Pates

The poll question was one I actually needed to pause on. Asking who will have the best career between Gus, Clarry, and Trac (and other). I said Clarry but I really like Gus's game, I can't remember who it was against but I recall Gus setting up Garlett with two brilliant long kicks with fantastic vision and Jeffie didn't event have to slow down for them. I also think they were within 5min of each other! I really love what we're building here and better yet we have players fighting to get into the squad instead of shuffling deck chairs on the titanic!

Sadly for Col I'd say he's behind quite a few names, I can't see him being a regular name on the team sheet. That said there's serious competition for spots this year so he can only control one thing: himself. If he plays well at Casey and the others don't maintain their form then he's got every opportunity as anybody else.

So I've been able to watch some good chucks of the latest JLT v Carlton and it definitely provides tangible hope for finals this year. Our seems to have a cohesion to it that I haven't witnessed for quite a while and the best part is the it's largely being driving by younger players who will be responsible for this club for quite a while. Love the look of Hogan, and really liked seeing him start in the middle. I'm sure it will be an imposing sight for the opposition when we throw him in there at times. He's also becoming a more rounded player, thinking things through and delivering with good skill. Petracca could explode this year and his ceiling for me is the highest of all our younger players. Really can't wait to see him take on the saints in round one. Oliver, Brayshaw, and Salem are all working through really good pre-seasons and that will make for great competition for spots below them. Anyone wanting to get into this side will have a really figh on their hands. Despite all the positives I will just mention (and yes I know this is pre-season) there are still some concerning turnovers that don't seem to be just a one off. Carlton weren't good enough to punish us most of the time but if you give GWS, Sydney, Bulldogs, Geelong etc that kind of free opportunity they will hurt us. Vince was actually a bit of an offender with that. But as I say, it's pre-season. Cliched as it is we need to take it week by week. Keeps the wins coming Goody!

She writes very well, I think there must be days where she wakes up and has to remind herself this isn't a dream. Everything has moved so fast for her and womens football, and being recognised as probably the best in the game she's had to wear a lot of responsibility on her shoulders.

Maybe in the same vein where the male teams seem to have multiple guys they could have got a large group of women to do the rendition. Does sound a little weird, I'm basically everything is the same between the mens and womens team. One club, one song.

Magner cops a bad wrap I feel, he played some decent games for us but at the end of the day just wasn't up to it. Gave it a fair crack every time he was out there, which was more than some at that time.

Great to watch again. Definitely better without the Fox Footy commentary, some of them really know how to ruin the moment (channel 7 are no better). If anyone needed reminding of how good Watts was last year that last quarter is such a great example. He was everywhere and pretty much everything he did was spot on.

Really liked what I saw from Sam last year, looking forward to watching him grow this year.

There are few players that can garner such a massive amount of attention for doing very little. Watts is most definitely one of them, almost yearly there is a large thread usually at this time of year devoted to what sort of condition/mental state he's in and whether he will have a good year. Thankfully last it was a very good one. I was a bit sceptical on this initial rumour but there does seem to be something to it given certain comments. He's still definitely best 22, and he does stuff that very few at our club can do, but it sounds like Goody and co have placed certain KPI's that the players have to meet and he's failed to do that. It seems only fair that those who have get first crack at playing, the only question mark I'd place on the way they've handled it is to do with Watts himself. He's shown at times to not respond well to bringing him down, and I know the players shouldn't be mollycoddled but Roos said himself that at times he had to be an amateur psychologist at times so I just wonder whether this is the best way to motivate him. Anyway, now I'm just throwing my own speculation in there. I expect Watts will be in the final JLT and with any luck he will kick 4 goals, have 25 possies, 5 assists, 10 contested marks, well you get the point.

I'd definitely bring Watts in, maybe give one of Weids or Hogan a rest. If Hogan comes out maybe push Gawn into attack more, have those two rotating between ruck and FF. I'd also like to see Trengove given a good run, maybe one of the fringe players makes way. If Hibberd's ready bring him in, but there's no rush. We know Wagner comes out due to injury, one of Vince, Jones, or Lewis can have a breather this week and maybe build to the final JLT game being our round one dress rehearsal. Try a few new things, I liked the look of the Spencer/Gawn rotation, and Gawn pushing forward could create some headaches for opposing defenders.

What are the chances we'll be able to wear this one vs Essendon? Would be great to see us playing them in a strip that isn't white. Incidentally that's always one of my biggest bugbears with the fixture. We very rarely get a home match against Essendon.

I think that's a bit dramatic, we're not the club we were 5 years ago. While I agree that we need to get ourselves a base we can't just fly into it out of desperation, it needs to be the right fit for long term. I have no doubt this is an issue that PJ is looking to solve before he calls time on his tenure with us, but there are a lot of boxes to be ticked and one of the main (and hardest) ones is finding a way to still be geographically close to the city/MCG. For now the club has world class facilities at AAMI park and we're across the road from the MCG. When the right opportunity comes along we need to take it.

No it wouldn't be our premiership and I wouldn't want it now. The AFL can strip them of the premiership and draft picks though if they want, I've enjoyed seeing them down! Annoyingly the fans still have their arrogance.

What seems to be the issue with this every year is that options are put forward but there's always a "but" which makes us realise our current situation is the best we have available. There's been plenty of thoughts on it. Years ago it was Trevor Barker Oval being redeveloped and re-sized to suit the MCG dimensions, coupled with state of the art facilities and community centre. Funding seemed to be the biggest issue with that and our relationship with Sandy was on a bit of rocky ground. Docklands was another, the Vic government wanted to create a residential park land area with a permanent training base for us. That ended up being all talk though. Wasn't there another a couple of years ago with Melbourne university? I can't remember the details but I think the response on here was pretty lukewarm. Sadly we are still paying for our club being stuck in the mud for decades. Gosche's paddock isn't perfect, but it's still the best available for right now. Olympic park will always be the one that got away, but in fairness our club was treading water at that stage so I don't think it could've been done even if we wanted it. Elwood park would be pretty amazing, but isn't it the home of the VFA? Might get us in the bad books with local footy fans. EDIT: change Elsternwick to Elwood

Ok with what's going on it's important to remember a couple of things. 1) it's pre-season so reporters are trying to drum up stories to fill the papers. 2) every year there seems to a certain player at each club that's given a sort of "position not set in stone" kick up the bum, most of the time they are in there round 1. 3) there are two practice matches left and I'd be shocked if Watts doesn't play at least one of them, he will be given an opportunity to prove himself. Jack had such a great year last year, I would hope he'd want to build on it.

It's ticked off for certain teams, eg vs the Saints if we had our home strip we would have a dark back making it (theoretically) harder to distinguish on TV, which is why they've forced us to wear the white strip. With the red back you don't have that problem. Hopefully they'll let us wear it against a few others as well.

There are certain teams that we get told to wear the white strip because of a so called clash on TV. This should eliminate it for many of those teams. About bloody time, well done to the club.

I've only been able to watch the highlights on the MFC website so that's all I can comment on. So: Good to see Jeffy involved in several goals where he took a (split-second) pause and summed up the situation, and ended up passing off to teammates. He could've had 3-4 goals to his name. Salem sounds and (from what I saw) looks in really good touch. I've been worried about him given our recruiting of other small-mid half backs but he looks like he can play in multiple positions and looks he's got quicker skills. I really hope 2017 is his blossoming year. Hogan taking pack marks, kicking goals, and even pulling off a Nietz-like fend off and goal, what more could you want from his first game? The little bits I've seen of Lewis are what we wanted, calm, thoughtful, with leadership and good skill. As I said I got all this from highlights, maybe eventually I'll be able to see the game. Importantly a good solid bit out for the boys, sad about Wagner though. Hopefully it won't be a long lay off for him. We need plenty of competition for spots!

I'm not rushing to any judgement, Jack has long been known as a player who works his butt off on and off the track, it sounds very strange that he would ruin it all after his best season so far. We have also had regular training reports on here and none have suggested he hasn't met the standards. The only thing I will say is that there has been no response from either Jack or the club. Perhaps preferring not to give any oxygen to a fabricated story. If Jack plays next week, dominates and is in good nick then I encourage all Dees fans to tweet Cleary for an apology.

I will enjoy that (as long as we beat them). They have been overrated for so long, so many times people have had them thereabouts of challenging when really they were always just making up the numbers. I'll admit my prediction of the slide was a couple of years out but they will slide right down. I see bottom four for them. I see Essendon finishing higher than the pies this year, and Bucks will be gone by years end.

Melksham was always a pretty middle tier recruit anyway so I think he will need to blow out some cobwebs. Ill have a look at the highlights when I get the chance but I think any pre-season comp you start with beating the premiers is a good start to the year. Let's keep building.

I disagree with your assessment of the Saints, if there's only one new spot available in the top 8 I feel like they will be the ones we're battling with. I feel like the ceiling on our young players is higher so we will accelerate ahead of them next year. But for this year I think it will be a scrap between us which could be down to whoever wins round one. I feel the Hawks will drop out of top four but Roughead returning will make a big massive difference. I feel Geelong are vulnerable if anything happens to Dangerfield, but as long as he stays fit they'll be thereabouts of top 4. Essendon are a real unknown quantity, it pisses me off that they got the number one draft pick and they then get all their players back. I they'll finish about 10th, if they make finals I will literally throw up.

So where does that place the girls on the ladder? Is GF on the cards?

I get the feeling that a couple of the JLT games will be used as opportunities for older/fringe players to show some value. I can't see the likes of Garland, Trenners, Pederson, Spencer etc getting a whole lot of games but when they're called up they will need to be able to do a job. That's been Hawthorns strength for so long, we need that attitude for us as well. It'll be interesting to see how the Dogs line up given they were in the GF.

I'm sorry to hear your father and your family had to go through MND. It's a shame that good people like Neale (and I'm sure your father) suffer through this terrible disease, while murderers and worse live to ripe old ages. If there was any universal justice I feel like MND is how it should be dealt out. Anyway off that note, Neale's one of the nicest guys I've ever met in the footy world. I still remember after that incredible win at the GABBA in '02 at the German club my dad and I chatted to him (well my dad chatted I was mostly still in shock). Genuine good bloke, I hope it was an enjoyable day for him and his family.