bing181

I never predicted 0 and 6.

And slightly off-topic, but not great for anyone that after all this time North still look poor. Sure, players out, yadda yadda, but it's much the same for every team. Sacking Clarkson would be a shock to the system, but there are already murmurings. But who would touch them in 2027 if that happened? Too early perhaps for Goodwin, too hard for Bucks. Coax an old-boy like Adam Simpson out of retirement?

Probably one for another thread, but something that really stood out to me today wasn’t just the younger/newer players coming into view — it was what they bring and how well we’ve managed to set ourselves up for the future. It’s not as if we’ve got just one future star mid or a single key player to build a team around. It genuinely feels like we’ve got every position covered with emerging talent ready to take us forward for the next 10 years. People talk about rebuilds - it looks like we had one without even noticing.

In spite of the opposition, or lack thereof, great result for the players after a pre-season of hard work. Wouldn't hurt their confidence in the new direction. Remains to be seen where this gets us once we're up against serious opposition, but you couldn't have asked for more. Echoing others' comments re some of the newer players. Heath and Kentfield in particular stood out for me. Moose is already a better ruck than anyone we've had coming through since I don't know when, and you'd think that the succession plan is assured. Then Kentfield just really looks like a player. Not sure of his role or even whose spot he takes, but surely we see him sooner rather than later. JVR would be looking over his shoulder.

Plus Bowey and Petty who would be walk-up starters. That makes 5 of our best 22, 6 if you count Culley.

Good for him, perhaps shows that moving him on was the best for all concerned. (He says through gritted teeth.)

Source? On the other hand .... "The only thing I can go by is the conversations with Christian and (partner) Bella, and the fact that we've spent a lot of time with Christian and Bella and they're incredibly thankful with the support the club's given. From players, coaches, management and our welfare team who's not only been dealing with Christian but also his family." Goodwin also slammed suggestions the club's doctors had acted against Petracca's best interests by clearing him to return to the field. "I trust our medical team like never before - they're unbelievable at what they do and they're independent to the game," Goodwin said. "They did all the assessments possible and we're really comfortable where that stood." https://au.sports.yahoo.com/simon-goodwin-admission-about-christian-petracca-and-partner-amid-ugly-family-furore-212401368.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Ah, but they do have Charlie Spargo. (Who's still unavailable/injured I believe.)

Article does confirm that he wasn't in a particularly good head space for a while there, presumably since The Injury. Understandable, and great that he's in a better place. Shame he had to leave for an interstate club to get there. That said — as has been hinted at here previously — it does seem to confirm the move wasn’t just about footy or the $$$.

Very hard to take too much from this, given the makeup of the teams (VFL/top up players) and the shorter game time, but apart from the usual suspects was impressed by Kentfield. Just looks like he knows how to go about it. A real shame he spent last season playing catch-up after missing the pre-season, but worth persevering with I would have thought. To a lesser extent, Thostrup. Not a lot of exposure here, but for the first time it looked like he was playing a role that aligned with the kind of player he is. Whether going forward that makes him a defender remains to be seen, but promising. Will be interesting to see where he lines up in the upcoming practice matches.

We should have a better idea of all of this after the practice match against North.

Seeing the 3 present MFC'ers plus 3 ex (Jackson, Hogan, Bedford) ... that would have been a team!

Somewhat unfortunate as it's a trio that badly needed a full pre-season without injury interruptions. Not sure re CJ, but when did Salem and Petty last do a full pre-season?

`Clarrie had his papers well and truly marked before King arrived. The moment Goodwin was given the shove it was only a matter of time before Oliver and Trac followed, one way or another. May should have been part of that trio as well, but no-one wanted to touch him, just as no-one wanted to touch Oliver. Clean broom and all that.

You're a brave man. I know a lot here are getting on board the rebuild/transition bandwagon. But I know what the Gameday threads are like, and it's not a pretty sight.

Every club is looking at doing what we are, hardly going to surprise anyone. Here's Dean Cox recently: "We want to play with a bit more speed on the ball and I think we've trained really hard this off-season with really high intensity running."

Reductive post. First of all, I didn't say no-one understood a word of it. You're deliberately misquoting me. There are 60 million Spanish speakers in the US, not to mention the millions of Spanish speakers around the world who would have watched. As for the "message", communication is much, much more than just words. Everybody knows full well what he was saying and what this was about, which is why there's a backlash from the usual suspects.

Wonder if you'll still be saying that when we're 0 - 6.

Seriously? From what I've seen it's running around 20:1 for. With good reason. Incredible show, a fantastic celebration of the the best of latino culture and a powerful message (even though I didn't understand a word of it!). Hard to see how any of it translates to the AFL, though I hope a few at head office were paying attention.

Plus Brayshaw and ANB.

Facts.

We're already behind the 8 ball on the "keep the good" part. Out of our top 10 in the Bluey last year we've lost Petracca (second ...) and Oliver (7th), plus likely to be without Bowey (4th) and Viney for a good part of the year. Add to that McVee who was 7th in 2024 (his 2025 was seriously compromised by injury.) There's no way we're covering those holes, not in the short term anyway.

Your memory is probably better than mine, but that's not how I remember it. Which was that it was only when he was moved down back at Casey that he started to put it together. Even from when he was drafted he was seen as a defender. Jason Taylor at the time: "He has played behind the ball as a half-back and you speak to his coaches and the people who have been involved with him and they think that is potentially his best position. Having watched him live on the wing on occasions this year, I felt his last two games there he really started to get going. I'd like to think we'd put him on the wing and in the midfield and see him develop there initially."

He was played on a wing at Casey for nearly 2 seasons and was going nowhere until they moved him back.

There are too many other variables and you don't know what training Kolt and McVee were doing away from the group/inside/in the gym etc. About the only conclusion you might be able to reach on the limited data we have is that older players with more pre-seasons under their belt are less impacted by missing pre-seasons than younger players, who need pre-season to build long-term fitness.