Was lucky enough to get along to the MFC Future Fund AAMI Park - end of season function last night.
For those that havent had a chance to look through the MFC and joint facilities down there its really quite impressive.
Tour took us through the
- Physio room / facilities,
- Lecture theatre,
- Pool (complete with do not dive signs above each of the spa and ice baths.....), pool is split in half for swimming 2 lanes (deep) and rehab about chest height - which apparently gives a large advantage to the boys recovering from soft tissue injuries
- gym (with dumbells up to 72.5 kgs if you dont mind), apparently 10 times bigger than Junction oval gym, obviously the normal masses of free and fixed weights and a shedload of cardio machines.
- players lounge (shared with storm & victory) etc. which was just a lot of quality tables / chairs / couches / pool table / 3 big screens with cable TV and a kitchen
All in all very impressive and obviously facilities we were sorely lacking to keep in line with the top clubs.
Neita was in attendance and actually led one of the tour groups (not mine), he is apparently stepping up his involvement with this group, so for those not yet involved, there is another good reason. Todd Viney was there as well and he spoke to a video clip of the new players with (as you would expect) particularly big wraps on Cook.
Neita also gave a debrief on the players that the Future Fund sponsor
Aussie : obviously a terrible time for him and his family. 10 players are traveling north for the funeral. Neita spoke with Aaron Davey during the week and said that although its a very testing time and he will have ups and downs, Aussie's dad was so proud that he was playing AFL(and specifically for MFC) that its very important to Aussie that he does his father proud by continuing to play well.
Colin : Not much said, progressing well, still a very unbecoming character, hope he is back to his best next year
Grimesy : Neita believed that the only thing standing between JG and the captaincy (after this one) was his body and his continual problems with soft tissue injuries.
Wattsy : David thought he had made several steps last year and from the way he spoke he obviously has spent some time with Jack. He said that he has asked Jack to concentrate on two things, his first two and last two steps. He wants him to really commit to his leads and in his last two steps be really aggressive at the ball in the air. Reasonably obvious I suppose but an interesting insight.
Neita was also asked who he thought would be captain. He said he lent towards Greeny. Flash apparently did himself massive favors on the China trip impressing sponsors, fans, the FD etc, Beamer was obviously in the running and the boys have massive respect for him, and apparently he isnt above grabbing a young bloke every now and then by the scruff of the neck and taking him aside for a good talking to if he stuffs up, but apparenly Greeny is just too good a role model, consistent and a classy guy to overlook.
David was also asked what he thought was a good and a great year next year. He replied that with so much leadership gone out of the club that to be competing for finals next year in the last few rounds (as we were this year) would be a good result, and playing finals would be a great result.
I also took a moment to speak to Todd (which ive not done before) and the conversation obviously moved to his son. We asked him whether the F/S selection meant that Jack would or wouldnt take part in draft camp / combine. Neither he or Neita were positive, but they were reasonably sure that he probably wouldnt take part.
That was pretty much it, perhaps others can add to it if i missed anything important out.
Im stuck at home sick so apologies if the spelling is ordinary, the brain isnt ticking over as well as it might and I know the above is a bit all over the place. Hopefully some of it was interesting.
Cheers
EDIT - one last thing. In the main room that we were presented to (didnt catch the name of it) they had the players magnets on the board in position. They already had a Viney magnet smack in the middle. You could tell that Schwabby or someone has fished out Todds old magnet for his son because it was slightly different to the others. I thought that was rather cool.
