15th on the ladder

[Steamin Demon 392]

Melbourne FC is a stupid club and have no planning for the future at all. Especially in the last draft before the concessions our list is leaps and bounds off the pace of the top clubs. The gap between Tom Scully and the next best in this years draft is huge, I have never felt this way when we have won, ever. I know what a difference Tom Scully would make to this football club and if we blow it like we did in 2007 I will be furious. All season I have been willing to lose 18 games so that we build a list capable of winning a premiership. Today the best player on the ground was Bruce. Bruce drove MFC to win today, where will they be in 3 years when we will supposedly be threatening for a premiership? Who will be left to take over the slack? Positives out of today were Petts and Jurrah, but to be honest Port were a rabble, especially their defence. We need gun players and we need them THIS year because if we don't, Gold Coast will come in and our list will be mediocre for a few years yet. Rant over.

Sorry to say it but I agree with every word.

[Guest Rojik of the Arctic]

This thread, and it's misguided bollocks that number one draft picks win premierships is mind-numbingly irritating.

Yep, here I was logging on to share the joy of the win and celebrate being off the bottom in God knows how long and every thread is full of this crap.

[Jaded No More 68,974]

We won the game with Petterd and Jurrah kicking 4 each! They've played 23 and 4 games respectively.

So, let me get this right, we need to play a load of young kids to make sure we don't win but we've got to make sure we send out the right ones in case they end up winning you the game. I think I get it now - easy! And you're suggesting we should be playing Bennell more. He's missed only two games all year!

Agreed.

I want to lose, but we can't tank by way of dropping young kids, because that will harm us in the long term as well.

Wouldn't you be furious if we had dropped Jurrah before the match? I would have been. That he pulled 4 goals and another 4 assists today, and that Ricky played the game of his life, is not something that we as a club can control on matchday.

I think Bailey did everything he could to give us a losing chance, but in the end the players wanted it too much and played well.

As much as I want picks 1 & 2, I don't want our players to ever tank or play uncommitted footy.

Team selection for the rest of the year should slowly see some of our better players sent off to "surgery". Surely we can pretend that McLean's knee, which he hurt today is so bad that he needs the rest of the year off. Davey can do a "hamstring" at training.

But on the other hand, I don't want Jurrah dropped, or Grimes dropped because they are playing well. That is just as harmful to our success as winning 5 games is!

"List management" is a very fine art and one that should be heavily measured against player development.

[Deeoldfart 8,065]

We just beat an experienced, hardened team whos Finals aspirations were on the line.

We were lead by kids like Jurrah, Petterd, Jetta, Frawley, Grimes and Morton. .........................

The best words you have ever written YM. Congratulations!

[BangkokDemon 96]

Some of you guys give me the impression that you believe success is like a Play Station Game.

Chamber 1: If we end up on the bottom with no more wins, we will pick up this player.

Chamber 2: In 2010, we win X number of games and finish in the middle.

Chamber 3: 2011 bottom of the 8

Chamber 4: The dragon enters to challenge us mid-season, but........bla bla bla.....

If only winning a flag was so simple.

Get real.

This time last year, the club (especially the team) was at the lowest level I have experinced, in my 50 years of following them.

Yes, I was there during the last "real" glory days - when winning the premiership was, considered success - nothing else.

I jokingly say, I want to be there on 27th September 2014, when it happens again (but if it happens sooner, bring it on!).

Those glory years of the 50s and first half of the 60s, were set up through many years of serendipity+ excellent coaching and great(and lucky) recruiting.

There was no "master plan" apart from winning the flag.

Rules were broken; the club had a strong base from the late 40s & early 50s, when others - largely because of the times - were struggling.

And yes, most definatley, the right players do make a lot of difference.

It's a cop out to rely just on the draft to discover great players.

The brightest star since our let downs against the Maggies and the Bombers, in the past month,has been a player we picked up for next to nothing and didn't even feature in the draft.

I just hope he continues to develop and we reward him accordingly, because I love watching him play and know what someone like Liam can do for our chances.

If you look through all clubs, there are not a lot of No.1 picks who have gone on to become the absolute "heroes" of their respective clubs.

So many of the greats have become great by other means (father&son rule, rookie list, trade etc.) - not by following the "rules", as in a Playstation game.

If we continue to win games, this year, I will be very happy.

I think you should ask yourselves (putting tanking to one side),what would continus poundings, or "honorable losses", do to team morale?

Isn't that part of our long term problem? For too long we accepted coming second as "doing our best". This group(and the club) seems to be wanting to say "We're not gonna take it". What's wrong with that ?

A football team is real people, playing against other real people. Plan by all means. But if that plan goes of the rails in a positive way - make the most of it!

[cooko 124]

i think the dees actually have a chance of winning the next 6 games.. i doubt the dees will only win one game out of -

geelong (who have a crap load of injuries)

sydney (who arent that good anymore)

tigers

north

freo

and carlton

finals push?

[Je Roos Salem 661]

I hope we finish 10-12.

[jacey 333]

I think Bailey did everything he could to give us a losing chance, but in the end the players wanted it too much and played well.

How about Bailey not playing loose men in defense while we are in front.

Pearce is a player that cuts up teams when not given attention and crawls up into a ball at the slightest sign of a tag. Why tag him?

We've stuffed up today.

[Dannyz 2,851]

How about Bailey not playing loose men in defense while we are in front.

Pearce is a player that cuts up teams when not given attention and crawls up into a ball at the slightest sign of a tag. Why tag him?

We've stuffed up today.

Bailey wont tank. We already know that.

[Doggo 32]

It's a dirty feeling, isn't it?

Deep in the last quarter, cheering on the goals, resigned to the fact we're going to win. And when the siren sounds, we all sing the song and "celebrate". Yet something's amiss. Somehow feeling like we've lost, because we outplayed our opposition.

I hate the PP system.

It'll take a massive effort from here, but i reckon we can somehow manage just 1 more win (v Freo) this year. Not so sure as i was 2 weeks ago, but it can definitely still happen. Fingers crossed.

P.S. How $hit were Port? That performance was as disgraceful as any of our losses this year in the context of things. Unlikely now, but if they actually do make the finals, they'll be the worst top 8 side i've seen for a long time.

I hope we finish 10-12.

Agree!

Winning 9 games on the trot for Jimmy... Now that would be a fantastic result!

But seriously, if we do win more than 4, it had better be at least 7 or 8 wins to be worthwhile in a developmental sense. Finishing on 5 or 6 would just be a disaster on so many levels.

Edited July 12, 2009 by Doggo

[dimmy 1,308]

Lets get a few things in perspective.

The group collectively is playing with more confidence, which is worth a player+ to the side as a whole.

Daniel Rich was not number 1 Draft pick, nor was James Hird, James Bartel, Joel Selwood, Sam Mitchell, Brad Sewell, Buddy etc. so lets not get ahead of ourselves too much by being so negative.

We could look at it this way : Grimes,Bennell & Jetta (& Cheney)have been blooded and could develop into really good midfielders. One bloke broke his leg playing Kick to kick (so he enjoys footy). Nathan Jones is only 21, Moloney isnt much older

My question is How are we going to fit them all into the team !!

We have alreadý unearthed potential Forwards in Watts, Jurrah ,Petterd and Bate.

Garland,Warnock,Frawley have proved they are in the mix. Rivers has got his body right whilst still showing reckless courage.

Jamar has improved markedly and we have backup.

Why the fuss over a possible draft pick. If we continually have number 1 draft picks and priority picks , we will NOT exist !!

Enjoy the win !!!

[Its Miller time 6]

Good, we don't need people like you supporting our club.

Ill give you 15888 reasons why you do.

But seriously can not fault the players at all. They tried there guts out and we should hope for nothing less. Forward line looked good today and Jetta who i wasn't conviced with before today really showed something. He didnt take advantage of his opportunities but he worked hard and made the opportunities for himself. I really hope the players go out and enjoy the win tonight. They should all go on a 3 day bender together and build the camaraderie around the club.

The club asked for patience and im giving them all the time they need. Finishing 15th on the ladder will be the perfect result for me IF we get the pp.

[RalphiusMaximus 6,088]

I think we need to remember one little thing here folks. There is only one other team who can get a priority pick, and they are above us on the ladder. While Fremantle can take the spoon off our hands, they can not get an early priority pick this season. While this win didn't help our chances of getting Scully, it hasn't done them too much harm either.

[gOLLy 401]

We beat a top 8 side today with finals aspirations. This is so hard how to feel......*need more beer

[Late Draft Pick 48]

I was interested to hear others reactions about today as we rode home on the train.

someone has mentioned Bruce as starring when he shouldn't; I couldn't help saying fstuff you Robbo when he kicked that goal before 3/4 time.

We will see what we are made of over the next 4 weeks.

But

in order to prevent the darker side sinking into despair on the train I held on to the idea that

Our first 4 draft picks from last year didn't play today

is it possible that our onballers are still just developing into one hell of a unit (yes we always look good against port here)

We might still pick up another great player at say pick 4.

But what the hell; we don't throw away opportunities like this looking great against a side that just didn't come to play (sorry Mick).

This is the pain the Pres promised us this year - but it's not the pain of copping losses

but the pain of all this being out of our hands; our worst year ever. But great to see Petterd adn Jurrah.

[Bring-Back-Powell 14,939]

Surely the story of the day is Port losing to the bottom team. Seriously how pathetic are they?

We will lose to Geelong and Sydney next 2 weeks, and then we'll be feeling satisfied again.

Congrats to Jurrah and Pettard!

[gOLLy 401]

we'll smash Sydney cos I'm going!!!!'

[gOLLy 401]

THIS IS WHERE WE START!!!!!!

[Yze_Magic 3]

Morton, Watts, Jurrah, Jetta, Petterd, Grimes, Sylvia, Davey, McLean, Bennell, Martin, Maric, Woneamirri, Bate, Garland, Frawley, Strauss, Blease...

We will be very good in a few years, even if we were to magically get banned from this Novembers draft.

Onwards and upwards!!

Edited July 12, 2009 by Yze_Magic

[Dannyz 2,851]

Morton, Watts, Jurrah, Jetta, Petterd, Grimes, Sylvia, Davey, McLean, Bennell, Martin, Maric, Woneamirri, Bate, Garland, Frawley, Strauss, Blease...

We will be very good in a few years, even if we were to magically get banned from this Novembers draft.

Onwards and upwards!!

Sensible post.

As good as he will be, Scully isnt the be-all or end-all.

[Roost It 1,434]

RELAX DUDES, We're not going to win 5 games, the club isn't that stupid. Port are [censored], we're still playing for Jimmy. The Cats will beat us and then we can go back to losing. Scully and pick 2 0r 3 and away we go!

[Goodvibes 3,596]

We'll know how ruthless the club is over the next few weeks. Five wins will be diabolical.

Unless of course you're a supporter that is satisfied not seeing another flag any time soon. And yes, amazingly it's not the be all and end all for many of you.

How exactly should we make sure we only win 5 games? Everyone talks about playing people out of position, resting players and implementing new gameplans as a means of ensuring you don't win games.

As Jaded pointed out Bailey did throw the team around dragging Davey and Grimes out of the play, resting Jurrah when he was clearly our most dangerous forward threat. What else should Bailey have done?

Who should be rested for the rest of the year? Who's going to tell a 100% fit player with bonus-driven components in their contract that they should have a rest for a couple of weeks?

I'm sick of people wheeling out the old 'ruthless' chestnut and linking it to losing games of footy. I'm really intersted in how you'd go about orchestrating loss after loss without the rest of the football world knowing, alienating large sections of the Melbourne membership in the process and probably pissing off a group of young footballers who are paid to win games.

[dee-luded 2,959]

It's a dirty feeling, isn't it?

Deep in the last quarter, cheering on the goals, knowing your team is going to win. And when the siren sounds, you sing the song. Yet somehow you feel like you've lost for outplaying your opposition...

I hate the PP system.

It'll take a massive effort from here, but i reckon we can somehow manage just 1 more win (v Freo) this year. Not so sure as i was 2 weeks ago, but it can definitely still happen. Fingers crossed.

P.S. How $hit were Port? That performance was as disgraceful as any of our losses this year in the context of things. Unlikely now, but if they actually do make the finals, they'll be the worst top 8 side i've seen for a long time.

Agree!

Winning 9 games on the trot for Jimmy... Now that would be fantastic.

But seriously, if we do win more than 4, it'd better be at least 7 or 8 wins for it to be worthwhile in a developmental sense. Finishing on 5 or 6 would just be a disaster.

I don't hate the priority system at all. I'm thankfull for it.

The reason's our list is in the shape it was last year & this year that I'm REALLY [censored] OFF about.

I'm thankfull the draft & priority pick has helped us with Blease & Watts, Jurrah, Maric the other year speeding up our rebuild. Do you guys realise where we'd be without those extra picks?

It's not the system, its us running our list into the ground over the last 6 or so years.

Edited July 12, 2009 by dee-luded

[Mousey 47]

too much hate in this forum at the moment so im not going to put my two cents in other than hand it over to my good friend JVD... i implore you guys to follow suit and join JVD... enjoy winning two games in a row for the first time in a long time... Lets smile and get a long...yeah...

Edited July 12, 2009 by mousey

[Goodvibes 3,596]

Morton, Watts, Jurrah, Jetta, Petterd, Grimes, Sylvia, Davey, McLean, Bennell, Martin, Maric, Woneamirri, Bate, Garland, Frawley, Strauss, Blease...

We will be very good in a few years, even if we were to magically get banned from this Novembers draft.

Onwards and upwards!!

You've officially become the Demonland voice of reason. We do, indeed live in interesting times.

If we are to lose a priority pick (and probably Tom Scully) because we win too many games then we want to see young players emerge to win those games. Jurrah and Petterd did emerge today and in the former we have a potential champion that will sit in our best 6 players that Hannabal has rightly focused on recently.