Maldonboy38

At training on Monday he was also with Jones every step of the way. Rodan made up the trio. The fact that he asble to keep up ith these two blokes is a good indication of his intent, and a further good indication of how the coaches see him developing. With Jones, Viney and maybe Tappy in the middle it gives us grunt and force in there. Tappy has definitely not made it yet but if he can get through a full preseason unscathed he will be a huge improver in 2013. Agree with Striker above - he could fill a Paul Chapman role. I haven't seen him in many marking contests so he well below chappy in that regard at the same time of his career, but you never know.

I saw him train yesterday. He is a big unit, and was running laps with Viney, Sellar, Jetta and Byrnes. They did a heap of laps and he was stuffed when time was called. Not too sure how is fitness is at the moment, but he did have very strong hands in the drills using the footy. I would consider Sellar in front of him currently but you never know. Geelong did not want to surrender him to Hawthorn because he was the likely replacement for Scarlett so there must be something about him. I reckon Byrnes might have had a word in the coach's ear because he was nowhere on our radar only one week ago. As I think about training yesterday, there are almost no small bodies left on our list. I haven't seen Barry, Viney is AFL size ready, and we have traded Rodan, Dawes, Byrnes, Pederson and now Gillies. We might not reach finals in 2013 but I don't reckon we will be pushed off the ball too easily. If anyone is not up to it all the fringe players have size. I really hope we draft some outside run.

Tappy - it is significant that he was training with Jones. This is his first full preseasonand appears today to be linking in with Jones, Rodan, Byrnes etc... Looks very sharp. Strauss - I watched him a fair bit today. Looks fit, ran consistently, was tough in the close-in drills. His kicking remains a feature. He gives it good thump like Jones when he kicks it. Looks sharp for this early in the season, like Tappy. Hogan. No show today. Jetta. Ran a lot of laps with Viney, Sellar, Byrnes and Gillies. I didn't notice him too much either for positive or negative reasons. I am not sure who Cheers is

It seemed a decent, general training session and although a few struggled at times there were no alarm bells ringing. But Aaron Davey was struggling big time and has a small but definite limp when he runs. It is a long way from March 2013 but he is the furthest away of all those I saw today.

The training session wasn't all negative and during the drills Blease was fine when running and using the ball. It was really windy and that did take the edge offf how the training session looked. I am waiting for the moment when 35+ blokes are on the track together, it is not so windy, and I can get a real good look at Dawes, Tynan, Barry etc... Take a chill pill everyone it is the pre-Christmas sessions where everyone's program is heavily individualised and the way we want training to look is not in the same ball park as the measures the coaching staff are probably using. If it is Tom Gillies from Geelong - he was struggling to keep up with Jetta, Sellar, Viney etc... in the lap running. He blew up bad afterwards but did Ok in the drills.

Was down at training today and thought I would share a few insights. The wind was so strong I should have just held a kite and floated there from my house. As I got there a large group of 21 players were going over to the Casey athletics track, while two other groups stayed on the main footy oval. The first small group was Jones, Rodan and Tappy - they did a lot of running through the middle of the ground varying their pace and then went around the ground also. The second group was Sellar, Byrnes, Viney, Jetta and another bloke who no-one seemed to know. I think I heard him being called Tommy but it was a bit unclear. They ran continuously around the boundary and were absolutely stuffed by the end of it. The main group ran 5 or 6 (sorry, I lost count) 300m runs at about 3/4 or 4/5 pace. This was really interesting to watch and the coaches were keeping a very sharp eye on times. The coaches were yeliing out "hold your form" and the players were not allowed to lurch at the finish but hold a good running posture. Standouts in this were: Howe. He did this easy and did not looked the least bit troubled at the end of the last run. Nicho. Puked his lungs out at the end. T McDonald. Impressive for a big unit. Spencer. Yep, I didn't believe it either but he was killing them at this distance and looked the least distressed of all the runners. Really impressed and so were the coaches. Magner. It looked to me that there was almost no difference in time between his first and last run. Duracell battery this bloke. Impressed Struggled: Davey. Looked very unfit, and lagged behind his group by 30m+ on every run. Sad to see. Bail. this really suprised me. Didn't run well at all. Taggart. Struggled to stay in touch for the first 100m and was 20m behind main group in most runs Dunn. Has trimmed down a heap from last year - maybe 5+ kilos - and was dead last in his group by a long way. Blease. Won the first won in a canter. Was last every time after. Heard Brian Royal say to another coach there was a 10 second difference between his 1st and 2nd runs. Pederson. Looks overweight to me ut plodded on. After this they joined the other groups on the main oval. They did some kicking from various distances and I tried to look at the new guys or some notorious poor kicks. The wind was making ball drop difficult and everyone was struggling a bit but Troy Davis, Tappy and Viney I noticed rarely got one on target. They then moved into an all-in drill where they had to run, handball and kick from a pattern of cone positions, but at two positions there was a tackle bag. After their disposal, they had to run at the tackle bag that had a footy resting on top and bring the bag to the ground. The ball then spilled out from the tackle. The tackle was not a monster effort, but rather one for the player to get the bag on the ground, recover and get to the ball as as second effort. Watts was very good at this. His second effort speed was impressive. Another all-in drill where the players were split into two groups moving the ball out from defence. It appeared to be about creating spaces and getting free players to that position. The defenders seemed to be playing in lines, similar to soccer defence that just moves its line across the pitch. I do't know if this is a training drill only or something we might see in game play. Last, some walked/jogged some laps. Two groups did ruck-tap, in close drills in which the ruckman got the ball down to a midfielder who was very close, who then had to run through two players with bump pads. There were some great wacks. I could only tell what was happening in the closest group, but Joel Mac seemed to love this stuff. No Dawes, Trengove, Grimes, Clark, Gawn, Barry, Hogan, Sylvia, Bartram, Evans, or Tynan. Wasn't a "wow" training session to watch but it appearaed to be heavily monitored by the coaches.

Robbie Flower in a heart beat. Outside pace, courage, sublime skill on both sides (dare I use the forbidden "e" word: elite!?!), leadership... and loved the jumper. Pre-knee Ox. Although it would mean that Dawes doesn't get a game. Rod Grinter. Just for one game - versus Carlton. To run through Mitch Robinson and make him even uglier than he is now. Ultimate sportgasm.

This is good news. Strauss will be a gun when fit and healthy. He is a very good kick - perhaps the word "elite" might be strectching it a bit but I have seen him hit players up at Casey in a way that reminds of Trav J at his best. Let's see if he do it in the big time! Bail has all the grunt and aggression that Neeld and Craig like and I for one am stoked he is still on the list. Will find himself quickly outside the starting 22 if he does not fix his kicking this preseason. We need Spencer. He looks so unco but Barry Round from the Swannies, Manson from Collingwood, even big Strawbs O'Dwyer for the Dees in the late 80's were all horrible early on.

2 outside midfielders with exceptional pace, who are alsostrong enough to commit the body when they need to. Isaac Smith - Hawthorn. Jetta - Swans. Thomas - Pies. Gaff - WCE. Looking forward to Taggart in 2013 I want Toumpas but won't get him.

There are more factors involved, but it is no concidence that so many of the mediocre players from the 186 game have been delisted, Rivers aside. One of Neeld's main mentors is Blight - look what he did at Adelaide. What is interesting is that Neeld hasn't gone only to the draft, but has traded for players to replace many of them, and these players are fringe players from other clubs. Big bodies appears to be his main recruiting philosophy for this stage of the development of the list.

No to all of them. I am still unconvinced about Rodan and he is leaps ahead of all these from the Pies.

On TV a few years ago when channel 10 were still boradcasting footy, Blight was asked what do you do to immediatley fix problems in a team that has been down for a long period. His answer was immediate and frank. He said, you look through the stats - those players who always play badly when the team gets flogged - and delist them. I am not sure how this stacks up with what Neeld is doing at the moment, but considering Blight is one of Neeld's mentors I can see this philosophy been one factor in the heap of trades and delistings. Perhaps with the exception of Rivers, players like Bennell, Petterd, Bate, Moloney, have all played poorly in a lot of floggings over the past 4-5 years. Others like Gysbert, Cook and Morrton don't match his clear emnphasis on body size. Neeld is very much in control now.

Because Jetta and Couch are great trainers and have a genuine red hot go at the ball. Both Neeld and Craig love these attributes. Jetta has been dogged with injuries and we have seen little of his best. We could lose Couch without too much sleep, but Jetta has a bit of mongrel and dare about him that our best 22 lacks. I had him in my best 22 until the acquisition of Shannon Byrnes. Byrnes, Jetta and Rodan might be fighting for the same place.

The delistings seem accurate, and few surprises. I don't undertand the love for Williams and the dislike of Davis. I saw a lot of Casey in 2012 and Davis can at least play really good footy at VFL level. Not once did Williams impress, although I thought he was a good rookie pick-up in the preseason, being so big and strong. Sad about Bate and Petterd. At their best they are both decent footballers. Both will find another home, unless Petterd has some poor training/application reputation. I thought the predicted 10 - 13 delisting/changes would be too many and we have ended up with 15. Neeld was not impressed with what he found here last year, was he! Preseason is going to be very interesting this year. I will try and get down to Aami on Monday to have a look. It will look and feel very different to last year.

B: Strauss Frawley Garland HB: Dunn Watts McDonald C: Trengove Jones Howe HF: Pederson Dawes Byrnes F: Davey Clark Tapscott R: Jamar Grimes Sylvia I: Gawn McKenzie Blease Viney

Unleash, read over my post again and notice the little phrases I use, such as "it feels" and "to me", and you will quickly see that I am giving my opinion about facts, but not stating my opinion as facts. And nothing I wrote is an accusation. My opinion is that Rodan offers little and Gysberts has suffered from injury rather than poor application.

Woke up this morning after a sleep in, read the paper with breakfast, and finally decided to check out what's news on Demonland. Is this Syria or Demonland? I can't believe people are so angry after a trading period - it feels like civil war!! The basis of our trading looks simple to me: we have a new half-forward line of Pederson, Dawes and Byrnes and this shows how Neeld views the forward line of 2012. The basis of the ND brings in Viney, Barry and probably another young, gun midfielfer with pick 4. Again, this shows that Neeld thinks our midfield is OK in parts - Trengove, Jones, Grimes - but it needs more spark and run. Getting rid of Gysberts was a mistake and bringing in Rodan was a mistake, but at the very least I can see a strategy, a plan. Is it brilliant? Not really but I think I can see what Neeld id doing. But it is a lot better than seeing the continual non-development in Morton, Bennell, Bate, Gysberts, Petterd etc... and shuffling deck-chairs on the Titanic.

Who is delsited from our remaining list is now fully dependant on how many of our National Draft selections we will take. Davey is going nowhere and nor should he. If we use all 5 of our ND selction then it means spaces need to be made on our list.

Under 74kgs please proceed to the changerooms. Over 74kgs... one cross each, first door to the left.

I agree Hulk. Neeld has shown a very clear hand of what he wants, and has been uncompromising in his focus. Big mature bodies, or mature disciplined minds. If Wines is available at pick 4,MFC will swoop. My prefernce is for Toumpas but he will be gone by pick four and I reckon Neeld will aim for Wines anyway.

I feel a little bit the same, but I am a lot angrier with our player development staff than I am with our recruiters. I have no problem recruiting players like Morton, Gysberts and Cook. At the time, most clubs would have had them rated at about the position MFC drafted them. Gysberts aside - who didn't develop mainly through injury - we develop mediocre footballers. Mick Malthouse annoys the carp out of me but I will give him this: he turns boys into men who become aggressive, talented, hard working footballers. Colin Sylvia is the most obvious MFC case in point. Can you imagine him at Geelong, Hawthorn, WCE? Why did the Club/Board/L:eadership allow our player development to remain so poor for so long without action?

I really like what MFC and Neeld have done during trade period and at one stage I was in favour of Pederson. But I remain unconvinced about him. I can't see him fitting in to our 22 easily, and we seem to have gone from no power forwards to a surplus. But I am an outside observer and will try and see a plan emerging from our coaching and recruiting staff. So Pedro, welcome to MFC. And I have a horrible feeling that Gysberts will do at North what Thompson did at Adelaide.

We don't NEED Pederson. He will be a stop-gap player when a big body like Clark, Dawes, Sellar or Frawley are injured. Gysberts should be kept. He has a lot of untapped potential, but he must get fitter and bigger.

Trengove. He is really angry and disappointed about 2012 and I reckon he is bursting to show he is a bloody good footballer. B&F beckons. Blease. His last 5 games of 2012 were outstanding and with another preseason, we will see a genuine superstar emerge. Frawley. If our midfield improves even 20% and actually helps out with defensive pressure, Frawley will become Scarlett-like. He will have more freedom to run and set up attack for play makers like Watts, Trengove, Jones and Davey.

Can't say I am unhappy to see Morton looking for opportunity elsewhere. I am one who thought he had all the qualities of being an exceptional player, but he has worn out any kudos he might have earnt through lack of application. He goes down n history as another naturally gifted player who couldn't make the leap from being a great junior into a consistent AFL performer. However, MFC's dysfunctional player development over the past decade probably contributed.