bing181

For mine, no real expectations, and suspect we may well be cleaned up like Free did to us last year. We have so many young(er) players, and they could well take some time to get up to speed - and that even includes some of our "stars" such as Grimes. Not forgetting, the likes of Jurrah, Bennel, Jones even Green, have yet to play in any kind of competitive match this year, they're bound to be rusty. Whatever happens, will be good to get some kind of game time into an extended list, and hope to see the likes of Strauss, Maric, Jetta, Spencer etc. get a run.

Yep. With the list we have, and with the turnaround that Jimmy, Cam etc. have brought to the club, if we don't believe that we can be serious contendors for the next 10 years, we're all wasting our time. When Bailey speaks about being "competitive", he's slammed for being cautious, yet when he lays the challenge on the line he's over-reaching?

Rhino doesn't do degrees. Agree with your post myself. There's a difference between bravery and stupidity, and blindly putting yourself in dangerous situations is the latter. I always remember what Robbie Flower said after getting cleaned up by Dipper on that fateful day in 1987: "It was my fault, I should never have been there".

Probably referring to unauthorised colours or patterns ... paisley, floral, plaid etc., or even a bit of "product placement" (e.g., Burberry)

Blease? Great to be positive, but he's yet to play a game.

Saying the same thing a dozen times doesn't make it a discussion. The club have legitimate concerns re playing surfaces and preparation, and have (re) scheduled the intra-club accordingly. Close thread?

I wasn't there, but let me guess .... Kelvin Lawrence?

Green. Apparently announced to playing group at training this morning.

Re getting match fitness through Casey: First up, VFL starts a week later, so the earliest he could play Casey would be April 2. Then, in a bit of an unfortunate coincidence, both Melb and Casey have byes the w/e of Apr 23.

I would have thought that was a genuine shorter term concern, even for the whole of this season, but perhaps not longer term. Sure, he can run and keep his general fitness up, but he's going to lose upper-body muscle and condition ... perhaps he'll come back in through the wing or midfield.(!!) I'm in the "very bad news, but let's find the silver lining" camp myself, and hopefully, he isn't going to miss too many games.

Great to be back up, but still getting a LOT of pages/threads not opening: Safari can’t open the page “http://demonland.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=24286&pid=394262&st=0entry394262”. The error is: “bad server response” (NSURLErrorDomain:-1011)

A bit of a fine line between those two categories IMHO. Also, from today's, Joel Mac is listed as being in the rehab group. It's going to be interesting to see who's sitting out the first intra-club matches, which must only be a few weeks down the track.

Would be great, here's hoping he doesn't have the kind of injury issues that have dogged him in the past. Maybe another year older and another pre-season under his belt is all he needs. Gysberts is another who seems a bit fragile, with a succesion of niggling injuries over his first year at the club.

... and will be all season, injuries permitting. Moloney wasn't 7th in the Bluey for nothing (after missing quite a few games), and Jones has just been promoted to the leadership group. Team selection is about balance and these two provide a solidity and grunt that not many (if any) of the younger brigade can bring to the table ... for the moment. Back to team selection: most permutations seem to have been tried, but I'd definitely be looking to include Petterd (best forward last year until injured) and Bennell (really stepping up it seems).

!!!!!? And adult men who hang out with 16 year old girls?

I'm with Emma Quayle on this: "I understand why St Kilda & the AFLPA are outraged, but why would the players even take these pictures to begin with? I don't get it."

Woah, it's only December. Last year we lost Jurrah and Sylvia in final practice matches just before the season proper started. Bit early to talk about "full list".

... it was only a matter of time. FFS. The captain is voted by the team, then endorsed by the FD and Board. If Davey gets it, he deserves it.

Real credit to the club, that unlike the Lions, they managed to turn that trip into something really special for the MFC, the supporters and the boys. Taking along old players, people like Max Walker etc. etc., they really made it something that has clearly had a really positive impact around the place. Building something special here. As ye sow ...

Not sure where you're getting your "hiring a chaplain". Cameron Butler (if that's who you're talking about) has been there since 1997. Nothing's changed of late ... and if he's been there that long, must be doing something right, can't be too many other people who've been onboard since Neil Balme was coach.

Yes ... we kind of got Campbell for Bruce, Howe for Hale (for the trade with North we didn't have to do), and McDonald for Cheney. Let's see how it pans out.

Be interested to know what the situation is with Tapscott. He had that injury towards the end of the season with Casey, but thought he'd be over that now. It's just that with all these training reports, I don't think anyone has yet mentioned that he was working with the main group, so wondering what's going on. Maybe just management, but he's one I was kind of hoping would be ready to "step up".

Yes, and wonder if they were hoping that we'd get Lynch, and then either Cook (yep!) or Lycett would come through to our second pick. But as has been pointed out,maybe we've done well in the Rookies, where we seem to have got what the FD thought could have been 3 first-rounders (or close to it). I also like that we've gone for a few "late bloomers", i.e. players who only came into view late® in the season. Campbell, Evans, Lawrence, Howe ... In other words, players who perhaps we've picked up cheaply. I look at that Lawrence video and think "this makes up for not grabbing Lewis Jetta as a rookie". But .. I'm an MFC supporter = eternal optimist!

Like!!!

Suspect the question is more what Viney knows from his time at Hawthorn. Worked for Campbell, looks like it worked against Thorp.