binman

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.

Agree. I'd be half the man I am if not for pies and sausage rolls.

Yep, all good calls.

Great report. Depth first class. There is no magic bullet for our issues with turnovers. Bottom line we have a lot of players with poor kicking technique. In an ideal world our best kicks from last year's best 22 (imo, in order, Bowser, Fritter, Mcvee, Tmac, Koz and Salem) play every game and our young guns (kolt, Windsor, XL and Langford) find their feet and all are minimum above average kicks next season.

With our luck he'll pick the dees but struggle with his weight and have a dodgy back.

Also lucky their boss doesn't mind them posting on Demonland in work hours.

Hope springs eternal that breaking that connection to Collingwood will cause an inexorable decline in support for the pies.

Having Mt Scopus as neighbours can only be a good thing, particularly if we are sincere about working with the community. One of the things the dees have lacked in my time is a sense of connection to a specific locality based community. In the 70s all Vic clubs bar us and Fitzroy (and perhaps the swans - Lakeside felt a bit disconnected from South Melbourne) - played and trained surrounded by community. Glenferrie, Linton St, Windy Hill, KP, Princess Park, Arden Street, Punt Road, Whitten Oval, Victoria Park, Lakeside all gave clubs a sense of place, and a natural fan base that to greater or lesser extent remains an important part of their identity. It's no suprise clubs that have moved from their traditional home ground (or in the saint's case returned home) have looked to replicate that community focused model - the hawks at Waverley Park, and soon dingley, the hangar at tulla. The pies are the exception, but am I right to think they still have their admin at Victoria Park? A training base at Caulfield gives us an incredible opportunity to parachute into an established, thriving community - unlike say the hawks to VFL Park and the bombers at tulla where there were new, still developing communities. Building really strong, meaningful connections with our organisational neighbours - MRC, Monash and Mount Scopus is an absolute no brainer, as is connecting with the terrific local footy clubs in the surrounding area. Make those connections and the connection to the broader Caulfield community will organically develop. And that community will become a source of future supporters and members for decades to come in the way Hawthorn still benefit from the glenferrie connection despite leaving that area 40 years ago.

The prizemoney for women's boxing in Australia is so bad I only watched Tayla's last bout because Kayo paid me to view.

I'd take that bet. I know bugger all about boxing, let alone women's boxing, but I suspect she's made very little money as a boxer. Im guessing the prizemoney for women's boxing in Australia is next to nothing.