binman

This might be a silly question but when you say AAMI park do they train inside that stadium? I had it in my mind they train out on Goshs oval, where the intra club practice game was (which has a boundary line, though not a fence as far as i can recall)

Jimmy did no such thing, on the contrary he made it clear that Fev should work himself out and gain an understanding of cause and effect. Until he does develop some basic insight Jimmy won't let him any where near any vulnerable young people

TJWWHBASO - The Jack Watts will he be a star obsession! I watched a replay of the game last night and it was interesting. Reid for the Swans took a good grab and one of the commentators noted how he was slowly improving and how it takes time for the skinny forward types to develop, but that he was getting there. The curse of going number 1 i suppose but wouldn't it be nice for JW to benefit from the same sort of patience and be able develop without the pressure of the TJWWHBASO. It is also intersting the discussion in this thread about how Watts might fit into modern footy. Players like Kernahan, Carey and Brown may become less influential as the game heads towards the need to have elite level runners, partic if the current 3 interchange and 1 sub rule stays in place as it places even greater emphasis on having endurance runners in the team. The idea of Watts doing some ruck work also isn't that crazy. He took quite a few boundary throw ins on Sunday, including a crucial one in the last 2 mins, right in front of Sydneys goals that he very cleverly hit on an angle away from goal and back over the line. No doubt about it he's got some smarts, something you have or you don't.

"Jack Watts: Jack had a solid game. He was good with some of his contested work and he laid three tackles, while he made five spoils when he was outnumbered." From the Mark Williams player assessment on the MFC website. This is what they really want to see from Jack and he will be picked every week while he continues to do the nitty gritty stuff even if he is not kicking bags

One of them was a beauty. City end. Great vision to see Green, top choice not to attempt to kick it himself (he was 20 metres out directly in front) and good skills to hit him with the handball

Basketball team?

It was bloody Maric's fault! He should have gone at the ball. Critical mistake (that kick btw was left foot, pretty confident thing to do given where he was kicking from)

Am i right in thinking Martin was an elite basketballer and only started playing footy in his late teens? If so there is still heaps of upside for the Martian, partic. given big fellas always take time to make it (see Jamar). His kicking might improve which has to help

I agree with these 2 comments. The tap from the marking contest that set up the Bennelli running goal was terrific and showed great awareness. I also would love to see him play a little more instinctively, with a little more freedom (a bit like Jurrah). Funnily enough i reckon his desire to do the team thing and meet all the expectations constrains him a little. I just get the feeling if he can snag a couple early he could have a break out game which might release the shackles and set him on his way

Good game from the big fella. My favourite Martin. Looks a bit like he has been told never to kick unless absolutely neccessary, reminds me of Miller under Daniher. I reckon we might see a bit more of the Martin dish to Tap the tank

I thought Watts was good, not great but good. What i liked was his intensity was alot better than what i saw in the pre season and as i have said previously i suspect this is what the fd will want to see. I'll wager they will comment on his improved attack on the ball in the player wrap. He was at the man today, competed in the air and brought it to ground a few times. I agree with other posters that he was slow releasing it a couple of times. I don't recall the Jurrah one but there was one on the AFL members wing where he held onto it for ages, ignored a really hard lead from Dunny (ironic that)and went into a crowded corrridor. The other interesting thing was that in the first half he played really deep, in fact almost out of the square and Jurrah played alot higher. I reckon it helped him get in the game. It would be nice to see him snag some of those goals and kick 4 or 5 which i reckon he will when he gets on a roll

Great to see that Trengove is in, given the outs this is key. Also i'm rapt to see Jetta in. He was by far our best against BL in terms of intensity. Having just watched the cats v saints game it really reinforced how important intensity is going to be this year. It will be very interesting (and possibly quite instructive) who will be the sub

The final team as per the mfc website: Melbourne B: Clint Bartram, Jared Rivers, Joel Macdonald HB: Jack Grimes, Colin Garland, Jamie Bennell C: Nathan Jones, Brent Moloney, Luke Tapscott HF: Rohan Bail, Colin Sylvia, Liam Jurrah F: Jack Watts, Brad Green, Addam Maric FOLL: Mark Jamar, Lynden Dunn, Aaron Davey I/C: Neville Jetta, Stef Martin, Ricky Petterd, Jack Trengove Emg: Jake Spencer, James Strauss, Matthew Warnock New: Luke Tapscott (North Adelaide, SA) melbournefc.com.au

Really good call i reckon. Bailey has mentioned him a few times this pre season, with particular reference to how he might be used tacticaly and as part of the teams response to the much discussed forward press (basically kicking over the bloody thing). I have no doubt from his comments the club see him as an important player "going forward" and at the moment, with us lacking some older players his physical strength/presence is no doubt been a factor in his call up. For me i'm just keen to see new players and after all this year isn't the main game, 2 -3 years is and as Bailey has been at pains to say players need 50 - 60 games of AFL to really start to impose themselves. Tappy is starting the journey on Sunday and all power to him. I've got him in my starting sc line up so let's hope he starts with a bang.

Good call, lazy work from me. FWIW i expect that by the end of the season Watts will be comfortably in our top 10

Interesting that not one person has Watts in the top 10

One can empathise and show compassion without having directly experienced the same trauma or event. Indeed no one can ever truly say they no how someone else feels whether or not there is a shared experience.

Yep compassion is important. Sure it is a neccessary ingredient but the the most important? Not IMO, certainly not in isolation and/or not in concert with the required training and communication skills. "I've got a very good relationship with Brendan and he's been communicating because he wants to be a part of Reach, he wants to help young people. Unfortunately for Brendan, there's a part of him that he's not aware of - the ramifications of what he does, he doesn't understand them just yet". Sage words from Jimmy who is clearly saying Fev has an enourmous amount of work to do before he would let him any where near any Reach clients.

Coming from the perspective of someone with 20 years experience in the social welfare sector i could not disagree more with this. The welfare sector (and particlarly the youth sector) is full of "i've been there too and i know how you feel" people who are out there trying to save souls and think they have some special capacity to do so because of what they perceive is their "shared experience". Without the neccessary theoretical underpinnings, skills, training and knowledge this often selfish pathway to redemption can be a very dangerous one for those being "helped". Fev needs to sort himself out before he worries about helping anyone else. And once he does and he still wants to work with troubled young people than in order to do so he should go get some relevant qualifications (a process that may help him in his own efforts to move forward)

The OP was complaining that the numbers never seem to completely line up from week to week - I was giving a possible alternate way of interpreting the lists. quote name='Nasher' Nasher i think you're way of interpreting the injury list is a good way to look at it, in terms of time out etc As well as raising the issue of accuracy of weeks out i also flagged the issue of fuzzy diagnosis. Can i also add a concern about what a times appears disengenuous ,or at the very least not fully transparent, informtion about injuries. Generally the club has been good in the last couple of years with info to memebers but not in this regard. The tregove injury is actually a good example. Didn't the club say he was being rested in Tassie and against the lions? When did he do his ankle? of course it could have been done at training after that but wouldn't they normally say? I'm no good at remembering specific examples but it seems to be there have been quite a few similar mysterious injuries since Bailey has been on board as well other injuries that never seem to heal or somehow morph into something else. We also seem to have an inordinate number of "general soreness" late withdrwals. I'm not espousing some strange conspirancy theory but i find it perplexing. I mean the medical and sport science teams in the AFL are at the top of their respective professions and accurate info should not be beyond them (even if legible handwriting probably is - perhaps that's the issue, 3 and 8 look so similar)

Yeah i saw that - and they had Frawley listed then as indefinite which is interesting (although predicted return early April - seems a potentially bad injury according to the info link). During the season the lists are updated weekly.

Fair call. You're right you can't hold them to the numbers but still i would like to be pretty confident if they say 6-7 weeks then it will be 'round that mark. Other clubs seem to be able to more accurate and with most injuries there are precedents they can draw on. Of the various injury sites this is my favourite: http://www.injuryupdate.com.au/afl.php as it gives a good description of the injury and even though it relies on the clubs relasing their injury list once they do it gives a generally very accurate time frame for return.

Melbourne injury list Robert Campbell (achilles) - 6-8 weeks Troy Davis (thyroid disorder) - ongoing Jack Fitzpatrick (foot) - 3 weeks James Frawley (shoulder) - 3-4 weeks Jordie McKenzie (groin) - 3-4 weeks Tom McNamara (foot) - 3 weeks Cale Morton (hand) - 4 weeks Michael Newton (hand) - 1 week Jack Trengove (ankle) - 1 week melbournefc.com.au The current injury list as of today. A bit of a concern that Chip is still 3-4 weeks away and Morton 4. I guess they may be being conservative and plan to bring them back after the bye but both have been 3-4 weeks for about 3-4 weeks. Similar situation for both Jordie McKenzie and Robert Campbell (ie weeks out staying static). Surely they can't be so far off with their initial prediction for all of them? Players can always have set backs in their rehab but surely at least one of the four would have made some progress. Only Newton seems to have made any progress of the senior players who have been out for a while.It makes me suspicious of their prediction of 1 week for Trengove. How we report our injuries and the accuracy of the time out has been a frustration of mine for the last 2-3 years (i can't be more specific with the timeframe - just kidding). It seems club policy to be fuzzy with expected length out and even diagnosis. Do others share this frustration or am i being unfair on the club?

Jurrah, Jurrah and Jurrah

good point about the bench, Bate comes out of the side and Petterd starts on the ground Howe for Watts? I don't think Watts is showing nearly enough defensive pressure and/or intensity and takes too few pack marks. Howe is older, more experiened playing against men and can take a big grab appraently (though to be fair haven't seen too many thus far). Has an X factor, woyuld like to see how he goes in the big time and we could do with a stronger player down there Oh and i think i'll change my sub to tapscott