What could rapidly turn things around would be to get even a 'good-ordinary' full season of AFL football out of several players who really ought to be able to.

I think this season we saw poor form and/or injury run from several mature players.

Dawes, Garland,Trengove, Grimes and Watts, and for what it is worth, Frawley, should all be looking hungrily at 2015, knowing they can each get much more out of it than they did 2014.

The rest of any quick change would have to come from the young ones and any recruits.

Obviously Toumpas would be disappointed about his progress to date. Salem showed glimpses but was not bringing us whole AFL-level games. Nor should that have been his benchmark for the season. Similar story for Kennedy-Harris. Hogan we all know the gap between what could be and what was in an injury-ruined 2014.

Let's speculate that from all of that mix, plus new recruits, we get just five additional players delivering consistent AFL standards. That's huge, but also only takes perhaps 1 in 3 to lift.

Realistically, it seems Frawley will be our only player 'lost' from this season who actually played significant games, so it is just about all upside.

Malceski, T Mitchell, Lumumba and Petracca would be a good start.

Add a fit and hungry trengove to a maturing hogan and I think we've come a long way!

Major weaknesses from 2014:

Skill from half back - Malceski

Outside runners who break the lines - Lumumba

Key forward - Hogan

Midfield depth - Toumpas, Trengove

That's from a personnel point of view.

It won't represent sustainable improvement unless we have fixed recruiting, development and culture of excellence.

Like your thinking RPFC, no more dud high picks would go a long way as well.

Sorry, I think it's pure fantasy to think Trengove's just going to suddenly 'turn it on'. Unfortunately, I just don't think he has it.

Come seasons end there will be 17 clubs looking to improve and 1 happy club looking to go back to back in 2015.

In this context, what can the MFC do to fast track our run up the ladder.

Recruiting - This year with 3 experienced recruits making it into out top 5 player, we seem to be improving with our drafting (from a low base), what more can we do?

Development - Casey struggled and failed to make finals, indicating we still lack quality dept and development has a long way to improve. The ins/Outs for the AFL team also often seems to be adding little. What would be the ideal development platform for the MFC? an academy (aka Swans)? , a full MFC VFL team?

Wildcards - Clark, Jurrah, ... are seemingly in our grasp, if they are keen and able, should we try to find a way? Quality yet with issues.

Ideas - International players?

Are we doing everything we can?

The problem is in the title of this thread... this is not something that can be done quickly.

It has to be done precise and methodical. The Dees have one chance left to get this right or we will become the next Fitzroy. Hast and rash decisions caused this mess, quick fixes and half arsed plans made it worse. Roos knows it will take time, why else do you think he signed on the extra year.

imo the Only Way Forward, is for us to DO IT thoroughly, slowly & hard. Yes we can & will, bring in more maturity by trading picks for young players with some work already into them.

But the truth in in our culture, our Clubs culture... we have too stop making out any kid will be the next big thing since Home Pride made sliced bread for us. We have to be harder pass markers on the kids, & stop rushing them in.

We need more leaders of high quality, elders like RO'K to steer the place onfield. We have no topshelf leaders, Jonesy is still learning the caper but hasn't had any Real leader to learn from.

The kids have to Earn a Red&Blue jumper again... getting a Red&Blue jumper has to mean something once again...

People have short memories if they think trengove doesn't have it..

People have short memories if they think trengove doesn't have it..

You have a long memory if you can remember the last time he did.

The problem is in the title of this thread... this is not something that can be done quickly.

It has to be done precise and methodical. The Dees have one chance left to get this right or we will become the next Fitzroy. Hast and rash decisions caused this mess, quick fixes and half arsed plans made it worse. Roos knows it will take time, why else do you think he signed on the extra year.

Agree with that. Also the side needs to believe in itself. At certain times in the first half of the season it did, and the skills rose as did the results. Later we second guessed ourselves and fall back to that confused and terribly bad side of the last couple of years. It wasn't that players forgot how to kick and run; it was that they didn't trust themselves to make the right call, or for their teammates and so they second guessed themselves and, of course, [censored] it up.

I played in a truly bad team in the mid 90's. We were flogged more than we were in games, but a couple of years later with very little change in personal we won back to back flags. All I can put it down to is belief: in ourselves, our teammates and our coach. And from that everything else flowed. That's Roos' mantra: play your role, believe you team mate will do the same, and things will get better. Look at 87/88. We didn't have a great side, but we had a team that believed that they were as good as the rest, and because of that we beat teams that, on paper, should have smashed us. It might not have got us a flag, but it did get a team of good players and journeymen very close.

And, no, I don't know the formula. If I did I'd charge you all 1.5 mil for the secret.

One thing we need to be damn careful about is getting too many delisted free agents past their prime. Cross has been great and I'm rapt we got him but he's only got one year left, we don't want to be getting guys like O'Keefe and Malceski who will help us rise up the ladder a few spots but retire in a couple of years, leaving a hole. Vince has been a good trade, and the right move but again, he's 29 and will be done in 3 years (has a 4 year contract). We should continue to get 1 or 2 of these types to add leadership and fill a role but we don't want to be a retirement home for players on their last legs.

We really need the guys who've been there a few years to have significant breakout years - players like Toumpas, Trengove, Gawn, and dare I say it, Watts. If they can improve 25% or so, it will make a massive difference. Then you have Salem and JKH naturally improving and getting more confident (though beware the second year blues!), Tyson having an even better year this year after having his first proper pre-season, Kent ditto, and of course, Jesse Hogan having an injury free run, then you're starting to not only hasten your rise, but you're doing it with players who will be with us for the next 5-10 years.

Of course, one of our high draft picks this year (e.g. Petracca) doing a Selwood or Judd and being an absolute gun from round 1 won't hurt either!!!

Sorry, I think it's pure fantasy to think Trengove's just going to suddenly 'turn it on'. Unfortunately, I just don't think he has it.

I think he has it, his 2010 form says that he does. I'm just under the belief that he was playing with an injury for a very long time, was one of the quickest in the draft that year, showed his pace, but dropped off dramatically. I look forward to him proving everyone wrong next year.

I do like the idea of a VFL team of our own - apparently it only cost $800,000 per year to field one which in the grand scheme of things isn't a lot but it may cost us more as they will have no where to play... All of the stand alone clubs are using their old suburban grounds which would save them a small fortune but our suburban ground is the MCG! I don't think we will be able to play there.

I have some faith that we are headed in the right direction. I see a lot of similarities between us and the swans of the early 1990s. They were worse than us - we might have had a few rough years but they lost 28 games in a row (they beat us to break the drought... Richard Osborne kicked 10 from memory but that's not the point...) and were genuinly on the brink of collapse. Enter Ron Barassi - he was asked as a personal favour to go up and coach for 3 years and fix the culture, get some systems and structure in place to make them a competitive unit. He left the swans in a very strong position and the following year they finished top and played in a grand final. Have only missed the finals a handful of times since for two flags from 4 appearances.

This is what Roos has been brought in to do for us. It won't be quick and it can't be rushed and we most likely won't see finals whilst Roos is in charge but the reward for our patience will be sustained success.

I hope.

stop bending over

There's no doubt we can get our hands on the footy.....but we desperately need runners, quick skilled mids who run and spread.

Search the county far and wide for the best four or five of these types we can find.

The problem is in the title of this thread... this is not something that can be done quickly.

It has to be done precise and methodical. The Dees have one chance left to get this right or we will become the next Fitzroy. Hast and rash decisions caused this mess, quick fixes and half arsed plans made it worse. Roos knows it will take time, why else do you think he signed on the extra year.

Quicker is subjective.

Turning this rabble around quicker to me, is to put them in finals contention in 2 years instead of 5.

Sorry, I think it's pure fantasy to think Trengove's just going to suddenly 'turn it on'. Unfortunately, I just don't think he has it.

Personally, I think it's incomprehensible folly to ignore his form in his first 2 seasons, before he inexplicably (until diagnosis) became as slow as treacle.

He was a match winner.

People have short memories if they think trengove doesn't have it..

Agree.

He lost pace. He had a stuffed foot. Now it is right.

Lets see next year. He could be a great recruit for us.

Agree.

He lost pace. He had a stuffed foot. Now it is right.

Lets see next year. He could be a great recruit for us.

I don't think he ever had pace.

Fitness improvement - 20%

Skills improvement - 40%

A long kicking, quarter-back type player for half back

Hogan fit

A replacement for Frawley

1 superstar

Just typing that makes me depressed - we really are coming from a long way back.

Noel McMahen would be perfect for the quarterback role. Just a pity he is 87 years old!

I don't think he ever had pace.

Not blistering pace, but he was a hell of a lot better than in recent seasons.

Hayes, Watson and Selwood have never had pace better than what Trengove displayed in his first 2 seasons.

I also think machsy that trengove has player too much on the outside where his pace is exposed, he is an inside mid imo

Not blistering pace, but he was a hell of a lot better than in recent seasons.

Hayes, Watson and Selwood have never had pace better than what Trengove displayed in his first 2 seasons.

The problem with Trengove was more a lack of power, he had slowed down and lost power. The 3 you mentioned are all very strong players, Tyson is another not blessed with pace but is incredibly strong one on one.

I also think machsy that trengove has player too much on the outside where his pace is exposed, he is an inside mid imo

'Sir Paul', this is why he wouldn't have worked as an inside player either.

I hope Trengove can get this back into his game along with an extra yard then he will be a player.

I don't think he ever had pace.

I don't remember any pace either, but i do remember he was better than Scully, i think he'll be ok

I'm less optimistic than most about Trengove. It's a damn shame. I hope I'm wrong and he finds a yard or two of pace post op and his acceleration increases but I remember observers of his very first pre-season raising doubts about his pace. I'd actually play him as a defensive forward. He's disciplined, a good tackler and can be dangerous in the air against a medium/small defender. He might get burnt for pace against the wrong match-up but I think it's best opportunity to play a role for the team.

NO anti Jurrah comments permitted around here or you will be branded a racist, words like JAIL, NEVER, STRUGGLING all stereotyping

Is this a serious post?