TGR

Agree. I am over the defensive Malthouse/Roos mantra. Even Rossy Lyon is daring with his kick-ins down the guts. The game has changed. You have to have an ultra-attacking element to get through from D50 if it aint a stupid turnover. The only team that could possibly play Malthouse/Neeld boundary-philic footy is Hawthorn who can keep hitting up targets. Where is some flair? How bloody hard is it for a guy to block the man-on-the-mark and for the guy with the pill to run his 10 steps..and possibly....just possibly create overlap. We are slow, one paced and introvertedly undaring. The only guys who bounce the ball are imports (H and Garlett). If we go down, we deserve a show that they are going down with dare, and courage....taking the game on. I don't see it, nor do Carlton supporters. Roosy FCS, give them licence to take the game on. I don't mind a 100 point lose, but I hate it with the mild meekness that is so Melbourne.

I actually like this post/thread. Yes, a coach should build a culture and empower players etc... like Roos is doing. But a coach also has the power to be the 19th man on the field. Loved Beveridge's guts to try something different. An extra midfielder (and no ruckman) in the contest against Sandilands was something I raised with Darren Crocker at the conference earlier this year. He was like a rabbit in headlights for a few seconds, but then he saw the silver lining on my grey cloud. Roos has never been radical and risk taking. His moves are never early. (Garlett in the guts was good but late in the past 2 weeks). It will be a sad day when Roos leaves the building, and he is a big believer in the basics, but you would love a bit of flair and unpredictability in his coaching sometimes. Having said that, we will never be a better bet against the dogs this weekend. Macca has the intel; and their rucks are as rucked as ours.

Garland finally started to clunk them and take them on yesterday. The turnover was not all execution either. Our gut running to provide an option was VFL standard.

Our rucks are rucked. Our midfield is one paced. Our problems run deep. Don't understand why we don't use this guy around stoppages as a 3rd man up. Most teams do it. Lewis @ Hawthorn. Cunnington @ North. Blicavs @ Geelong. Teams that have poor rucks and average mids should do it more.

Pedo - Won his position Garlett - So did he Spencer - At least tried Garland - Hands coming back TMac - Serviceable under pressure Lynden - Positive despite reality Midfield - Not quick enough Midfield - Not enough grunt Cross - Looks over 30 Vince - Looks over 30 Gus - Does the basics Breust - Goes to ground Suckling - Style over substance

As usual, Caroline Wilson hits the nail on the head with this. I'd trust her over Fagan, Robbo, Fox, and any other mate of Clarkson.

Anyone else peeved, I can go and grab them a crate of scarves.

Agree, but that underlines our problem. I see a lot of Frawley in Matt Jones. Chook, speed, head cut off etc... Does that make me a part of the bizarre group think tank?

Paul Roos' recruiting record for targeting players that have played before is second to none. We should be grateful in relation to what has been injected. The Essendon game was always going to be a lose-lose for us. Clarkson was copping it from Hawthorn supporters in 2005 and 2006, and Clarkson didn't have a third of his team as list-clogging (semi) youth. He kept Crawf, and traded Johnny Hay and Rawlings etc... My doubts with Roos is his historical inability to coach offence. Whenever Sydney at their peak were 4 goals down it was virtually game over in my view. Other than that, it is hard to knock him. Would I have anyone else in the chair? No. Roos can start taking a bit of heat mid-2016 if we are still bottom 4. BTW, Howe and Kent mean a hell of lot more to us that people realise.

mdemonski2 knows his footy. Jamar aint even a tap ruckman; and when it goes to ground we are a minus 1. Bail - Tick, tock, tick, tock. Toumpas - hope he makes it but we are all worried M Jones - a dime a dozen, but at least he tries to motor through Garland - really disappointing. I expected him to show more

In 15 minutes there will be.

It would have been booked before training this morning; so the MRI would not be as a result of today's training.

Howe in for MRI on hamstring soon. If he was with main group, the club is just spending $200 to make sure healing is A1.

He will be forced to handball more. As Crawford said, he will be the next Simon Taylor at Hawthorn. His shocking decision making and execution will be buffered a little as he will have class around him and clear gut-running options up ahead. The one-or-two that knew Frawley was overrated junk, even as he accepted the AA honour, knew footy, and know footy. The rest, listen to SEN and regurgitate junk with retrospective wisdom. Mitch Clark is different. He has a great pair of mitts. You could have put any forward in any era in our forward line circa Neeld, with long-bomb Maloney pumping it 60m in the air and 40m forward....and our ultra-slow boundary hugging ball movement. We allowed the opposition to gang up on him 3 to 1 many times. Clark did better than anyone could have.

Imagine Daniel Cross's brain in Sylvia's body? Imagine Mark Neeld's evil look on Vlad Putin's face? Imagine Petracca's body at age 25 with Daniel Cross's brain?

Now we can look back and at least give a partial credit to Brock McLean. Less talent. Less pace. Bigger buttock. Bigger engine? McLean, without pace, and without Sam Mitchell's side-ways movement, had a serviceable career IMO.

He couldn't even do a 3 Km time trial when he arrived!!! Roos wanted "Col to stay", but thank god we dodged this bullet. Colin Sylvia is all grey cloud. The greatest differential between performance and potential that we have seen.

Actually, you remembered more than me. The 'piggy in the middle' referred to a pair (cd) near the contest (ab). If you © are going to get sucked into the contest, you might then be exposed by the 'd' getting a quick handball receive and their out. This goes back to the old advice that if you are going to get sucked into a contest, you have to impact it, and not let the opposition feed it out to unmarked outsiders.

Not like I once did Fan. At this time of the year, I feel like Bill Murray, seeing the clock hit 6:00; with Sonny and Cher belting out "I got you babe". Ross Lyon and Paul Roos are my 2 favoured coaches in the AFL, but I am still not convinced they have unlocked offence. I don't know if it is in their DNA to be frank. Maybe Goodwin might have an influence here....who knows. Garlett and H taking them on will be great, and the MFC might finally register in the stat "bounces" and "metres gained without kicking". I incorrectly predicted Port would not sustain their success they enjoyed the year after their McCartney year. I hope I am incorrect with my hunch that it might be a year of slight improvement at best. In 2014, it was amazing how much went our way with opposition club players with selection (injury and suspension and influential players playing seconds (T.Walker, Garlett, Robinson, Waite etc....). We wont have it that good in 2015. I will enjoy watching Frawley on Friday night footy in the heat of battle in the brown and gold; and watching Clarkson swear his ass off in the phone after another turn-over.

I'm glad we don't have a leadership group of 15. I thought the trend was more leaders than followers a while back. Pity that the Trengove/Grimes poisoned chalice now precludes youth. I thought there was a spot for Jack Viney. But then again most of us are external, and don't see the inner sanctum or George Stone's back of the room.

"Perfect practice makes perfect" Barassi (The Coach 1977) "Pressure practice makes perfect" George Stone

Not many watching....obviously unannounced on club website. 4 groups for a long period this morning. Macartney - taking extensive handball drills; some of which I haven't seen before and may have brought with him from Geelong/Ess/Bulldogs. Zig-zag chain where 20-30 balls fed quickly. Relies on quick clean hands and accurate lay-off. One error just means the drill almost falls apart. Matthews taking mids for body contact possession and footwork. Offensive kicking group. 5-on-2 get ball and split offensively drill. No Greg Stafford today. Is he still ruck-coach?

Cross & Salem last to leave the track; with Grimes, McKenzie....Brayshaw.....and 43. (Saw Jake Lovett train on Saturday for the sting-rays. I wouldn't put money on him winning any training runs, but he has his old man's football nous and big ass. Left footer for memory) Salem's set shot kicking will be compared to Mark "shooter" Williams, who was a dead eye dictorian. Daniel Cross is an inspiration, and no wonder our 2014 season hit the fan when his leg snapped.

Injured leaders took all of training this morning. Jones, Trengrove etc ... Maybe due to "empowerment" and self-driven philosophies, or more likely due to the collective bargaining agreement that can't stop players training if senior coaching staff aren't there. 30 plus degrees for whole session I'd say. Almost 3 hours. As usual, Viney, Cross, and Tyson last to leave the track. As usual, Tom Mc lead them in the 700m 'sprint'. A lot of wind to the freeway end, which as someone else said, may account for the skill errors. JKH and to a lesser extent Gus, aren't clean often enough. Like the sessions pre-Xmas, a lot of focus on switching play, and offensive running. 10 minute full ground scratch match also included. Gus Brayshaw is raw, and I reckon will struggle to get a game for the first half of 2015. His kicking ain't A-grade, and they are also trying to get him used to more contact. Petracca is on modified with a knee I think, is a massive unit, and will play forward with some rotation through the midfield when the heat is off I'd say. Bernie might have tweaked his hammy. Watts did laps basically. Hardly saw Hogan. Nothing much else to say, other than the effort was pretty good on a stinker of a morning.