DirtyDees DDC

Possibly slowing down as a result of putting on all that weight recently.

The MFC site has an article on the time trials. - Nicholson tops time-trial

The article state that 23 out of 25 players improved their times from the last run.

So we have 46 players on our list; we are are just 7 weeks away from our first NAB cup match, and we only have 25 footballers who can currently take part in a 3k time trial?

Taking away the long term injury to Max Gawn, that leaves 20 guys who are still having a limited or interrupted pre-season.

I think he and Bail will be competing for the "best value for money pick" title. I'm very excited to see what 2012 has in store for Howe.

I was sitting near some West Coast supporters at the Etihad match last year, and they kept asking - 'who is no. 38?'.

It wasn't just the speccy marks; it was all the other little things he does on the ground - the tap-ons to someone in a better position, or getting a finger to the ball so it doesn't go out on the full.

He's also had a very full pre-season. Fingers crossed.

The first batch of player pre-season updates are up on the Melbourne website and have been written by the relevant positional coach for that player. Worth noting both Davey's and Blease summary are by forward coach Leigh Brown.

That's a fair comment. Let's assume it's correct and all the comments are written by the coach of their assigned position (backs, mids, forwards).

It looks like Bartram and Bennell are fighting for the back pocket position;

Bate and Bail are contesting a spot in midfield (possibly commencing on the wing);

Blease and Davey are competing for the forward pocket; and

Lyndon Dunn could be the replacement power forward for Clarke, Watts and Howe (possibly coming off the bench).

In the past, these guys have played all over the ground. Now they can settle into a certain role each week. If they don't perform then there is a ready-made replacement.

He "impressed me the most" yesterday because I like many was surprised we would recruit a player in the ND that a team outside the 8 obviously thought wasn't good enough to be on there list of 40+ players.

After watching him and a few of the other new recruits he impressed me the most with his commitment at every single contest (playing the key back roll) his fitness and size. also thought his skills were pretty good. Just got the feeling he would be a great replacement for matty warnock who couldn't crack the side because he was seem as one

dimensional. Where as seller looks quicker and better skilled. Things may change but if his attitude and commitment are the same throughout the year as I saw yesterday he has a good chance of playing some senior Footy putting alot of pressure on rivers and j Mac to hold a spot

I thought his kicking was OK too and he seemed comfortable in the short passing drills. He often gets teamed up with Clark so he should be used to handling big KPFs.

He is also one of the 22 remaining senior list players who aren't in rehab!! That makes him almost a certain starter for round one.

Speaking to players last night they all said that they are enjoying the training this year and are a lot fitter. A comment was made that they ran out of legs toward the end of games last season. A negative aspect of the training this is year was a comment from a very senior player who said that there are now about 20 players in rehab which is far too many and will need to be addressed.

Jetta's shoulder means he cannot do any ball work until February. Jurrah cracked a bone in his hand in one of the games toward the end of the season. This did not heal properly so has just had some screws inserted.

Jordie has an achillies problem that is not that bad but keeps persisting.and keeps him in the rehab group.

Cook is still in rehab with his hip injury. He does not come across as a confident young man.

Davey was not there and a comment was made to me by people close to the club that he has not embraced the new fitness program and the coaching staff are concerned. I have been to training 7 times this pe-season and he is by far the worst trainer and is very introverted.

The new boys were great. Jai Sheahan is living with the Viney's and has an air of confidence about him. Leigh Williams will be a favourite with supporters. Has a great build, competes well and in my opinion a standout at training since he has been there.

James Magner is bigger than Tapscott and Maloney and would be scary in the midfield. Tapscott said that he is training with the midfield group.

Seller has impressed a training and said he hopes to play CHB. He may be a surprise packet.

Howe is a nice guy and was surprised that fellow Tasmanian Julian Dobosz was not picked in the draft.

I saw a problem with Davey at Monday's training. It was the final session - there was 4 against 4 in a short kicking drill, where the kicker had to hit a target from 20-30 metres away. Failure to hit the target meant 5 push-ups.

This should be an easy drill for Davey - arguably the best kick in the team. Instead he kept missing targets and was doing push-ups. Lynden Dunn was quite good and the rookies were ok. It's a mystery that Davey did the full session on Monday but didn't front up yesterday. He wasn't even in our growing rehab group.

I was impressed by Blease yesterday. He's showing the benefit of his best pre-season so far. His kicking for goal was good, he nailed Howe with a tackle, and his run and carry with the ball was terrific. His pace could be a real weapon next year; all we have to do is work out where to play him.

Yes i agree it's a bit lacking in the speed category, but none of the new recruits are noted for their speed. MN wants strong bodies, who can kick - the same parameters used by the recruiting team at Collingwood.

I also don't have their speed results, and i wanted the selection to be as objective as possible.

The guy at No 23 is Howe. He will step into the round one side for the suspended Sylvia.

Just a correction here. The player to step up and replace Sylvia for round one will be McKenzie. He was tied with Bartram.

Howe is next cab of the rank and he will replace Jurrah if Liam fails to recover from his injury in time for round one.

Hardtack made a good point about the minimum 10 games condition - how will a Tom McDonald achieve the minimum 10 games to qualify if they can't get picked?

I've named 24 players. We tend to use at least 30 in a typical season, so injuries and form will create vacancies throughout the year.

Also i believe we will follow Geelong's model and rest everyone at least once throughout the season.

The average weight and height of this line-up is 189cms and a big 89kgs. That's above the league average in both categories.

DD - Your correct, I think your team is pretty spot on,a couple of changes I'd make- Bartram would be in my best 21. Joel McDonald may make a good sub- but feel a lot of others would be my preferred . And I would have Davey in, instead of Gysberts at this stage.

But the HUGE & CORRECT choice is GARLAND on the WING .

Garland only got there because Lethal Leigh Williams hasn't played enough games!

Not a bad selection method but maybe you should have included a speed criteria because that team lacks some speed. I would include Bail, even though he's not super quick he is a must, Bennell and Davey for their nimble movements and I agree with Wadda We Sing on Jordie.

Yes i agree it's a bit lacking in the speed category, but none of the new recruits are noted for their speed. MN wants strong bodies, who can kick - the same parameters used by the recruiting team at Collingwood.

I also don't have their speed results, and i wanted the selection to be as objective as possible.

The guy at No 23 is Howe. He will step into the round one side for the suspended Sylvia.

Our draft and rookie selections this year indicate a new and clear direction from the club. Gone are the days when we picked skilful skinny players such as Blease, Gysberts and Jurrah.

Instead we have landed two big key position footballers from the main draft, plus a big bodied 18yo in Taggart, and another 3 strong bodies in the rookie draft. There is no sign of us planning for ‘development years’; Neeld stated today they picked recruits who are ready to go.

With this in mind, I thought I’d go through the list and pick our biggest ‘ready to go’ team. I used the official stats on the MFC website and measured the players across 3 categories:

weight,

height, and

AFL games experience.

We have a total of 46 players; 39 footballers on our senior list and 7 on the rookie list.

I went through each of the 3 categories and simply gave them a number from one (highest) to 46 (lowest). If they had the same weight or height or number of games, they got the same score (EG; Watts, Cook and Sellar are all listed as 196cm so they all came in 7^th in height).

I then added their scores in each of the three categories and ended up with a team of 22.

B: Rivers, Frawley, J MacDonald

HB: Davis, Sellar, T McDonald

C: Garland, Sylvia, Morton

HF: Watts, Williams, Dunn

F: Martin, Clark, Green

R: Jamar, Bate, Moloney

IC: Petterd, Fitzpatrick, Gawn, Sub. Spencer.

You have to admit – it’s a BIG team; a good choice for NBL or NFL; maybe not for AFL.

So I have to introduce another condition – that they must have played at least 10 games of AFL.

This will remove Davis, T McDonald, Williams, Fitzpatrick, Gawn and Spencer.

This team now looks like this:

B: Rivers, Frawley, J Macdonald

HB: Grimes, Sellar, Trengove

C: Garland, Sylvia, Morton

HF: Watts, Dunn, Jurrah

F: Martin, Clark, Green

R: Jamar, Bate, Moloney

IC: Petterd, Jones, Gysberts, Sub. Bartram

Bartram and McKenzie are both listed as 82kgs and finished with the same total score, so I picked Bartram because of his experience.

I picked Garland on the wing in the hope that at least one Demonlander would like my side.

The most valuable player – Jamar, and second is Clark. No wonder the club made a big move for him in the draft.

Is this the team that will make Melbourne the hardest team to play against in the AFL?

According to the Big Blue Book, there were 2 hit versions of 'The Hucklebuck' in Melbourne in the '60s.

Chubby Checker's version went to No 4 in the Summer of 60/61.

The legendary Brendon Bowyer did a cover in 1965 that got to No 7.

I'm too young to remember the Chubby Checker version.

Watched Grimes do a lot of work with the fitness crew, really focusing on agility and movement, seems he is making good ground, so want to see him have a better season injury wise so looks like they are taking a long term approach.

Sylvia had the ball in his hand for first time tho wasn't in main session, maybe he is slowly being reintroduced as have been previously only running solo. Is it just me or is Gysberts always grimacing when running, always looks to be struggling, but maybe thats just his look?

Thinks thats all I noticed.

It was good to see them assign a 'personal trainer' to Grimes. They did a lot of agility work, handballs and sprints. He was away from the main group but still worked out for about 2 1/2 hours.

Gysberts. I think they matched him with Blease in the sprints. Gysberts wears a t.shirt under the footy top, so it's hard to get a full look at his arms, but he still has the same thin build as draft night in 2009. At least Blease has bulked up a bit, but Gysberts - gee - just not enough meat on him. And compare him to Nicholson who is cut like a snake.

Maybe they should get him to live with Mrs Tapscott for a while.

I finally got there!! First time i've seen the training this year. I arrived at 9.30 and they were just finishing their warm-up laps - getting ready for a series of 150m sprints, broken up by single 300m runs to build up the lactic acid in the players. This was the torture test and it showed on their faces when they ran.

There were 34 players in this group (including 3-4 invitees) and they paired off with Bate and Morton first up, followed by Trengove and Jones, then Tom Mac and Nicholson, Joel Mac and Martin, Moloney and Bennell, and Watts and Green....then the rest. Bate was very impressive; I'm not sure if he's lighter than last year but he really seemed to excell at the 150 metre sprints and was always ahead of Morton who was pushing him hard.

Clutterbuck was there, and another Invitee in 'Lethal' Leigh Williams took part in all the training. Mr Williams is a big unit.

There was no sign of Evans; Tapscott was just running laps, and Cook left early with a slight twinge.

After the sprints they went through a series of kicking drills, gameplays, handball games, 3/4 field roleplays, and smaller team stuff, and were still on the ground when i left at noon. That's a much longer session than previous years. The new boy Clarke was a frequent target on the forward line. He led wide, marked cleanly and seems to be OK at kicking the ball short or long. He's a leaner, taller version of the 3 big Collingwood forwards and because of his mobility he may be used to draw his defender away from the key forward position. This could open up the forward line for Howe, Watts, Jurrah and maybe Tom Mac as an extra key forward. It seemed much easier for the middies to execute their kicking skills when they have that target up forward.

There was about 30-40 people there; men in suits, bikers, young and old fans. There was even one person there who was telling anyone who would listen that Garland should move to the wing! Can you believe that?!

They are training this Wednesday arvo at Casey Fields. We were advised that the players will commence training at 3, an hour before the official commencement at 4pm. If you live near Casey, try and get to see them. They are working very hard.

'The Sunday Age' this morning reports that Melbourne is interested in signing ex-hawk Travis Tuck as a rookie in this Tuesday's draft.

Tuck registered 3 strikes under the AFL's illicit code policy. The report indicates that our forward development coach - Paul Satterley - is a fan of Tuck.

25 yo former Demon Shane Valenti may also get rookied by Essendon.

There's a thread on the Trengove Draft site.

I believe it takes years to build up an effective working relationship with a chinese company. They also place a premium on the trust they develop with the individual, rather than the company or club.

Maybe this is why we sent Scully home early from China last year.

It's November ffs. Struggling at training in November does not equal missing a spot in the side. There's absolutely no way on Earth that Watts will not be in our best side this year - especially when you've got Petterd in your side. I like Ricky but the suggestion that he's better than Watts is laughable.

This is a new coach and a new coaching group. Past reputations mean nothing. Based on training reports from the fans, and media interviews by MN, It is possible that Bate could be selected before Watts in our best 22 atm.

Emma Quayle has an article in todays 'Age' ranking the value picks in the draft. None of our selections get a guernsey.

We've also picked 3 right footers - damn! And none of our selections are tagged as 'super quick'.

We've put a lot of our eggs into Mitch Clark's basket, but If we had not traded for Clark, we could have wasted our number 12 pick as there was a real shortage of good quality tall men in this draft.

No 12 went to Sam Docherty - a 185cm 83kg defender. The next player over 190 cm selected in the draft was Henry Schade - a 196cm 81kg defender way down at pick 24. I don't believe we could could have selected a player of comparable quality to Clark at pick 12; nor one who immediately fills our needs.

If any of our four selections can go on to play >150 games for the MFC, I'll be rapt. i just hope it is Mitch Clark.

"It was after I was signed to the Giants that he was offered a deal. As you know the rest is history," Scully said.

Reading this quote and taking it on face value, it appears that he is admitting he signed on last year. Perhaps his meaning was lost in translation from interview to print. Whatever the case i'm over this whole saga. Now I need to work out what to do with the signed jumper I have in my room.

I liked this bit from CS - "Our business has gone from $25 million to $40 million in a few years and we are looking OK for finishing in the black this year.'

We are spending a lot more - which we had to do - but we aren't going into debt.

I wonder if any of this is due to financial support from our mystery philanthropist members - as hinted in other threads on Demonland.

So the guy they were really after was Phil!! Now i get it. GWS offered Tom $6m to come to the club, so they could hire his dad as a recruiter.

I hope Phil has 2 good knees.

I like the 'Skull-duggery' in the headline. i wonder if they have any more 'sculletons' in the closet.

Maybe we should re-name GWS as 'the Pirates'.

He's only been at the club for 2 months, and already he hates our fitness levels.

Jeeeeeees!! Wait till he sees our footy skills!!!!

According to the article in the Hun today (at the bottom) Sylvia must complete his responsible drinking course before being allowed to return to the main group.

Just saw that too. That clarifies things. Let's hope he has a great pre-season.

My guess is (based on nothing other than his absence) that he has been banned from training with the player group a la Steve Johnson, Stokes, etc.

Just not publicly stated because it creates an unnecessary media spotlight.

Part of his punishment - prove that he wants to play AFL enough to train on his own.

Probably not though.

I've not been to training so don't know if he has been running in the rehab group or not.

I went to training 3 times during the last pre-season. On every occasion Col was in the modified training group. I don't know if he has injuries that require on-going management, although i admit it's odd he was available for the IR series.

I believe when he was drafted his weakness was his endurance. The funny thing is - he looks really fit. He's 'cut' and he never seems out of shape.

Maybe he prefers working out with those Zumba dance videos to burning his legs and lungs on the running track.

From 'The Age' this morning - 'More recently, his father Phil's acceptance of a full-time recruiting job at the Giants has caused controversy, but Scully supported his dad's right to pursue his ambition and said the fact his wage had been included in the club's salary cap didn't worry him. ''It had nothing to do with me,'' he said.'

What is he thinking? That the AFL have incorrectly linked his dad's salary to Tom's recruitment? Doesn't he see the blatant conflict of interest?

Message to Tom; don't do puff news stories; sometimes they blow up in your face. And get a good media manager. Or just shut up.

It's one thing to support a coach when he says "we will have them physically fit and physically strong enough to play league footy", and he indicates he will be a very structured coach and expects his players to be the same.   It looks like he has started with a clean slate 'no favourites' approach and that all sounds fine. 

 

I'm not surprised he queried our fitness levels. We seemed to stuggle at certain times this year (against Hawthorn after 1/2 time and against Collingwood in the last quarter). 

 

The crunch will come when certain crowd favourites fail to meet the new fitness levels, or don't adhere to the team structures.  Will we still be happy if a player of lesser ability such as Bartram gets picked each week ahead of Tapscott or Jurrah?  

 

The article hints that Watts is sitting down with Dave Misson and learning about the game.  I'm not sure it says the same good things about Davey and Sylvia. 

I have a feeling certain 'name' players will be out of the club by end of 2012 unless they can change their ways.