The turnaround that's taken me by surprise

[ILLDieADemon 804]

I'm just happy to be enjoying watching Melbourne play again, I have belief in this club again.

[La Dee-vina Comedia 17,071]

Amazingly, Melbourne and Richmond have the same win/loss record, with Richmond having a better percentage. Just goes to show that the true story goes a lot deeper than raw stats.

And it's not just patronising because we've been so bad for so long. It's actually recognition that the game we play is genuinely promising for greater things hopefully in the not too distant future.

[DeeZee 7,463]

As shultz said , we are alot better than our position on the ladder.

[monoccular 17,697]

I think those instructions are greatly exaggerated. There were only two danger games that year. At it's worst I don't think it would have been more than those two games and one of them was lost after the siren, the other was lost well before the siren but probably would have been lost anyway.

Could not agree more, though irrelevant to this thread. How one can be accused of deliberately losing a game that was only lost due to a great long shot at goal, after the siren - still bemuses me and adds to my paranoia that this was all an AFL set up. (Must take my next pill).

[nutbean 8,838]

I am not surprised by the improvement however after years of getting kicked in the guts I didnt allow myself to believe it was actually going to start to happen under Roos.

Having said that - Two thing I am delighted about

1/ The raging debate regarding drafting v development - I have never believed we could be THAT bad at drafting - give players a modicum of tuition/structure/clear messages and a heap of confidence and look what can be accomplished in such a short time. More than ever I am convinced that this has been the ultimate failing for so many years. Who know whether the draftees had talent - what I do know is we haven't developed the players we have drafted.

2/ I argued with a mate about Roos stance - forget the scoreboard - just play your role as instructed. My mate insisted that the scoreboard should always be paramount. Roos message is clear - lay 80 tackles a game, stick to your structures, concentrate on defense, win contested possession and kick straight - do all these you are going to win more games than you are going to lose - the scoreboard will then generally take care of itself.

[Its Time for Another 4,303]

I am not surprised by the improvement however after years of getting kicked in the guts I didnt allow myself to believe it was actually going to start to happen under Roos.

Having said that - Two thing I am delighted about

1/ The raging debate regarding drafting v development - I have never believed we could be THAT bad at drafting - give players a modicum of tuition/structure/clear messages and a heap of confidence and look what can be accomplished in such a short time. More than ever I am convinced that this has been the ultimate failing for so many years. Who know whether the draftees had talent - what I do know is we haven't developed the players we have drafted.

This will be a raging debate forever about the last 7yrs at MFC. Travis J went to Lions and Leigh Matthews couldn't get him to fulfill his talent. Gysberts went to Nth and couldn't get a game. Morton went to West Coast and couldnt cut it there but Bennell could. Moloney went to Lions and can't get a game. Sylvia went to Freo and can't get a game. Strauss, Blease, Tapscott can't get a game under Paul Roos. Dunn, Watts, Jetta, Pedersen etc etc etc are getting games and transforming under Roos. That all tells me that it's more to do with the players than the development. They were all coached under different systems. I would suggest the ones who were dudds stayed dudds and the one's who weren't have prospered under proper development.

2/ I argued with a mate about Roos stance - forget the scoreboard - just play your role as instructed. My mate insisted that the scoreboard should always be paramount. Roos message is clear - lay 80 tackles a game, stick to your structures, concentrate on defense, win contested possession and kick straight - do all these you are going to win more games than you are going to lose - the scoreboard will then generally take care of itself.

I'm with Roosy. Scoreboard is only relevant if you aren't motivated and need to try harder because of the scoreboard. If you need that for motivation you should go somewhere else.

[P-man 13,367]

I'm just happy to be enjoying watching Melbourne play again, I have belief in this club again.

Nicely summed up. This Roos fella certainly knows what he's doing.

To further illustrate the turn around, here is the % differential from the end of 2013. We sit second only to Port.

Team % Diff.

PORT 41.55

MEL 24.63

WCE 22.62

GWS 19.63

GCS 15.77

HAW 11.98

SYD 6.83

COLL 3.61

ESS -2.05

ADE -2.32

WB -3.35

NM -8.93

FREO -12.36

ST K -18.39

CARL -19.38

RICH -26.01

BRIS -30.45

GEE -34.34