Ted Lasso

I think our new ball movement does expose us to the risk of being a little more scored against, i think if our skills are as they have been in the NAB cup, one of the better sides may get hold of us in a bad way, i don't expect any 100 point smashings though

What rubbish, Jesse and his manager have both publicly expressed his loyalty to the MFC, and a preference to stay in Melbourne the city, i have said it for a while now, teams like Collingwood and Hawthorn are a bigger threat then teams like Fremantle, but i believe very strongly that Jesse is waiting for the new deal thingy to work itself out before committing again

last year our best footy was good and our worst awful, i personally thought we were a long way off our best for all but patches in the NAB cup, and still won three out of three, being able to win when you're not at your best is what seperates the mid range teams from teams stuck in the middle who can't take the next step, like Richmond.

That's rubbish imo, he is a professional athlete, he is responsible for what he takes, age and inexperience are no excuse, even at under age level they learn about this.

I found what Heppell said quite annoying, yes the club let him down, but not as badly as he let himself down, he as a professional athlete, is, always has been and always will be 100% responsible for anything and everything that goes into his body, the only way that isn't the case is if he was lied to, which sadly we can't rule out. I can't see any reason why every single player wouldn't want a list of everything they've ever taken so if anything like this happens they know they were fine.

Fantastic news about Trenners, will certainly make it down to see this!

I think Goodwin is pulling the strings, Roosy will just cop the heat if things go south, not a bad person to have incase things don't play out right away

Bottom line is had Christian not been silly enough to try and dunk during his ACL recovery, he'd be lining up for his first game in round 1 and would have played probably most of the NAB cup. he's cost himself and more importantly he's cost the team and that's unacceptable.

a big area we've fallen down against them in the past is Mumford has killed us, he imo isn't near 100% and Gawn is more than capable of matching his best footy so it should be a ripper game

I think the next step is very much getting everyone at the club to raise the bar, our expectations from 2016 onwards have to be that we are a finals team and anything less is sub par.

It depends, apart from Ward, i don't think many of those blokes can match some of our blokes for contested ball consistently, but on the outside they'd kill us, we saw this in round 2 last year, when it was a contested game we got right on top, when they got their running game going they destroyed us.

us by four points, Hogan to kick a tough goal from a bad angle in the last minutes, Watts BOG

Mate, you have no idea what you're talking about... MFC were the ones who threw that trade out there because they desperately wanted Jake Lever, knew they'd have to give up something significant to get a pick like that. i don't think it's fair to say Jack wasn't/ isn't loyal and this isn't a reflection of a good leader. multiple "great" captains have considered moves to other clubs.

How's the style of play? are the Scorps channelling the Simon Goodwin ball movement?

How's ANB going?

Interchange cap, expect players to need longer blocks of training coming back from long injuries to 1. be able to run out the games and 2 being able to run them out so comfortably that they aren't risking injuries, CP5 is a gun and definitely worth the wait.

definitely!

How's Weideman moving for anyone who is there? very interested to hear how he goes! last year when he played against the Northern Blues VFL side he had 14 marks in the first half or something, a lot of them contested

I would be so worried if i was a tigers supporter, i look at their team and wonder where the next wave is, and their current stars are overrated and not going to get them near a flag so they should worry far more about than then any off field music stuff

Have you seen him train? i promise as soon as he gets out and plays a few games he'll become a favourite very quickly, he's another Brayshaw, or Oliver but with the power and Marking to nearly match Jesse Hogan

Honestly and this isn't a knock on Brayshaw, but i see Vanders as one of our best and most important players, he adds grunt and agression, tackles hard and sets a great example, but he's also a good marking option around the ground and very capable of going forward and kicking a few goals. Brayshaw i think will be the better player in time, but to me that's a mark of how good Gus is rather than anything about Vanders.

Especially happy to hear he's come up. should be fine for round 1

I am really interested to see two things this year, 1. how much game day control Goodwin seems to have, and how his game plan translates in terms of our win loss and overall performance 2. if as i suspect the interchange cap only further widens the gap between the top, middle and bottom teams, i can't see teams like Carlton having the legs to compete with many teams this year.

The biggest difference between us and the Saints in my opinion is they're still relying on the older blokes, Roo, Joey, Steven, Armatidge, fisher and Dempster to really be the core of the team, ours has kind of been handed on the most part over to our young guys, Viney, Hogan, Tyson, Mcdonaly, Gawn, Brayshaw and co, with Jones and Vince this year playing an important but less vital role, so i think we are about two years ahead of where they are in terms of chasing a flag. having said that i don't think 2016 will be a year where we see a heap more wins and play finals, i still think we lack a quality partner for Jesse, some outside class and speed and our delivery out of the back line is still a bit to shaking to consistently beat good teams just yet. but i see us as an 8-12 win team, depending on how things go, but the big improvement i think will be close we get in our losses, i think we are now a team that won't be blown away and will put up a real fight every week regardless of who we play and where we play. I also don't think the Saints have recruited all that well, Billings is a gun, but Dunstan i see as being solid but nothing special, McCartin is going to take some time and the jury is out, same with Goddard, in terms of the young talent Tyson Viney Brayshaw Petracca Hogan Gawn Mcdonald Kent Salem Oliver Weiderman Trengove Stretch Harmes Billings Mcartin Bruce Goddard Hickey Dunstan Greesham Lonie Not sure i fi am missing any, but on exposed form i think our young players are miles better and will take the club forwrd, i am not convinced the saints have anything like the group to do that, still rely on the old blokes, Bruce and Billings are the only two on that list i believe would be certains in their next finals team, maybe lonie

I think the biggest weakness they've had for a long time is the lack of a forward partner for Jack who is any good, and the sheer drop off in quality of midfielders they've got Cotchin who is good but goes missing the moment any heat is on as their captain Lids, is a gun but injury prone Martin is a jet and not much else, Miles and co i consider to be B-C grade players, and they overrate these blokes