Ouch!

I am trying to paint this in a positive light, so bear with me Geelong scored a LOT of their goals, from our mistakes in transition across the ground... and it seemed like they often stemmed from simple skill errors from our players, rather than pressure situations from Geelong. So whilst some have commented that the scoreline flattered us with super goals etc, the opposite can also be true in that we can eliminate goals being scored against us by tightening up in this area....working through Roos game plan, improving the execution of it, and gaining confidence. I noticed that this happened also in the Richmond game as well. I think in general play we have been pretty solid, and our high possession game is actually standing up well against top teams... Sam Blease also has played two pretty solid games!

Is Georgiou capable of being the flexible backman like Garland who can potentially play on smalls and talls? or is he more suited to playing on the big forwards only?

I actually think Rawlings is the front runner to being our senior coach (via senior assistant to Roos) he has experience at several clubs including almost half a season as senior coach @ Richmond and did pretty well. Also why wouldn't the club take the opportunity like it has done with Josh Mahoney in backing one of their own in through this succession plan. I also am lead to believe that the backline rate Rawlings pretty highly, so you would think in terms of peace of mind a succession plan from Roos to Rawlings (hoepfully after 3 seasons) would put his (Frawley's) and other players minds at ease. For what it's worth, I feel more confident that Frawley will sign on (and I suspect in the first half of the season) than I was that we would be able to keep Watts last year. I am a little more nervous about Hogan at this point... but it's early days there.

Toumpas had a quiet night, but how much better will it be for him and Viney to play in a midfield where they have the support of Cross, Tyson, Vince, Jones and a fit Trengove. Not to mention players like McKenzie, Evans and Matt Jones rotating through. It could be interesting to see how people rate Toumpas and Viney against Wines at the end of the year with a more balanced mindfield supporting their development. (Not trying to say Wines isn't going to be a good player,... but the comparisons last year were a little off)

I wonder if Frawley might sign on this week hehe

445-262 possessions, Vince 32 pos, Trengove 29 pos 1 goal, Cross 26 pos... Highest possession earner on the Tigers side was 21... we had 9 players who had more than that! I know possessions aren't everything, but we have not shown anything remotely that competitive for YEARS!

Possessions 305-190 at the 24min mark. Anyone remember the last time we had more than 100 possessions than the opposition?

We beat them 101-71 for possessions in the first q. Flogged them with contested possessions.... inside 50s. Beating them on every stat except hit outs. .... let them hope that their lead @ qtr time is big enough to survive We haven't got a forward line, but I can't see too much for them up forward that would scare many teams either.

I also seem to recall that Sylvia's status last year got changed from Restricted to Unrestricted... can't recall why, but I did remember that it was a pretty late change.

I thought he was... but several of the articles coming out since Frawley decided to hold off on his contract for the time being have stated he is unrestricted. http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-02-07/roos-ok-with-frawley-delay Is the unrestricted status based upon the earnings in the given year of a contract? as in if a contract is front loaded does it hurt you at the end in cases like this because Frawley is earning less in his final year? or is it based upon the total contract value?

Agree there is nothing earth shattering, and I suspect many here find it disrespectful, because we seem to have let go (or lost) several relatively high profile players from our club (Sylvia, Rivers, Moloney, Scully)with the introduction of free agency, and the thought of losing yet another one is painful, especially a player of his quality, and popularity. The reason I am not a fan of the article is that it's just tabloid journalism with a football flavour. I don't dislike Jake Niall and generally find what he writes is ok to read, but this article to me feels like it was written from a template where all you do is replace the word Frawley with Rivers and Richmond with Geelong, as an example... and the flavour of the article doesn't change. Speculative crap like this where there appears to be no basis for the article other than... Frawley is a defender and Richmond has a suspect defence, just feels lazy and as if the paper has no quality articles on their boards to go with. Can someone explain to me when Frawley's status changed from Restricted Free Agent to Unrestricted? I was under the impression that he was still restricted as a free agent?

We have the car, and the caravan... and NT Tourism on board Perhaps Big4 Holiday Parks... :D Round out the experience!!

Georgiou is my vote, but thats based upon whether we need someone to be able to cover Garland if they are cautious about bringing him back.

I also think that we need to be careful of building this game up to be more important than the others... The last two years the club has gone into a season with a huge expectation of needing to do well, with pretty favourable opponents in Port and Brisbane, but we have failed dismally. From that point the pressure builds. I wonder whether internally the club, coaches and players have worked themselves over mentally going into that first round, and were possibly gone before the ball was bounced. We then get slammed hard and fast from that point of the season and our confidence is shattered. Don't get me wrong we need a good showing in round 1, but Roos and the coaches need to mentally have the players treating this game as they would any and every other game.

I think Roos (given his way) would try and play the best available side he can put on the park.... we get an extended bench, so I suspect some younger or fringe players will get a go, but the intent is on getting the methods and style of play that Roos wants to see out on the park carried out by the players. Score is normally irrelevant. Roos gets the first chance to see how the players respond to the 'non-negotiables'. This team needs as much time as it can get to gel as a playing 22. I don't think we will be experimenting all that much. That being said, Peter Jackson and some of the executive might actually want Roos to try and win a couple of games to assist with the off-field side of things... membership etc.

Has to be the hamstring, if it was related to his foot injury he would be off his feet, and in a moon boot surely. Perhaps he has been asked to try and adjust his gait/running style somewhat as a result of the foot injury, and by running @ training and doing lap after lap not only gives him confidence in his body, but is getting him used to running differently as well... This is all speculation though, the article mentioned that it's likely he is back training with the main group next week, Dawes is training with them now, and is Hogan still rehab grp? if so I don't reckon he will be far away either.

My hope is that he is fit for 2014 and plays good games down at Casey and that he can put pressure on the senior team for selection later in the year. That way I know that the seniors are playing at the level they should be, he is a good enough talent that is trying to force his way into the AFL team, and that he is developing as a player.

Cheers for that Akum, From the sounds of the three comments so far it's a similar picture being painted by each of you... Another question.... if you can humour me, and it's about what you have seen from training that is how we might look at playing defensively. I think people have touched upon it, but any thoughts as to the structure our defence might take, are we looking to zone space? or employ something as frenetic at what Freo did with shutting down space and choking the opposition? To me two way running indicates how you react to a turn over and what you do to get the ball back from that turn over... it's not exactly what we are planning to do to create our own turnovers. Forcing contests and stoppages is one aspect, but it would be great to get a clue to how the players will be setting up their defence all over the ground? Thanks again folks, appreciate the insight!

Thanks for that. Doesn't need to be ground breaking you indicate that you think that we still will be moving the ball into our forward 50 using longer kicks, rather than a shorter possession game like Hawthorn and Richmond seem to favour.

Can I ask some questions relative to training from those that have attended a few sessions over the years? I have read a lot of the reports over the preseason, and they have been good to read! It sounds like this year the coaches are drilling the players to encourage two way running, but also a lot of game specific running, give and go and then following up and assisting type stuff. I have a hunch based on what I have read that we are going to play through the middle, and not around the boundary, and that we will play a game style suited to creating stoppages and then extracting the ball from these. Which is something I would have expected from Roos. Roos has said that he isn't just going to plonk his swans gamestyle down and get the MFC to play that way, but we will no doubt be playing a same style that is similar, but suited to the players that we have.. and lending from the other top teams where ever possible... So what will that be? and are there any other clues from training that people can see that would indicate: Are we going to be playing a higher possession short kicking style of football? or more of a run and carry approach? We kicked the ball significantly more than we handballed (About 4000 kicks to 3000 handballs in 2013) do we expect more of the same? Do the drills and the way the boys are training suggest that specific steps are being taken to address the very large differential on uncontested ball that we saw last year? It would just be interesting to get a few people's feel on what style we are going to be playing... any players playing different roles in 2013 ... other than Watts and his midfield role?

I'm not a physio and I have not been to training to watch them, but I would have thought that if there was a set back relating to his foot, then you would see a moon boot on him quick as!!! It was reported he had hurt his hammy before Xmas and that they would take it slowly with him, To me it seems that is exactly what they are doing with him. He is running laps and from all reports he is doing them fairly unhindered. I am less concerned about the forwards than I am about the Rucks (as I think someone else mentioned)

All this talk of Trengove had me thinking that you fellas had overworked the topic and caused this http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-01-21/trengove-injury-blow to occur!

Apparently Roos is currently in Hawaii before heading back.... but knowing our luck he still could get eated by an African Lion whilst visiting the Honolulu Zoo!!!!

Improvers: Watts - Has to improve, and has been given a confidence boost by Roos, time for him to deliver. Trengove - Overcoming injuries and I think not having the captaincy might free him up a little. Strauss - Not sure why, just think that it takes a good couple of years to get over a broken leg, coupled with the fact that he seems the type of player that Roos can get the best out of. Sliders Dunn - Few too many brainfades might prove costly. Jamar - Don't think he can turn it around, and I certainly think he will struggle with two way running, and limited interchanges could see him being a liability. N Jones - Not saying his form will drop, just think that the others that we have picked up could lessen his impact in games as he is no longer the only one that is relied upon in there... (if that makes sense?)

The tragedy in all of this is we still have no idea what Stephen Dank gave to the players at that time. The players and their well being should always have been at the forefront of the investigation, yet the AFL and Essendon were more focused on how they would look on the other side of the saga rather than what actually went on. I know the ASADA investigation continues, but even that feels like it will be a joke outcome.