Rogue

The subject is 'Whose Great Great Granma?'. I'm assuming she's related to someone.

I know the season hasn't started, but it's still too optimistic for me

I agree. I think this is a fair call, yeah.

I agree - the idea that you must wrap all senior players in cotton wool, only to be released for the regular season, is silly.

I thought Buckley looked alright last year, but he didn't get much game time. I noted Bailey's comments post-match regarding there being no point in playing youngsters only to have them sit on the pine. Hopefully guys likely Buckley and Garland have learned a bit about top-level AFL footy after getting game time against a strong Geelong side.

I was at the game, and I found it a little tough to diffentiate the teams at times. Demons players wearing their - red - socks up helped. Not much to add to what's been said before, except that we really suffered from a lack of structure up forward. So often we just had no one to kick it to beyond the centre of the ground, and I imagine that made some of our disposal / decision-making look even worse on TV.

Unfortunately it's a common theme for a few of our young guys. It's interesting to hear Sylvia talk quite frankly about his career prospects, and heartening to hear that his fitness seems to be heading in the right direction.

mousey, I agree with you regarding the cost of an interstate membership that is essentially a donation by another name, and seems pretty rough when international students can score a m/ship for less than half the price. It's not like the two are mutually exclusive.

It's nice to hear some positive injury-related news, in amongst the news that a few other guys aren't going as well as they'd like: ~ MFC article I think Moloney can be a good player for the Club, and it sounds like things are on the up for him.

The concern that the price for Judd was going to be too high, considering it would have been picks + players, is fair enough, but asserting that Judd isn't worth a pick 4 in the AFL draft? Hrm.

This was also reported on Sports Tonight. That's a little premature!

You did ask...

Yeah, he might be full back of the century at 26. How many years down the track is that? While I won't try and talk on behalf of Dappa, the context was season 2007.

Except they've just mixed it up by veering away from the scarf

Agreed. If we were suspended from work/fined etc for speeding I imagine we'd be rather upset.

I thought it was good that they mixed it up a bit. Most guys will have need to wear a tie once in a while, even if they don't wear one for work. As others have said, many members will have a house full of scarves already.

Firstly, my comment was in response to the following: To reiterate, hidden injuries haven't led to players careers being questioned by those who make the decisions - those at the Club itself. Fans, media perhaps, sure. Moving on to the second part of your question, that of other Clubs, you're certainly correct in asserting that it's not in a Club's best interests to give opponents information on medical history etc. However, I'm sure there are some AFL rules/legal issues involved regarding disclosure - I recall an issue re: disclosure of the Kangaroos & Hay's depression - and Clubs have players checked out by their own medical staff. I also imagine that there aren't too many secrets in footy, even if your average punter doesn't hear about them all.

Thanks for the reports, guys. I hope Whelan and Bartram can get back to full fitness. If you could watch training, then anyone could. *shrug

It might mean they're less prominent on the footy fan's 'best 22' thread, but I don't think it's going to impact on their 'currency' much in the eyes of people who make decisions, no. It would be frustrating on a personal level though, yeah. Just another one of those things that comes with being a pro sport player - how you deal with the variety of stressors.

...but not by the people who have the full story, and they're the ones that make the decisions.

...and thus concede he played every PSC game?

If you're a leader, you'll act like one regardless of whether you have a label. If Green really is captaincy material, he's going to show leadership around the Club and on the ground regardless of whether he's named in the leadership group. Regarding Miller and others, not being in the best 22 doesn't preclude you from being a leader around the Club IMHO - it's not like he's Captain. Talent != leadership. Absolutely.

As most of the comments indicate, if we're picking a 'best 22' I don't think we can deviate too much from the one presented by MFC4Life. I guess it reflects the inexperienced 'depth' that Fan highlighted in a recent thread. I'd stick Wheatley on the wing. He has decent defensive skills, and that should see him able to look after an opponent when the opposition has the ball. When we have the ball we can use his penetrating boot to set up attacks, and his height should see him as a marking option coming out of defence.

I thought the decision to keep him on the list was the right move - we couldn't have delisted too many more. If he performs in '08, good on him. If not, thanks and goodbye. Personally I don't see that Petterd will restrict CJ too much in '08, considering that there'll be a few holes left from departing [semi]regulars like Ward and Brown - not to mention that Petted played a number of games last season regardless, and also spent time up forward (although I'm not sure that's where he should be).

Back in '06, I created a thread in which I asserted that, contrary to some optimism on the back of our finals berths in '06 and the preceding years, our window of opportunity was not 07-08, and instead those were years in which we could build for a flag tilt in the following few years. Thus, I thought we were over-rated coming into 2007, but our season was certainly derailed by injuries, regardless of how well you thought we'd do. Although I think the list changes have been a positive move for the Club, we will be relying on many young and inexperienced players to front up in our best 22. I'm also not sure I agree with Fan's assertion that guys like McDonald, Whelan, Robertson, and Yze can avoid the ravages of time, and perform to the same level they could in years past. As Fan mentioned earlier, injuries are likely to hit us hard in '08, as replacements for best-22 players are likely to be young and inexperienced. While this is great in one sense - many guys will get increased opportunities at AFL level - it's difficult to bank on their output, and I think similar leeway probably needs to be given to the new coaching staff (although I also think this was a positive move for the Club). I'm looking forward to 2008, but don't expect any great success. I'm sure I'll be excited come finals time if we're there, but - for me - I'm more keen to see how we perform with a view to the future (things like how the younger guys develop, how the older players respond to the coach, and what sort of footy we play), rather than how far we can go in '08. Just my 2c PS. To those who think we should squash talk of the future because it's speculative, I think that discussing MFC and footy related issues, even where we don't have full info - whether that's because we're not in the inner sanctum, or because we can't predict the future, is [one of?] the primary reasons this forum exists...