The Third Eye

So you're trying to tell us that Petracca masqueraded as an 11 year old playing basketball?

Day 2 diary: Footy weather comes to Qld

The Maroochydore experience through the eyes of the MFC:- Return to Maroochydore: Day 1

Didn't the AFL allow Hird to be paid for the year of his suspension through some loophole?

"James, it's clear from the recent history of the AFL that the organization is becoming a basket case and is need of a major shake up. "If the rumours are true that Chairman Mike Fitzpatrick is considering stepping down, would you be prepared to come in to the job to rescue football as we know it?"

Sure you'll get plenty of vision if you google his name and you tube. I kept Knightmare's write up on my iPad:- 3. Christian Petracca (VIC – Mid/Fwd) Height:186cm, Weight: 92kg, DOB: 04/01/1996 Recruited from: Eastern Ranges Draft range: 1-3 Best position/role: Rotational midfielder/forward. Strengths: Front half talent –Petracca can play both deep in the front half as a marking target and off a forward flank to a high standard when playing forward. Deep in the front half Petracca provides strong scoreboard impact and is an imposing marking presence with his 1v1 strength, overhead marking ability, marking on the lead and superior ability to read the drop of the ball. He can deep in the front half also win the ground ball. Petracca can also play off a forward flank and have a big impact, he can on a forward flank accumulate the footy in bunches, do damage with his footskills, present as a strong marking target, provide strong scoreboard impact and push up the field. Midfield talent – Petracca is an improved midfielder this year having improved his endurance and decreasing his skinfolds. He’s got a nice mix between inside and outside game. He’s a very good contested ball winner and stoppage player and these areas of his game can continue to improve given his size and strength. He’s a strong ground ball winner. He’s also got a rare power to him not only with his strength to bully guys inside the contest but some real explosive power where he can burst through a contest, come up with the ball and break away from the contest at speed. He’s also got excellent evasiveness and can sidestep guys and burst away with some real explosiveness. Outside the contest Petracca shows that he can find the footy but also use it really well utilising his damaging footskills and vision allowing him to find damaging targets up the field. Scoreboard impact – Forward or through the midfield Petracca provides strong scoreboard impact and is capable of kicking multiple goals and breaking games open with his scoreboard impact in any given game. Strength and power – Not many 92kg midfielders going around and even fewer with the explosiveness and power of Petracca. He wins his own ball and can either burst through the contest or run around you with ease. He stands up through tackles and has the strength through his core and hips, he can shrug tackles and give a strong don’t argue. In the 1v1 contests he can take advantage of anyone who isn’t key position sized. Versatility – Petracca because he can play not only through the midfield but also on a forward flank or deep in the front half as a marking target gives you options and this versatility should also help him receive on any team immediate senior games. Footskills – Has an excellent mix between footskills hitting his targets around the ground with consistency, vision allowing him to find some really damaging targets in great position, decision making with his ability to choose the right options but also he’s got the finishing ability and set shot goalkicking to allow him to provide the scoreboard impact. Marking ability – Few if any medium size types have the marking ability of Petracca. He’s got the 1v1 marking ability, contested marking ability and ability on the lead to take his marks and he’s got the strength overhead to take them consistently. He also reads the drop of the ball exceptionally well and uses his body well in the contest allowing him to effectively protect the drop zone making him incredibly hard to defend particularly if he can isolate a smaller player defender deep in defence. Weaknesses: Endurance – His endurance is building and has improved significantly this year to an extent where he can now play full games through the midfield but if he hopes to eventually become a full time midfielder further work is still required. Skinfolds – Like with his endurance his skinfolds have reduced but his skinfolds still appear relatively high and also need to decrease. What I expect will improve: I expect Petracca to continue to improve his contested ball winning and stoppage work and take that area of his game from good to eventually excellent. I also expect his endurance and skinfolds to improve. Whether his endurance and skinfolds improve to an extent where Petracca will be played as a full time midfielder that is the question I still have. Who he can become? I anticipate Petracca to develop into a player largely similar to Dustin Martin but without the personal issues. I see Petracca mostly playing as a damaging forward flanker who will at times push deeper into the front half and will split his minutes between playing through the front half and midfield with those midfield minutes increasing as his endurance improves. When will he be ready to play? Petracca is season one, round one ready to play. He’ll start off season one mostly playing in the front half and by season two or three likely play more a split between forward and midfield minutes. How to best utilise him? Petracca today is best utilised in the front half because he’s just so damaging forward of centre. The hope will be that he becomes more a midfielder but I’d look for him to split his minutes between the midfield and front half long term. Interpretation of his numbers: Petracca well and truly has the performances on the board and is one of if not the best performed player in this draft class based on his form these past couple of seasons through the TAC Cup and U18 championships. He’s finding the footy but also providing heavy scoreboard impact at both levels which such suggests he’ll provide both a strong immediate impact at AFL level but also that he will become one of the best to come out of this draft with those high production power midfielders who can provide heavy scoreboard impact of strong value to teams. I also had a SuperCoach write up that says he averaged 129 points during his two TAC Cup years kicking 63 goals from 29 games. As a bottom age player he scored an astonishing 210 SuperCoach points in the 2013 Preliminary Final collecting 9 contested marks, collecting 23 disposals and kicking 5 goals, 5 behinds. I don't think there's a player in this year's draft coming anywhere near to matching this bloke!

Not the numbers. Give me the names of the suburbs that achieved those rankings please.

Sounds like an observation to me.

What's going on around here? Some of the regulars gone missing and the place distinctly lacking atmosphere. Is there any truth in the rumour that we're trying to entice Voldemort and his glutenous old man back to the fold?

Based on the place where Jeff Garlett was at this time last year, it must have required a relaxation of the no d***heads policy to get him into the club. That being the case, why isn't Harley Bennell being given more consideration? He's a gun and would improve our playing list immeasurably. How dangerous would we be with Jeff and Harley roaming around the vicinity of Jesse Hogan?

Prendergast?

Lumumba's has been a very consistent contributor on the field without being outstanding. He certainly hasn't been able to reproduce that 30 possession best on ground game in the NAB Challenge against Essendon and most likely won't be a top 5 b & f place getter as he has been recently at Collingwood which is why a lot of us including myself would be disappointed with his output to date.However, on the whole I think his recruiting has been satisfactory and he has plenty of time to produce some big games in his time at Melbourne. Also looking at the three way "trade" that took place at the time he was recruited, he's been about the equivalent of Travis Varcoe who went to Collingwood and need I say anything about the bloke Geelong picked up?

Always said that Essendon was very lucky to have so many spin doctors in and around the media who could be relied upon to come out and muddy the waters on this issue. The best one from this week is the story about how TB4 exists in the body naturally so finding unnaturally high levels of TB4 in the urine samples of a couple of their players means nothing.

One swallow.

So it's not just us and North who are inconsistent. It's most of the competition.Richmond beats Hawthorn one week and loses to Adelaide the next. I reckon there's a fair chance that the Hawks will give the Eagles a beating in Perth tonight. It's one of the more interesting features of our game that you can't take anything for granted except maybe that the MFC always loses at Etihad

Who replaces him?

There is no T$cully thread other than this one which is an embarrassment. Please close this thread down mods. The No T$ no BS thread is not a T$cully thread and IMO would appeal to the intellectual type of modern footballer we need. It must be kept.

Melbourne's win was my highlight but watching the dopers go belly up after the peds started wearing off at ¾ time was special.

I think Watts can do even better than Gunston, particularly once Dawes is back in the team and Hogan has a dozen or so games under his belt.

Geez, they'll be good when they get Scully back.

Despite much optimum internally among many Melbourne fans after what appears to have been a strong recruiting drive and a good preseason to date, we're still on the nose with those who fix the odds*:- 4.00 Hawthorn 4.25 Sydney Swans 5.50 Port Adelaide 9.00 Fremantle 13.00 North Melbourne 14.00 Geelong 23.00 Richmond 26.00 Adelaide, West Coast Eagles 31.00 Essendon, West Coast 34.00 Collingwood 51.00 Brisbane, Carlton 101.00 Greater Western Sydney 126.00 Western Bulldogs 251.00 Melbourne 501.00 St. Kilda They also have the Suns favourite ($1.44) to beat the Dees ($2.70) in Round 1. * sportsbet.com.au

Yes, but how would you have raised the money in the first place?

Naturally. They're Russians and they all cheat. Not like our dinky di, true blue, Aussie footballers. We don't do performance enhancing drugs.

Which of tomorrow night's games will attract the greatest interest?