just looking to the future a bit. Hard to see Byrnes bothering too many opposition teams with his pace.

Would have liked to see Blease in for Byrnes. Having said that, it would have been difficult to drop Byrnes as he had a decent crack against the Eagles and I understand the selectors view.

Despite Bleases inconsistency he seems to be a rarity in our team, a player who likes to take on the opposition, no matter what their position is on the ladder. We have nowhere near enough of his type on our list imo.

I think the selectors are clearly thinking leg speed with the ins.