Older demon

What a huge disappointment and so frustrating that nothing much has changed from last year. The turnovers were appalling, I cannot believe the game plan is to bomb it to the best intercept marking backline in the league but every time we kicked a point ( 1goal 5 behinds from set shots) the ball would slingshot down the ground to the Eagles forward line. Precision kicking, short kicks to advantage and end to end without our guys getting a touch. What are we teaching them? I also think we practised social distancing from our opponents because no-one went near Gaff (30 touches) no one wanted to tackle and no-one would go near Liam Ryan. Shocker start to the season and thank god we don't play GWS next week. Don't care if the footy does come back after that error riddled waste of 2 hours.

Not just games being cancelled. Midweek meeting for club volunteers orientation cancelled and today at the Coterie Golf day coaches, players and staff not allowed to play. The club has been instructed to quarantine itself from any unnecessary contact with non staff who may harbour the virus. As soon as a player or coach tests positive then you have no team for 14 days and game/season over.

Is it possible that MFC will reside itself at Casey away from the G? It keeps the playing group of both teams together ie isolates them far from the fans

A very good point. Jetta is just the best mentor around and a relative (correct me if wrong) of the Picket clan. max is very personable and his story and 6 years for the penny to drop was pertinent. maybe Viney is just too full on or max & new had a specific message to share.

Seriously!! You should be ashamed for accusing Max of shirking an issue. He was in hospital all week with sepsis, prior to round 1 and should not have played. Can you site any other time Max has taken a short step? Just because Viney likes to bump bodies does not make him captain material. How did the bump on Stack work out? The kid fixed Viney up and cost him 2 weeks. There is a fine line between courage and stupidity. Max is a leader, articulate and has the playing group behind him. Max is just as driven and trains harder than anyone else at the club. He leads by example in all facets of the game. I have no complaint with Viney but he is too one dimensional in his leadership which may come with time. No, it isn't a popularity contest but a reflection on the role Jones played filling in the areas of captaincy where Jack was lacking. Not having Jones as co-captain is another factor in the change. As for honesty I quote the great Leigh Mathews who is a great corporate speaker when he warns "Brutal honesty leaves scars and isn't always the best avenue to set standards or achieve your goal". Don't question how high Max sets the bar or his courage!

The inaugural Bulldogs AFWL coach mentioned this 2 years ago as guest speaker at a lunch. There was an awareness that many of the ligament injuries occurred coinciding with the monthly cycle but there was no direct correlation. It was assumed that hormonal changes may be a contributing factor but also mentioned the different pelvis structure and running gait may contribute. The complication for a club is would you not select someone because of their cycle. Equally many players don't get injured when they play at that time of the month. Certainly there are lots of knee redo's performed on netballer and one orthopaedic surgeon I know said he did way more redo's on net ballers than footballers. If there is a direct correlation what will the clubs do about it?

My mates theory from the team photo is that the captain always sits on the right of the coach. Gawn has pole position with Viney either co captain or vice captain. Nev in the group with TMac & Lever and it would be no surprise to see Jones in their too.

Thanks again you have captured training for this of us who cannot get there.

This is good news. At this time last year one commentator (I cannot remember who) from S.A. likened him to Dangerfield at the same age. Explosive pace and hard at it. Let us hope he gets a good run at it this season

Awesome pics thank you for posting

Jordan lewis on SEN late afternoon was asked about Smith and stated that he had a cut on his foot that kept him off the track today.

For all the rough stuff mentioned Paddy was a gentleman. He was my first coach at Caulfield in the VFA and such a contrast from Tony Jewell who he took over from. Tony was fiery and could give a spray and left you in doubt about what he thought whereas I don't think I ever heard Paddy swear who was measured and always referring to Len Smith's coaching notes. A great career as a footballer and a wonderful man. My condolences to the family and may he rest in peace.

Stay surely November is over and Jake can remove the caterpillar from his lip!!!

My interest is his thinking of Jackson as a midfielder. There was lots os speculation when the Dogs went early with Bontempelli a 193 cm mid. It was a calculated risk which has paid off handsomely. From the limited highlights Jackson may well go the same way. Seriously athletic and hunts the ball.

The latest draft predictor from the Adelaide journo's has us taking Jackson at 3 and no bid on Green. Tactically GWS take Ash at 4 and Sydney make a bid for Green which GWS match so Green goes at 5. Sydney then get pick 6(Flanders) Adelaide have 7 (McAsey) Freo 8 ( Robertson a W.A. boy) Freo have next pick 8 (Stephens) Carlton bid for Henry at 10 which Freo match. That means Freo get picks 8,9,& 10 wow. At 11 Carlton may go for Serong leaving MFC with pick 12 and in this mock draft Young is still there and so is Picket.

I thought tonight was a great initiative and the speeches as open and transparent as an AFL club can be in such a dog eat dog environment. As Saty said some of the questions were excellent and other made me cringe. Bartlett was quick to point out that questions had to be respectful. Goody want s the players to be instinctive but he wants cohesion and consistency. I can see that what is lost with so many injuries and no pre season that we never had a settled team. The best back 6 never got to play together. This is so important and builds confidence and a knowledge that each team member knows what the others will do. Burgess wants them training 80 % of the time with a footy, practising drills and getting buy in from everyone. That is one of the keys to Richmonds success.

Thanks for the training reports Sayy and the pictures, much appreciated. Someone asked if Jordan had bulked up but I am more interested in Sparrow. In know Burgess said last week that bulk isn't ideal for our game now perhaps he meant they need power and speed without the bulk. Back to Sparrow, last season one of the many commentators was asked, who of our crop of draftees would play senior games for MFC. Without hesitation he said Tom Sparrow who he thought was a steal. He likened him at the same stage to Dangerfield which of course is easy to say and Tom's year was cruelled by a knee injury. I would keep a close watch on this one as the pre season develops.

Quoting the famous "The castle" line "Tell them they are dreaming. He wants 5 years at a million a year for many club wanting him in the pre season draft.

Interested in his thought on the difference in training at Arsenal. Concedes soccer is less physical but their traing loads are higher and centre around pace, agility and speed of the mark. Fascinated that Robbie Graysons would be considered average for agility in premier league. I suspect the greater training for speed and take off may lower the number of hamstring injuries which is still the number 1 injury causing loss of game time.

Grapeviney that is pure gold thank you for sharing the story.

MFC had a data manager or as they called him the Load manager in 2017. To some, he was the guy that loaded those GPS gadgets into the back of the players jumpers. In conjunction with the fitness staff he was also responsible for blood testing, ie Haemoglobin and White cell counts etc to ensure they weren't getting run down with training etc. He was poached by the company that sold the GPS units, with his knowledge he now markets them internationally. He has more sports degrees than I can name and worked at the AIS unfortunately the club saw fit not to replace him. Not sure what they were analysing this year but 2019 was a stinker This appointment suggests that the club has decided that they need to collect the big data and compare it with previous years and what the other clubs are using. Think of it as doing the 1% in the hope of getting a slight advantage over other teams. Correct it won't help if the team cannot kick or has poor skills. I can only assume that Burgess wants data analysis as part of his entire fitness regime.

Bernie Massey, Phil Rhoden (briefly) maybe even Alan Johnston later on occasionally, Derek Feldman

The question to ask is will he improve our team or fill a gap in our playing list. In my opinion the answer is NO and Fritch can more than adequately fill the role. Remember Richmond spent years poaching Collingwood players as payback and it got them nowhere. If Carlton want him they can have him. They have played Gold Coast to get him for nothing and ironically the last time I remember this they took Nick Stevens from Port. Clubs have long memories and it will come back and bite the Blues as Martin just isn't worth $700K.

THanks for the table and updates. With 35 seniors and 4 rookies we can add 5 players to the mix. Realistically we have 2 viable picks in the national draft unless we split pick 3 and I don’t consider pick 97 as viable/useable. I doubt we would take more than 1 in the PSD but there are a lot of players without clubs at the moment. I can see a scenario where we take 2 picks in the top 10, upgrade 2 rookies and take on 2 new rookies and then 1 player in the PSD.

Would we rookie one of them if the cards don’t fall right in the national and PSD? 3 picks in the national draft unless we split pick 3