Signs of the future

[The Backyard Charizard 1,202]

Living in Adelaide....

Listening to MMM broadcast and live updates on AFL Gameday....

If this is a sign of things to come from the Melbourne Football Club, then bring it on!!!!

Melbourne have taken it right up to the in form side of the competition!

Up by 9 points at half time....

Some positives

* Hard, contested football

* Tackling is great

* Putting plenty of pressure on the opposition

* Backline working really well together (Garland, Warnock, Frawley, Bell all doing a great job)

* Brock McLean has 20 touches to half time, 7 contested and 14 effective kicks

* Bate is having a ripper and looks really good

* Jamar is using his body well in the contests

* Miller is presenting well up the ground and taking strong contested grabs

Still a long way to go in the game and also in the rebuilding of our club, but the signs are great on todays effort!

[the fork 357]

I'm watching the game live in WA.

We are killing them in the middle. As mentioned Brock has had 20 touches playing like a captain dare I say. Jones is expressing some real aggression and making Tassie hurt. Morton is getting plenty of it, but most impressively he is making every disposals count.

Bate is tough, overhead, on the ground, tackling with ferocity. Miller presenting really well as a CHF willing to run hard.

Aussie is leading by example at the moment, great goals, chasing hard and picking up possesions everywhere. Davey is pushing up the ground to real effect, doing what is expected of him up there better than he ever has before. Robbo working hard which is really helping.

Backline is working well. Warnock, Buckley and Frawley showing genuine resolve and yes, I agree giving us a glimpse of the future.

Overall a gutsy effort so far, it what happens next that really matters. We want the footy today.

[rolling fog 1,207]

*contested ball

*opposition pressure, namely offensive pressure

auzzie wozzie is really getting the job done atm!

[the fork 357]

Great passage of play

Composed Garland, Buckley determined to use the centre, Robbo up the ground, Holland goal!!

Aussie again on fire...

[the fork 357]

speachless...

[Little Goffy 14,057]

Well, that was a bit better.

Looking forward to next week.

Let's see who comes back from injury.

Meanwhile, I understand from the radio that it was mostly Garland who played Franklin, and did alright. Warnock also solid. There's some form turnarounds for us.

It's funny, I don't want to take about possible changes for next week - they will be because top players are available, and I'm just happy to let them happen.

And good on ya Benny Holland!

[the fork 357]

Great effort by Melbourne today.

So impressed with Brock, Bate, Davey and Aussie.

Today we saw some real promise from Warnock, Garland (who held Franklin incredibly well ALL day) and Morton. Buckley was amongst it and as mentioned just needs to work on his disposal.

Signs of the futire indeed.

[agent 99 71]

Was anoyed at the end as I thought we where a real chance to cause the upset. But now I'm calm the boys played a great game. If we can continue to play with that intensity we will start to turn things around slowly.

[MelbourneRedlegs 9]

Fantastic effort by the boys today. Very proud.

[rpfc 28,052]

Warnock has not played a bad game all year. Garland was great today, he believes in himself and its hard not to yourself.

Bate, McLean, McDonald, Bruce, Green are the real form reversals. Not getting cheap kicks across half back. But Davey today played a four qtr effort that was fantastic, just a shame about that tackle/push right at the death.

These players are showing something and they are all 24 or younger: Buckley, Jones, Batram, McLean, Bate, Miller, Frawley, Morton, PJ, Garland, Bell, Moloney, Davey, Warnock, Wonaeamirri, and Valenti.

And Jamar was ok....

Promising signs.

[Deeoldfart 7,996]

Even more proud to be a Dees fan this evening!! Play with that level of commitment, intensity and discipline and we'll make a few teams sit up and take notice as this season progresses ... and very importantly, we are getting senior level game time into the likes of Wanna, Chip, Judy, Morts, Warnock, etc.

[jacey 333]

What i like about today was the youngsters were the ones who stepped up and put us in a winning position.

There is plenty to like about our kids.

[_becks_ 35]

I dont think Jamar was very good at all today. I am so sick of watching him butcher possessions (or lack there of) he has the worst hands when going for the ball. I know its all we have at the moment, but it was driving me crazy.

I thought our best players were, McLean, Jones, Davey, Wonaemirri, Bate and Green. How Green isn't in the leadership group astounds me. Buckley, Garland, Warnock showed a bit today was happy to see it.

Miller was very quiet inthe second half. Morton faded.

We really need some Key Position forwards.

[Little Goffy 14,057]

The worst is behind us - on two levels.

We've just finished what must surely be just about the toughest run of nine games to start a season ever -

1st - Hawthorn

1st - Hawthorn (again!)

2nd - Geelong (at skilled)

3rd - Bulldogs

4th - Adelaide (at AAMI)

6th - North Melbourne

8th - Brisbane (at Gabba)

And just Carlton and Freo from out of the 8.

And the other level.

On Sunday, the Melbourne fielded a team with MORE PLAYERS WHO HAD LESS THAN TEN GAMES, THAN PLAYERS WHO HAD MORE THAN A HUNDRED.

And we pushed the top-placed, undefeated side right to the end.

The worst is behind us, a slow dawn approaches.

[rpfc 28,052]

The worst is behind us - on two levels.

We've just finished what must surely be just about the toughest run of nine games to start a season ever -

1st - Hawthorn

1st - Hawthorn (again!)

2nd - Geelong (at skilled)

3rd - Bulldogs

4th - Adelaide (at AAMI)

6th - North Melbourne

8th - Brisbane (at Gabba)

And just Carlton and Freo from out of the 8.

And the other level.

On Sunday, the Melbourne fielded a team with MORE PLAYERS WHO HAD LESS THAN TEN GAMES, THAN PLAYERS WHO HAD MORE THAN A HUNDRED.

And we pushed the top-placed, undefeated side right to the end.

The worst is behind us, a slow dawn approaches.

Good point about the draw but I'm conflicted about where we want to finish, with reference to to the draft...

But as I have said before, as long as we institute a youth policy (and boy have we!) then if we win games then we win games.

Another match with 17 players 24 and under, so please don't kick up a stink if that number comes down to 16 or 15; it's still a significant number.

This was our backline for a significant amount of time: Garland, Warnock, Bell, Frawley, Buckley, and Batram. That is a backline with an average age of 21 and an average of 21 games played. That is astounding, really.

[Pates 9,625]

I would never vindicate us tanking, however given the fact that we really have to start from the beginning again and that the Gold Coast team is going to butcher the draft for any team that does poorly in 2009, we pretty much need to gain the draft pick this year to give us the gun players for the future.

I think the best we can hope for is for us to win about 4 games this year but to show the kind of spirit we showed today. I haven't watched the whole match but our first half was fantastic pressure footy and the only way i could be prouder of the boys would've been if they got the win. And as you have said, Distance Demon the worst maybe behind us, we just need to keep showing that kind of digging in fighting spirit, and show that this club is not going to back down from a fight.

PS. the look on Jonesy's face when he kicked that goal in the first quarter made me so excited, the passion and aggression in his face was awesome!

[rpfc 28,052]

Although we should point out that playing with such a young team means that we are going to have some pitiful blowouts.

Need some patience.

[Surfa 0]

I dont think Jamar was very good at all today. I am so sick of watching him butcher possessions (or lack there of) he has the worst hands when going for the ball. I know its all we have at the moment, but it was driving me crazy.

I thought our best players were, McLean, Jones, Davey, Wonaemirri, Bate and Green. How Green isn't in the leadership group astounds me. Buckley, Garland, Warnock showed a bit today was happy to see it.

Miller was very quiet inthe second half. Morton faded.

We really need some Key Position forwards.

i study jamar today quite a bit and i thought he played good ... for him..i cannot see mark jamar in a team that could win the flag but he certainly did run around a bit today and his second and third efforts were really good.. but like miller i dont think it comes natural to him..he has to think to much and then gets caught...although like most big men the signals from the brain have got further to travel lol

the question is has jamar ever hit his peak.. i have seen a few games and thought yeah he played well but never have i walked away thinking he kicked arse and won his posistion easily.. maybe a few more games rucking the whole game might lift his experience level and confidence..

it must be hard to come on and play half a game off the bench week in and week out .. how can he get a feel for the ball before with so little game time..

give him the rest of the year in the ruck as number one and thats it make or break.. meesan is in the wings, johnno is good and getting better and jeff should use the rest of the year to get his body right and play our of FF like he started off at freo..

[redman 28]

Really excited about yesterdays game, loved bates work.. he seemed to be everywhere. As it was mentioned earlier we could have done with another marking option up forward, hopefully newton can regain some fitness soon and force his way in.

The defence was tighter than a ducks arse for the majority of the game, and few goals weren't due to specifc defensive mistakes ie daveys late hit/50 m penalty. Garland was good on franklin, and dropping the extra man in defence at times worked well, i mean Garland forced franklin out to the 50m line on the boundary which is great, but franklin still managed to kick the goal... what can you do!!

I agree with Surfa, I thought we struggled alot when Jamar was in the ruck, especially in the 2nd half... to be fair he was a late inclusion for whitey and wasn't meant to play... I hope meesen starts to show something soon...

Signs are good though...

[grazman 7,295]

The worst is behind us - on two levels.

We've just finished what must surely be just about the toughest run of nine games to start a season ever -

1st - Hawthorn

1st - Hawthorn (again!)

2nd - Geelong (at skilled)

3rd - Bulldogs

4th - Adelaide (at AAMI)

6th - North Melbourne

8th - Brisbane (at Gabba)

And just Carlton and Freo from out of the 8.

And the other level.

On Sunday, the Melbourne fielded a team with MORE PLAYERS WHO HAD LESS THAN TEN GAMES, THAN PLAYERS WHO HAD MORE THAN A HUNDRED.

And we pushed the top-placed, undefeated side right to the end.

The worst is behind us, a slow dawn approaches.

Excellent post DD, I'm glad someone's picked up on that. I looked at our side a couple of weeks ago. We had 7 guys who'd played less than ten games. The amount of improvement in guys like Garland and Warnock is very encouraging. Sure the Hawks were missing Hodge, Lewis and Crawford, but they were in rd 1 as well and belted us by 104 points.