Lucifers Hero

I think you misread it. Quotes from article: "WHILE the Melbourne players are currently scattered all around the world on their end of season breaks, Jack Viney has taken three youngsters to Cairns, but not on a holiday" "... the whole team is sticking to the program set by new performance manager Darren Burgess..." Players are doing their training program wherever they are. Pretty good effort all round, I reckon. They will be primed for the start of the pre-season.

Of the bottom 6 we will get the hardest draw possible: 1 return game with a top 6 team, 2 return games with a mid 6 team and 2 return games with bottom 6 teams (probably Sydney and Freo). Don't rely on the draw to get us back up the ladder ala Brisbane c 2019. It won't be financially advantageous as we will be relegated to the Sunday afternoon games, few prime FTA spots and Home games will be against the low drawing clubs . Thankfully it is our year for Home games on ANZAC Eve and QB which might boost the coffers a little. The AFL will look favourably upon its darlings: Carlton and St Kilda and 'reward' their potential with more prime time FTA ala Ess c 2019 and Carlton c 2017. Don't know what happened to the 'need to win games, to get FTA time slots vs big teams'. All that MFCSS aside, I would like reasonable breaks after games to the WA or NT and to play them in the cool of night.

Jack is an amazing 'lead from the front/follow me' type. Some stand out games were vs Crows in 2017 when Jesse had been diagnosed with cancer and couldn't play. He revved the team into a frenzy and played like mad men! Then the 2018 finals series speak for themselves. He is now showing maturity and 'good shepherd' leadership characteristics in this northern training trip. And I vividly recall he sitting with the inconsolable Weideman in the change rooms after Sam missed the set shot that would have won a game this year. I wouldn't be surprised if there were other relationship building things he does which we will never see. We know his leadership weaknesses but it is up to the club to give him a) the media training to represent the club without putting people to sleep and/or have a co-captain eg Max who excels at that; and b) the education to develop his footy IQ and ensure the 'generals' we have (May, Lever etc) get actively involved with Viney during games.

Like you I think he is a great get. Along with Burgess he will add some much needed credibility. Clubs like Hawks, Tigers and more recently Lions have built their attractiveness on their ability to rehab players or minimize injuries. My impression is that club doctors are part-time as they also work in private practices. Sometimes they see players at those practices sometimes at the club. I wouldn't be surprised if Dr Brukner's role is a bit hands off when it comes to player contact but heavily involved in the processes for injury diagnosis and management. The club has shown faith in keeping at least two of the existing doctors so perhaps he will be involved in the more complex or chronic cases.

I know that. Frost didn't do any of the things I noted as being the 'Hawthorn way', well. Hence why he got a a spray from May. He danced to his own tune, hence the 'Frost Ball. comment. He just won't be allowed to do that at Hawthorn. Their system will tame him or he will find himself at Box Hill or out of football.

Frost will do well at Hawthorn. He will be taught the Hawthorn way: their defenders don't often go on a sprint preferring a short hand ball or short kick sideways. He will be told: defend first (don't leave your man), don't kick if you can handball and take the first option (don't sprint off to no-man's land). Hawks are very good at positioning players to make their plan work. Not sure they value speed in their defenders as much as posters on here do.

Jack is growing into the role of leader. Great initiative by him for helping with the young guys fitness and relationship building. Sounds like Burgess has the team working hard in the off-season. Great base from which to start the pre-season.

Time for us to be the poachers then!

Only if clubs don't play fair. Also, I think it is up to each club to set up programs and resources in their zone, identify the talent and develop it. If we do that well and get a good reputation up there then we can make a strong case for keeping players in our zone if there is ever a dispute.

I wasn't too clear, I guess. I didn't mean to say all players should have done extras, more that losing Jackson was a huge loss in helping players build their strength and conditioning at whatever level their fitness/rehab allowed them at different stages in the pre-season and in season.

fwiw, I reckon a key reason for our fitness problems this year was losing Rob Jackson early in the 2019 pre-season. In the preceding years I recall a number of our players did extra work at his gym. In the 2018 pre-season there were a lot of mfc articles about the extra work players did. Don't recall such articles in the 2019 pre-season. That may or may not have anything to do with Rob Jackson leaving but he left a gaping hole at the club and the way 2019 played out I'm not sure we ever filled it.

Dr Dan Bates was the replacement for our '20 year experience' doctors who left in in 2011. Dr Z Dr Zeeshan Arain started in 2013 after Dr Bates resigned for involving MFC with the shady S Danks. I'm not saying Dr Arain has or hasn't the required experience just noting that he did not replace the doctor(s) who left with Misson's arrival in 2011. At this stage we don't know what Dr Brunkner's role is or whether Dr Arain will stay with the club. So it may be a bit early to say his appointment is a mistake.

Just catching up with this thread and did some checking on the Melbourne linked players named there in. iirc allocation to a zone depends on where a player lives/plays junior footy. Martin plays for South Alice and Lowe for Federal (Alice Springs) so it can be assumed they live in our Alice NGA zone so I would think we retain drafting rights. Moniz-Wakefield plays for Nightcliff, a suburb of Darwin. It is unclear if he lives in GCS's Darwin zone or in our Alice zone (probably Darwin as Nightcliff is a long way from Alice) so his family may have moved to Darwin. So its unclear which club he will be attached to. To me this highlights one of the problems of the NT NGA zoning. If a club identifies a player they like it would be quite easy for that club to re-locate the player and some family to their NGA zone, especially if near an NGA zone boundary. Its ripe for manipulation by the less scrupulous clubs...I believe this happened here in the days of VFL zones! As it is the AFL has had to rule on some players GWS have claimed as Academy players because of the lack of clarity on how a player is allocated to a zone.

Thank you. Bulldogs got 2 first round picks for losing Kate Brennan and another player to start up clubs. Last year we lost several players to start up clubs and got nothing picks. And it seems wrong to give up a second round pick for Sheriff. I would have thought our last pick in the draft would be more appropriate, if any as we used the Daisy comp pick for her last year. Like you I'm not optimistic of finals, especially if the AFL use the silly Conference system again and we end up in the difficult side like last year.

Our first pick is #54 in round 3. Does anyone know what happened to our 1st and 2nd round picks?

List updated for departure of Stretch and Kennedy-Harris. That gives us 5 vacancies on the senior list. Based on new info I have updated the footnote and vacant spots. We now have 35 senior players, 4 'A' Rookies and 1 'B' Rookie. We can only have a total of 44 Senior + 'A' Rookies. At this stage I've made a working assumption that we will have 44 players and fill all the Senior spots. On that basis we can't add more 'A' Rookies. However, I wouldn't be surprised if we don't fill all 40 senior spots and we draft at least one Rookie (or upgrade an existing Rookie to the Senior List). Half our list is OOC next year - our contract staff will be very busy!

Anyone know the basis for selecting the names listed in the op? We have half our list OOC next year. The above named players plus: Our contract staff will be very busy!

I fully understand why we recruited Langdon and Tomlinson and the benefit to the midfield. The context of the post, you omitted important parts of, challenged the concept that TOG = hard running. Jay gave no evidence to support that premise. And, I suspect a fair part of Tomlinson's TOG was not in the midfield, eg defence where 88%-95% of TOG is common. To me it was a flaky article. As I said in my earlier post, endurance and hard running will come from fitness and attitude. Sure Tomlinson and Langdon may give other mids a minute or two more 'resting' time per game but if their fitness and attitude doesn't improve it won't help us one iota in two-way running and running out quarters/games.

Thanks for the summary. I can't see the article so not sure if I've read your post correctly: Is there anytime frame over which the 3 players TOG % were calculated? Does Jay realise the difference between 86% and 84% is about 2 minutes a game ie 30 seconds a quarter! Also not sure why Jay thinks there is some correlation between % TOG and hard running. Someone could spend 100% TOG and not move an inch. Seems a fairly meaningless stat. iirc our mids were usually on field for about 80% of games, except Viney which is a little more than 3 quarters. I think Tomlinson and Langdon will be big pluses for our midfield but they will replace players who also had high TOG like, Stretch, ANB, Hunt etc so not sure about the keep us fresher for longer part. The only way to do that is to get fitter and work harder.. Think Jay is drawing a long bow.

Games played now included ?

It wasn't the possibility of 'tampering' that I was highlighting. It is that imv Carlton can simply not be trusted to keep their word.

Your point is valid as part of the AFL assistance package GCS were given rights to their Academy players without using any draft picks. This is as good as more first and second round draft picks for them so they wouldn't use Carlton's 2020 picks offered enabling them to reject the paltry offer they made for Martin.

Can't trust them.

^ your post is correct @DeeSpencer

If he goes into the National draft I reckon GCS will let him go rather than use a round 1 pick and we won't take him either. If he goes into the PSD and GCS draft him he has to sign for two years so the next years FA status lapses. It is then active at the end of 2021. If he is drafted by GCS in the PSD and he refuses to play for them he sits out of the AFL for two years. Not sure if he then goes into the draft or he is still a player that GCS can trade. If GCS are adamant about drafting him his best bet is to sign a one year contract with them. So in 2020 he will be an FA, can go to the club of his choice and GCS get a compensation pick. Hope that clarifies it a little.