Wow. Lets pick on an 18yo in his first season who had a delayed preseason. Damn you jimmy toumpas for our 1-11 start to the season! It's all your fault!

Seriously grow up. Ollie wines has had a pretty solid start to his career, but he is surrounded by boak, cassisi, wingard, kornes and Brett ebert.

Toumpas has jones, daylight, Rodan, trengove, bail and Sylvia. Throw in first year players viney and Matt jones, as well as grimes being injured. How about we just take a step back and look at the good things he does. Kicks it beautifully, keeps his feet, runs to correct spots and leads. He has some incredible skills. Just give him the time to develop. He isn't a strong tackler yet, but again- 18yo and first 7 games.

Add in that he is determined to improve and knows what he has to focus on, and you see the makings of a very good player. Just more of this saviour mentality from understandably frustrated supporters, however just have a deep breath.

Matty Lloyd worked with all those U/18 boys last year and he said last week on 3AW that he would've taken Toumpas at pick 2 after Whitfield and said wait until he gets the speed of the game.

I wanted Wines because that's the type we need NOW but Toump will be very good.

Exactly right. I'd we wanted quick fix patch up, we would've traded 3,4 and 13 for Dawes, goldsack and Thomas, or something ridiculous like that. We have hogan to come, viney, grimes to return, trengove to get his body right.. Toumpas should be afforded time, patience and allowed to pick his game up naturally. He will be a very good player for Melbourne.

He doesn't excite me at all, I've made that clear.

More than happy to be wrong about this one.

If he doesn't who does Clint.

We've bought in players who have had AFL careers and played in premierships and Grand Finals, in Byrnes and Rodan, and we are so defunct, these veterans are completely unable to help. How supporters expect 18 year olds to come in and even dominate in such a terrible team with no old leadership is beyond me.

Stop comparing him to Joel Selwoods first year, and look at his assets and just think about how they'll help us in the future. I can't cope with the negativity so for the love of mercy, stop spreading the word to the idiots who actually have no football brain (you're not in that category) but they read this and start threads saying should we have picked Wines....

Jimmy will be a jet. He'll break lines not like we've seen this millennium in the red and blue. Just give him time.

I've seen him duck his head on at least three occasions when going back with the flight. He needs to get this type of squib like behaviour out of his game.

Shyte ... You must be well and truly focused on Jimmy to have made such observations... Have you been watching any other player ? Davey is still there .. wasn't he supposed to have "squibbed" it not so long back and was being hung, drawn and quartered by many DL Members at the time.. Give JT a go.. We could easily single out many similar acts each round if we really wanted to... Some by established , very good contributors... Should we start a "Squib" Club from next week and name them all .. Not just pick on ONE young 7 game "veteran" from the Melbourne Footy Club ?? B)

He is NOT a "squib" nor a "coward"....I know that isn't what you personally are calling him... Just Saying..

I remember years ago in Abletts first or second season he ducked his head when going for a mark in a final on the big stage. I remember it well as my Dad stated "he will never be as good as his old man he lacks courage'. Well he was very wrong about that and it goes to show one or two mistakes as a youngster has little bearing on how they will turn out. I think he will be a beauty in time.

He is NOT a "squib" nor a "coward"....I know that isn't what you personally are calling him... Just Saying..

[/q

read above before you knock ME

If you read EXACTLY what I said I was in no way knocking you.. !!!

I think people need to remember why the club probably selected Toumpas in the first place. He is not a in and under player, he is a player that can win his own ball, but it is how he uses that is first class. We have a dearth of good ball users but he was one of the best in the draft, and was looked at as easily a top 3 pick. Give him time, and stop expecting him to be something that he wasn't recruited to be.

We didn't need to pick Wines when we knew we had Viney at pick 26. If we grabbed Wines and Viney, then we'd have a heap of grunt but not much polish. Toumpas is the polish we need.

Geezzz....The kid is only 18 playing in his first year of AFL footy......

All you "experts" who have obviously played this game at the highest level, that bag him,

Oh forget it.....I forgot that this is Demonland.....and it's our right to bag ALL our players

Carry on.....

2nd quarter against the Saints. He was running back under a high ball with no one around him. He went back one handed thinking contact was coming. Squibbed.

I actually think he will be a jet but needs to stop these kinds of acts.

He has played like 5 games. Give me a break.

Quality choice by the MFC recruiters IMO. Will be the goods and exciting to watch develop!

I'm very confident that Jimmy's skills and attitude will make him a very good player for the MFC. However, he's still lightly framed and learning to play against men, and my feeling is that his development is being rushed a bit because of the paucity of mids on our list. At this stage I doubt that he would have jagged a senior berth in more than about 4 other teams.

Edited June 24, 201312 yr by Deeoldfart

With his hip op and that he is a development player he has beaten my expectations this year.

Showed glimpses of why people have held that skill wise he was the best in the draft.

Can't wait to see what a preseason will do to him.

if hes a squib now nothing will change

you cant shovel gutz into a coward

didn't see him do that myself

Very harsh Jazza and I don't agree.

Brad Green is a perfect example of a bloke that willed himself into being a courageous player. He was little short of kamikaze in the sencond half of his career.

With his hip op and that he is a development player he has beaten my expectations this year.

Showed glimpses of why people have held that skill wise he was the best in the draft.

Can't wait to see what a preseason will do to him.

Well said. I'm hoping that he will gain a yard of pace after he has a full preseason. Hip operation recovery is probably still impeding his running.

Anybody else aware he's played about 7 games?? How bout we suspend judgement until he's got 20-30 under the belt.

Always gotta laugh when online supporters complain about alleged lack of courage of AFL footballers. Squib is very easy to type except for the Q letter where your left pinky has to go backwards into a pack.

Very harsh Jazza and I don't agree.

Brad Green is a perfect example of a bloke that willed himself into being a courageous player. He was little short of kamikaze in the sencond half of his career.

[/q

its just an opinion big fella

in true country speak its still regarded as being right

and I didn't pot JT btw, I only said you cant shovel gutz into a coward

I never saw JT squib

Waiting for the next "he's not as good as Wines" post, forgetting that Wines is playing for a team that can (sometimes) play decent footy, whilst Toumpass is in a struggling team.

Always gotta laugh when online supporters complain about alleged lack of courage of AFL footballers. Squib is very easy to type except for the Q letter where your left pinky has to go backwards into a pack.

LOL :-))))))

.uite right what you say about keyboard warriors. I for one can't now bring myself to hit the <homonym with Kew> button - just lack the guts..

Edited June 24, 201312 yr by monoccular

I must be missing something, I've never been worried about Toumpas at all. I'm extremely confident he's going ot be one of our best players in the future.

Jimmy's got a winners vibe about him IMO.

I must be missing something, I've never been worried about Toumpas at all. I'm extremely confident he's going ot be one of our best players in the future.

I hope so.

His lack of explosiveness and top end speed worry more than any 'squibbing' that may be going on. I understand he had hip surgery and needs to spend time physically developing but with his skill set, speed would be helpful.

I hope so.

His lack of explosiveness and top end speed worry more than any 'squibbing' that may be going on. I understand he had hip surgery and needs to spend time physically developing but with his skill set, speed would be helpful.

I agree. He looked slow against the saints but here's hoping he has the opposite trajectory in this regard to trenners.

He doesn't excite me at all, I've made that clear.

More than happy to be wrong about this one.

If Toumpas doesn't excite you, I don't know what does. Finally we have a young midfielder who is showing marked improvement, is clearly learning from his mistakes, and has skills that the rest of our side dream of.

Jimmy is a good mover. I like the way he goes about it! Will be a very good player.

A full pre-season to build up strength through his core and uninhibited hips will do him wonders