Scott Spits and Rohan Connolly of Fairfax Media present the MELBOURNE 2013: TEAM PREVIEW

Reasonably fair?

It feels like deja vu all over again.

Interstate side at home to start the season, starting as favourites.

Port rolling West Coast is a little ominous. Hopefully Blease, Clark come back into the fold with Dawes. We need to win round 1, IMO it is an imperative.

My frightening stat of the day: Melbourne have not won a match in either of the first two rounds since 2005.

Rohan rates the forward line, must be "footy dumb" because Ben-Hur said it's no good..

7-8 wins is about the pass mark for us. Anything less and some of the playing ground will be playing for their futures in the latter stages of the season. Rohan did sound optimistic which was a nice change towards our list.

Rohan rates the forward line, must be "footy dumb" because Ben-Hur said it's no good..

You're getting boring. Talk some footy.

You're getting boring. Talk some footy.

Sorry mate, did promise to get back on track in one of the other threads.

Seems a sensible outlook on us for this season, I kinda hate it when I hear positive outlooks from outsiders though, it's hard work trying to contain your hopes and "what ifs" when you follow MFC.

Meh..

Looking forward, it's often too simplistic to simply say our defence looks solid, forward line has potential and our midfield is third world. I think we need to break things up a little more. I think our tall backs and tall forwards place us in the 'A' range compared to other teams. Clark, Dawes, Pedersen/Sellar and Howe read well. So too do Frawley, McDonald, Garland, Watts and Gillies. Our small/medium defenders are probably in the 'C' range and our small forwards probably a 'C+' after the Rodan/Byrnes inclusions. Our inside midfielders are probably 'C+' standard with Viney added this year and our outside midfielders probably rate at a 'D'. Blease obviously needs to spend more time up the ground and Toumpas will take time.

Our strengths and weaknesses are very clear. Whilst our deficiencies are obvious, steps have been taken to erradicate those issues. Sadly, more patience is required. Most pleasingly, however, is that we're playing a gamestyle that appears to be understood by the players and when their energy levels are high we've received a real insight into the future and hopefully into the type of team we'll be when our midfield group improve.

I want people to associate hard tackling and high intensity pressure with our brand of footy. I want them to fear our tall forward line and respect our midfield in the same way the Swans are regarded for their combative attitude. I can't see our midfield getting to the 'A' grade stage but a deep midfield full of strong, disciplined, hardworking runners might just be enough given the tall timber we have at either end of the park.

I'll be disappointed if we don't finish in the 8 - 12 region.

Meh..

Do I detect a lack of enthusiasm there ?

Pretty fair call, I think our ability to tackle and absorb and apply pressure will be key.

On a side note, Rohan has let himself go

Do I detect a lack of enthusiasm there ?

no. It was just 3 minutes of stuff i already knew.

Meh..

I think it's all up to our midfield, if they can stand up the defence will have less pressure and the forward will have more of it (and not just bombs inside 50) - -thats why we need players with class and vision through the mifield (jetta and toumpas). We need the midfield to be honouring the forwards leads with accurate waited kicks (like hawthorn).

Edited March 11, 201312 yr by Young Dee

Blease has the potential to be our most damaging player IMO.

Just increase his engine. Could have a breakout year this year or next.

. We need to win round 1, IMO it is an imperative.

My frightening stat of the day: Melbourne have not won a match in either of the first two rounds since 2005.

I agree.

The continual talk about putting games into a range of NQR (1st Demons game, new player, return from injury) really worry me.

The 1st game against Port Adelaide is huge for many reasons.

It is at home, we're starting favourite(uh oh), other than Suns and GWS we could go into the Bye without a decent win.

If we win We may get on a roll with the bombers the following week in round 2.

We need to have our best possible side. its no gimmee.

Edited March 10, 201312 yr by Franky_31

I think that is a pretty good assessment of the team at the moment. They have improved a lot of areas that have been problems in the past and have a much better group of forwards to call on. They give us 8 wins, which seems to be pretty right to me.

Pretty fair call, I think our ability to tackle and absorb and apply pressure will be key.

On a side note, Rohan has let himself go

Agree on both counts. Not that Rohan had a lot to let go in the first place.

The preview lacked depth and the analysis of the 95% of the list they didn't mention

While their opinion on where we will finish is about the same as mine I just wish they would spend more time producing it.

This was a PREview not a REview which should have been more

comprehensive.

The list seems more balanced and the coaches seem now to have an operating rhythm with this list.

The players understand the structures better and the fitness has seemingly improved, potentially significantly, from last pre season.

That said, we are still likely to be a bottom-ish team - and that's not Neeld et al's fault - we were coming back from a long way behind the pack.

Everyone seems to realise these things.

But, it's not irrelevant to also reflect on some of the events of last year:

- Jim Stynes passed away

- Neeld's appointment was heavily criticised (pathetic stuff by the way)

- Neeld was accused of racism (again pathetic stuff)

- some of the senior players chucked tanties and refused to 'buy in'

- the lemming that is Brock McLean was lead to water by the luminaries OTC and triggered the pathetic and wholly destabilising tanking investigation

- one of our sponsors lost the plot

Thus far, the new coach hasn't had to confront these issues. Fingers crossed, it will be smoother sailing off field in 2013.

7-8 wins is about the pass mark for us. Anything less and some of the playing ground will be playing for their futures in the latter stages of the season. Rohan did sound optimistic which was a nice change towards our list.

God I am so sick of every year towards the end of the season we have almost nothing left but players "playing for the future". We've had that since 2007.

I think their assessment's about right, 7-8 wins is certainly what I am aiming for. Anything higher and I'll be absolutely stoked, anything less and it's not a good year. What I am REALLY hoping for is just one year where we are not in the media for off-field issues. It's plagued us almost every year since Neale Daniher was in the firing line to get sacked, 2010 is the only year where we've been stable and positive off-field. Let our football do the talking.

I expect that Dawes will start out slow, if he kicks 5-6 goals in the first 3 rounds of footy I'll be happy and I hope from there he'll get some momentum and then less pressure when Mitch comes back. I agree with Rohan, I think we've recruited pretty well but at this stage we are not in a position to challenge for finals and that's just simply where we are at and where the rest of the competition is at.