Webber

Yep. As good a builder of footballers as anyone coaching in the AFL.

Had a chat to a member of the Stone family yesterday, and there is a LOT of work that the coaching staff feel needs to be done. All we saw on Friday was a group of players who have regained a love of the process and the game, but have a looooong way to go before becoming the real deal. It will be a roller coaster. It seems the general feeling, other than the damage to confidence suffered over the past few years, the 'scars' as PR has put it, is the horrible mismanagement of the talent. The biggest victim being one Jack Watts. The most exciting thing was the sense that the coaching staff are loving the challenge and the work.

Haha, I suspect it may be a little more tricky than that!

Totally agree. Trengove's career from this point will be built on selfless running, presenting and securing possession. He won't be lighting the place up with brilliant skills or creative genius like Howe, JKH, Toumpas, but will become the essence of the team's intelligence and hardworking ethic that Nathan Jones has been trying to do solo for the past however many years.

Agreed, admirable hard work and role playing, but just doesn't seem to be AFL standard for mine. Hopefully wrong.

Dead on. He has high expectations of himself and I think it tripped him up a bit. First hit out, he's allowed some mistakes, as are the others. He will be our no.1 ruck this year

Sadly, the ability to kick a 60 metre set shot does not in itself warrant game time. I seem to remember Michael Newton taking mark of the year, and look how that turned out.

He got slightly more than a handful of touches and did nothing memorable with them. Back up tallish utility at absolute best.

On account of the fact that we know how valuable and consistent Cross and Vince are, a truly exciting thing about tonight was that Dom Tyson and Viv Michie showed why there are big wraps on them. The MOST excitingly unexpected recruits for me though were JKH (obviously), and Georgiou.....looked like a 100 gamer, and cool as a cucumber. A BRILLIANT pickup for peanuts. And for all those berating the likes of Spencer, Strauss, Nicholson et al, WAKE UP TO YOURSELVES!!!!!

It would be funny if it weren't so worrying. I don't think I've seen a better example on Demonland before of the pathology that can be whipped up from pure inane speculation.

Meditation is not really a matter of 'belief'. Don't mistake it for a spiritual philosophy, although it can be and is aligned with various spiritual belief systems. Meditation is a technique, practised to achieve the ability to better control our conscious state, which we all have. The analogies to physical training are completely apt. Those who practise it will achieve change, as per training the body. Belief doesn't come into it.

What, like James Sellar did last year?

A ruptured Achilles is NOT worse than an ACL reconstruction. It is simpler and quicker to full capacity. Surgery is immediate to repair the tendon which will not be up for full weight bearing (body weight) for 3 months. He may play by July/august. Russell Robertson was the last MFC player to rupture his Achilles. NVB will return to football, no problem.

You've misinterpreted my comparison it seems. I'm not suggesting that he's MB, but that there are similarities, particularly reflecting on his impact to our shambolic midfield last year. I can tell you, from contacts at the Box Hill Hawks, that MJ was considered by the HFC recruitment team to be the best non-AFL listed mature age midfielder in the 2013 draft. That he was 25 and a midfielder, when they had a full midfield was the reason they didn't pick him up. Todd Viney has friendships at HFC and was worded up re MJ. It was considered that the speed with which he took on the midfield role at Box Hill was exceptional, and that his work ethic and AFL ready physiology was top tier. The feedback from MFC is that they he has performed beyond expectations, and considering his relative inexperience (<50 games), his durability, ball finding, athleticism and uncompromising commitment (as compared to let's say Colin Sylvia), they feel he has significant continued upside. Hence the contract. I'm not thinking you'll change your opinions of Matt Jones, but that you will if he meets the expectations MFC have of him.

Maybe. Or not.

McQueen, I think the reason he is undervalued by so many Melbourne supporters is 'guilt by association'. As one of the group of 'ready made' players brought to the club under Neeld's direction, he is assumed to be a failure on account of that group (Pederson, Rodan, Byrnes.....) being perceived to have failed (not unfairly probably). Oddly enough also, the fact that he was very visible by playing 22 games and getting a fair bit of it, unconsciously strengthens the idea that he is symptomatic of the problem. The more objective reality, considering where he came from and the team he came to, is that he was simply an outstanding story. And that story has some way to travel I reckon. When you compare the positive sentiment that was directed to James Magner in and after his first year, the lack of respect for Matt Jones in a similar situation is just very odd.

Based on his trajectory in the last eighteen months, it seems inevitable :-)

He played 17 games in the VFL seniors in 2012, as a first year player, having been moved up from the ressies after a handful of games. He won the Box Hill Hawks most consistent award and finished Fourth in their B n F based on those 17 games. Most of those games were in the backline before being shifted to the midfield much later in the season. The previous year he played for Labrador in the NEAFL. He plays 22 games for the MFC in 2013 and finishes top 5 B n F. You say he 'didn't even stand out in the VFL'. Ridiculous rubbish. How much more impressive could this guy's trajectory have been? Feel free to name someone with a quicker ascent in football.

Matter of opinion, and mine is that Matt Jones is and will prove to be one of our first half dozen to get selected every week this year and hopefully for a few more. Barlow-like, he will be.

Doesn't have to be. If he's as good as last year, with the aforementioned 'better' team, he's worth every bit of his new contract. If he plays as many games as last year, he'll go top 5 bluey again. Kent won't, but I understand his potential.

Sorry, but this is utter nonsense.

Rapt for Matt Jones, a great first year effort for a mature ager, all upside for him with a better team around him. Speed, durability, ability to find the ball, and guts. Dean Kent, hmmmmmm. Showed patches of ability which make him worth the punt, but not nearly as confident about him.

I'm a fan of Chris Dawes, having doubted his value at Collingwood. I completely turned around on him, seeing the physicality, contest and leadership he brought to the team this year. He was a standout. What he is NOT however, is a good contested mark, and there is simply no evidence to suggest he is, not matter how much you try to spin it. It is the weakest part of his game, he knows it, and works hard to try and compensate for it.

Was jogging past, and saw the boys tearing it up, so got sidetracked! MC went down in a tackle late in the session, got up with pain in his right foot, wasn't happy, (as you wouldn't be), thumped the ground in frustration, got up, had a discussion with a staff member, (pity I can't lip read) walked it off, then progressed to a jog. There was then a couple of minutes pause between drills, after which MC joined in as direct opposition to Chip Frawley, and proceeded to run around at about 90% of full speed for the next minutes, during which he took a mark or two. He was not limping. He then came off as the training as a whole came to a close. Without wanting to send too many of you into a frenzy of despair, it IS his problem foot, but he got back into full training within minutes afterwards. This suggests that he has been both getting these kind of irritations as he gets back to full weight bearing match simulation, and that there is minimal concern about it from the medical staff. I get the feeling (excuse the speculation, but I'm a Physio, and can't help trying to decipher the situation) that Clark himself has become hyper-aware of his foot and anything related to it. It unfortunately happens that the burden of having your livelihood and sense of self attached to the sensations in your foot create a hypersensitivity to any twinge or 'abnormal' feeling in the area. It's a downside of long term injury particularly. I won't speculate further. In general, the vigour and speed of training is high. All the new boys look likely, Jack Trengove is looking fast, fit and happy, and Matt Jones, Nat Jones, Bernie Vince, Dan Cross, Jimmy Toumpas, Jeremy Howe and Jack Watts were all sparkling with ball in hand or otherwise. Toumpas, Gawn, and Viney all very noticeably bigger.

*Matt Jones: because his story to get to the AFL, play a full season, finish top 5 B n F, and yet be largely discarded in the minds of so many supporters on here when looking at 2014 is very odd to me. Fascinated to see how his ready made durability and work rate are going to go in a better team with a great coach. All upside. *Dean Terlich : as for Matt Jones, has been downgraded in talks about next year. Defensively loose, Roos doesn't like him, will be passed by others........blah blah.....we'll see! And for all that, presented himself as a dedicated, gutsy, ball finding nugget who will surely improve under the 'expected' better 2014. *Jimmy Toumpas : showed signs for me of having a lethal combination of skill, creativity, personal ethic and ambition. Fitter, with confidence and in a better on field environment, my crystal ball tells me he's Brownlow material by 25 years of age.