DV8

I imagine its only a bit of bone bruising. They're protecting him from further knocks to that area, until game day. IMO, consider him a Lock!

Forget the Snow, that is a dead loss if that happens. They'll all head north for the winter.

To me the bright side out of this is we don't need TMc as much. He is more likely top worsen the toe issue in the wet contested slog, and the opposition will look for every opportunity to get at it. We can play a smaller forwardline with bulk, including Pedo in. Give TMc the extra week to get right. These conditions would have been just right for Viney but he's not ready. IMO we need bulky forwards, and our speedsters. Those that are opportunists of the spilt mark. I wonder how JKH would go in these conditions? I think the Wet, brings their guns back to us, a bit. I can see Buggster in on one of their mids.

Well if that is the case, the point remains. We still need to be doing these type training camps more than most, needing this sort of training regime. We would be dragging the bottom of the AFL ladder in terms of being one of the AFL's harder clubs. So this sort of camp is just what the Doctor ordered, for our Mfc ailments. We should be doing this camp, every end of Pre-Season. .

So why then do the Special forces put their men through these trials, & the SOGies as well. They are the elite of their Skills, they have to be, the standouts. So we here are worried about a couple of little injuries, and some sleepless nights during the course? really? Or are we worried that some players may decide to leave the club, because its all too tough? Do we want to be the Big Winners, or do we want to be the best AFL host team, as we've been for so many decades? A lot of players got rich from us,. that would not have cut the September mustard, in most Grand Finals. . Our problem hasn't been to top up a talented list; its been to get them playing to win flags. To remain disciplined to that cause. To not party during the week. To be single minded with the ultimate prize in focus. And because of this, lacking the desire needed to develop our recruits into men, real stars, instead of spectacular players fond of the camera. This is where our players have developed into, doing the spectacular, instead of doing the winning. Our young recruits all want to do that spectacular thing, instead of busting their arzes all game, every game. This is our collective failure. And this is the bathwater experience, & this is what we continue to achieve. 'The spectacles' of the competition. .

This is exactly what we (Mfc) need, to sort out who will stand up under adversity; you know one who left last year would not cope with that scenario, and these camps sort out the tough players we can rely on most. And they aid in teaching some young ones where they need to get to. Its an exploration deep into athletes psyches to see how deep their commitment level is, and where it falls away. It is this sort of venture that will help us find the leaders we need to look to, Who Will in time, help us change our cosy culture into one more like the Hawks battle hardened culture, & the Swans, new Cats modern day culture.

Richmond in season 2017, lost a total of 7 games from 26 games played. Melbourne lost 10 games, from 23 played. Richmond finished with a healthy percentage of 118.29% Melbourne fished with a percentage of 105.22% One camp does not change mental strength much, just as one Pre-Season does not build an AFL player into elite AFL level aerobic fitness. Its one step towards that end. Doing nothing results in nothing. Doing as you've always done when not achieving, is most likely going to result in the same. This club has to learn to change its mindset. If it ever wants to achieve the biggest prize, its says it wants to fight for. Playing safe is not going to cut it. Blaming the umps, blaming the weather, blaming some curse, is not going to help achieve anything, apart from more disappointments .

Not every Club/team has a need to improve their hardness. All clubs will have their better points and all will have their sore points. Ours traditionally have been being too nice, too generous with the opposition, & being reluctant to trade with heavy hits & meanness on-field. We like it when the game is played around the wings as a traditional strength, with outside runners. It looks great around the Mcg wings, when we've carried the footy, in bygone era's. But the name of the game is winning Premierships. Something that is a decided weakness in our past half century.

It won't. A cracked collar bone doesn't leave a player unable to maintain leg fitness & condition, nor aerobically. After a few days the player can continue to run. If we're concerned about injuries at the expence of being hardened tough competitive hombre's, then we shouldn't tackle at training, we shouldn't go for high marks at training, we shouldn't push one another over. etc. The special training camps are setup to find an advantage over the comp. It works for the Melbourne Storm and they are now one of the power clubs of the NRL, with Premiership Cups to browse. Our Mfc methods of 50 odd years, are not something to others to follow. So we need to change, & to harden up.

fiddle-faht footy. This is an issue for the whole club imo, because it seems that when pressure is on us, applied, or sometimes when we just feel pressured, we do exactly this. fiddle-faht footy. We have to stop over thinking things and play with instinct, & with some level of spontaneity. Waiting for something to happen, when we hold the footy, is the ultimate of not-taking responsibility. If you do not hold the initiative, then the opposition must have it.

Yes. But that camp isn't about fitness. Its all about mental toughness, to show the club which players have more mental toughness to withstand anything thrown at them. This is how Bellamy works out which of his players he can rely on to get the job done, whilst the rest, he then knows more about, and how to get the right training for them to improve. Its also about building 'a comraderie' of not letting one another down under intense pressure. Its these things that Melbourne traditionally are poorest at. And so its no wonder that some of the players turned up their noses. That's its too hard. They don't like it. Its not about the paycheck, its not about the players, its about this club, its about winning, its about Premierships. The players are only the servants. They should get perspective that they are not the game itself. Guess what, they don't hand over Premiership Cups on a silver platter, to my knowledge. .

We are at our best when the whole club (and supporters) remains nervous about all games. Its 'when we feel comfortable', that's when we fall, fail, become soft losers. We can never afford 'that comfortable feeling', in any 2 horse race.

Its as if supporters are waiting to win one, & then win the next one, and when that occurs, 'It's as though, 'Here we go', 'Here we go', 'Here we go'. 'We're on a roll now to finals'. This IS the epitome of the front runner. Who cracks under real pressure.

We're not mentally strong collectively, in any comparison with the mean AFL average. We lost games by points, we lost games & momentum when we played injured players who should have been rested longer, & some went on holidays mid season up north to overcome an injury. came back no better. softness pervades the club. If we were mentally strong we would have won more of the close games & we would have allowed players enough time before coming back in, thus trusting our list players to do the job, whilst injured players recovered. Becoming mentally tougher is an ongoing process, that needs refreshing often. year by year. You don't acquire that by refusing to go on a time trial, or refusing to do some iron man type camp. We've got a long way to go before we can goo ALL the way. .

In any AFL campaign, Expect injuries; all clubs will get them in Pre and Main seasons. If your not copping injuries, your not playing hard enough. Its part and parcel of what you get in physical contact sport. Trying to avoid injuries is an easy way to exit the competition early. Injuries aren't our downfall, lack of courage is one of the main issues. 'Playing Safe', instead of taking the game on and backing ourselves against the best of them, is the only way forward. Don't worry about umpires, of knocks, bruises, or even broken bones. They will occur, sometimes, or even often. But its all part of an AFL season and we cannot waste our focus on these negatives. We cannot take our eyes off the ball and our goals..

I hope 'that old tail' is not still furiously wagging. If it is, it needs to be docked off.

Spot on Layzie. And he's (malthouse), countering that bloody Cornes, who is running that bath, for us all to lap up in.

I'm referring more-so to the Hawks machine of many decades, & really the Swans as well, since Barassi went up there, with the likes of Paul Kelly, Lockett, Roos, Kirk, Goodes, Bolton, etc. All leaders of their era in the AFL. All winners, all stars for the right reasons. All courage and guts. Never say die. this is what we lack, to keep the arrogance & the pitfalls at bay. Our stars all fell to the same pitfalls, and really did not get the chance to learn the ways of the really successful clubs. So our stars cannot really advise as all fell to the soft footy ways within the club. Gerard Healey did learn the wayz. We do not have ONE Luke Hodge to call on, nor one Sam Mitchell, no Brett Kirks. Ours have not measured up, since one Flower.

Even Northey's boys, ended up with this trait, which ended up being titled 'Hollywood Boulevard'. Ever wonder how the teams that Balme'y had control of, under produced. Star-studded,,, but mentally weak teams. We had big names, who would star when it didn't count. And after that period, that same attitude prevailed, even under the new incoming coach. We got to finals, but never really were serious contenders; even in GrandFinals, where we were just toyed with, in the serious stuff.

Its in the walls, its in the fabric, its in our songs words, its everywhere, in all areas of this club. Like spores, hard to sterilize them. Coaches come and go, and that makes it hard to control this infection. With us its like athletes foot, the spores are always around. In the old days we had ruthless hard coaches who were aware of the little psyche things, that creep in. In the NRL the Broncos have Wayne Bennett. one wise old hand, and always gets the most from his players, just like Kanga Kennedy did with his. We have this 'elite thing', going on around the club, and this is the relentless 'open-window', to the selfish play that creeps around this club. This is where the arrogance starts from and takes hold, because arrogance can be like a drug of addiction.

He doesn't mean just 'arrogance'. 'Playing safe', is something bathwater drinkers, do, do. Not putting in the hard work & courage, when the chips are up in the air, is a part of bathwater-bloated failure. Fear of failure, and playing the 'safe options', is a habit of this club, traditionally a habit, since at least the late 70's. And it's a losing habit. a painful habit, and a supporter-killing habit. a membership killer. a club killer. It is all those things and we've done it well for nigh on 45 years now. We are the winners of playing safe in the league. The world record holders of that game, play-safe.

since? before that era. At least for 25 years now, and counting.

We lack quality past leaders, 'who were winners of the competition'. Leading in the rooms after games. Not letting the current players get ahead of themselves. We should outlaw backslapping our players from prior to Rnd 1. No backslappers allowed around the club after games, win or lose. Backslapping is great for overheated Ego's, and plenty of disappointments.

It showed out in the Casey game during the first Qtr with the howling gale. The pressure on our ball winner was 'hot', and we started to cough the ball up all the time. Like it was a fur-ball. The other clubs cottoned on, piling on the pressure on our mids. Its been downhill skiing, since that game. Melbourne sides Never;;; never seem to have enough strength & guts in the midfield's traditionally.. that's where you want your 'tough mothers', going in hard. Our Mens team better not be like this this 2018. Like past Melbourne midfield's of the past 25 years.

You make your own luck. Get in first, head down and you will win many frees. Get to the contest second, there is a good chance you will infringe. We make our own luck being timid & conservative attacking the footy & player. So we make bad luck, 'old chap', as that saying goes. I would rather give away a free from being aggressive at the play, rather that being timid and indecisive with the footy. Be aggressive at all times in the game, even in the last 2 to 3 minutes. We had plenty of ball & opportunity, but we wasted the ball, time and again, in the first half.