rjay

If you mean the 2010 draft thenHowe looks a good prospect to me and Tommy Mc is coming along pretty well, Nicholson is a good rookie. Cook is too early to tell, the kid uses the ball well, not overly quick and needs a good 10kg so lets see how the next couple of years are for him. The 2011 draft, lets see these kids play before we cast judgement, all I know is that Taggart is a beig kid at 188cm and 87kg and from his highlights he takes a strong mark and kicks well. If only drafting were an exact science.

...he wasn't on his own in that game or last season as a whole. It was a disappointing season all up and Morton's form reflected the list, very few could hold there heads up after a year like that. I think he has a huge up side (shown in the Sydney game) but it is up to him to show it now and be a consistant performer.

I haven't seen most of the players on that list but apart from Viney 2 that may come into contention for us are Matthew Haynes (tall quick mid, good kick) and Jimmy Toumpas (mid forward, good ball use and decision maker with a premiership at senior level SANFL).

I enjoyed the interview and always find Mark Neeld interesting to listen to. As he says Jack Watts is a developing 40 game player, if he plays 20 games this year then he is developing well. The message is that you need to earn your games no matter who you are and what potential you may have, no one will be given a game.

The last 2 seasons Morton has come in carrying injury, I wouldn't be so quick to write him off yet. He has shown glimpses in the past and along with a few of the guys this could be a make or break year for him. Injury free and with a new coach let's hope he steps up.

I remember him being matched up against Goodes a couple of years ago and whilst Goodes came out on top Morton really took it up to him, it was a great duel to watch. The kid can play but has lost all confidence, let's hope he gets it back. of he does he could be one of the recruits of the year.

Agree with you on this, I need to see Brent playing good football against the good midfields (Hawthorn, Geelong, Collingwood, Carlton) and not just beating up on the others. If he is to be a leader he also needs to look at using his team mates and not trying to barge through packs and or bomb the ball, he gets away with this against the younger sides but really struggles against the strong more mature midfields. If he continues to play football this way then he would not be a definite starter in a Neeld side if the Collingwood mids approach (work for each other and pick the best option) is anything to go by. I think it is going to be a big challenge for him this year.

Mitch Clark has sizzling on the track, Tom who? yeah Tommy Mc has been killing 'em......Scully who?????????????

As I've said earlier, the coaches will know if the time is right for Trengove but if they want to go to a senior player then Mark Jamar would be a good choice for me, he has really come of age over the last few seasons. http://www.melbournefc.com.au/dee%20tv/tabid/8667/default.aspx#playvideo#playvideo#playvideo#playvideo

Both outstanding prospects; maybe Trengove a year or two short on experience and I know we would all love to see Grimes spending more time on the ground. The coaching panel will know if Trengove's development will be enhanced by the leadership or not and I suspect if Grimes had not missed so much football the job would be his.

This is not just a Bate issue or sport science, it's a bit like why the drop kick has gone out of the game and the torp has almost gone the same way. Coaches encourage, in fact demand players get on to their natural kicking foot, this goes back to Alan Jeans and is all about less margin for error. It's very rare for any player in the modern era to kick on their non preferred foot, some players like Sam Blease kick really well off both but it is not the norm. Back in the good old days at training you were always encouraged to kick on the foot you turned on but if you go to an AFL session these days you will find more often than not players move on to their natural foot.

We picked up Jeremy Howe at 33 and Tommy Mcdonald at 53 in the same draft so I reckon we may have done pretty well even if Cook doesn't come through.

Jordie Mc is not a skinny kid any more and will be one of the solid bodied mids. I remember him as a very effective kick in season 2010 but maybe lack of confidence in his body led to the over use of handball in 2011. Liam is deceptively tall and will give any opposition defence real problems with Clark, Watts, Howe, Petterd and co. sharing the load. He like Bate the year before suffered from the expectation of being the focus (the pea) going forward, yet he still kicked 40 goals in what was considered by many as a poor season or at best average. Let's see what happens if he has a good year. The Russian is just a big unit. An injury free year from him will set us up well.

Saw him at training last Friday and thought the same thing.

Points well made in my view, I really enjoy Neeld's direct no nonsense approach.

Unfortunately Bartrams kicking is not good enough to hold down a back 6 position, the good sides (Geelong, Collingwood, Hawthorn) set up their attack with pin point or long to position kicking from defense and rarely turn the ball over. You can never deny his courage and endevour but if he is to hold down a position at all it will be in a lock down mid field role and this role is being phased out more and more with a high rotation mid field.

Come on guys, the Malthouse thing is being taken out of context here. From my memory it was a game at Etihad where he also said the forwards were playing way out of position. It's hard to hit targets when they aren't presenting. Jordy came in well under prepared in 2011 but still gave us all he had, for some reason he always looked to hand off rather than kick and this is what Mick had a problem with, but at times maybe that was a better option than blazing away as beamer tends to do. Our mid field let us down badly against solid opposition (Hawthorn, Geelong, Collingwood) and it was the senior players (flat track bullies), the so called big bodies who were responsible. A couple of seasons ago Mark Mclure said that Maloney and Silvia were dumb footballers and I couldn't agree more, they both play like junior footballers, they don't play team football they try to barge through opponents and get away with it against young teams such as Gold Coast, they always want to kick the ball rather than use team mates in a better position, this is primary school stuff. Col Silvia is a forward and a damaging one when on song (not often enough), his peripheral vision is not good enough to be a quality mid and he and Maloney should never start together at a centre bounce, against quality teams they get creamed. Jordie, in fact both Jordie's will be good footballers for the MFC. A good mid field needs at least 8 to 10 contributors with a couple of star quality players, Trengove will be one of those, Viney when he comes maybe, lets see who else stands up and in the meantime get off Jordies' back.