Curry & Beer

agreed but remember you are talking about people who reckon Watts being tackled in his first game ruined him forever what planet are they on

As I already stated, there is a noticeable difference in the amount of ball use and the amount of physical intensity in the training as compared to this time of year in previous seasons. What that might actually translate into is anyone's guess but at least it is a change! Given we have been a basketcase for 7 years I will take any change!

Agreed I don't know why but it seems inevitable.

seriously do you want to be informed of what goes on at training or not?

OK sounds like MC is OK then, thanks. I too really like the look of Vince, can't wait for our shiny new midfield

I had a look for about 40 minutes, generally I liked what I saw.. I'm not sure how accurate my recollections are but it seem to me that the training for this time of year is quite different than it was under the last 2 coaches. Specifically I refer to the fact that all the drills are generally teamA vs teamB drills, that closely simulate match situations and are played with a lot of intensity including full contact - I even saw them getting some push and shove happening off the ball which is really pleasing to watch. I really liked the 'keepings off' drill where two teams had to flick it by hand to each other under immense pressure, to me this is one of the hallmarks of really good teams, they can weave it around in those situations without stuffing it up and turning it over. It also felt like there was very little time for them to rest up, they just kept getting flogged. I just feel like in previous years there was far less ball use and more fitness stuff, with little resemblance to match situations. Can't add too much else, I missed the actual situation but did see the aftermath of GUESS WHO - MITCH CLARK taking a whle to get up from the turf and then being removed from the drill to go and walk around with a grimace on his face and with a trainer checking him out. Knowing him that will probably be six weeks on the sidelines (just kidding, sort of). I'm not sure if he rejoined the group, others will know.

Congratulations BH, a perfect example of why clubs hate forums

Kent - Clearly I am not the only one who has seen something special in the limited viewings of this kid, very happy with his first year Fitzpatrick - I don't know why there seems to be a significant amount of people who don't rate him, just 14 games in I have seen plenty to suggest he could be an absolute weapon.. for starters he is at 200cm which in itself is a weapon, he is solid in the air and on the ground and a much better kick than I originally gave him credit for Blease - Yes he lacks consistency, and can go quiet for long periods, but we have seen more than a handful of really special tricks in addition to his incredible pace, for mine he could become anything Toumpas - No need to explain really, huge pedigree we haven't seen yet Trengove - See above Tyson - His highlight package spans about 5 games and contains a buttload of really special qualities, that's all I really know about him but it is very exciting Viney - Great first year, was everything they said he would be in terms of his pure grunt. There is a lot riding on the shoulders of this kid to set the standard for the group in how to play tough footy. Clark - Simply put, at his best he is one of the very best KPF in the comp. The mouth waters with an improved midfield and some other KPF taking the focus off him Dawes - I am always interested in established quality players that have developed at other clubs, because I have a complex about the MFC's ability to develop its own players Vince - See above Watts - It's all there, I have gone back and forth on him, but I feel he is so close to just becoming an absolute star, cannot wait to see what Roos gets out of him Grimes - The skipper is not delivering on what he can do. Clearly one of the 'heart and soul' players of the group, he needs to impact games more Howe - Gives us a screamer just about every week but he is capable of contributing so much more, I have him in a similar boat as Watts in that he could be a versatile swingman that changes games McDonald - Going in to his fourth year we might be seeing the birth of a genuine elite KPD, love this kid Hogan - No explanation required PS so that's 4 new players (inc Clark!) and 11 who I can really see going up a cog in '14.. that's why I'm so excited

Dunn's going in to his 10th season, you would hope he can handle an 18 year old

BTW 'what we know' about Mitch Clark is that he is the only player in a Melbourne jumper I have seen dominate the arena since Neitz was in his coleman era and Yze was in his near-brownlow era

and a smack

Here we go with the BS revisionism again -oh yeah what a a friggin hero, takes a six year contract , doesn't get a kick for the last five, allegedly the 'father' of the group of indigenous players at the club - wonaeaemirri, jurrah, bennell, jetta great work there aaron, we really got a massive return from that group. Jurrah was without a doubt the best natural footballer i have ever seen. What role did you have in preventing him from [censored] his entire life up? Weren't you supposed to be the main guy behind that? WTF were you when he boarded a plane home to take a machete to a family member? There is nobody more responsible for that than you, oh yeah they said, he comes from a challenging background, but he has Davey at the club to help him through... and he obviously had no impact whatsoever on Jurrah or any of the other indigenous boys. Not to mention he went from being our best player to a fringe player in a wooden spoon side the moment the ink was dry. Great player for his first 4-5 years but after that just another leaking wound of our damaged club. Davey - another melbourne footy club hero, another Miller, another Bruce, another Jamar, another pretender racking up games and doing nothing with them. These guys are the reason we have been a laughing stock of a club for a decade.This is what we had to offer when draftees came to the club - their opponents had Voss, Buckley, Riccutio, Carey, Hird etc we had excuses like this. Please God can Roosy bring the era of some blokes of real character, blokes that want to win games of football, instead of worrying about getting hurt, not blokes that will drop their heads when tagged and never touch the footy again. FCS Davey, he got a bunch of kicks and had some influence off half-back fo0r what? half a season? then they all locked him down and it was like having a friggin ghost out there! If ever there was a personification of the MFC [censored] stereotype it was Aaron Davey. Good riddance.

apologies, yes, it is 24 games - in a way that is worse though, he had such minimal impact I didn't even notice the other 18 games!

How can you possibly think that? Strauss has had 5 years at the club for 6 games. He has shown zero.

posts like this are hilarrious people are so keen to be offended they actually manufacture the offensive content themselves and then get righteously indignant about it. Actually it's not funny it's pathetic and sad.

Yep, this is the big point for mine - as you say, if you go back over last season there were a whole heap of games were we matched our opponent for most of the day but got destroyed for a 20-30 minute period. That to me indicates that, in addition to a huge lack of experience, we had a coach who didn't have his players' heads screwed on quite tightly enough.

fair enough mate. Thanks for your efforts

I must say McQueen it is the first thing that popped into my head also... not just the tanking saga but just being under heaps of pressure when coaching us, everyone on his back, getting smashed, ultimately 186 and shown the door.. can't be good for anyone's health. Bloody awful news, all the best to him.

surely you don't honestly think that just 1 win is a possibility how could we possibly go backwards from last year after: -seriously improving our midfield stock -replacing a very ordinary coach with a proven champion (and other staff changes eg. Stone) -the assumption that Clarke and Dawes won't be injured all year again -the obligatory mention of an extra year into all these kids -Jesse Hogan there is just no logical argument to suggest we could go backwards surely

6-8 wins

you are completely and utterly wrong

do we have to do this every single year you read a couple of write-ups and watched 2 minutes of footage you are in no position to speculate on the future career of anybody even the professionals are regularly wrong shut up

why is it ignorant? unfortunately it is a statement of fact for the MFC

it has nothing to do with personal ego stroking it is simply a tool that works well across basically all forms of social media bring it back

would do it again in a second