Adam The God

Tom Bugg is playing football and he can't kick a football. Carlton are terrible, but I doubt he'd be in their top 10-15 players.

This speculation and potential interest from Carlton was a shoo-in.

I'm a fan of the young and the old working together. Do it all the time in my projects and I advocate for both. The old MFC website seemed very simple and lacked decent video content. I hope to see more of it.

I'm impressed with our new digital content crew. It seems like actual content makers younger than 40 are producing the content on the website now. So much slicker already.

A year is a long time in football and if we're serious about a flag in 2019, we won't want to be playing players if their form dips, just because they're a leader. We've come further than that. I concur with Jay Clark (dangerous, I know) in that this needs to be handled delicately.

Is that what we should pop your alarmist politics down to as well? Old age? Left of Stalin. What rubbish. The Age lost its way a while ago, but mostly because of who sat on its board and made the decisions. As for the topic, Gaff hit Brayshaw and should cop the penalty. If we're talking politically left, I'd say the sentiments around the Gaff hit were that violent actions on the field should perhaps be dealt with in a similar manner to violent acts off the field. I can see the thinking, but I'm not for it as it's a contact [censored] sport.

Gawn/Viney as co-captains for mine. We want to be able to play our best 22 all year. Nathan will still be voted vice-captain and deservedly so.

I would imagine it would depend on what Melbourne can offer in terms of brand exposure. It shouldn't be as simple as $X in marketing/advertising budget, but maybe you're right.

Equally, it could mean we've got more bargaining power and thus negotiations drag out longer. ?

Ah yeah. Nice area.

Ah. No deal then. I also thought I might have coached your son at Lloyd Street, where we played in the same East Malvern footy jumpers.

And they also signed Kent on a 4 year deal. Not really an apt comparison at all.

You most certainly can. It's fine not to drink but just because you have one drink, doesn't mean you'll turn into a raging drunk. You didn't play at the Knights yourself did you? That was my old club.

So you guys have basically barely watched him, but are a bit pessy. Righto.

They look ridiculous. Go to bed.

Yep, although Weideman is still young and will have patches of inconsistency. I hope 2019 becomes a year where he can take a few games by the scruff of the neck (ala Curnow) - and yes, he was a match winner against Geelong, but he faded in and out of the game. In the meantime, Preuss will need to help him out.

Actually sounds super immature. Professionalism is great, but once he's inside a professional football club, he'll need a proper eating programme and the players around him will remind him it's fine to be dedicated, but you also have to live a little.

It's interesting this. I think his set shot kickin suffered after the blow torch was put on him that selfish piece of play in the middle part of the 2018 season. His game (in many ways) got better as the season went on, but his kicking for goal certainly never really seemed to recover after that period.

I agree with the view that Petracca's 2018 is underrated by some Demonland posters. The comparisons with De Goey are always going to be there, but what people don't realise is due to Petracca's injury, he's played a season less than De Goey. I expect and hope year 4 (of game time) will see a step up, because we really do need him to fire in the forward half and in stints through the midfield. He is a pick 2 so the pressure to perform is rightly placed, given our investment in him. Some of his goal assists in the 2018 finals series were absolute gold though.

And on Harmes, I'm hoping he doesn't take his foot off the pedal either and re-doubles his efforts to improve even further. If he gets to A grade, with a fit Viney, we'll have the best midfield in the competition (if we don't already).

It may well be the element a number of teams use from Collingwood's blue print this year. Without Hogan down there, as long as Preuss and Weideman can bring the ball to ground and our smalls can get to the foot of the contest, with our inside 50s we'll be dangerous.

Yep, exactly. With the three clearly defined areas of the ground covered by Preuss, Gawn and May/Lever, we are well positioned in the new system. If need be, Gawn could drop back defensively too.

Clearly the way to exploit the two rucks is to play hard and fast running smalls, and to exploit their lack of run and endurance off half back when these talls are resting/playing forward. I hope Preuss really works on his endurance this pre season. He'll need it.

Completely agree. Top 4 should and I'm sure is, the goal for next year. If we get some luck at the pointy end and with injuries, our system improves (with natural improvement from our young list) and we hold our nerve, we're a big chance at going all the way in 2019 or 2020.

A bit of a nothing article, but I certainly agree with Lyon's sentiment. Petracca's stats weren't bad, but for a Pick 2, we need more from him. I hope we get it from him in 2019.