I'm not getting too attached to him.

We have been the jilted , crying,dumped little girl in the relationship for too long.

I will just enjoy it game by game.

The long term is not very long these days in footy.

It's like flicker .

Educated guess is if we continue to improve Jesse will stay if we are still bottom 4 he will rightly consider his options.

Our young core group is really close, roosy is really driving that core to achieve something special together, and by 2017 freo will be without mcpharlane, pav, Sandilands, maybe Mundy, Barlow. Get the sense Ross isn't too worried about the future so I think hogan would be leaving a finals team for a team facing a serious rebuild.

Educated guess is if we continue to improve Jesse will stay if we are still bottom 4 he will rightly consider his options.

Our young core group is really close, roosy is really driving that core to achieve something special together, and by 2017 freo will be without mcpharlane, pav, Sandilands, maybe Mundy, Barlow. Get the sense Ross isn't too worried about the future so I think hogan would be leaving a finals team for a team facing a serious rebuild.

And Ross left the Saints in tatters so there is a fair chance he will have not managed the list properly again...

And Ross left the Saints in tatters so there is a fair chance he will have not managed the list properly again...

They're doing pretty well atm jnr.

By the end of 2017, Jessie will be loving life in Melb and feeling like a king on the field. Find him a local girl, pay him whatever he wants and he'll never leave.

Edited April 26, 201510 yr by Moonshadow

WE SIMPLY CAN'T LET THIS KID LEAVE US. 2017 HE IS SIGNED TIL. AFTER THAT, GIVE HIM WHATEVER HE WANTS.

Need to offer new contract next year, don't wait until 2017 and don't insult him with the first offer. Straight off the bat 5 mill for 4 years. Remembering the cap will be increasing.

Edited April 26, 201510 yr by Al's Demons

I believe that it will be tough to keep Jess second time around. What happens now is key. Some have said is that all we have to do is 'win' but I'm not so sure. As far as I can tell, there are 3 things we need to do. There is a saying that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. I think in JH's case, we have seen this all before BUT this time we have the savvy and know how to make sure it doesn't happen again.

1) Maintain a healthy culture: Some might think winning matches and maintaining a healthy culture are mutually exclusive. I don't believe this to be true. Look at the 2005-06 West Coast Eagles. While Essendon haven't won a flag like those Eagles teams, they have made the finals twice (and got kicked out once when they had enough wins to make it) out of the 4 years Hird has been on the scene.
A lot of the reason why Tom Scully left Melbourne was money. That much is clear. However, one of the other reasons he left was because the club was starting to resemble the old Saints Disco from the '80's. We all know of the tales of 'that' trip to China. Let me guarantee you, Shanghai is no longer a dour symbol of Chinese style communism and a young fella can really let his hair down in it's many nightclubs and bars. On that trip, Tom saw something that was bleedingly obvious but other's still to this day deny ever existed: that the team was a bunch of soft party boys. We have a culture like that again and the chances that the Hulkster stays are reduced. The culture at the club nowadays seems to be player powered yet much more demanding. If that remains so then the more likely it is that Jesse stays.
2) Have enough older hands around him to develop: Some people will disagree with me about Brad Miller but it was a mistake letting him go in 2010. The man was never going to be a superstar but he was the decoy and support that a young Jack Watts needed. The second body blow dealt to Jack's development was when the spotlight was firmly and exclusively put on Jack and made the main tall forward (the first being his debut in 2009 and the third would come when Mark Neeld was hired the next year).
Jess has Chris Dawes who in my mind fits the Brad Miller mould. A tough and competitive forward who will never kick 10 goals in a game as the main man in the forward line but takes the heat off the number one forward due to the threat he poses of kicking three sneaky goals while the defenders focuses on the team's most dangerous forward. Let's not make the same mistake we made in 2010 by assuming every player we have must be a superstar or a 15 year player. Some times you just need older hands around who play a role.

3) Win at a level that is commensurate with the team we have: We are lucky in a sense that Jesse is young and has his entire career ahead of him. If we win 7 this year and 11 the next year, then I would say we would have a good chance of him staying on. Whether he stays a Demon for longer term is a different matter. What we don't want is a Chip Frawley style situation. The sad thing is that in 2014, we were improving commensurate with the team we had. Sadly, Chip did not have enough time left in his career to hang around to see that improvement through and I fully understand why he (and Riv) both left. The biggest test of how we have progressed as a club will be when Jesse hits 23 or 24 and can see us as a potential premiership club. If he doesn't, then we have failed yet again.

Edited April 26, 201510 yr by Colin B. Flaubert

I love that we're already questioning his loyalty, knowing zero about him personally other than he's already extended his contract once.

MFCSS at its finest.

I love that we're already questioning his loyalty, knowing zero about him personally other than he's already extended his contract once.

MFCSS at its finest.

The last 5 years will do that to you Deestroy All!

The last 5 years will do that to you Deestroy All!

Just 5??

MFCSS is a real and debilitating beast, Col, of that I have no doubt.

Just 5??

MFCSS is a real and debilitating beast, Col, of that I have no doubt.

Depends on your age. Before the current era of stinkitude, the worst Melbourne team I had ever seen was the 1997 incarnation (one that was in a preliminary final the next year). Let that sink in for a minute!

One of the few things we can thank Mark Neeld for

Was it Neeld's doing? Hard to believe he did anything right. So, Hoges, Kent... whats the third thing we can thank him for? Big Cam Pedersen.

Neeld raised our training standards significantly, I truely believe for all he got wrong in that regard he really did lay a platform for roosy.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/how-melbourne-built-jesse-hogan-20150427-1mukbm.html

Nice article on Hogan.

Edited April 27, 201510 yr by KingDingAling

Like how his re-hab being used as prototype for Petracca.

hehehe

I believe that it will be tough to keep Jess second time around. What happens now is key. Some have said is that all we have to do is 'win' but I'm not so sure. As far as I can tell, there are 3 things we need to do. There is a saying that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. I think in JH's case, we have seen this all before BUT this time we have the savvy and know how to make sure it doesn't happen again.

1) Maintain a healthy culture: Some might think winning matches and maintaining a healthy culture are mutually exclusive. I don't believe this to be true. Look at the 2005-06 West Coast Eagles. While Essendon haven't won a flag like those Eagles teams, they have made the finals twice (and got kicked out once when they had enough wins to make it) out of the 4 years Hird has been on the scene.

A lot of the reason why Tom Scully left Melbourne was money. That much is clear. However, one of the other reasons he left was because the club was starting to resemble the old Saints Disco from the '80's. We all know of the tales of 'that' trip to China. Let me guarantee you, Shanghai is no longer a dour symbol of Chinese style communism and a young fella can really let his hair down in it's many nightclubs and bars. On that trip, Tom saw something that was bleedingly obvious but other's still to this day deny ever existed: that the team was a bunch of soft party boys. We have a culture like that again and the chances that the Hulkster stays are reduced. The culture at the club nowadays seems to be player powered yet much more demanding. If that remains so then the more likely it is that Jesse stays.

2) Have enough older hands around him to develop: Some people will disagree with me about Brad Miller but it was a mistake letting him go in 2010. The man was never going to be a superstar but he was the decoy and support that a young Jack Watts needed. The second body blow dealt to Jack's development was when the spotlight was firmly and exclusively put on Jack and made the main tall forward (the first being his debut in 2009 and the third would come when Mark Neeld was hired the next year).

Jess has Chris Dawes who in my mind fits the Brad Miller mould. A tough and competitive forward who will never kick 10 goals in a game as the main man in the forward line but takes the heat off the number one forward due to the threat he poses of kicking three sneaky goals while the defenders focuses on the team's most dangerous forward. Let's not make the same mistake we made in 2010 by assuming every player we have must be a superstar or a 15 year player. Some times you just need older hands around who play a role.

3) Win at a level that is commensurate with the team we have: We are lucky in a sense that Jesse is young and has his entire career ahead of him. If we win 7 this year and 11 the next year, then I would say we would have a good chance of him staying on. Whether he stays a Demon for longer term is a different matter. What we don't want is a Chip Frawley style situation. The sad thing is that in 2014, we were improving commensurate with the team we had. Sadly, Chip did not have enough time left in his career to hang around to see that improvement through and I fully understand why he (and Riv) both left. The biggest test of how we have progressed as a club will be when Jesse hits 23 or 24 and can see us as a potential premiership club. If he doesn't, then we have failed yet again.

Whilst i agree with majority of what you said i disagree about the comparison of Scully and Hogan in terms of what they see in the culture.

Scully and Hogan are two miles apart from each other in terms of personality. We all know Scully was less impressed with the way some of the boys carried on getting on the turps. Scully was as intense and serious about his football as anyone. This is a guy that has never touched a single drop of alcohol. He was so footy obsessed and driven to succeed at all cost. I also heard some of his teamates didn't know how to take him as he came across as a bit weird and a loner.

While we all know Hogan is a competitive beast who is also driven to succeed he is also a very laid back character. The hype and expectations doesn't seem to faze him one bit. Loves his surfing and playing Xbox in his downtime. And i know some people have seen him out and about on a weekend so i highly doubt that if the club had a culture of party boys he would leave just because of that.

If he did leave (god help us all..) it would mainly be for Family and money obviously. All that Hoo Ha party stuff wouldn't faze him to be honest

Sign him up til 2020, thanks PJ and Mahoney.

Get Brayshaw and Petracca while you're at it too.

Let's see how the kid handles himself in the next few weeks against better organised teams unlike the flakey Richmond we've come to expect.

Let's see how the kid handles himself in the next few weeks against better organised teams unlike the flakey Richmond we've come to expect.

That flakey Richmond had an AA defender who had never been in a contest this year and is demanding 700k a year.

What more do you want?

The only thing that will 'stunt' his progress, or make some believe it is stunting, is if we don't get enough footy, quickly enough, to him.

I have seen enough - now it is up to the team to feed a forward line that, by the looks of it, has been overhauled in the last couple years and set up for success.

That flakey Richmond had an AA defender who had never been in a contest this year and is demanding 700k a year.

What more do you want?

Hardwick said it himself. They didn't come to play, and I'd include Rance in Hardwick's labelling of his team - insipid. They are indeed better than that. Rance is better that that. And you're kidding yourself if you disagree.

Kudos to Jesse though on his game, he made his presence count on the night, on a big stage. Impressive.

Now here comes the big tests. I'm hoping he excels.

He could play better and see the footy less and have less involvement - as any forward - he is reliant on others to be effective.

Hogan is not the focus of the test of these next three weeks - his midfielders are.

He certainly helps the confidence of the mids to have him forward to bang it long to him one on one or charging a pack.

Edited April 28, 201510 yr by PaulRB

I'm surprised that the whinging brigade haven't come out in force, re: hogan not being nominated this week.

I'm surprised that the whinging brigade haven't come out in force, re: hogan not being nominated this week.

Who got it? Cripps?

I can't imagine there will be too much whinging. It isn't as if any of us need to be told Jesse may have a bright future. He has pretty much skipped the rising bit and gone straight to star

Edited April 28, 201510 yr by fndee