We need midfielders in the draft, and preferably not ones that weigh 70 kg , Daveys finished, been a good servant but has eaten a fair whack of the salary cap over the last 4 yrs, after watching today's game LIVE I must say the AFL is a Rort, on one side there's us that haven't won a game for 7 years, on the other there's a team that wins every year with an INFLATED salary cap, doesn't seem very fair.

We should target a Sydney midfielder...

How long til Viney is back?

We need him out there racking up games and getting AFL level experience.

My understand is that it should then be a bounce on the top of the goal line.

As stuie suggested, even when told to "play on", a player has to kick to themself before disposing of the ball in any other way. If he had been pressured over the line without attempting to handball, he may have been ok. Technically, I think the correct call would have been holding the ball, not the deliberate rushed behind that the umpire signalled.

However, when all is said and done raises the question, why not just kick the ball?

Whats happening with Frawley???????

We need him next wk big time.

Some thoghts:

I try to avoid the cliche of being overly critical of umpiring, but it was a total disgrace today and cost us momentum.

Fitzy fantastic again. I can see him attracting some interest from other clubs.

Kieran Jack is an absolute star and we had no answers to what he was doing, especially out of the middle.

Toumpas a bit disappointing and Nicho undid most of his good work last week.

Terlich very good but has a bit of the Nath Jones of old - trying to do too much in congestion and getting caught.

Dawes immense in the second half.

Final margin might have flattered us a little bit but still another step forward and alot to like. No doubt now that we are a better side under Craig.

We should target a Sydney midfielder...

And it wouldn't really matter which one, just put them in a circle and spin the bottle. No matter where it stopped you would get a bloke who could run all day, who has great hands in close, is good overhead and tough.

Pretty much they have half a dozen Nathan Jones's to our one, it is only fair they share

Some interesting stats...

Kicks: Melb 215, Sydney 198

Marks: 125, 60

Tackles: 61, 59

Cont marks: 14, 7

Centre clearance: 5, 24.

We need a midfield desperately.

Final margin might have flattered us a little bit but still another step forward and alot to like. No doubt now that we are a better side under Craig.

I didn't feel like we were about to get smashed in the last quarter. The pressure was there and it was good to watch.

Great effort by boys today, however if we are to concentrate on negatives

- smashed in the clearances, Rodan useless in tight and doesn't get enough of it on outside.

- nicho does not have skills for AFL. First 4 kicks floaters and missed a handball target 3 meters away.

- toumpas needs to play rest of season at casey. Develop game and confidence, like swans did with Tom Mitchell.

- Dunn is a dumb footballer, his decisions cost us goals every week

great effort by the lads today.

got nothing from the w@nkers in blue

despite the 2 wins we have that was the best performance of the year

The centre clearances absolutely killed us. If we got 50%, it would have been a very close game.

And ditto the umps. There should have been 5 or 6 holding the balls our way.

I'm suffering from white line fever after that, rarely try to mouth off umps or other clubs, but with the 3 goal umpire handicap, and the 2 goal cost of living allowance handicap, we stormed home to lose by just a point!!!

I do like drawing positives from a 5 goal loss opposed to a 15 goal loss. Terlich is in all Australian form if the incumbent is dempster/shaw/duffield. He has been a genuine star this year. Kent, clisby toumpas all showed good signs at times, McDonald, garland and until he was injured frawley showed again that they are on track to be one of the strongest combinations of tall defenders in the league. Gawn gets another game under his belt, Dawes and watts keep getting some games together.....

But the biggest kudos I wanna give are to fitzy. For a bloke to have been at the club 4 years now, have injuries and illness issues as well as probably not being rewarded from neeld, it's really pleasing to see him kick a few goals and really look like he belongs at afl level. I really hope that he builds on his last few games and keeps improving because he has deserves it.

Negatives- dunn, Byrnes, Davey not getting enough of the ball, frawley injured and our inability to get the footy early in quarters.

How was wattsy?

How was wattsy?

Tried his guts out and did some good things, but a lot of his leads were ordinary - into dead pockets and into two against one contests.

Edited July 7, 201312 yr by Blinkybill

45 clearances to 25 (and their clearances were much cleaner) Yet we only lost by 5 goals. We need 2 or 3 experienced midfielders who know how to win a clearance (and know what to do with the ball when they win that clearance)

Midfielder free agents of any age are needed. We've got the salary cap space so the club needs to be ultra aggressive. If the free agents only have 2 or 3 years left, not too worry, they can be replaced with more experienced midfielders in future years.

List of free agents

The argument that these players are too old is futile when you consider our immediate needs.

We could also trade for younger midfielders but who could we trade? It's not like we've got an excess of good players so that leaves our draft picks. We'd have to give up our 1st round draft pick for a decent midfielder. Not ideal and good young midfielders are not often traded.

Free agency is the way to go. Drafting for the future is important as well but our needs are right now. We just need to get our heads around bringing in 27 - 30 year old players. Many just want to point out that it's not a long term decision. Not everything has to be about the long term.

While I liked Watts' game and he's developing better under Craig, he still regularly jogs alongside opponents who have the ball. Little defensive pressure, not a lot of intensity. Compare that to Fitz who ran hard at everyone in red n white who had the ball.

However, the Jack Watts silky skills are great to watch when he's on a roll.

We were well beaten for the ball and still only lost by 5 goals.

Everything I wanted to see - Watts putting in, Gawn good, Jones against the best collective of midfielders, etc, etc - I did see, which was really pleasing.

Very impressed by Fitz again, and McDonald's reading of the play excellent.

Really can't fathom how Nicho makes the side, and remain worried by Toumpas.

I've said it so many times and I will say it again.

Get us two good mids and a good coach and we will improve rapidly. Everything outside the centre square is good to very good (most defences would concede 150+ scores every week with that much ball coming in!). We just need to start breaking even in the middle.

Luckily, mids are easier to come by than KPPs.

Edit: Sydney's midfield is unbelivable. Each and every one of them is a superstar. So. Much. Jealously.

Edited July 7, 201312 yr by Jaded

I've said it so many times and I will say it again.

Get us two good mids and a good coach and we will improve rapidly. Everything outside the centre square is good to very good (most defences would concede 150+ scores every week with that much ball coming in!). We just need to start breaking even in the middle.

Luckily, mids are easier to come by than KPPs.

Think we might already have the coach.

Give us Sydney's salary cap and we would get two good mids.

It's a farce.

Give us Sydney's salary cap and we would get two good mids.

It's a farce.

Even without their salary cap would not mind Luke Parker & Bird rotating through our midfield. We would be well advised to look at some guys (20-24) just on the fringe of some of the good midfields in the comp as opposed to paying overs for Free agents as other on here have eluded to

Midfield is killing us. Better effort but I think 100 per cent still not there. When we ran hard at them they fumbled. Why were Sydney allowed to play with red yokes. A joke when we are forced to wear white for an away game. Afl afl afl please explain.

I liked the fact that Davey was one of the few I saw chasing flat out all day. I saw a lot of melbourne players sitting off their man and not chasing then finding themselves in trouble when they got the ball, not a lot of hard running. Davey tried hard. Fitzy did very well, just getting better and is young enough to just keep getting better, I would be very disappointed if we got rid of him as he is one of the great positives of the year so far. Gawny and Dawes are the other, both did reasonably well again from limited opportunities and poor umpiring. I think we the club needs to have a look at their skills training, the swans would be falling over and hit their team mates on the chest with the handpass, where some of our guys fluff it even under little or no pressure.

At the start of the season DL's wanted wins against the lower teams and honourable losses to the top teams. A 5 goal loss to the reigning premiership is a good result. A win against the Dogs shows we have more talent

A loss like this will attract a coach, who will see there is hope with a few more players in the team

Paul Roos, this team has talent particularly when we have big outs due to injury and important players who did not have a pre season. SIGN UP AS COACH!

We are better than the dgs and the saints. We could have a season like GC with the right people in place next season. Onward and upward from here on IMO

I understand that after he was grilled on air "on the Couch" about the Melbourne job, Paul Roos said to Mike Sheahan that "actually Melbourne has a pretty good list which has been underdeveloped". Sort of might say he is at least thinking about it.

Would really like though for Neil Craig be director of football though. I think we would then really have elite as coach, football director, and CEO. RIDE ON 2014.