I tend to agree stuie the next five are

St Kilda 50/ 50

Geelong No hope

WCE No Hope

Essendon 50/50 If we play to our best and they continue their recent form.

Lions Good Chance

If we get two wins we will be on track to 6 - 8 IMO

Collingwood next - no chance

St Kilda - We haven't beaten for years, and it's at Etihad, very little chance

Geelong - no chance

West Coast - no chance

Essendon - very little chance

That's our next 5.

You can say we've improved when you look at our win against the Doggies. You can't just pick and choose games to suit your point.

What about the game against GWS? Or the one against Hawthorn? Fremantle?

You can say we've improved when you look at our win against the Doggies. You can't just pick and choose games to suit your point.

But you are MC you are forgetting we beat Adelaide last year and could not this year.

As you suggest you cannot use one game to prove we have improved over last year

Collingwood next - no chance

St Kilda - We haven't beaten for years, and it's at Etihad, very little chance

Geelong - no chance

West Coast - no chance

Essendon - very little chance

That's our next 5.

Why very little chance against Esendon? We beat them almost every year and we will beat them again

Why very little chance against Esendon? We beat them almost every year and we will beat them again

The last couple of times we've played them we beat them by a point and they beat us by 150 points.

Wouldn't exactly call that convincing.

What about the game against GWS? Or the one against Hawthorn? Fremantle?

What about against Richmond? Gold Coast? Adelaide?

Yes we were pathetic on the weekend. Insipid even. But we have played exciting footy this year. Something I haven't seen from Melbourne in a long time. Using the fact that we lost by 186 points one time as a reason to never be comprehensively beaten again is just silly.

The last couple of times we've played them we beat them by a point and they beat us by 150 points.

Wouldn't exactly call that convincing.

They were doped up to their eyeballs when they beat us by 148

Collingwood next - no chance

St Kilda - We haven't beaten for years, and it's at Etihad, very little chance

Geelong - no chance

West Coast - no chance

Essendon - very little chance

That's our next 5.

I have the Pies about par with the Tiges / Dogs.

they will be favourites for sure but have a chance

Collingwood next - no chance

St Kilda - We haven't beaten for years, and it's at Etihad, very little chance

Geelong - no chance

West Coast - no chance

Essendon - very little chance

That's our next 5.

Gees stuie you make me look like positive Pete

We have a good chance against the Saints and a rough chance against the Bombers.

I don't believe it is quite as black as you suggest

Rough guess going by where I think we're at:

R10 - Collingwood: Loss

R11 - St Kilda: Win

R12 - Geelong: Loss

R14 - West Coast: Loss

R15 - Essendon: Loss

R16 - Brisbane: Win

R17 - St Kilda: Win

R18 - Collingwood: Loss

R19 - North: Loss

R20 - Dogs: Loss

R21 - Carlton: Win

R22 - Freo: Loss

R23 - GWS: Loss

That would result in us finishing at 7-15. Although if I wanted to boil it right down, I'd suspect we drop one game against St Kilda (they are just as good/bad as we are) and I'd add one game we don't expect to win i.e. Dogs/Essendon/GWS at home.

Not being pessimistic, I just think that's about where we're at.

What about against Richmond? Gold Coast? Adelaide?

Yes we were pathetic on the weekend. Insipid even. But we have played exciting footy this year. Something I haven't seen from Melbourne in a long time. Using the fact that we lost by 186 points one time as a reason to never be comprehensively beaten again is just silly.

I haven't said anything about 186.

We lost to Adelaide by the way, and yes it is "exciting" not knowing if the team will bother trying or not on any given week...

Gees stuie you make me look like positive Pete

We have a good chance against the Saints and a rough chance against the Bombers.

I don't believe it is quite as black as you suggest

If the St Kilda game was at the G I would pencil that in as a win, but we can't beat anyone at Etihad.

Rough guess going by where I think we're at:

R10 - Collingwood: Loss

R11 - St Kilda: Win

R12 - Geelong: Loss

R14 - West Coast: Loss

R15 - Essendon: Loss

R16 - Brisbane: Win

R17 - St Kilda: Win

R18 - Collingwood: Loss

R19 - North: Loss

R20 - Dogs: Loss

R21 - Carlton: Win

R22 - Freo: Loss

R23 - GWS: Loss

That would result in us finishing at 7-15. Although if I wanted to boil it right down, I'd suspect we drop one game against St Kilda (they are just as good/bad as we are) and I'd add one game we don't expect to win i.e. Dogs/Essendon/GWS at home.

Not being pessimistic, I just think that's about where we're at.

Very close to my thoughts Scythe

They were doped up to their eyeballs when they beat us by 148

Now the excuses are hitting an all-time high...

I see Frost is now listed at 6 weeks. Which some might say is an improvement on 4-6! But either way it must be way more than a broken toe. Anybody know anything about the real nature of his injury?

Its a toe yes? Must have been amputated

Now the excuses are hitting an all-time high...

pun intended?

You can say we've improved when you look at our win against the Doggies. You can't just pick and choose games to suit your point.

Gotta follow it up MC or else it means little

Hard to get a good read on where we are at as 7 of our 9 games thus far have been against teams placed 9th on the ladder or higher.

This week with the Pies we shall have played all but one (Weagles) of the current top 9, with Port (11th) and Suns (17th) the other two games.

In the up coming 13 rounds we play 8 games agains teams outside the top 8.

If we've actually improved it will be over this period that it should become obvious.

I suspect the best and maybe only way confidence will return is when we actually come back and win after being well behind. Judging by recent years, it may take a few flukes in a row in the game for that to happen but once it does, I'd expect the corner will be turned.

When do we play Essendon?

Hard to get a good read on where we are at as 7 of our 9 games thus far have been against teams placed 9th on the ladder or higher.

This week with the Pies we shall have played all but one (Weagles) of the current top 9, with Port (11th) and Suns (17th) the other two games.

In the up coming 13 rounds we play 8 games agains teams outside the top 8.

If we've actually improved it will be over this period that it should become obvious.

It's about effort not just results. A team that picks and chooses when to have a crack is going nowhere in the future.

We shouldn't be celebrating if we manage to get a few "cheap" wins when we bend right over anytime a decent team wants us to.

Hard to get a good read on where we are at as 7 of our 9 games thus far have been against teams placed 9th on the ladder or higher.

This week with the Pies we shall have played all but one (Weagles) of the current top 9, with Port (11th) and Suns (17th) the other two games.

In the up coming 13 rounds we play 8 games agains teams outside the top 8.

If we've actually improved it will be over this period that it should become obvious.

Yes as last year we did not win one of the last 10 games

When do we play Essendon?

Sat.11th July at the G

I agree the effort has been patchy and sub standard.

But our wins have been solid against team that are our equals in the bottom half of the ladder, i.e.

• Melb - 115 - Defeated - Suns - 89 by 26 points
• Melb - 83 - Defeated - Tigers - 51 by 32 points
• Melb - 103 - Defeated - Doggies - 64 by 39 points

Its a toe yes? Must have been amputated

It probably would reduce his time away from the game

We won't be remotely near favourites in at least our next 5 games, and will be lucky to win 1 of them.

We are nowhere near being a decent team, so to talk down other teams is getting a bit ahead of ourselves.

So that is:

Collingwood at the G

StKilda at Etihad

Geelong in Geelong

Weagles in Darwin

Essendon at the G

I think we are a chance against the Pies, should beat StKilda but have two hoodoo hanging over the game, Geelong are vulnerable but I don't think this year, Weagles, who knows in Darwin, Cheats, we should beat, as we have before.

I think it is a bit much to say we will be far from favourites in any of them, If we aren't favourite in at least one then we will be close in at least two.

Of course this all depends on which Dees team pulls on the jumper.