binman

And he injured his back playing basketball in his back yard (with some mixed info about exactly how). Am I right in thinking tracc has never been in the leadership group? That said, everyone matures at different rates and perhaps tracc has some personal growth opportunities. Tracc is a natural on field leader, both in terms of his voice and actions I wonder if having an infusion of young gun mids might help tracc develop his off field leadership, something that can only be a positive for him and his teammates.

Downgrade on Gosch's, which you can at least get to by PT.

How could Ryan write an article encouraging us to move to that [censored] hole ground and not mention the worst football experience many of us have had - the 1987 preliminary? Mind boggling. As is this line: 'Waverley Park is also close enough to Melbourne’s traditional zones to enable their supporters to watch training and socialise at the club.' I mean, is he serious? 60 years after the VFL built that monument to stupidity there is still no decent public transport out there and it's in a Bermuda triangle for roads. [censored] off Ryan.

Maggie mahoney and Molly Ohaire. Are we selecting players for a football team or a Clannad cover band?

Great call luci. A lot has to go right of course, but I can't recall a team getting a bigger, better haul of top end draft picks - remarkably they have also managed to get the roos' first pick next season which is likely to be minimum top 10. With salary cap space to bring in a couple of senior guns they are def in a good position to fast track a rise up the ladder.

Yeah, you're probably right. Alternative suggestion: Put 10 units on the dees to win the flag at $26. Don't lay off. Make a profit of $250 units when we win the flag.

If i was to compare the pair at the same age and stage id have to say Harvey is more mature than i reckon Tracc might have been in his first year. Tracc stuck me as a big energetic kid, like an Alaksan malamute puppy, whereas Langford is more a Doberman pinscher pup.

Better hope Kolt doesn't come in here than.

Selwyn will have them running Phar Laps.

Short answer. The bookies set the initial price. Their prices top to bottom would pretty much reflect the previous season's ladder. After that point the prices are set by the punters. That's to say who punters put their money on. The bookies change the odds to cover their spread and ensure a profit no matter who wins. At this point there would be bugger all in the pool. So relatively small amounts wagered on particular teams would have an outsize impact on prices. For example a bunch of hawks fans with hok ball fever puting $20 here, $50 there, brings them into second favs. If one of us dropped 2k on the dees, the bookies would reel us in quick smart. How far depends on how much money is in the pool. Winning on the punt is not about picking the winner. It's about getting a price over the 'true odds' (being good at determining the true odds is the other key to winning). Betting on the flag at this point is a fools errand because it's impossible to determine the true odds at this point given the millions of unknowns and variables in between now and September next year (injury being the most important). Which is why there's no money in the pool now - no big punter is putting any coin in now. That said, $26 in my opinion is def 'overs'. And given our pretty soft draw early, backing them now and cashing out, or laying off, after say 7 rounds would be a smart play.

Another thing the last four premiership have had in common, one that intersects with injury, is clearly being the fittest team come Grand Final day.

That's great you have been refusing to bite more often CW. Thanks. And the training threads have been much better for that discipline. Few of us have thick skins, certainly i don't. Most people are sensitive to criticism and our honesty being questioned. I certainly am. So it's not about being less sensitive or 'toughening up'. It's about not responding and fuelling the angst. You post lots of interesting snippets of conversations with mfc peeps. Almost all posters like that content. For whatever reason some don't, and for a small number of posters it seems it's a trigger. It really isn't possible on such a forum to stop people posting stuff that might get under someone else's skin - and that’s leaving aside the conversation about whether that is even desirable (ie policing opinion and/or criticism). Keep up the good work on not biting as often. Water off a duck's back. Ommmmmmm.

GW can I respectfully ask that you simply ignore any such comments. Let them through to the keeper. Please. I'd ask the same questions you as you do above - is it necessary to respond to these accusations? What have you achieved by doing so? Responding simply invites a rebuttal from that poster, other posters and almost always another round of circular posts of the sort that simply clogs up threads, not to mention inevitably become more personal and unpleasant. It's tiresome - and unnecessary. There is no need to defend yourself. People wil believe what they want to believe. Lean into the fact that the vast majority of posters really enjoy your posts, take you at your word and enjoy the banter with players and staff you choose to relay. The haters are always going to hate. Of course you are free to post and respond however you want. But by ignoring the haters you take away their the power which is their ability to upset you. And we will have less threads getting derailed.

Exactly.

If you miss it becomes the wet leg urinal.

A couple more random thoughts: - As advertised, AJ is very competitive, the sort of player Goody loves. But I'm very surprised how fit he looked, AFL level fit. He was running laps at the end at a very fast clip - Sparrow has changed body shape quite noticeablely, dropped size in the the chest and upper arms. His running group, which he was at the front of, included tmac and Brown (they started their timed laps in front of me and tmac said to sparrow, 'that's a fast pace you're setting'). Jibes with the talk of him playing a different role next season, possibly wing - koz has also lost lots size in the chest and upper arms, which is why I'm dubious he will play much time as a mid this season. Kid is a dead set freak. In the match sim, which was surprisingly willing physically, running flat out he scooped the ball one handed off the deck, handballed beautifully to a teammate, putting him in space, somehow got involved in the chain again and then kicked a perfectly weighted ball accross his body, over the top of a defender to JVR. Thing of beauty. - The boundary line work i mentioned tracc and clarry were doing after the session finished was led by Jonesy. It was fantastic to see he tracc and claz working together. Inspired move to bring Jonesy back. Has a similar energy to gus in his ability to connect with everyone - Kolt has got noticeably bigger and his hair looks permed. If he was dog he'd be bulloodle; a poodle bulldog cross

I went. Some random thoughts: - the first drill was focused on ball movement with players really encouraged to run and carry with call from trainers to 'cover the grass' and players encouraging teamates to bounce the ball (something we did very little of last season) - XL is seriously naturally skilled. In the drill notes above (I think the only drill he participated in) a teamate handballed behind him (grrr) and X pirouetted, took it one handed and in the same movement handballed beautifully to a teammate who, unlike him, didn't have to break stride - Speaking of natural talent, koz is just unbelievable. A joy to watch. His footy iq is off the charts, particularly his ability to position himself where the ball is going to go. Was switched on all session and the stand out trainer for mine - Vibes and body language was terrific - Great to see claz and tracc talking during drills about what appeared to be stuff like positioning etc. Very focused and serious - Both worked on boundary throw ins after every other player had finished. Clarry very engaged and focused - The session finished with running drills led by Selwyn. He clearly had live GPS data as he periodically called our players to finish, I assume because they had met their km target - clarry was running timed laps at the end in a group with Brown and Campbell. I was watching him with the binoculars and for the last couple of minutes he willed himself to pass Campbell and was making ground on Brown. When the whistle blew it looked as if he was going to faint. Teammates got around him. He is giving everything he has. Incredible effort level

Could not disagree more You don't select players who don't deserve a call up. Ever.

Fair enough But surely if she has any feelings of resentment it will be towards the hawks not us. It's not our fault the deal didn't happen - it's 100% on the Hawks.

Um, so you think he should be a mid that rotates through the midfield and HFF. Why do I say that? BECAUSE THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A #@%%^&@!#####!%^ING CENTRE MAN!!!!!. Apologies, I'll calm down now. Carry on.

Sure. But in tracc's case it's less about whether there are clubs out there with the capital to trade and more about what clubs tracc would be prepared to go to - and if those ubs have the capital. I'd be guessing he would only be interested in going to a big Victorian club in the Premiership window. The bombers might be, but given they haven't won a final in donkeys years, I wouldn’t bet on it. That leaves the pies, hawks, blues and I guess perhaps also the cats. Let's say all four clubs do have the draft capital. The next question is do they want to use it on a 30 year old, albeit a total A grader, who may only have three to four more years of elite footy in him. Perhaps half those clubs do (though i'd not be suprisef if none do). That would leave two clubs in the frame for trading in tracc - and that's assuming they have the salary cap space to match what we are paying him. The likelihood of tracc going anywhere next season is exceedingly small in my opinion. But if a trade does happen we will do very well out of it given his current contract. Really, we are in a total win win position. He leaves we future proof the club with mutiple draft picks over mutiple years. He stays and we continue to have a superstar on our list.

What position are referring to when you suggest Windsor should be 'moved to the centre'? There hasn't been a specialist centre position, or ruck rover for that matter, since the late 70s, early 80s. Since then, anyone starting in the middle at centre bounces are just midfielders. Is that what you mean - Windsor should be a mid?

Totally agree. I find the talk of a new game plan confusing. To be fair, it's been kick started by Brad Green's email where he said we would be adopting a new game plan. But what seems to have forgotten is we were trying to implement a new game last year, one that had elements of the pies 2023 method involving fast transition from the back half and a high defensive press. Last season's method was completely different to previous years, which was all about predictability, long kicks down the line to Max or another tall, deep zone defence, control the tempo etc etc. We just didn't have the cattle (too many of our best 22 missed too many games), right players (short a couple of elite kicks), or fitness, to effectively implement it. And even if we did it was always going to take time to retool the very systems based games plan we had drilled into the team since tge 2019 season. We got opened up by other teams in large part because we were trying to implement a more aggressive transition method but constantly turned the ball over. And by doing so exposed what used to be our greatest strength - our zone defence. So often they were caught out of position after a turnover, which is understandable given the structures were different and they often pressed up higher than they used to. And our poor fitness meant we were often exposed defensively by teams employing the pies transition method (basically all teams to a greater or lesser degree) because we couldn't 'defend the ground' on transition or turnover. It's worth noting in that context that for much the same reasons, Collingwood struggled to effectively implement the transition game plan they developed. And missed the finals as a result. So, I'm in total agreement - there'll be tweaks (eg Windsor to half back to generate transition) but not wholesale changes. I see last season as very similar to 2019 where we took the opportunity of a likely down year as a result of injury and sub optimal preseason to retool our method and reset (not to mention, bottom out and grab some high draft picks).

Pie man?

We didn't compell her to remain. We were prepared to deal with the hawks but they wouldn't pony up. And she could have quit and nominated for the preseason draft.