Webber

More than anything, this all reminds of Fitzroy pre folding, and the swans pre- Sydney...... I have a horrible feeling the Melbourne football club is playing themselves out of existence. It sounds extreme I know, but there is precedent, and we are quite simply nowhere, with NOTHING to give us ANY hope as a club. Sure, Jack Viney was great, and there is value and promise in some of our list, but this is a team game, and a club competition, and our club is truthfully uncompetitive. The AFL won't tolerate it, because in the end, professional sport is commerce, and we are a few steps closer to being properly recognised as a commercial liability. We MAY be soon a thing of history.....

Tricky stuff, some tough decisions for the selectors! *I reckon based on preseason form, Sellar HAS to get a spot. He's averaged more than 3 goals a game, which is a really good season return if he matches it through the season. Pederson? Not really much to recommend him yet. *Jetta has been in our best preseason when he's played. He's fit, firing, and Neeld likes him. A shoe in I'd say. *Like him or not, so has James Magner. Hard and in form. Hard to ignore. Competing with Matt Jones probably, but I think they'll go with AFL experience for round 1. *Terlich has been mentioned a lot by Neeld and others....have a hunch he'll be there. *Dean Kent looks like a great prospect, if maybe a bit underdone for a full game. Might depend on Blease being ready. BRING. IT. ON.

Nice read wmth. Kudos.

Schrodinger had the cat Josh, Heisenberg had an uncertainty principle. And in principle I am very uncertain about how we'll go this season!

Egan and particularly Croad had fractures. Croad's was a Lisfranc dislocation WITH a fracture of the metatarsals. Disaster!!! And he had warning signs of stress leading into the GF, but the decision was to inject him up and take the risk. It ended badly. Not sure whether Egan was navicular or other.

This is not to say he won't be subject to arthritic change as the years go by (after he's retired ideally!), changes in the burden on other joints in the area, and altered mechanics of the foot and ankle. Yes, other players have suffered the same injury, notably Richo, and had full normal careers after.

Exactly.

The career killer is that it never stands up to the demands of weight bearing.....running, jumping, landing. That is, that it never gets this far.

On topic, it's great to hear that Mitch is playing this weekend. His Lisfranc can be a career killer, so he's now in the clear. For those of you worried about repeat injury, Lisfranc dislocations don't recur with any greater incidence in previous sufferers. I expect to see him round 1. Good work to Mark Blackney his surgeon, and the rehab team.....particularly the physios. I might be biased, haha.

Spot on cowboy, and respectful to the rich tapestry that is a supporter base....

yep.

Haha, this makes me laugh cowboy, but only cos I can relate. As much as you tell yourself you will just let it wash over you, who do you really think you are convincing? It's an admirable philosophical position, but I don't buy your passive approach to the season, as bad as it might be. Not for one second....... B)

For all those who think preseason games have no relevance, or are unimportant, wake up! *The precise point of practice matches is to rehearse football good enough to win games. *This of course is largely determined by the quality of the opposition, AND how close we are to our 'best 22' *At this time, consensus would say that GC are our marginal inferiors. *We were unable to play football good enough to beat them today, and not by a small margin. *Regardless of who was out there for us today, that is still VERY MEANINGFUL. And it isn't good.

Too true!!!!!! And WHY Sellar? He has been impressive this preseason, and it's assumed he's going to make way for Pederson. Pederson has been significantly less impressive. He's older, and has about the same AFL games experience, so why this radical assumption? Sellar's just been getting better for us, and seems to be gaining some confidence......

I think 'sniping' might be overstating it somewhat, but it seems you react anyway. Ho hum. None of us will know whether Byrnes is enough or not, or Blease, until the effect of Clark and Dawes becomes reality. If you're comparing our lack of small forward to the saints with Milne, then it's a harsh comparison, because he's the most dangerous small forward I've ever seen. Based on 2 nab games for Byrnes with fluctuating forward personnel, and limited feed from up the ground, kinda tricky to say, no?

Firstly, you and Stuie should just get a room. I'm pretty sure that most on here find your slagging matches simply tiring, and what's worse..........boring. Try giving it a rest.Secondly, the idea that we have a chronic lack of forward firepower based on yesterday is too obviously ignoring who wasn't there to be serious. Clark and Blease were our most effective forwards last year, whether you like Blease up front or not. Dawes was brought to the club to be a forward, and that's our 3 best or most nominal forwards not playing. What do you imagine would happen to ANY team's firepower if you take away their best 3 forwards? Was the OP serious, because I don't understand the logic of the criticism.

Any mention of Frawley's injury? Fractured eye socket?

Absolutely right. He is one of the most loved people within the club, and has been scapegoated by an organisation that can't admit it's fault in creating a drafting system that lead to a disincentive to winning. A system which has now been abandoned for that reason, which they still can't be honest about. Leave CC alone, he has now and had then nothing but the best interests of the club at heart.

Brilliant!

MC has had the Lisfranc dislocation reduced with surgery, which then requires a period of non weight bearing to allow healing of the ruptured ligaments which support the joint. The critical thing with Lisfranc is that it occurs at the cornerstone of the arch of the foot, where the loading buck stops!, and must have ABSOLUTE structural integrity to allow full force weightbearing. Weight bearing forces through the arch are maximal when sprinting and jumping (including landing). When he has graduated to these activities, and patient graduation is the thing, then there is NO reason to protect the joint. It's up to the job. The great positive for MC is that he didn't fracture with the dislocation, which makes for a much better prognosis. As a bit of trivia, the name of the injury comes from the Napoleon's surgeon general, who observed a spate of these injuries in the cavalry. When soldiers were thrown from their nags, sometimes their feet would remain stirrup bound.........crunch!

Great reply from Don McLardy.......I would suggest all of us write a 'letter to the editor' asking that firstly the Age print a retraction and apology, and secondly that Caroline Wilson be relieved of her position at The Age. They won't publish the letters of course, but an inundation of like sentiments will most certainly reach the ears of those who matter at the newspaper.

Interesting. From about the midpoint of last year, I don't remember Dan Nicholson fluffing his kicks at all, and was struck by the improvement. I went to training this morning too, and his kicking was no better or worse than any others, and by that I mean it was largely very good. I remember there being a lingering belief that Nathan Jones got caught with the ball regularly long after that in fact kept happening......pretty much all of last year, but we kept hearing it.....zzzzzzzz boring. These guys improve, and being lumped with continuing preconceptions as this improvement occurs while not noting the improvement, means you're just not paying attention. What strikes me about Nicho, like Jones, is that he's a hyper competitive animal. I see the same thing in Tommy Mac and Jack Viney. These are the guys who seem to have very singular self directed levels of expectation on themselves, and who I personally love to have in the red and blue, cos nobody's perfect, but the do or die attitude counts for a huge amount. Other observations from this morning.....Nev Jetta is looking and moving beautifully. If he stays fit, we'll finally see the best of him. Likewise the run and energy of Luke Tapscott much better. Cam Pederson has good hands. Given his size and mobility I wish Chris Dawes had the same natural marking security, but he is a vigorous focus which is good. Jack Watts just oozes stuff you can't teach. He's a joy to watch.....his reading of the play, breadth of vision and ability to dispose to the right option at precisely the right time with accuracy, is innate and very rare. His competing with his body and trust in the strength of his marking I THINK look better too, but hard to really assess at training...... his only weaknesses it seems. Sam Blease's speed very exciting as per last year. Jack Grimes looks terrific, and is moving with confidence, speed and assurety. A big year in the midfield I think. James Sellar looks very confident and happy down back, like he's relishing the fact that he now has a role he can anchor. Another big year for mine. James Frawley looks full of monster grunt and ready to go.....let's hope his speed and correctness of decision making have also returned. Frawley, Garland, McDonald and Sellar will be a great unit in defence. Just a thought on Tom McDonald. He's 20 years old, but plays like he's 27. He really doesn't get beaten in a contest, and has an intimidating sense of control of the situation when he's around the ball, either winning it, or giving the advantage to his mates. He is truly exceptional given his age, and I'd be very surprised if he doesn't eventually move forward, maybe in 4 or 5 years, a la David Neitz. After he's gone all Australian as a KPB!!! Bring it on!!!

This. He is very ordinary. Poor contested mark, average skills, not difficult for the opposition to negate. He's just a bad option in every sense. I watched him this year round 17 against the Hawks at the G, and his inability to impact the game was comical, reminding me of Juice Newton and Koschitzke for most of his career. He will bring us nothing but frustration. Why the love on here for him?

Does anyone on here have a good reason why Mark Jamar was given a 3 year contract? His tap rucking is good, if not a tad predictable, but he offers virtually nothing as a footballer beyond that. He cannot take a contested mark, has very little leap that would allow him to impact pack contests, is a below average kick, clearly doesn't read the play well as his disposals very very rarely hit double figures, and doesn't have the competitive physicality of Jake Spencer even. He is slow, and drives me insane with how often he falls to his knees. He is more a liability on game day than anything. Stefan Martin is being talked of as a trade, but allowed the no. 1 ruck role, has been and would be far better than Jamar, and with more experience get even better........I don't get it! What do he FD see in this that we don't? Anyone?

There is simply no justification for Mark Jamar being offered 3 years. In fact if we're serious about filling the list with competitive contributors, he shouldn't be there at all. Both Jake Spencer and particularly Stef Martin are much better footballers. The Russian is slow, predictable, can't keep his feet, rarely takes a mark, let alone contested, and is defensively non-existent. If Martin, Spencer and Gawn stay fit next year, he simply won't get a game, so 3 years is just laughable! Jordie, as with James Magner, is simply a VFL level talent with an AFL heart. I desperately hope neither of them can get a game within the next 2 years, or our midfield is just getting worse.