binman

Is that a Charlie Manson cross on Clarkes forehead ?

I s'pose it's the sign of the demon (mate)!

I would prefer too keep Bennel and off load Morton if we trade one compo plus a player.

It always amuses me that footy fans go ballistic at the thought of a player being a traitor and leaving their own club but won't bat an eyelid at trading out players or throwing in a couple of stalwarts into a deal mix to get a good player from another club (who of course is being traitorous to the club they are leaving).

We hate Scully (yes more for the way he handled himself but never the less) but laud Clark for joining the dees (after telling Brisbane he really, really wanted to go home to WA). Ahh the beautiful mystery of football!

(P.S not having a go at you JD, your post just made me think of this apparent double standard amongst footy fans)

Burgan's post scratch match interview with Bale is also pretty interesting in terms of what role Bate see's himself playing, the Neeld game plan and the training "volume". In some ways the Dee TV interviews are much more revealing than the standard group media door stoppers or conferences, in part because of their length (ie stuff sometimes just pops out) but also because of the players seem to like Burgan

Frawley's interview with Matt Burgan on the Melbourne FC website has to be one of the funniest I have ever seen.

And to think some wanted the guy Captain ! Ha!

Imagine some of the post match interviews we would get?!

Get yourselves a pen and some paper and jot down the amount of times he uses the word 'spose.'

It's got to be a world record of some sort.

Certainly not the most comfortable or confident interviewee. You could add to saying s'pose heaps the amount of times he says mate. Even Burgo (mate) gets in on in the act by the end of the interview. Happy for Frawley to lead by example.

I've really enjoyed the interview series with the LG. On the whole they seem a a pretty switched on group, quiet, considered and intelligent. Also some very interesting insights into the new regime, training program and possible match day strategies.

Some random thoughts:

Burgan an ok interviewer who goes extremely red - paint a blue line on his face and he'd be demon mascot. Tends to repeat questions (ie same q, slightly reworded several times in the one interview, eg "what do you see as your leadership qualities?")

Clark very nervous but seems a pretty quiet guy.

Jones surprisingly articulate and thoughtful.

Garland a ripper, would be great to sit down and talk footy to (the dees should tap in to this somehow)

Grimes oozes a quiet confidence

Trengove is really young and will take a while to find his feet as captain (unsurprisingly)

Bartram seems a pretty switched on bloke and likes the new coaching set up

what do you mean by berate his teamates??

Funny this was raised. I went to last years intra club game and Beamer gave a young fella (can't recall who, could have even been a Casey top up player) an all mighty spray. From my, quite close, vantage point it seemed unfair and was by any standard well out of order. During that same game he drove another young fella into the ground and was generally mouthy to all and sundry.

Hardly positive leadership was my thinking and i reckon this trait may be one of the reasons he isn't in the LG. That and the fact he appears not to be the sharpest tool in the shed, which is in contrast to this years LG if their interviews on dee tv are any guide (which seems to indicate they are a pretty thoughtful, reflective bunch, not a bunch of pumped up yobs)

If you take the view that every club is vulnerable to losing one of their better players, I'm relieved that ours has been Scully - and that we got 2 compo picks (and, in a round about way, Mitch Clark) for him.

We also now command the moral high ground on this issue, something that wasn't totally with us immediately following season 2009.

Not for the first time i agree with you Ron, not so much about the moral high ground, more that we've had our GWS hit and can focus on this season without what has been acknowledged by the club as a major distraction. I for one feel sorry for supporters from other clubs who might have to go thru the sort of drama we endured last season, but better them than us. To paraphrase my second favourite PM Scully was the defection we had to have

his year last year was extraordinary.

stepped up big-time when it was required, and then went forward already and showed that he could kick goals.

i think he can become a really handy player - a true utilty who can fill any hole, even running up and down a wing as well as playing back.

I agree. Its easy to forget how good he actually was last year. When Jamar was out he was the man. As noted by Trident his skills below his knees are first class and as he is a relative new comer to aussie rules, having only committed to it as an 18 year old, his skills will only improve. I reckon he's also got a good footy brain, that again will only improve with more games under his belt.

Still heaps of upside for Stef and i reckon he could end up being as good as Jolly and better than Dawes, two players who contributed heaps to the Pies success in 2010.

Terrific report and really interesting to hear about stuff not covered in other reports. The sausage congrats circle is something new. The masters should be about the dees and then you'll be fully justified going to all 22 (plus finals) games and even more training.

However, I would not be surprised if the team looks raw and rusty under Neeld. He has only been in charge of the side for about 5 months and its fantasy to think a team will be able to implement a new game plan/style in so short a time. I am not overly confident about MFC doing well in the pre season comp but I expect the side to improve subject to injuries etc as the season goes on reflecting the growing maturity of the young team and the understanding of Neeld's way of doing things.

Not so sure about this. The Bombers responded pretty quickly to Hird and there are some obvious similarities. Like the dees this year the Bombers were coming off a really tumultuous previous season, again like Melbourne were given a completely new game plan to master and finally were also considered by their incoming coach and fitness staff to be unfit and were duly flogged on the training track.

Essendon (with West Coast perhaps) were near the fittest side at the beginning of 2011 which really helped them get going early, including an impressive NAB cup campaign (during which they ran ll over the top of an unfit dees outfit). I reckon we might go all right (though i though that last year!)

Cut and pasted from Demonolgy FYI (poster was Nick48, ta):

As I expected arrived a bit late for the start of the session, twenty plus people at the session, which was not bad considering.

When I arrived they were into match simulation again, playing with some intensity I thought, like vultures across a carcass.

A lot of rotations during the session, some of the stops were a bit longer than usual as the coaches did there bit, a lot of instructions going on.

Williams – short session then off.

Ricky as have said before – good pace - looks like he could out run them all.

Sellar – off for a bit of physio, ready to go back on, but didn’t in the end, then back to the rooms.

Morton – some good things, much better than some previous efforts. 

Fitzpatrick – not a force to be reckoned with yet in the ruck – but had some good tap outs and clearances, give him a chance it may work out. 

Royal did some boundary throw-ins again Fitzpatrick was the surprise. Late in the session they broke into two groups, Royal taking a small group at one end.

Tapscott and Jordie – bit of boundary walking and running, nothing new.

Re-hab group down to three this morning, Jurrah, Spencer and Evans, down the back mainly doing sprints, Liam now doing laps, bit of sprint. Spencer stayed behind doing more goal work.

Still long session, if they started at 8am – they did somewhere around a three hour session, you might say they have a couple of days off doing the community camps.

not very long - left out the bits that are the same at most training sessions.

looking forward to friday afternoon's intra-club, cheers.

Having a look over the last few years, form in the NAB Cup actually is quite indicative of how a team may perform in the season proper, especially the first half of the season. I, and a lot of others, have just passed off some woeful pre-season performances in previous years. This year, while I won't be hysterical if we play poorly and lose, I will be expecting a much more competitive effort throughout the whole pre-season, especially considering enthusiasm surrounding the new coach etc.

Yep, agree on both counts

I definitively improved last year, and i dont expect him to be on par with say Mckenzie but i think he still has room for improvement

Fair 'nuff

He said it should be the norm, not something i remember happening 4 times a season....

This is his biggest downfall, everything else he is ontop of imo

I don't agree with this. I was critical of Watts before the start of last season in terms of his intensity, hardness at the ball etc and felt that he really needed to focus on this area or play in the maggos until he had improved.

To his huge credit i reckon he really improved his intensity last season and for my money, whilst prob not on a par with say MacKenzie for hardness at the ball was almost the most consistent player across the season in terms of competing, second efforts and attacking the ball.

Yeah we got it- it just wasn't that funny..

I have to say i thought it was funny - and actually i reckon quite accurate. With Clark, Watts, Howe, Petterd and Green we have a surfeit of marking options. LJ will have license to go for the odd speccky but also be there to swoop on the crumbs - just like Wiz. When you think about he would make a pretty frightening "small" forward and dam hard to match up on too

BTW the way agree LJ could end up being, if not the best, in our top 2-3 within 3 years (so not a smokey). Really surprised how many posters seem to have dropped of him. Sure he needs to build his tank etc etc but he has so much x factor he could be a porn convention.

Added to that he hasn't come through a full on junior system or played in a one of the true AFL feeder comps (ie WAFL, SANFL, VFL) so doesn't have the advantage most other young AFL players do of 4-5 years access to top shelf fitness and conditioning systems. Lets see what another couple of years under MIsson's regime enables him to do fitness wise

Playing as a permanent forward his role is to kick goals and he does. Would be interested in a statistical comparison to the Whiz - i don't recall too many dees fans knocking him. Yes he's obviously alot taller than the Wiz but their role in the team is essentially the same

Watts - he'll be close to the top of the AFL heap within 4 years.

Smokey ? Martin - came to footy late (18?), is a great athlete, improved out of sight last year and if he continues to trend upwards will be super valuable in terms of positional flexibility

I am one of the few people who thought Bails was a good coach, but frankly, we'll never know. More importantly, I think a lot of people are overestimating the role and importance of the coach. The fact is that throughout 2011 the club suffered from internal division between the football and administration departments. We all read reports of dissension and conflict involving Schwab, Bails, Connolly, even involving senior players, who's views were sought on the club's predicament. Added to that was the long drawn out Scully saga, which would have impacted negatively on team morale.

I don't know enough about the inner workings of the club to apportion blame for any of this, but any organisation, whether it's a football club or not, is bound to fail if it is divided. Neeld may or may not prove to be a good coach, to date he hasn't coached a single AFL game. However, the club's best chance of success is if everyone associated with the club unite and support each other. That, rather than the influence of any one individual, will do more than anything to generate on field success.

Spot on. About mid way through last season i posted about how i see the fundamental cause of our sustained lack of success as our history of woeful governance and divided boards. The events RB note above have reinforced my views on this. All the dollars thrown at the FD will be for nought if the board doesn't deliver sound governance and is truly united (for the long haul not just a few months). Only time will tell.

We should have taken Darling no question. We needed, more than anything else a big bodied forward who could provide a contest. Darling met that need. But that call was not BP's alone. His role was to select according to a template provided by the coach and FD. He chose Cook to meet the criteria of that template.

New coach new recruiting staff. The whole thing handled well with BP's dignity preserved and Neeld able to appoint his own man. All part of the change process.

I would prefer a simpler solution whereby we follow soccers lead and pay a goal regardless of whether it touches the post or not. If it goes through the goals untouched by a player it's a goal. This would clean up a large part of the conjecture. Likewise I have always advocated play on if the ball bounces off the post and goes back into the field of play.

Was going to post something similar. I'm not sure on the play on if it comes back into play as this represents quite a change to how the the game is played, though it would add some interest. But a ball shaving the post and going through the goals being given the 6 points would not represent a change to how the game is played, either in the spirit of the game or just in the practical mechanics of the game. It would also have the benefit of being free and would elimate errors like the Hawkins one a couple of years back. A very sensible solution

I mostly agree. When they moved flash up the ground whether it be on the wing or HBF, it was to use his pace and deadly left foot. That worked quite well for a while.

A little like TJ in that he was too clever for his own good and tried to thread a needle. The opposition worked both of them out and new exactly where they were going to deliver the ball. They both turned over the ball so many times because they didn't have a plan B.

Forget about Daveys last season, he was playing injured or recovering from it for most of the season. His knee would have to be 100% this year to even think about playing FP, the position requires someone who can twist and turn and get onto his left foot. Remember he doesn't have a right foot and handball is not a preferred option for him.

Just one thing Binman in your last sentence Was that meant to be Set Shot or [censored] Shot?

Set shot. Though last year Green, who has always been a great set shot , was a pretty shet shot.

One thing i like about Davey up forward is his set shots. Despite missing taregts more regulalry in the last couple of seasons i reckon that's more to do with his high risk choices rather than technique. If he plays up forward regularly he'll have his fair share of shet shots and convert at a pretty good percentage.

They say big men take time to develop. I think the same is true for small forwards .

Davey will go well in attack .

His decision making from half back was poor because he is TOO attacking .

Those he say he is better at half back must have missed all the turnovers that lead to goals .

I'm glad Misson has taylored his program .

10 tackles and four goals(for us) a game would be nice from Flash .

Yep, i agree. The amount of times last season he coughed it up trying to pin point a pass back into the corridor from hb were telling, partic at docklands. Those kicks spearing to a forward will be telling. If true, top move

that makes me think of peter yeo. wasn't he in the same category. also rod owen, ex-stkilda who moved pretty well for a while..

Yeah Rod Owen was pretty good actually. Young cordner looked a likely type but in truth was probabaly closer to spudville than an unfulfilled talent.

Andy moir. Great leap and mark for his size. Never really fulfilled potential

Away in the Magner, no crib for his bed, the little lord Jamie laid down his sweet head (at the dees). Welcome Mitsubishi