It is probably a foregone conclusion now that we will have picks 1 & 2 in the draft, but with those new players along with the youngsters already on the list I think we need to trade for a marquee player.

We will loose experienced senior players at years end, Junior, Wheatley and Whelan. I also believe Robbo should be convinced to go.

This leaves a massive hole in the list of senior players. The club is crying out for leadership at the highest level while we teach and get games into our young players. The only way we will start to win games is to have a player/s amongst the kids who can show the way.

Green and Bruce have shown that they alone can not carry the current players to a win. The player management group are going to have to be very mindfull regarding this when considering drafting and trading this year.

Players worth putting on the trade table in my opinion are:

Silvia

McLean

Rivers

Jones.

Anyone else on the list worth a decent trade is either too young, hence worth hanging on to, or currently not showing enough form to merit a trade.

It's a pity coaches are not incuded in the draft, a marquee coach would not go astray.

Go Dee's

Our senior players are not stepping up to the mark to support the next generation of players at the club.

If it was possible I would put the lot of them on the market and start with a full rebuild....the reality is this is not possible and you need a mix to build a successful club.

The biggest issue at the club is the lack of pride in the jumper....how can it be aceptable to anyone that we consistently lose and simply move onto the next game believing/hoping things will get better.

Put simply, many of the senior players are modelling losing habits and this will infect the younger group. Before we know it this losing mentality becomes the norm and it's a long way back.

Bailey must be thinking about what he will be doing next year.....my view is he is out of his depth. His main asset at the moment is the way he works the media. He sold the Board/Team/Supporters on a vision to rebuild and bought himself some time by saying this would take a number of years.....but we must start to seeing some progress, otherwise it is all just talk and more lost years......like the 70's.

Get us a coach with some passion, commitment and a football pedigree that commands respect from the team....we don't need the smooth talker to court the media.....have a look at what Mr Voss has done.....sure he has a team with some ageing superstars, blended with some good new talent.....but the key difference is the team believes in and respects him and knows he can truelly lead by example....they are a committed team working together and achieving results.....a far cry from where we are today.

I have supported the demons for over 45 years and will do so 'til the day I die, but we never seem to get things right...let's rebuild (again) but let's get the best possible coach to help restore pride in the jumper/club........and please make some decent draft decisions.

I would put pick 2 on the table for an established 21-23 year old who has already done an apprenticeship.

Examples include -

Joel Selwood

Patrick Ryder

Ryan Griffen

Obviously pick 1 is off limits, and it will be a huge bonus to get Scully as he will be ready to play from Round 1.

I am not sure that the MFC has the time up its sleeve to take a long term project player at pick 2, which is what it will probably be.

Holy cos I agree. I doubt we will get any kind of sniff but when you look at someone like Geelong or a Collingwood they have had very few early picks in the draft recenlty and dount they will have in the near future so if they could sell it well it is not a silly idea at all. Just someone to bridge the gap between the young guys who has the potential to be a gun.

where to start with this ridiculous thread.

mclean is having a very bad season no doubt but he is, i still believe, our future captain. He leads the way during pre-season and during games. You don't go trading away people that give their heart to the club..not to mention over $25,000 from their back pocket for club-raising charities.

Sylvia is the exact player we need at our club. A goal kicking half forward that can play midfield for short stints. He has really come on and what incentive for young players would it be to get better if we traded sylvia away? 'Look guys, if you realise your potential and start improving we will trade you immediately'. He is in our top 3 in our best and fairest in my opinion. Very good player.

jones is still a good player himself. People forget how young he is...and I would be cut if we traded him. He does try and do too much when he gets the ball but if he can just take the first option, he will be a great in and under player, if not already. When people think of melbourne they do think of nathan jones in the middle.

Rivers has more value to us then he does on a trade table so trading him would be pointless. we wouldnt get all that much for him despite him being very important to our team.

The only way we would get a marquee player is if we traded picks 1 and 2..and that wont happen

Actually agree with your assessments on the players mentioned Freak. Good summary IMO. Although. The title of the thread isn't that bad...because we do require them. Getting them is another story. We might just have to develop them. Ie. Watts, Scully,...until such time when we are on the up and become an attractive proposition for those (marquee player) who might want to move back to VIC or change clubs. But that's a long shot - all the same.

I wouldn't trade anyone or thing with our record. We'd probably trade pick 1 for Fraser and Leigh Brown. No marquee or even a good player will want to come to us the club is a joke we have to develop them plain and simple.

The biggest issue at the club is the lack of pride in the jumper....how can it be aceptable to anyone that we consistently lose and simply move onto the next game believing/hoping things will get better.

Put simply, many of the senior players are modelling losing habits and this will infect the younger group. Before we know it this losing mentality becomes the norm and it's a long way back.

Bailey must be thinking about what he will be doing next year.....my view is he is out of his depth.

This is off the topic of this thread, but I think you've put your finger on a substantial problem at Melb. We have had a soft culture for far too long, since Northey left imo. The post-Northey teams were too content to win more than they lost, but there was never any real killer instinct. When was the last time you remember a game where Melb got on top, then went on to grind the opposition down by 80, 100 points? Last I remember was I think against Carlton, and that was probably under J. Northey.

We have a history of mid-year slumps in years where we got off to a flying start. And of getting 2 or 3 goals up then coasting through the last qtr and often ending up losing. Or staging a "magnificent fightback" after getting 6 goals down. Only encourages the problem, helps us to keep kidding. Then there's that attitude as you say, of consistently losing and simply moving onto the next game believing/hoping things will get better, because we think we're better than what we actually are (in terms of intensity anyway), so we kid ourselves that we'll win next week simply because we're really better than our previous loss. Soft mentally, I fear.

That is the main reason why I was keen on Voss coming to Melb, that would have been a circuit breaker. I've been happy with DB from about middle last year until a few weeks ago. He's a teaching coach, which is good for our young players.

But I agree with you, as far as the culture he's inherited at MFC, he's way out of his depth. He wouldn't have had a clue. I'm amazed at how ingrained it must be in our older "leaders" but it's there alright. Like you, I've watched them long enough to get that sense of deja vu.

Is Bailey the best coach to drastically change our culture? First he's got to recognise it as a problem. How to alter what's in the heads of the older players? And most importantly, how to insulate the younger generation of players from it?

I had hoped that with the brush that's already gone through the club, that mental softness had gone but sadly it seems as contagious and deadly as any swine flu.

The post-Northey teams were too content to win more than they lost, but there was never any real killer instinct. When was the last time you remember a game where Melb got on top, then went on to grind the opposition down by 80, 100 points? Last I remember was I think against Carlton, and that was probably under J. Northey.

Neale Daniher.

Neale Daniher.

Thanks HT, it was a boring game but I'd give anything to be bored that way right now :D

If Sydney cut Hall because of his discpline issues, I would take him in the PSD especially if we don't take a KP with pick two.

He is marquee and would provide stories for the club... I don't care if it is about hitting people, its on the field not off it

He would only be around for two years but would straighten up the team help the midfield learn to kick to a leading player, protect young players like watts.

He won't be around for a premiership, I don't care for this blooding kids b%#@$%crap because if newton isn't going to make it no point a midfield not pushing fwd because they know it will just rebound (which is what I think is happening alot at the moment), a player like that would assist the club and he has a bad public image but inside the club I bet he is respected

If Sydney cut Hall because of his discpline issues, I would take him in the PSD especially if we don't take a KP with pick two.

He is marquee and would provide stories for the club... I don't care if it is about hitting people, its on the field not off it

He would only be around for two years but would straighten up the team help the midfield learn to kick to a leading player, protect young players like watts.

He won't be around for a premiership, I don't care for this blooding kids b%#@$%crap because if newton isn't going to make it no point a midfield not pushing fwd because they know it will just rebound (which is what I think is happening alot at the moment), a player like that would assist the club and he has a bad public image but inside the club I bet he is respected

Wouldn't that move go against our rebuild and development plan the club has in place?

I wouldn't draft him in the PSD; I'd wish him all the best for a boxing career.

It would by his age as a player but I think it would assist the rebuild by helping the young players to learn to kick to a fwd. It will take Watts about two years to start to influence games consisently

If Sydney cut Hall because of his discpline issues, I would take him in the PSD especially if we don't take a KP with pick two.

He is marquee and would provide stories for the club... I don't care if it is about hitting people, its on the field not off it

He would only be around for two years but would straighten up the team help the midfield learn to kick to a leading player, protect young players like watts.

He won't be around for a premiership, I don't care for this blooding kids b%#@$%crap because if newton isn't going to make it no point a midfield not pushing fwd because they know it will just rebound (which is what I think is happening alot at the moment), a player like that would assist the club and he has a bad public image but inside the club I bet he is respected

He gets frastrated playing in Sydney's forward line. He would seriously kill someone if he was playing in our forward line.

He gets frastrated playing in Sydney's forward line. He would seriously kill someone if he was playing in our forward line.

Possibly his own teammates, given the delivery he'll get each week.

Taking Barry Hall, who has clearly lost the plot, is on the wrong side of 30, and seems more interested in belting people than doing the team thing these days, is one of the most ridiculous notions I've read on here... which says a lot, because I've read a lot of crap from Yze_Magic

We are 2 Draft Periods and 25 games into a complete rebuild. Hold our nerve through another draft period and we will again add to an impressive batch of young talent.

Checker Hughes and Norm Smith combined would be doing nowt better than Dean Bailey. We simply don't have any A Grade senior players. Dean Bailey has so far traded Travis Johnstone and delisted/retired Yze and White - all 3 players were emblematic of the lack of steel of the Daniher years. Robbo is likely to follow at years end.

Patience people and Nm 13 will be ours in 4 - 6 years.