I personally believe that season 2019 is over in terms of making the finals & threatening to win a premiership as the season started out. Some may believe that there is still hope but realistically it is over.

For some positivity I thought we could have a thread which focuses on what people are looking forward to for the rest of 2019 & then into 2020..

I will start off with my list:

1. Hunts development as a forward

2. Marty Hores continual improvement 

3. Return of Jake Lever

4. Addition of Steven May

5. Getting games into Baker

6. More games into Preuss

7. How Goodwin & the players tackle the remainder of the season, whether they wilt or stand up & respond to the poor start

As for 2020 really looking forward to how our backline will look with Jetta, Lever, May, Hibberd, Hore, Salem & Petty.

The potential addition of a top draft pick. Hoping for a Conor Rozee type from Port.

There is a lot to look forward too, the side & list is still so young.  I honestly believe this is just a small blimp on the radar towards a successful period for the Dees.

Still not sold on Hunt as a forward.

Agree with your other points though. Loving Hore at the moment

The concern is the drop off in form of so many of the better players from 2018.

Need to see players such as Brayshaw, Tom Mac and Oliver regain their magic.

Weideman remains a relative unknown and of course Petracca is the enigma.

The ups so far are relatively small in comparison to the demonstrated downs.

Perhaps the second half of the season will show a little more.

Love to see a forward line of Mitch Hannan and Jayden Hunt zipping around. 

35 minutes ago, DemonLad5 said:

Still not sold on Hunt as a forward.

Agree with your other points though. Loving Hore at the moment

What bits are you unsure about @DemonLad5? He's a pretty good kick on the run and set shot, has pretty high tackle pressure - and even the inferred pressure of his speed is there... I personally rate him up forward.

Hore is rock solid - brave - happy to cop a hit,  just needs to get depth in his kicking (although his 50m goal against GCS semi disproves that)....

Edited May 20, 20196 yr by Engorged Onion

Agree with the post. I have also conceded this year and want to build now for the next year and snag some good talent at the draft to complement the list. 

Minimal off season surgeries.. 

We paid overs on the Hogan trade. I don't think May will have a long career and may not ever be the key position lockdown defender we were looking for. The reality is that he is not really a key position back but more the intercept marking - rebounding type we have plenty of. May has to compete for that job with Lever, Hore, Frost, Hibberd, Petty, and Kielty. May seems lazy and one dimensional and will struggle to be more than a role player. Our drafting for key position players has been terrible.

 

17 minutes ago, Engorged Onion said:

What bits are you unsure about @DemonLad5? He's a pretty good kick on the run and set shot, has pretty high tackle pressure - and even the inferred pressure of his speed is there... I personally rate him up forward.

Hore is rock solid - brave - happy to cop a hit,  just needs to get depth in his kicking (although his 50m goal against GCS semi disproves that)....

Agreed. My knock on Hunt as a defender was his poor decision making and long bombs, which come less into play as a forward. 

He has straight line speed, good hands and is generally a solid set shot on goal: all required traits to have as a forward. Hunt's been a revelation and our best forward by far this year.

We need good thinkers with elite foot delivery down back.

May, Lever, Hibb, Jetta, Frost, Petty, Omac and Hore/Salem are our future back options.

 

Edited May 20, 20196 yr by Moonshadow

3 minutes ago, Deehumanizing said:

We paid overs on the Hogan trade. I don't think May will have a long career and may not ever be the key position lockdown defender we were looking for. The reality is that he is not really a key position back but more the intercept marking - rebounding type we have plenty of. May has to compete for that job with Lever, Hore, Frost, Hibberd, Petty, and Kielty. May seems lazy and one dimensional and will struggle to be more than a role player. Our drafting for key position players has been terrible.

 

I reckon you're pulling the trigger early @Deehumanizing on May. However I am sure you've made your mind up and the bloke has only played 1 game.  I personally think he will compliment the back 6 really well due to his skills sets... and I think with the pace of the game - Goodwin and the FD are wanting the zone, rather than the man on man - but OMAC ((as @binman) has stoutly defended) and May will be more of the one on one player that OMAC - anchor's if you will - whilst the others get to rebound.

2 minutes ago, Engorged Onion said:

However I am sure you've made your mind up and the bloke has only played 1 game.

No, I saw him gifted many games at the Suns. I saw him turn up unfit to play and that indicates a lazy player. He has a contract and the chance to prove me wrong.

3 minutes ago, Moonshadow said:

Agreed. My knock on Hunt as a defender was his poor decision making and long bombs, which come less into play as a forward. 

He has straight line speed, good hands and is generally a solid set shot on goal: all required traits to have as a forward. Hunt's been a revelation and our best forward by far this year.

We need good thinkers with elite foot delivery down back.

May, Lever, Hibb, Jetta, Frost, Petty, Omac and Hore/Salem are our future back options.

 

And he leads for the ball!

4 minutes ago, 3183 Dee said:

And he leads for the ball!

And he's very good with the dish off to a running past teammate, eg Hore vs Suns and Tracc vs Eagles

For the love of god, let's leave Hunt in the forward line and not return him to the back 6!

On that matter too, I'd like to see Jones as a forward as much as possible this year. Knows how to kick a goal, can get into good position. Unfortunately, probably due to lack of manpower, he's been used in the midfield 

Edited May 20, 20196 yr by Moonshadow

22 minutes ago, Deehumanizing said:

No, I saw him gifted many games at the Suns. I saw him turn up unfit to play and that indicates a lazy player. He has a contract and the chance to prove me wrong.

I guess that's why he was appointed captain at the Suns...

Like their entire list, he was permitted to be (so-called) lazy at Gold Coast. He'll turn it around.

Looking forward to seeing May and Lever playing together in the 2nd half of the season

May, Lever, Frost, Jetta, Hibberd and Hore. That's a good back 6. 

Edited May 20, 20196 yr by Moonshadow

This group of players won’t be doing much until they learn to kick for goal

i cannot believe by Round 9 they are still kicking so badly. 

Last friday should have been over at 3/4 time, but for horrendous kicking for goal

 

I'm an optimist and will never go into a match thinking that we can't win, but realistically, finals aren't going to happen this year.

 

With that said, I am very optimistic about next year in a similar vain to Geelong 2006/07 and Richmond 2016/17.  Our best football is very good and our best 22 is outstanding; this year has proven that neither of those things are a 'given' and are far easier said than done.

Plenty to keep me interested in the next two-thirds of the season though.  Liking the look of Lockhart, Hore, Baker and Petty, and am very happy to see Hunt back in the team and playing with confidence.  Excited by the hopeful return of Lever, Hannan Kolodjashnij and May.  AVB is a favourite of mine and we were a much better team with him in it last year; praying for a miracle for his foot/ankle/leg/lower-body.

If we can get a few continuous games into our best 22 before then end of the year, that should be a good springboard into 2020. 

How very Melbourne.....

 

"There's always next year".

For some time I have been ending my posts with

2020

Go dees.

I explained in an earlier post that 2020 was the year when the core of our best team will have played about 70 games together as a group (Oliver, Harmes, Gawn, Tracca, Brayshaw, Hunt, TMac, OMac, Jones, Salem Jetta, and some others) and fulfill the late Dean Bailey's prediction that it takes 70 games together as a group to blend as a team.

Further, 2020 is the year when most of the above will have been in the AFL system for at least 5 years thereby fulfilling Brendan MacCartney's comment (made to me at a family day)  that it takes 5 years to create an AFL footballer.

Cats and Tiges experience is instructive and may work for us as well but the development of our team rates higher.

So I continue to say

2020

Go dees.

 

2 hours ago, Deehumanizing said:

We paid overs on the Hogan trade. I don't think May will have a long career and may not ever be the key position lockdown defender we were looking for. The reality is that he is not really a key position back but more the intercept marking - rebounding type we have plenty of. May has to compete for that job with Lever, Hore, Frost, Hibberd, Petty, and Kielty. May seems lazy and one dimensional and will struggle to be more than a role player. Our drafting for key position players has been terrible.

 

I have similar concerns with May.  We gave up pick six for a player who may only play for three to five years.

2 hours ago, Deehumanizing said:

We paid overs on the Hogan trade. I don't think May will have a long career and may not ever be the key position lockdown defender we were looking for. The reality is that he is not really a key position back but more the intercept marking - rebounding type we have plenty of. May has to compete for that job with Lever, Hore, Frost, Hibberd, Petty, and Kielty. May seems lazy and one dimensional and will struggle to be more than a role player. Our drafting for key position players has been terrible.

 

I know it's a tiny sample space but May did a good job on Eric Hipwood in JLT 2 which gives us hope that he is actually that key position lockdown we need.

I look forward to 2020.  Haven’t given up on ‘19 yet ( we are still a mathematical chance!!!!).  Suspect it could all be aligning for 2020 - experience and list, better draw, hopefully not 17 surgeries and delayed preseasons.  Oh, and maybe no rule changes to bung our systems.

1 hour ago, ding said:

How very Melbourne.....

"There's always next year".

There's always another six decades

i'm looking forward to having less injuries and a proper pre season for our players next year. would also like to see a freshen up of our assistant coaches and some new ideas implemented into our forward/offensive systems. Maybe make a play for Jarrod Roughead to join us as a forward coach for next year. hell he teaches blokes for free when playing VFL.

for the remainder of this year I would like to see- the continued playing of Hore, Petty, Baker and Lockhart when we can. 

-the return of a fit Lever, Hibberd, Jetta and May into the backline mix. and the return of Hannan, Melksham, Weideman, Spargo, JSmith, and AVB into the forward/midfield mix. but importantly, I only want to see those who come back in selected on the back of good form for a few weeks in the VFL. make them earn it. we need pressure for spots to go on in the backend of this year so we can work out what our best 22 looks like for 2020.

-would also like to see Lewis pull the pin on his decorated AFL career, sooner rather than later. move him into more of a coaching/player role, but without the playing, to see out his contract.

-I want to see Fritsch used exclusively as a forward, where he played his best footy at Casey.

-want to see Hunt kept as a forward as well.

-Salem used up around the ball more often to allow him to be more creative and dangerous for us by foot through the middle/fwd, like Melksham is, and help improve our forward entries.

and I would like to see our mids stop continually bombing long up and under high balls into the f50. 

We should try and get as much out of this year before even worrying about 2020 I think: no guarantees we wont have as many injuries/form issues next year. 

Just now, sisso said:

We should try and get as much out of this year before even worrying about 2020 I think: no guarantees we wont have as many injuries/form issues next year. 

Exactly. Injuries are a roll of the dice. Luckily our core midfielders have been relatively injury free this season to date.

We’ll be saying 2021 if next year Gawn, Brayshaw, Oliver, Harmes suffer injuries during the season.

22 minutes ago, sisso said:

We should try and get as much out of this year before even worrying about 2020 I think: no guarantees we wont have as many injuries/form issues next year. 

but you can certainly help your chances of having less injuries next year by managing player operations and rehab times towards the back end of this year. set them up for good pre seasons. we weren't ready for the season to start this year, that's been painfully obvious, as we looked unfit and injured from the get go. i reckon at some stage when the years done and dusted, the club will come out and admit that this years pre season was a bit of a disaster for us.