Pates

It's down to the mental prep of the side I reckon. It was MN's biggest failings, and everything we've heard about Roos is that it's one of his specialities. The last two years you could tell from the opening bounce the players weren't in the right frame of mind so I'm hoping to see the boys come out at the first bounce and attack the footy hard. I see it as a 50/50 this game, it could really go either way but for some reason I reckon one team will come out of the blocks early and maintain that lead for the match.

It's absolutely ridiculous the quality of forwards we have on the injury list.

I would actually say it's not that they went downhill, it's just everyone else improved and they stayed the same. I flew United to the US in 2000 and then went back on them again last year and I swear I reckon it was the same plane with zero changes. Same seats and same crappy communal screen in the middle that had static in the top right hand corner!

Bloody ridiculous that is, it costs them nothing to have it sent to email but it costs them to pay people to give you your ticket physically at the venue. That's a big mark up from $1-$2 last year. Really looking forward to seeing Vince, Cross, Tyson, and possibly Michie out there. 4 recruited mids that I reckon can have an impact this year. And keep an eye out for Trenners this year, I think he could fly under the radar of a lot of opposition teams and make them pay. JKH has to get a run surely, a bit of excitement and flare in the forward line. It's going to hurt not having either of our power forwards but Howe has shown he knows how to kick a goal, Fitzy can surprise oppositions, and I reckon Pedders will be a role player in that his job will be to draw players away from the contest and create space.

Viney will be a gun, Toump will at the very least be a very handy player for us. But both seem to have the unlucky run of injuries that befall our recruits so judge them when they are fit and when they are actually well and truly into their careers not at the beginning. As for Wines, we made the call so get over it. It's not an exact science, sometimes you need a little thing called luck on your side.

Well done to the club on getting another sponsor and it's a good to get an international airline as a partner. Although I must admit I haven't heard a great deal of good things about them. Still welcome to the MFC China Southern!

JKH will be one of the steals of the year, Georgio will be the unexpected handy pick up, but for me Dom Tyson has shown he is already taken a leap with his development (I have a feeling Roos and George Stone will do great things with him) and he will step in to being one of our best mids this year. It's important to remember he is still developing but he looks like he'll be a very good player for us.

It would've come out eventually, better to hear it from the club than Barrett, Denham, or Hutchy.

When Mitch pulled on the Dees jumper for the first time I saw a passion and physicality I hadn't seen since Neitz. All the best with whatever the health issue is, and keep snapping photos because you really are talented!

I don't see Roos leaving a job unfinished, he's be brought in to create a solid foundation for a future coach to take us up the ladder and into contention. I see two years as the amount of time needed to do an apprenticeship under Roos, therefor I believe he'll be here for the 3rd year.

Very sad news, another good person taken way too early by this terrible disease. He was always a positive person and no doubt loved by a lot of the players. RIP Bails

I'm not going to get worked up over the score. It sucks, but all I want is for us to come out of the game with no injuries to key players.

I would be leaving Howe out for the Hawks pre-season match as he has become a really critical player now for round 1. Would consider giving Fitzy a spell as well or perhaps just a half and subbed to give him some match practice. But Howe's played plenty of match time so I see no need to risk him when our forward stocks are a bit thin.

Well the truth was somewhere in the middle of our optimistically and Barrett. I would see the GWS game as his target, but no pushing to get him out there. Take it easy Jesse, don't Hulk up too much!

Actually in the case of Clark he was relatively good when it came to injuries. He got a rare injury, that doesn't just stop with getting the foot right. It's fair to say that from now on he will be injury prone as his body has undergone a significant change and trauma, which means I think we should get used to him playing no more than 14-16 matches a year.Dawes on the surface his hand was the main focus, but obviously that was a smoke screen.

Look I'm going through recovery from a serious knee injury right now and I'm starting to understand why time frames change on these injury lists. 3 weeks ago I was told I would be getting my brace off in a month, now another 2 weeks has been added on to that and other milestones have been changed. But the irony being the surgeon is saying everything is going well and surgery that was going to happen at the 6 month post-op mark will happen 3 months post-op! My point is until you hear it straight from the horses mouth, speculation is just that. Speculation.

Exactly my thoughts, what I hope is the case is he copped the knock v Cats and pulled up sore. He may have come off the track today and told the medico's that it still hurts to which they said, "let's get a scan to make sure there isn't a fracture".Of course my mind will go to the MFCSS scenario as I will never forget the fact that initial thoughts for Clarks injury was a few weeks with a minor foot injury, we all know how that turned out. How we have such bad luck with our forwards is beyond me.

So help me if someone does another thread like that this year they have to be given a life-time Demonland ban! I'm nervous but we are playing much better football than the Saints at the moment and I know it's pre-season but it counts for something as it gives us confidence in the structures been put in place. If we manage to come through the Hawks game unscathed than i think we should be confident of a win, our recruiting this year has been nothing short of brilliant. I can't see one lost pick from Salem to Georgio! Cross, Tyson, and Vince have been exactly what we needed, throw in JHK for some excitement and Georgio with an unexpected pick up; Viney and Co should be very pleased with themselves.

Not meaning this to sound harsh but every year he's said he's ready to take the next step and has failed to do so. We all know the ability in him, it's most definitely time that he started producing on it. First game a good solid start.

Smedts given a reprimand for his hit on Toumpas, seems like Melbourne players are fair game to taken out in pre-season. Every goddamn year a player of ours gets cleaned up and the offender gets away with it. Was hoping with Sylvia gone that would stop.

The last two years I've come into round one thinking "the stars have aligned" for a round one win, both games against interstate clubs we'd beaten in the previous year at the MCG. Look how that turned out. I'm not saying be negative, but I'm going to that game with the memories of the years gone.

The way Dawes was talking the club is taking an ultra conservative approach to managing the KPP, in particular himself and Clark. I don't see Mitch coming into the team before round 3 just purely because they are going to ease him into match fitness, as said above, there's no rush so let's make sure they are as sound in body (as much as possible at least) before we put them through the rigours of a match of any kind.

A great man given a well deserved remembrance.

There may well have been a rule change on that (shock horror), because when Trenners got the 50m penalty he had the choice of kicking on 50 for the 9 pointer or going inside for a normal goal. I do remember at one stage it was a case that if you got a 50m penalty that brought you inside it was a super-goal.

All the best to him and his family during his fight.