FarNorthernD

Coming into the 2019 season Viney and Wines will be just 24 y.o, Petracca 23 and Oliver 21. Seven years of fearsomeness to follow.

The girls are certainly being talked up as flag favourites. Whilst we have a dominant Voss-Black-Lappin midfield in Paxman-Pearce-O’Dea I think the recruiters have done an excellent job this year. On the weekend we had Kate Hore. 20 possessions (2nd highest on ground behind Paxman), 5 marks and 3 tackles. She only started playing footy last year after coming from a basketball background. Fair to say she has a lot of improvement left. Is just 23 y.o. Ashleigh Guest. Equal 5th highest possession winner for Melbourne with 17, 5 marks and a couple of tackles. Has come across from GWS after playing all seven games last year. Bianca Jakobsson. Also 17 possessions on the weekend including 7 marks and 3 tackles. In order to get Taylor Harris the Blues had to give something good away. In a complicated 4 way deal it would be fair to say we came out well on top giving up Deanna Berry for the former number 3 pick. Tegan Cunningham. Kicked two goals on the weekend on top of one in the opening round and three against the Pies in the practice match. Looks a natural forward with good hands, size, speed and athleticism. Would not surprise to find she wins the AFLW goal kicking this year. Was brought in with the number 22 pick from basketball and could be anything. Erin Hoare. Early days but the leagues tallest player hasn’t looked out of place in her two games so far. Apparently loves a contest and the ruck should only improve with time. Yet to debut is our first pick last year, Eden Zanker whilst Maddie Guerin played in round one. Both are only 18. In summary we have added at least four girls who are already in our top ten players. Not bad for a team that only missed the GF last year by percentage.

Shame. I was at one of my nieces wedding last year and, for a moment, found myself dancing with my sister. I said to her that it was just like playing in an intraclub match. She looked at me very blankly.

Report in the Sun has it that Erin Phillips will probably miss again this week whilst the AFL site is saying Paxman is also unlikely for us. They are leaving options open though saying if Paxman trains without discomfort on Thursday night then she is a chance to play. Whilst having key opposition players out hasn’t helped our men’s side (Rd 23 etc) the Women’s game relies far more on its stars to perform. Adelaide will be desperate to win this one to keep its flag defence alive. We need to win this before two games on the road including one in Alice and then a six day break.

I agree and like most of the team O’Dea was much better after half time. She also has about the purist of kicking actions in a comp not known for silky skills. I thought Mithen continued on from where she left off last year and Tegan Cunningham is a good pick up for the team. Hoare, the new ruck, did pretty well and should go even better when on smaller opponents. Another first gamer for the club, Jakobsson, was one of the best too. We have recruited well. Im not sure what Mel Hickey offers the team aside from tackling (9 for the game) but a midfielder she ain’t at this stage. Hopefully Paxman will come up next week as well as Mifsud. Honestly I was unsure if I could get fired up after the novelty factor of last year had worn off but for me the timing is perfect - it’s been 5 months since last seeing a red and blue jumper run around. And then when those cheating maggots paid GWS 3 free kicks directly in front of goal well i wasn’t worrying about the standard of the game!

The commentary at the start of the game said Mifsud was apparently concussed last week. The Crows will be hard after getting beaten tonight at home. Another loss and they can kiss their premiership defence goodbye. Hopefully Phillips will be missing for them again next week which would balance if Paxman misses for us.

If they had wanted to build a Saturday training session into the schedule I’m sure they could have organised it. They have worked the schedule around a public holiday this weekend, a travel day either end of this camp and they were able to re-schedule, without apparent issue, after the boot camp was called off at short notice. It has also been possible to schedule a Saturday Maroochydore training session in past years. Why not this year?

Sorry but it gives me flashbacks to the abomination that was our ‘welcome to colour television’ guernsey. Took us years to get rid of it. Give me that reversed, predominately red one any day

I’m as bullish as anyone about our chances this year but that list doesn’t scream midfield dominance over too many sides. Jones, Oliver and Viney are a good starting group but after that young blokes with potential who are yet to prove themselves as full time mids (Petracca, Brayshaw and Salem), old blokes who are past their prime (Lewis and Vince), a few who are unlikely to be anymore than midfield pinch hitters (Hogan, Bugg, Baker, Maynard, Stretch, Melksham and Hannan). Then there is Tyson who can get the ball fine but would have to be one of the worst left foot kicks in the game. Across the 3 groups (backs, fwds, mids) it is the midfielders that concern me the most.

@Drunkn167 how is Declan coping with the pre-season so far? What group is he training with? I would be interested to know. Thankyou in advance

Yep, fair enough too. Watts was always such a bastard and desperate to leave the club

Thanks Skuit - that’s it, the Chris Sullivan line. 7 goals plus. As for revenge I wouldn’t be upset if Melbourne beat GWS in the GF with unfashionable Cam Pedersen breaking a Tom Scully tackle to kick the winning goal.

Only four goals up in the last quarter and I’m staring at probable defeat. The excellent blog ‘Every Day is Sunday’ has a historical number that we have to be ahead by for defeat to be definitely averted. He calls it the Bernie Massey line, no that’s not it, the David Cordner line, nup, the Ragnar Lothbrok line? Whatever it is called and however many it is, 24 points isnt enough for a MFCSS remission. Seven goals perhaps?

The beauty of Demonland rjay. I must admit I see Dom going the other way and struggling for a midfield place. Plus it is difficult to see him playing half back although perhaps he could play forward. Either way you are right I think, it is make or break year for Dom.

I like the story Coombes tells of his Norwood supporting mate, Fester, who is so annoyingly vocal from the boundary that opposition players spit on him as they run up the race.

The thing I find interesting is that I haven’t seen this thread for many months but now that I have I find my dislike for Essendon is as strong as ever.

I must admit I thought he was older. At only 26 years old and 79 games on the clock Maxy will be in his prime over the next 4 years. With all the other young blokes around the 40-90 games mark perhaps the football gods will finally smile on us.

Absolutely agree. Two weeks before the finals we were all trying to manipulate the ladder predictor so as to play Richmond in the first week. Like the Bulldogs the year before they hit a good vein of form at the right time of year. I can quite easily see them fall outside the eight in 2018.

Clarry and Petracca in patches have. Others will

The AFL.com view on the matter. It is relatively balanced. Commando Hawks show up the Demons With every iteration of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the players have gained more rights and more power. And given they're the ones putting on the show, that's fair enough. It is in the pre-season where the players' new collective muscle is most on display. They have won major concessions in recent years when it comes to summer training, in terms of when it starts and hours per week at their clubs. The coaches have learned to live with, if not entirely love it. But has the balance shifted too far in favour of the players? It is a reasonable suggestion in the wake of the 14 Melbourne players who, with the assistance of the AFL Players Association, got the Demons to cancel their pre-Christmas training camp. It was at this camp 12 months ago that incoming coach Simon Goodwin made good on his promise to instill a harder edge at the Demons. The camp included all sorts of gruelling activities that left Christian Salem with concussion courtesy of an errant brick and Dom Tyson with a knee injury. Now, perhaps because this is the quietest time of the football year, this story created a few headlines, with SEN broadcasters Danny Frawley and Cam Mooney both chiming in with criticisms of the players. Frawley called the Demons "a bit of a laughing stock" and while his view is shared by many, what complicates matters is that he is on the coaching staff at St Kilda as a defensive assistant coach. Is he calling out Melbourne as a) fill-in breakfast host, b) Saints assistant, or c) former boss of the AFL Coaches Association? There are waters and right now, they are muddied. Whether or not the Demons come back a bit battered and bruised from a December training camp probably won't matter all that much when it comes to how they perform next season. They're a team on the rise, stacked with emerging talent and they should be playing with an edge in any event given their soft finish to 2017. They're due. But let's compare them with Hawthorn. The Hawks have worked their players over on the Sunshine Coast this time every year for the last few years and the camp has always been anything but idyllic, but lest the players start to feel too comfortable in the Queensland heat, earlier this month the club decamped instead to Lord of the Rings country in southern New Zealand.

95% of me knows this has been completely overblown and will have no effect on next season. A lesson learnt and dealt with. Finals bound we are. The other MFCSS 5% of me is being visited by ghosts of Christmas Neelds past. The good times are over before they begin as infighting and low moral cause us to drop back down to the bottom four. It would be such a Melbourne thing to happen.

Thought this maybe an opportune time for a happy bump Harrison Petty. Strengths:Intercept markingReads the flight of the ball earlyTakes marks at highest pointClean at ground levelEffective ball userComposure with ball in handRate of improvementStrong performances from limited exposure I am very much looking forward to seeing how this guy develops. Big upside

So what do you think, assuming a reasonable run with injuries, is a pass mark in 2018? Top 4, top 6, 8 or ten?

Not exactly a high bar to get over. The guy has been handed a team that should contend for finals spots for the next half decade at least. The team is in the perfect age and games bracket and the talent available to him far outstrips anything available to previous coaches. Next year will only be Goodwins second year coaching and I have no doubt he will get better in the role with more experience. So far though for every good team achievement; wins away against Adelaide and West Coast there has been a corresponding shocker. The drovers dog should be able to take this team to finals next year and it will certainly be worrying signs if he doesn’t.

My father was a passionate supporter. At his wake the last song played was the Grand Old Flag. All my cousins and their kids barrack for the Dees. As do my sister and her kids. My niece married into a Melbourne supporting family last year. At the wedding their were perhaps 150 guests and it was a struggle to find someone who didn’t barrack for the red and blue. Again the night closed with a couple of rousing renditions of the song. It was huge. My nephews wedding next year will be similar. The only family disappointment is my brother who is a football philistine who, I think, believes he is above all that nonsense. Fortunately his oldest inherited the Melbourne gene. For all the years of pain and disappointment I love being Melbourne