FarNorthernD

At least the Club is turning a negative into a positive. Most kids would be stoked to be standing on the G as the players ran past before a game. Phone call from your favourite player would be very cool too Good on the MFC

Agree. It would be interesting to see him standing next to Dom Tyson

Great story rpfc. Thank you Aaron certainly looked at home in the half that he played. Like others here I thought he was a new key position player when he first ran out on Thursday. Big boy. Imagine it will take him a bit to get AFL fit. If he plays in the top tier would think he will start as the sub after putting a few ks in the legs at Casey Another big boy and possible surprise packet may be the bloke we picked directly after him, Mitchell White. Also listed at 188cm, booming left footer and Stingrays B & F winner. A recent training report had him slotting a post high goal from 50. Love that. You get the feeling this last draft for us may be transformational for the MFC

Honestly my hope watching this match was just to find that we weren't totally inept. Sometimes I believe that the problems of this football club are so ingrained and so unsolvable no matter how good the coaching, facilities or administration we will remain firmly glued to the bottom of the ladder, for ever So whilst this was just a practice match and, yes, some of our skills were horribly reminiscent of our 2013 selves, I don't think anyone can deny there were signs of football life. And let's face it playing an almost full strength Freo side at home is a tough assignment for a top 8 team let alone a perennial cellar dweller like us. For almost whole quarters there were signs that our 26 representatives actually knew how to play AFL football. On what is a tragically small sample size and which will no doubt be proved completely wrong next week, I believe, we may have a few different things to look forward to this year. Ben Newton. Ok, so less than two quarters of a practice match form to go by but we have possibly added another member to join Jones, Tyson and Vince as AFL standard centre square mids. 13 possessions, 6 of those contested, 2 clearances and one goal is a handy contribution before retiring hurt with a sore face. I wanted to find out the name of the fourth horseman of the apocalypse and start calling him that but perhaps will wait for him to play a full match Some Centre Square dominance. If you are anything like me when the ump bounces the ball I just naturally turn to look at the oppositions forward line. It hasn't been since we were talking up Brent Moloney for All Australian selection that we consistently won it out of the middle (and doesn't that seem like a long time ago). We won first bounce clearances 10/5 on Thursday night Garlett. Not a wonderful game from Jeffy but there will be some opposition defenders who are normally used to casually strolling out of our backline who will find life a fair bit tougher this year. I think he, Hogan, JKH and Dawes could become a formidable hunting group. Hogan. You sort of know already that whichever defender gets the job of playing on Jesse is in for a fairly miserable day. The kid is aggressive and won't take a backward step. He has genuine attitude. I'm a Tom McDonald fan but I would love it if he had some of Hogans grunt. Matching anti-social CHB and CHF bookends, along with a winning midfield would signal a new beginning for us. Inside 50's. We won these as well on Thursday. As Roos said we didn't win this stat too often last year. Hopefully a sign of things to come Lumumba. Ultra consistent. Has played every and all 253 games available over the last five years (or something like that). Like his B & F result from last year was one of his teams best four this week. Same player, new jumper, will make us better Frosty. There are going to be times where he streams through the centre of the G and does something brilliant and there will be times where the same run ends in tears. Either way it will be exciting to watch. Yes, I know that it will all probably come crashing down in seven days time when we play the Bulldogs in Ballarat but up till then I will remain optimistic about this year. We definitely will improve, I suppose it just remains to be seen by how much.

And so are my emotions. I am stoked that Dawes, Tyson, Frost, Newton, Garlett and Michie decided to depart their rather poxy clubs to come play for our great team. Good, strong, sensible decisions. And then there are the Scullys, Clarks (his last change of club not the one before that) and Frawleys of this world who are obviously moral-less, bottom dwelling scum suckers Now there is Howe who a) I will cerebrally justify is a one trick hack who we may rort a first rounder for or B) may legitimately explore his options before loyally resigning with the club that plucked him from obscurity Player movements will become more common. The only way to beat it is to win more trades than you lose. In the last couple of seasons I think we have done this handsomely.

The earliest of days obviously but I think we have an extra proper midfielder in Ben Newton

Yep I'm a traditionalist too. They can keep the National comp but bring back Ressies games before main matches, completely shove the music between quarters and if I'm being completely picky I would like a return to L Vs M updates on the scoreboard which you then had to consult the record to see who L and M were. The more entertaining they attempt to make it the less I enjoy the experience. Go Dees

Did you happen to notice what his skills were like George?

It actually would be more than a fair question to ask. There would be so many advantages to playing an intra-club on the weekend and from the clubs perspective it would have been the smarter option There is obviously a good reason that they scheduled it for 3 o'clock in Casey but it must be pretty excellent as they would have struggled to scheduled it a worse time and, perhaps, place. As others have mentioned I am sure they could have tweaked the training to accommodate a weekend match rather than mid-week We have a tiny membership base. We need to be doing things better than everyone else. It was a wasted opportunity

I used to really enjoy the Frawley V Riewoldt match up although I'm hoping this year Sam Frost will be able to bring out the inner petulant, dummy spitting, sulk in Jack

The Ross Brewer?

Yes it is very awful but I would gladly own it if it meant we were back to back Premiers, favoured to do so again this year and had an humungous and growing membership

The interest on here i think is completely understandable. Lets face it we all thought Col would finally pull it all together at Freo and turn out to be the consistently damaging/occasionally brilliant player we hoped he would become with us. Bizarrely it now looks like we actually got the best out of him, let him go at the perfect time and got Vince as a almost direct replacement.

I have a theory that Sylvia is the anti-Norm Smith. When Col walked out the door the 50 year curse went with him. Our Club last year was shaking off the past and this year will begin its inevitable rise But I might be wrong

At his very best with some leg speed restored and with the ability to again kick 50m he would be a walk up start in our best 22. He has shown the ability to be a very, very good AFL player. Jack has been badly let down by both his body and luck given the what this club has dished up over the course of his career here. Being Co-Captain of the MFC at 20 during the Neeld era couldn't have been an easy gig. He showed maturity and leadership beyond his years But the chances of Jack returning to his very best? Remote or at least unlikely you would imagine. But then if he does get fully fit again and can complete the fairy tale comeback it would be wonderful.

How has anyone else not commented on this? Jake Spencer kicked truly.......from on the edge of the 50. When Roos comes up for Sainthood I'm almost certain this will be offered up as his first miracle

That was a great read rpfc. Thankyou for passing it on

Somewhat random Bump Reading another thread today reminded me of Woewodin. The youtube clip below is the "still Woewodin" running goal from 1998 and a chat between Robbo and Woey. There is also that other handy running goal from the Wiz Interestingly 1998 has some parallels with this year; a poor previous year, a few young, good players ready to hit their stride, an injection of players from other clubs (Jeff White and Jamie Shanahan) and a captain who stood down (Lyon) Let's hope history repeats as we climbed the ladder from wooden spooners to 4th. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=loBAS8DPE3Q PS did Shane have another 4 bounce running goal against Carlton or was that another player?

I'm with Old

Hi Saty, Thanks for your reports over the summer. As has been mentioned before they are invaluable to us interstaters A couple of questions Watts. Is he training as a forward? We know his physicality has been questioned in matches. Is his training similar? Salem. Training with mids or backs? Haven't heard much of him lately Kent. I assume he is training as a fwd/mid. Love what he does on the field but it would be nice if he got hold of the ball twice as often as he does. Are there any specifics they are working on with him? Hunt. How far off is he? He can run fast apparently. Can he kick?

I'm a fan of Watts and truly hope the he can put together a very good/great season and shove it up the non-believers. As I've previously said if I was granted three wishes I would use one to watch Jack take mark of the year standing on Nic Nats shoulders. But, in reality, for a bloke his size he is a useless contested mark and doesnt provide any defensive forward pressure as his tackles stick like Teflon (his least appealing quality) I much prefer him playing the quarterback role at half back where he can use his decision making and delivery talents to best use. It is where I think he has played his best footy to date and a position he could make his own.

Would quadruple like if could The only blokes to have played more games for us over the past two years is the other Jones and Howe. Watts and Dunn have played two less than Matt. He has come fourth and twelfth (?) in the Bluey and yet some on here claim that he has struggled for a spot in the top 22. He may not enjoy the same success in the future but whoever replaces him in the team will need to better 20 possessions a game. Matt's record is not too shabby for a footballer who has only played two years of AFL

It is sad isn't it that the actions of a few can taint a whole sport. I greatly admire swimmers and understand some of the efforts they go to to succeed - 5.30am starts, 7-10 sessions per week plus weight sessions for the older groups and only a few weeks off a year. Kids need incredible dedication from an early age. There is pretty much no money in it unless you are a once in a generation swimmer (Thorpe, Hackett, Rice etc)But then the entire sport suffers when someone does this

All teams should get better but they don't. There are so many variables Key football staff leave. If they be coaches or valued assistants or a football manager like Neil Balme or Rodney Eade Coach stays too long. Coach loses players. Poor coaching. Out of date/poor game plan Poor player recruitment Injuries - Long list of out of season surgeries or in season injuries or injuries to key players Board instability. Lack of unified direction. Player leadership vacuum Second class training facilities/fitness staff To some degree all these things can effect on field performances of any club and we have suffered through most of them over the past years plus a few other issues that most on Demonland know well We are now strong across all areas of the club. The opportunity to improve rapidly and ahead of other teams is there and I believe we will. With a reasonable first couple of games and an injection of confidence who knows what could happen

From Adelaide's perspective are they really going to appoint a bloke as Captain who won't commit to the club? How stupid would they look if they make him captain and he then still left at the end of the season. Not great when the leader of the place knicks off as the Bulldogs found out this year. I think they have done the only thing they could have in the circumstances