jnrmac

Didn't he say "I'm excited to go to melbourne as my first club"?? Says it all really

It's clear that we were pushed off the ball too easily and ran out of legs this year. No super intelligence required to arrive at that. Hard bodied players who can get their own ball and dispose of it. Hmmm who'd have thunk. Recruitment styles change over time just like when everyone was trying to recruit the next Kouta. Our recruiting from DB's time was to recruit skilled players who had the potential to become elite. A raft of earlypicks meant we could choose that path. Pretty hard to do that now with a few compromised drafts. The club was aware of this skew or bias and are now adding the required grunt which is always much easier to come by. I would hate it to have been the otehr way around or we'd be stuffed.

I am definitely in the camp that says we are not hard enough but I do think we have to cut them some slack. It's blindingly obvious at this pointthe players were unfit and being treated with kid gloves. I know they are a year older and can probably handle higher loads but if they haven't been trained the right way then maybe its not all their fault. WTF were the administration doing??? How could they not see the training loads were vastly different to Collingwood who train next door???? I don't get it.

Misson said they were ramping up training because of the break. I imagine a lot of grunt work and then some time for the bodies to recover.

Definitely no interest from Bank of Melbourne. Horse's mouth.

Won't happen here. The AFL formed the commission back in the 80's which owns all the intellectual property associated with the clubs including logos, colors, jumpers, competition etc. Smartest thing they ever did. Their experience with Edelsten and Nth Melbourne was the wake up call. Debacle. The comp has gone from strength to strength and they are so far ahead of any other sport in australia it's not funny.

Sssshhhh!

Ha they'll show it after House & Garden......

SO does spending $6m on a 2 yr player. AFL is a mockery of itself.

That would be sarcasm then? Or you didn't watch the GF

MAgic guys. Thanks for the detail. Love it. Seems to me like there are specific zone and defensive drills being formulated. Love the fact thee is plenty of talk - it has really been missing in recent years. No encouragement or leadership. The defence is the obvious area we need to fix. Kick ins, defending kick ins, zoning etc. Great to hear that there are solid plans being implemented and the intensity is UP UP UP. That will probably mean they fall over half way through the year but I don't care so long as they start like they mean it in the first 8-10 games.

Don't want to be the "Devils Advocate". But that was against boys. I'm just grateful he will get a full season of VFL under his belt before he plays in 2013. Devil's advocate?? More like muppet master. What kind of comment is that?? He was playing against players older than himself. Doesn't change his speed or commitement to the contest. You really need to check what team you follow.

His anticipation looks quite extraordinary. Can see where the ball is going and nothing stops him getting there. Nice.

Misson said this training session would be ramped up because they were about to head into a break. Makes sense.

It has been stated that they tried to contact him and couldn't. No-one else seems to want him either. Adios Wonna.

With regard to what the club knew about T$ who cares? There was nothing they could do about it anyway even if they did know what was going on. They knew the rumours as did everyone but T$ chose to lie to them. The club got the best deal possible. Move on. As to the: Geelong debacle; Anderson Report; C Schwab reportedly being about to be given given notice; the coaching situation; and, the fact the club are astounded at the hard work being done by the new coaching regime; the supposed second big sponsor; the supposed treatment of the 2011 sponsors - these are all legitimate questions. I suspect you won't get an answers as they will be deemed 'commercial in confidence'. The Board does however answer to members and needs to make a statement. How is it the club is astounded at the hard work on the track? Clearly they were not aware of the work being done by the top clubs and the workloads undertaken by the elite players. How is it that we could have been so far behind the competition in fitness? That is the most important question for me.

It's obvious. He was rejected for the Melbourne coaching job. Didn't make it to the second interview. Thought we were disrespectful. What a [censored].

Agree with Sylvia but in 8 years his best in the Bluey is 5th. Can't see him doing this with regularity from here on. Zero second and third efforts. Will definitely be interesting to see how Neeld handles him.

Nice flaming post RI. Beamer and Rivers were 1 and 2 in the B&F. Jones 4th. That's how the club rates them. If you don't think they deserve to hold their spot I'd suggest no-one cares what you think.

Been doing a bit of analysis of our list. No doubt Neeld and BP have gone for solid hard at it players. We will not get pushed off the ball this year and will introduce a new range of competitive players. Going to be fun to watch. Got a lot of height now too. The midfield still looks too slow to me. No-one there that can explode and take 5 paces before delivering to a fwd other than a Sylvia. Height (196-208) Big Body (BB) Speed S Gawn Spencer BB Fitzpatrick S Clark BB Martin BB S Jamar BB Watts S Sellar BB Cook S Tall to Mid size (190-194) T MacDonald Frawley BB S Rivers Morton Dunn BB Davis S Bate BB Garland Howe S Gysberts Avg to MId (184 - 188) Taggert J MacDonald Jurrah S Grimes Tynan Sylvia BB S McKenzie BB Trengove BB Strauss Petterd Green BB Blease S Small (177 - 183) Bail S Moloney Bartram S Tapscott BB Jones BB Jetta S Bennell S Davey BB S (shortest player on list!) BACKS.................MIDS........................FWDs Frawley.................Jamar.......................Jurrah Garland.................Martin.......................Watts Sellar....................Beamer.....................Green Rivers...................Gysberts...................Clark Bartram................McKenzie................Howe Tapscott...............Sylvia.......................Jetta Grimes.................Bail...........................Davey Davis....................Jones.......................Cook Taggert.................Bennell.....................Fitzpatrick Strauss................Trengove..................Petterd J MacDonald........Spencer..................Dunn T McDonald..........Gawn......................Bate Tynan....................Morton Blease..................Nicholson My likely certainties to hold down a spot B Tapscott Frawley Bartram HB Garland xxxxxxx Rivers C Bail Beamer Jones HF Watts xxxxxxx Howe F Green Clark xxxxxx Foll Jamar McKenzie Trengove IC Martin Davey Grimes Sylvia Need more consistency or to step up Gysberts, Jurrah, Petterd, Dunn, Bate, Morton, Bennell, Blease, Jetta, Nicholson I reckon our best 22 (barring injury) has three spots up for grabs CHB, CHF and fwd pocket Any thoughts???

Martin and Sellar are two similar body types 198cm/100kgs. Martin I think is a lot more agile and quick but with both we have height and body size. We will have some serious flexibility when Fitzpatrick, Cook and Gawn get their bodies right.

Who have we got that can break out of the midfield? A Daniel Kerr, Judd explosive player. SOmeone that can get the pill take 5 explosive paces and deliver the ball to a forward? These guys are hard to find granted but a midfield of Bate, Beamer, Trengove, Gysberts, Jones or even Tapscott doesn't do it for me. Maybe Bail and Bennell could play that role but we gotta find someone that can do it.

There is ZERO to be gained by Melbourne complaining bitterly to the AFL. They still control the pursestrings to some extent Schwab was on the committee that approved the rules. We got maxim compensation allowable We arguably didn't do our homework on the bogan money grubbing family Revenge is best served cold.

Maybe Phil was the grassy knoll....

Bate and Dunn are 192cm so its not as if we need more players that height.