Maldonboy38

Just got back home and for parts of that game it was the best I have seen the Dees play in a long, long time. Multiple goals in a run-on, end to end football, some manic tackling, and some genuine passion around the contest. But I do think it was a game we lost rather than they won, and I say this for two reasons: Whether it was the coaches, the on-field leaders, or individual players during play - leaving Oxley to play the way he did after half time was sub local footy standard. Simply poor footy. Kicking it anywhere near him, or least no-one stopping his run was frustrating and incompetent. We lacked composure and poise at critical moments. 1) Fitzy's throw 2) 2 x Toumpas handballs to stationary targets on HB flank 3) Watts should have dived and chest marked the ball 4) Garland, Dunn, MacDonald repeated tiny, dinky little handballs under pressure that missed targets 5) Allowing Elliot to run over the mark for a goal. 6) the Dunn kick out 7) Gawn's kick turnover etc... Gawn was magnificent today, as was Brayshaw. We would be absolutely stuffed without Jones, Vince and Cross. Tommy Mac had a shocker. I can't believe that the only game of the year Cloke can kick straight is against us. Watts's 16 possessions were pure class and brought about goals, but his errors put much of the good work into the shadows. Lamumba's possessions were mostly garbage - a poor game. I can't believe the AFL website talking him up.

6. N. Jones 5. Vince 4. Cross 3. Garland 2. Brayshaw 1. Viney

At the moment we play really well for about 1.5 - 2 quarters at a much better standard than anyhting we have produced in 5 years. But we did the same with Bailey when we showed this attacking flair. But it is the 2 quarters of almost every game - even the ones we win - in which our players lose focus, which our onfield leaders cannot reverse, which leads to totally losing team structure, and we have 6 - 10 unanswered goals kicked against us. This is an ingrained habit and entirley infuriating. At this stage not even Roos has been able to change it, and I can't see it being eradicted in 2015. I love what is happening to our club, but onfield our improvement is so incremental as to be irrelevant.

1994 for mine. That side had everything. Best Melbourne team I have had the pleasure to follow. Here are the 32 listed players from that season. It hurts like hell to see this list and know it didn't get us a flag. And in the long run it was only the West Australian state team that could beat us. It hurts even more when I think of the carp being served up over the past 7 years. 2 Stephen Tingay 3 Garry Lyon 4 Chris Sullivan 5 David Schwarz 6 Glenn Lovett 7 Darren Kowal 8 Graeme Yeats 9 David Nietz 10 Martin Pike 11 Jim Stynes 12 Todd Viney 13 Allen Jakovich 14 Rod Grinter 15 Paul Hopgood 16 Andy Lovell 17 Brett Lovett 18 Sean Charles 19 Paul Prymke 20 Matthew Febey 21 Steven Febey 22 Jeff Hilton 23 Kevin Dyson 24 Phil Gilbert 25 Jason Norrish 26 Greg Doyle 27 Sean Wight 28 Glenn Molloy 29 Andrew Obst 34 Dean Irving 35 Bradley Campbell 37 Andrew Lamprill 41 Peter Rohde

I don't give a rat's tossbag what a person's race is. My sons' best friend is from Mauritian parents and my daughter had a Nigerian boyfriend. They are just human beings. Goodes is just another human being. A gun of a footballer who is a pleasure to watch in full flight. Can be a bit of a whinger on the footy field but there are 50 other blokes in line with him, and he also happens to be a leader in his cultural community - these are all good things. For me I just hate over the top goal celebrations in any sport. I like important goals being acknowledged and I loved Jonesy's roar when he kicked one last week but that is about my limit. My question would be "is the footy field the place for cultural celebrations?" and no, I don't reckon it is. It is the place for footy celebrations. I am totally sick of the hype and carp that surrounds every game - it is the actual game and the skills which is the highlight - how about we just play the game well and let that be enough. I am sick to death of all the extras - the pre-game bulldust, mascots playing air guitar, players gesturing at the crowd, on-field pointless interviews.

Great decision by the club. It appears incisive and calculated rather than emotional. Trenners is a true footballer - i.e. he reads the game well, sees opportunities early and is a very good mark for his size. We are moving out of the era (not completely out yet) when we have to play athlete-only, or grunt-only players and we are now developing 25 - 28 players who can be played on any day and do more than "play a role". Surely Trenners fits into this 25 - 28 players above 3 or 4 others like Bail, M Jones etc... If his foot stands up to the next pre-season I see him as a very valuable half-forward, but neither do I see his midfield days as being finished.

Matt Jones will probably pull out - I honestly can't see him playing after that whack. I hope Riley holds his place. I feel sorry for Newton. He wasn't great but I thought he earned his place for another game. Rapt that Viney and Jetta come in and that Tyson has been given another week. But looking at how Port play at their best, we need quick negating players to counter their manic forward surges. Which, by the way, I reckon it was Roos who was the first coach to figure out how to counter their attacking flair. I am a huge Bail fan but his flaws are glaring, so it can only be his negating role that keeps his place. I don't know what I feel about this game - could be anything.

Viney has been out for a fair period so it is probably smarter to have at elast one week at Casey. Same with Jetta, but Roos seems to have a similar approach to Jettas as with Watts - we are a better side with him in it - so he may come straight back in. Tyson's knee is a concern. Whenver he is out injured it is the joint of the musicle around that same knee. Carefull return onthe cards. Bail is clumsy in attack but quick and brutally effective in defence. He will probably remain in hte team due to Port's pace and frantic attacking style. Brayshaw might be rested, but there is a bye coming up soon and that might be sufficient. IN: Jetta OUT: M. Jones

It is a very good Monday morning, and not just because we had a win. Roos & Co have been talking up list improvement since the moment he arrived and this win over the Doggies shows that even when we have Viney, Salem, Tyson, Kent, Trengove, Frost etc... all out injured, we have enough depth to be competitive and win games. This win is only 1 win but the TEAM performance is the most impressive part of the win. Roos has also been repetitive about players finding consistency at Casey before earning a place at senior level, and it means blokes like Riley and Fitzy can play at senior level with a degree of confidence. It also means that we can trust the long drawn out development model being used for Toumpas, Stretch, Petracca, Newton, JKH etc... We are beginning to see that for the first time in too long, most of our list can compete at AFL level. The epmphasis on a big group of midfielders to choose from week in, week out is bearing its first fruit. When we do make finals again - whether this year or next - I can't see players like Pederson, Bail and Riley being part of our best 22 or best 25, but if we have injuries or runs of poor form, they can come in and play a role. I would never have foreseen Fitzy playing down back, or Spencer impacting a game so much, or 2 years ago Pederson playing like he does. We will be beaten gain this year and we might even get another flogging or two, but all other terams are going to have to plan well to beat us.

Loved then games of Toumpas, Fitzy and Pedo but we need to see similar over a number of weeks. Fitzy has found his position - it looks like he can read the play from the back half so much better than he does as a forward. Toumpas. Made a couple of howlers but his two way running was good to see and Roos will love it. Pedo. We know he can mark and kick, and he has proven over 2 seasons he runs both ways. But he can fall away against decent one-on-one opposition.

When the Doggies kicked that first goal in the last quarter, I "thought oh, please, not again". The way we responded, via some serious grunt work and some 2 way running which I thought was such a weakness, was absolutely fantastic. This game provesto me we are miles behind the top 4, but we can match it with all the others.

I only saw a little bit of the Blues v Cats game last night, but the Blues are playing very similarly to how we played under Mark Neeld. If Malthouse was successful at Dogs, Eagles and Pies you would have to suggest that it is the Club of the Blues which is driving the dysfunction. Add their disastrous recruiting - which is possible worse than ours in the Bailey era - and you get the current situation. But I have to admit to enjoying it a bit - I grew up in the old Carlton zone when the Dees were perennial wooden spooners and the Blues were in the finals or winning flags. Seeing them in this state gives me a deep, satisfying but perverse form of pleasure.

This just makes me sad. A gifted, talented footballer recruited by a weak club that only assisted his weak mental approach to elite football. I loved him at his best and was glad he was at the Dees right up until his last 18 months.

Sometimes when you go to a game live, it is difficult to tell who some of the best players are because you don't have a single focus like a TV camera. But last night, from Viv's first possession, both my kids and I noticed him. He seemed to be in everything from the inside tough stuff, to the two way run, and the forward momentum. There is no way he can be dropped or made sub for next week. It looks like Roos' love of midfielders, and making Casey players earn their place through form over a number of weeks is producing a really strong mix of midfield players.

I am not one for big statements but I need to make one about Tom McDonald. I know David Neitz began his career at CHB, and Wayne Carey rated him as his most difficult opponent. But Tom Mc reminds me a lot of an even greater CHB - Gary Hardeman. Great timing with his fist to spoil, will go for an intercept or contested mark if he needs to, and most importantly his dash and carry at times is extraordinary. If he can play like this for the next 5-8 years he might be able to hold his name up against the great Hardeman. 1 year or so ago I had Tom Mc in the Simon Godfrey camp, which is "please get the ball but don't ever kick it". I don't know what Roos, Rawlings and the defence coaches have done with him over the summer but I love watching him play and in his own position he is now the premium defender in the competition.

Settle down people. It doesn't look good but it is the NAB cup. Roos' teams rarely win pre-season games because he gets them to practice things, not win games. It was horrible tonight and some major question marks on some of our younger players but this is not for 4 points. Some good things out of tonight's game we are getting clarity for round 1 we can celebrate recent drafts and trades skills training required.

Genuine laugh right there, daisycutter. In the words of the English comedy series "very droll, Prime Minister, very droll"!!!

I maintain that if the MFC was anywhere near functional as a business ad sporting entity, he would have been a very good coach. But coaching under Jimmy, Schwab, Connolly and "the benefits of losing" absolutely stuffed any coaching ability and aspirations he might have had.

I don't know if it was just a bad day, but Brayshaw made multiple errors quite close to where I was standing. Some shots did make targets, but too many were out beyond the leading player's reach, or they had to stretch to the limit to get it at knee height. Someone next to me said "he has to be considered for round 1" but I could not see that today. Having said all that he moves really well and seems a natural footballer.

I just got back from the training. I stayed until about 3pm and enjoyed myself but I have to admit it was a messy and clumsy PR exercise. Step 1. Heavily promote 35K members by round 1 Step 2. Promote and advertise open training session on a public holiday. Step 3. Change the time by an hour but provide information only to Twitter people with no information about the time change on the official website Step 4. Attract heaps of members and their kids (and there were a heap of kids) and leave them doing kick-to-kick for 1.5 hours. Many leave before players arrive. Very poor business and promotional effort MFC - I thought that carp was behind us. Anyway, to the training... This was the first training I was able to get to this pre-season, but also probably the sharpest training session by MFC I have seen in a long time. I came away feeling positive about quite a few things. There was some standard warming up followed by short sharp kicking drills. The first drill was hitting targets in a full ground drill, hitting up a forward who was running toward goal, and then actual goal scoring on the run. The main focus was definitely ball movement off half-back. Starting on the HB flank with 5 defenders on 3 forwards, so it was simulating when we get more numbers to a contest than the opposition. A handball pattern getting it free, a kick to a loose player, and then a further kick at 45 degrees across to the other HF flank amid heaps of players spreading everywhere, and then to goal. I remember Michael Voss talking about spreading forward at 45 degrees being the best way to spread an opposition defence, and it did look effective. Highlights Brayshaw is simply a beautiful mover. Takes the ball at the highest point, has a long loping running style but covers a lot of ground. Great to watch. However, at this early stage his kicking is definitely a liability. Toumpas, Watts and Salem - their kicking on the run is sublime. All three sprinted hard and could still hit targets. Salem. Quickly becoming my favourite current player. Lamumba is seriously focused when training. Strong vocally, and trains like it is a game. I came away very impressed and can see why Roos went for him. Garlett might just be one of the recruit of the year. On the run at full flight beautiful to watch. We have a heap of players to rotate through the midfield, all of similar size, but with a variety of body shape and skill set. From huge bodies like Jones, Kent and Vandenberg through to outside runners like Bail, Hunt, Stretch, and everything in between. Our issue this year will be getting the ball and keeping it: Once we have it I reckon we are looking OK with our midfield mix.. A real fight on for for midfield positions Lowlights Both McDonald boys can't kick. JKH was probably the worst on the track from where I was today. It just wasn't coming together for him. Lots of errors. I would love to see some competitive marking drills. Most of the aerial work today was very easy and low pressure, not helping Dawes, Fitz, Pederson the practice. No Hogan. A friend next to me asked about Hogan and was told he was left in Perth to catch up with family after NAB round 1. Howe and Vince still doing rehab. That's about it

Adelaide and Western Bulldogs made massive coaching choice blunders (possibly Gold Coast also but Eade has a very good track record) at the end of season 2014. Look at what was developing - albeit a bit slowly - and both these clubs and they will soon regret responding to team performance by abruptly changing their coaches. McCartney's comment about "staying the course" appear to be a clear reference to how the Bulldogs handled his tenure when player disgruntlement rose to the surface. Although I have no internal knowledge, only a footy tragic's opinion, it feels like McCartney was implementing a long, slow build to sustained success based on a powerful midfield, and some players and too many supporters couldn't stay the course on his values and standards. I agree with you Redleg - this will prove to be a master-stroke of an appointment.

Carlton - they are looking like us under Bailey. The club is an absolute shambles. Western Bulldogs - you can't do that to senior players, the coach, and then also let go an under-performing CEO without embracing a whole heap of pain Geelong - a considerable fall this year. Their next crop of young players are of average ability, yet they have to play some of them. Adelaide - misguided sacking of previous coach, poor choice of skipper, new coach, a loosely dedicated superstar. For the life of me I have no idea where WCE will finish - can't rate them at all.

I reckon we will not recognise our starting 22 by the end of this season. More than a handful of the seasoned players of the past few years will be overtaken and some surprising developers will overtake. I reckon the following are on notice: Jack Grimes. Love this bloke to death and wish our whole list had his heart, but he ruins momentum too often. Colin Garland. Also love this bloke but if we develop Frost and 1 other tall-ish defender, I can see him slipping to Casey scorpions. Possibly saved by Frawley departure. Jake Spencer. Simply has not developed as a footballer. Daniel Cross. Will be over-run by mid year by a developing mid-fielder. Jordie MacKenzie. Too many other options ahead of him but he may be kept around for major tagging roles (Ablett etc...) The 5 to watch who might launch into the 22 are: Ben Newton. Billy Stretch Angus Brayshaw Jayden Hunt Jimmy Toumpas

He might not be the best motivational speaker but don't underestimate his role in the current winds of change and improvement (unmeasured I know) at MFC. I know we love PJ and Roosy and we hear a fair bit from them, but Bartlett's fierce business acumen, acute understanding of the organisational playing field, and ability to lead quietly in the background letting others take the spotlight is a rare gift. Since he took the top job I have considered all the changes and decisions to be from 3 great people not only 2. Having said that PJ and Roosy do make me feel ok about footy again!

In different eras, different positions have been essential. Strong full forward and running half backs during the mid 1970's. The CHFs of the 80s - 00's. The elevations of a midfield "group" that extends to include players who come in and out of the team in the current era. If you look at the Dees in 2014, a lot of our possession and disposal stats matched up kind of well (or at least average) across the season. It is when we got to the half forward line that we looked a total mess. Look at the Socceroos at the moment. The work Postecoglou has done has given 1) a midfield section who can control the play and 2) 8 different scorers over the tournament so far Look at the the tennis. It those who can hit winners on big points who are progressing. In all sports, the most important part of the game comes down to scoring because it so bloody hard to do. Most important position is the key forward. The player who can one-grab mark, kick from outside 50, hold his position in a pack, fend off defenders, and after all of that settle back and kick goals on the set shot. Sometimes I think we have forgotten how important the skill of overhead marking actually is in our great game. I have to admit that the half-back general who sweeps across and can deliver inside 50 is also a vital cog in the modern game, but you still need the right men at the pointy end to kick goals.