DeeSpencer

Better he has the scooter and can actually get out there than being stuck inside sitting in the gym staring at the same 4 walls. As clumsy as it may look it gives him more freedom than hobbling round on crutches. Making the best of a bad situation.

He is still one of the incumbent half back flankers. So if Lumumba is used on the wing then Grimes is still part of the best 7 defenders. Presuming he's fit I think he'd have to put in absolute shockers to not get picked in the preseason games and first month of the season. Particularly when his best competition might be Terlich who's off to a delayed start to the year. Can't see Jayden Hunt or Mitch White threatening his spot any time soon. I wonder as preseason goes on and training becomes more positioned focussed if we see a midfielder (Vince, Michie, Toumpas or even a younger one like Neal-Bullen or Brayshaw) training with the backline group.

You know things are quiet when the herald sun are doing training reports! Good job by them, but they don't have anything on Saty!

Pick 20 for pick 9 plus pick 2 for Tyson. It was a lot to give up. I've always thought it was a reasonable deal but we needed Tyson to be a very very good player. Turns out so far he is. I think with time he'll keep building his outside game and makes it more damaging, he already accumulates well and marks the ball beautifully for a midfielder. Then once he gets a mature body as a midfielder I hope he gets to that elite stage at contested ball. He's fearless, reads the taps beautifully and gets out on to his left foot pretty well. He seems to have a lot of confidence in his ability to be a star at Melbourne and under Roos. That might almost be my favourite thing. He got traded, came in, worked hard and performed with no fuss.

Garlett's best seasons came at Carlton when second string behind Betts. So I think he'll struggle to reproduce 40 goal seasons in our side. He's also got to get back to some kind of form. He looks fast and skillful at training, but isn't the fittest and has never been the hardest. So I'm not setting the bar high on him until he proves he's still an AFL player. Not that I think Dawes or Hogan will kick more than him. Kent's the other who should kick a few. 12 goals in 13 games including time as the sub last year. He should be on track for 20 games, 20 goals this year. If one of them can kick 30 goals and all of them at least 20 plus from the group of Hogan, Dawes, Garlett and Kent then at least we have some consistency and something to build a forward line around. Ideally one more of Salem, Petracca, JKH, Fitzpatrick or Pedersen could do the same. 5 forwards kicking 30-35+ is what a modern forward line needs. It doesn't matter if the top guy kicks 80, 50 or even 40. So I set the bar at 4 guys kicking 20 goals each.

JKH played round 1 last year (just as many draftees did and have done previously) and he would've only been on light duties after coming to the club a couple of weeks prior if this was last year. So it's a bit early to rule anyone in or out besides Trengove. Terlich and Spencer are probably the 2 furthest back but if they were good enough they could still make it with a good run from here. Vince hasn't done much with the main group either but because he's a shoulder not a leg injury he should be progressing towards round 1 as well.

You can't just aim to tackle someone though. I mean you have to actually get the ball to win games! I get it if you are tagging but everyone else has to think about getting the footy not just tackling. If the team is poor then Hogan will have to play large parts of games outside 50 or he wont get 1 kick per quarter. I agree that none of our players should be trying to go out and just learn the game or whatever platitude is given, but there isn't really a set number of stats they should aim for. I mean if Hogan takes a dozen marks across centre half forward every week then I don't care if he doesn't score for a month because someone will be scoring from the forward entries.

An absolute lottery. Those guys (combined with Kent, Bail, Garlett and Watts) are all fighting for the same small forward, sub and midfield depth/wing role. So how many games they play comes down to how well they play but also what competition there is and how many spots. From what I've seen so far: Brayshaw and ANB: I'll link both of these guys together. I think they'll both play very well at Casey in year 1. But are developing bodies (even for strong 18 year olds) and really best suited as tough inside midfielders. I think they'll be down the pecking order and will just get a taste. 1-5 games each Petracca: He's got work to do on fitness. But is such a strong kid and natural forward I think he'll be hard to hold out from being the sub and getting more of a taste of it. I expect at least 10 or so games, but could be higher Toumpas: Super fit. Wing is still a weakness and he's better suited than most on here. All depends on if he steps up on field. He should be looking to cement a spot for most of the season Salem and JKH: Both are fitter than last year. Both were already around the mark and very good at their best. They'll both be in contention most weeks and play well in the VFL. For Salem a lot may depend on if they wish to drop him back by playing him with more full midfield games at Casey or if they are happy with his production from a half forward spot. 12 games each is probably a fair expectation Riley: Still rehab running and probably a step down the pecking order. But I expect he'll tear it up at VFL level this year given he's having a proper preseason. I think Roos likes him, but he was gifted games last year. If he's not in the main group by shortly after christmas break then I think he'll not only miss important skills training but not be front of minds in the match committee Newton: Training well, but so little exposure at AFL level you can't say what the outcome will be Michie: Another training well. Looking lean and fit, but not burning the track like Toumpy. His lack of ability to so far nail a position might still hold him back from being a regular. But counter to that his flexibility to play different roles might work in his favour. My thoughts would be that without defined roles in the team (ie tagger, outside skill player, defensive forward) that those last 3 guys shuffle in and out of the side and split 22 games between them. But I'm prepared to be surprised.

I wandered passed from 10:15 until about 11. As much as I like the fella Dean Kent's tattoo looks like an absolute mess. From a distance it just looks like a load of crap on his upper arm to go with the old one he had on his forearm. Oh how much these guys will regret them when they are 40. The usual suspects doing their rehab running. Mainly lighter stuff for most but Howe was getting a 1 on 1 work out from one of the fitness staff with a heap of interval running and sprints. Up and down the far wing and back and forward between cones. Pretty sharp drills today, good conditions for it. Similar end to end ball movement drills that are the standard. Salem and Viney had a personal session from Goodwin getting taught snap shot goal kicking from both a set shot and from general play. An experienced left footer teaching some younger guys. In one drill the 5 new young draftees (Petracca, Brayshaw, Neal-Bullen, McDonald, White) plus Dawes were the forwards on the end of a long ball movement drill. They started from the goal square leading up and then changed to starting from the 50 and leading back to goal. It was an opportunity to look at them up close. 2 of them led out on different angles to take the mark. Petracca really attacks the ball in the air and has a burst of speed, he looks a natural athlete and a difficult match up. Neal-Bullen can make some tricky things look very easy, a couple of athletic pick ups from ground balls gathered with ease and a strong mark taken on a fast lead. He seems like one of those players who will do surprising things come game day. White looks solid enough for a rookie just settling in a week later than the others. Brayshaw is interesting, he's somewhat plain to look at. Looks very young as well. But so many times of the 2 who led out he was the one who's lead was honoured. He just kept finding the ball. Oscar McDonald impressed me in other drills. One where he was working with a couple of talls taking a mark by leading back from his man, before dropping that ball and leading up at the ball. He marked an absolute spear of a kick right at the top of his long reach whilst leading flat out. Clean grabbed it. Was impressive. Then in a circle work drill involving groups of 4 going around the oval he received the ball out wide on the right boundary line under pressure and Jones running 45 degrees across him 20 or so metres ahead calling for it. He didn't hesitate to kick a nice low accurate drop punt that Jones ran on to beautifully and could then steady and kick the goal. It was a difficult kick that not many in our team are capable of and he did it with confidence and ease. From the rest of the group: Jeff Garlett is no sure thing but the way he runs and uses the ball at times is super classy that's for sure. Newton looked solid. Vandenberg ran well with Riley doing laps. He's a good size and solid through the legs, upper body of someone recovering from a shoulder injury, but that's not a huge concern. Stretch did more with the main group and then some laps of his own which is probably all to do with him being at a different stage. Lumumba is a very good trainer and the boys call him H and don't seem to have any issue with him. From what I saw it was a solid session. Good intensity. Good attention to detail.

I worry about Max Gawn. I know what Jamar is. He's an old war horse with maybe 1 more solid year left in him. I know what Spencer is. He's incredibly poorly skilled but has a dip and most weeks will stop you losing the game at least due to complete ruck incompetence. But Gawn is the man with the talent to give us several years of above average play from a ruckman and should be hitting that period in the next 12-24 months. But so much rests on him getting an injury free period. Anyway, if we have a great year from our forwards, mids and backs I could probably handle a poor year from the rucks. It only takes one trade to fix your ruck woes when your premiership window is open. It takes much more than that to find the other 21 in a premiership team.

I'm of the belief that Lumumba should and will play midfield and will be significantly better than what Matt Jones and Watts offered as our most picked wingmen. Newton is really depth and of course Petracca and Brayshaw are more for the future than now. It's not the immediate impact of Cross, Vince and Tyson last year. But it's something. Bottom 4 probably, but at least rising. I think all of Riley, Michie, Newton (as a newbie), Toumpas, Salem, JKH and Kent will be better and will have more competition in behind them. I'm not sure what that means in terms of results though.

You either don't believe in depression or you don't believe Mitch Clark had depression and somehow (I'd like to know how) you think you are right and Mitch's doctors were all duped by him. Or it was all some big conspiracy. Please clarify. If you believe in depression as a serious illness, then I'm not sure how you'd turn a reasonable comment about the death rate from suicide in to a joke about coconuts. I'd also think we wouldn't be arguing and instead you'd understand the basic point I was making that people are attacking Mitch for his trade based on a mental illness when they wouldn't dare do the same if he had requested a trade due to physical illness.

People doubt Mitch's motives because he had a mental illness. They wouldn't doubt Mitch if he had a physical illness would they? So I simply used cancer to replace depression in the story. Which bit of that is hard to understand? We aren't talking string theory here. The point about suicide is also very simple. Suicide is the worst outcome of depression. Just like death is the worst outcome of cancer. If you don't believe depression can be a serious illness requiring someone to take time off work and change jobs then I don't understand how you reconcile the fact that so many are dying from suicide. If your beliefs about mental illness are stuck in the 1970's then good luck to you. All I will say is that 1 in 6 people get depression. So if it's not you it's likely to be someone close to you. If or really when that happens I hope you are more sympathetic than you seem to be with Mitch.

I believe there could be more to the story. It wouldn't surprise me if Mitch had lost faith in the Melbourne fitness and medical staff to recuperate him. Or wasn't a fan of Roos or vice versa. But I do believe he had depression. I also can very well understand that he had advice that said a fresh start would be good for him. Why is it offensive to cancer sufferers? It's a perfectly plausible scenario. I'm sure there are many people who have had cancer and took time off work before re-entering the work place in a new environment. It's not pointless at all. The entire point is that so many people still don't grasp that depression is a real and serious illness. If Mitch had cancer we would all be sympathetic to his cause. But guess what, as a young male he's actually more likely to commit suicide due to depression that he is die of cancer. Maybe let that set in for a while.

So you think a psychiatrist, if not the experienced doctors or psychologists who Mitch saw were just duped? There's no blood test, but there are very scientific tests for depression. You might be able to lie and make up answers to tests such as the K-10 test, but experienced mental health practitioners also not things like speech, behaviour, affect etc. Last time I checked Mitch Clark isn't a well trained actor. There is also no definitive diagnostic test for Parkinson's disease, ALS or many other neurological conditions, does that make them fake as well? And you think he's tricked good friends like Chris Dawes, Nathan Jones and the rest of the players as well? All for what exactly? Did he want to be sitting at home last year putting on weight? Tearing up 2 years at 750k for a settlement which was surely much less. Did he also guarantee a contract from Geelong ahead of time? Where is the net gain here? If he really wanted out he could've simply gone through the motions recovering from an array of soft tissue injuries then reached an agreement with the club for a trade. He didn't need a mental health excuse, he was a repeatedly broken down player on a huge salary who didn't want to be at the club. If he invented a depression purely to get out of the MFC with no other obvious benefit then he has some other form of mental illness, in which case the comparison still exists.

Can we avoid going down this road again. If you're attacking him for his mental illness then you aren't any better than him even if he did fabricate the entire story which I sincerely doubt. We are human, so we can feel bitter if he does well at Geelong and make the fat jokes and what not. But you shouldn't attack his illness. And to those people who have done so under the article then either they are full of it themselves or they not only have depression but they have a shocking lack of empathy. Replace depression with cancer and replay the story: - Mitch got cancer at Melbourne - It forced him to retire - He started getting healthy again and wished to make a come back - His doctors felt he was best off away from the place where he got cancer Do you still feel the same way about him?

I hardly think he's some patron saint of gentrification though. I mean if he hadn't renovated the glass house eventually a building sitting right in the middle of the sporting precinct between what was always likely to be some upgraded rectangular stadium and the tennis centre would've found a use. It could've been converted to the third roofed tennis stadium and saved having to build the new Margaret Court Arena. Or used for tennis players as a gym/facility etc like what they've now build across the road from Gosch's. The Melbourne rebels or Melbourne City could've used it. Good on him for getting that facility. I wish we did at the time. But what exactly did he do for the Olympic park precinct that made advertising part of his deal and not ours? And once he did get what was originally the Lexus centre as a Pies venue he then should've excused himself from the board of the Olympic Park trust before any decisions were made about packing up athletics at Olympic park and taking over a historical venue for his clubs use as a training ground.

It's part of the problem. He so often goes back off the mark and then scans the field looking (and not finding) options. If you watch the Hawthorn players, as well as the Sydney kicks in McVeigh, Malceski and Rhys Shaw, instead of dropping the full distance back from a mark they often quickly gather then roll out to the direction they wish to kick before sharply pin pointing a short kick to an available target. Hawthorn do this and spread the ball from one flank to another using a series of brilliant short kicks. Often with their best kicks involved but even their lesser kicks learn how it's done. Grimes doesn't kick Bartram style floaters or shanks, but he has a very very slow and mechanical release. Garland and Dunn get away with it more because they have the ability to reliably kick long and get the ball 60m down to a taller option. I don't think Grimes has confidence in his longer kicking. Not so much in this early period of training that has a focus on conditioning, but as preseason continues the backline do a heap of kicking drills, so hopefully someone can report on Grimes and hopefully some improvement.

Not exactly our biggest problem..but one rule for Collingwood, one rule for Melbourne. Yay for Eddie McGuire on the Olympic Park trust, what a joke.

Unless we get another ruck who can play forward as well as if not better than Gawn. Then you can use them in a partnership. But Spencer certainly is only right for a 1 ruck team and the same with Jamar. I wish we could skip ahead a few years to see what Max King becomes. He's got the rare traits skill wise for a big guy to play both positions, but I have no idea about whether he can be effective as a forward or a ruck! Unless he somehow comes in quickly I think Pedersen maintains the edge for that forward/ruck relief role with competition from Fitzpatrick, who might be a little more dangerous forward but needs to show he can compete in the ruck as well as not make coach killer errors forward.

Indi Houston San Fran Wish I did early tips and went the Coybows. Funnily enough I'm not overly upset with our loss. We need to get real about where the team is at and fighting to an 8 win season would've been false hope. I am slowly getting a bit more faith in our defense even if they keep getting torched I can see effort and can see some improvement with a few good signings, we at least will stop paying money to always injured veterans in Tillman and Briggs after this year. And our offense was dead for 3 quarters before getting back in it, stuffing up an extra point and then Cutler being Cutler. But there was some signs of life. I go through swings of thinking who we should or shouldn't sack. Overall I think the franchise is completely screwed by having Cutler, but at the same time I see a sign of life if we take our medicine and rebuild with young players in every other position. Whilst our win-loss record isn't quite bottom of the league I think we are now having a season so bad that next year has to be better! So very MFC! Long term of course the entire future of the franchise will rest on picking right for the next QB. Oh to have a legitimate superbowl quality franchise quarterback. I hate those teams who have one!

When I first went to Casey fields 5 years ago there were no houses around it. It seemed even further out than could be imagined. It was Cranbourne plus some. It's now surrounded by houses. That has to be one positive. Yet it still is a stadium all by itself that requires driving to. You'd never accidentally just lob at Casey fields for a Scorps game unless you lived in one of the houses next door. Even the ground itself is set back across the train line from the main road. How Casey offer a product that is popular with locals besides from just players friends and families and how MFC fans get involved might take 2 different initiatives. Good attractive footy is definitely a start. I don't think you can undersell just how much improvement could come if you managed to shield some of the wind. Windy footy is just crap to watch. The suggestion to build small forests around the ground (or particularly at either end as the grandstands do shield the wings a bit) can not be taken lightly. I'd drop in a giant concrete wall at either end and paint a scorpion on one end and a demon on the other. Edit: In fact it would probably be smarter to just invest in a few (or few dozen) of these bad boys http://www.networld-sports.co.uk/tennis-sports-equipment/tennis-windbreaks/tennis-windbreak-screens.html

Even the fact that he's presumably getting paid to write this article is proof of the perks of AFL football. I have a friend who wants to be a sports journalist, and after years of unpaid work the best he can get is a news gig in the back of knowhere and with the cuts to the ABC and the industry in general he's pretty happy with that. Certainly the kids who have to go interstate get lumped with a fair bit more than the kids who get to stay home. But that's a very Australian thing. In US culture kids are lining up to get to colleges far away from their parents and family. For the kids who get to go to Sydney in particular like Ablett it's a pretty nice deal. One of the best cities in the world to be young, popular and with some money to your name in. 1 hour flight home if anything badly goes wrong and several trips back here to play during the season if they make the senior side. I don't think Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth or Gold Coast are punishments either, and same for the interstate kids who come to Melbourne. They do get 8 weeks at the end of the year, 2 weeks over Christmas and a couple of bye weeks to spend back home each year though. There's a couple of groups I feel sorry for and that's guys who have constant injuries like Trengove, Morabito etc and rookies particularly if they get injured and never get a chance. The injured guys get cheap contracts, go through hard yards training in isolating, don't get the joy of playing or the adulation and can often carry injuries post career and have little to show for it. Same for the rookies. I mean 50k to come for a gap year of AFL training, it could be worse. But that wont do much for you financially. You might be able to save for a car or a holiday at the end of it but then it's back to real life and you don't get the other benefits.

Agree. I saw him get crunched under a high ball on the members wing this year, he held in there knowing he was going to cop it. And his tackling has been far from the worst. The way I see it is the step up to AFL has just been much faster than he could handle. His strengths are reading the play, getting to the right spot and working very hard covering ground during a game. His weaknesses are that he has no real way to win contests and it's not really a lack of hardness thing. He's not an adept inside player. He's not a good mark or spoiler in the air. And he doesn't have the pace to sprint his way clear. With a fitter and stronger body he should start to find ways to get the ball and by then hopefully the game slows down and he can use it better. He'd benefit greatly from being in a good side as well because then all the smart positions he gets to through his work rate would be properly utilised.

Luke Ablett. Geez. He's so sanctimonious he makes Tim Boyle look good. You don't hear swimmers or cyclist or any other Olympic athlete complain so much about 'sacrifices' and lots of them have to do it very tough not just interstate but overseas, with limited financial resources and having to work to support themselves. AFL players don't have to fit in time in their life for footy training, exercise or playing a game of footy on the weekend. They get paid to do all that. So they can use their day off as well as all their other spare time to study. He says they miss their adolescence. And sure they have to be professional about their bodies and professional for the 40 hours a week they spend at the club. But in other ways they get a prolonged adolescence. Which other job would let you and 5 mates go stuff around in target filming a charity video? And don't complain about missing overseas trips. Footballers go on as many of them as most young people. Sure they don't get a whole endless summer in Europe, but the boys made it to Octoberfest just fine a couple of years ago. First year draftees are pushed not to worry too much about study or future job prospects, which is fair enough as they need to adapt to AFL. After that every player is encouraged and if they aren't doing something they have no one to blame but themselves.