TJ

[monoccular 17,431]

Is he off whatever he was on, or is he on whatever he was off????

Something very strange about his demeanor this year - a bit like his first couple of years.

Anyone know??

[Guest cameronthebruce]

ur right he seemed really off yesterday. he was always the last away from packs and didn't seem as hungry as he did last year. i would put it down to how much much he really cares. he made some very un-johnno decisions including getting run down which is something that happened as rarely as flash last year. i dunno, but we need him to pick up if we're gonna be contenders

[CARN THE DEES! 14]

Id say just out of form, nxt week will be better

[praha 11,240]

Id say just out of form, nxt week will be better

To think that and say it aloud is pretty much admitting you have not been a melbourne fan for very long. I can say with little to no doubt that Melbourne will play the same way against the Cats as it did the past 2 rounds, and Jonny will improve slightly, but still play way below par.

[Yze_Magic 3]

He doesnt have any hard midfielders to protect him

When Brock, Sylvia and Pickett are back in the team Travis will shine. Sad, but true

[CARN THE DEES! 14]

To think that and say it aloud is pretty much admitting you have not been a melbourne fan for very long. I can say with little to no doubt that Melbourne will play the same way against the Cats as it did the past 2 rounds, and Jonny will improve slightly, but still play way below par.

Saying that says u have no faith in melbourne and by the way i have been a supporter of melbourne since August 14th 1991 the day i was born. TJ is lacking in confidence and form in a couple of weeks he will be bak 2 his best!!

[grazman 7,436]

To think that and say it aloud is pretty much admitting you have not been a melbourne fan for very long. I can say with little to no doubt that Melbourne will play the same way against the Cats as it did the past 2 rounds, and Jonny will improve slightly, but still play way below par.

At how many other clubs would he still be in the seniors this week. I have absolutely no doubt if he was at the Swans, Lions, Eagles, or Crows he would not be playing in the seniors in Round 3.

[Jaded No More 68,916]

He doesnt have any hard midfielders to protect him

When Brock, Sylvia and Pickett are back in the team Travis will shine. Sad, but true

So what you're saying is, that Travis is scared when he doesn't have his buddies to protect him? God help us if that's true!

He struggles with a tag, we know that. But the bigger issue IMO, is that he has a very limited attention span.

He is the kid in class who knows all the answers, but never bothers listening to the questions.

A very very flawed genius is our Travis. When his kicking and brain are switched off, he may as well stay at home and play PS3.

[praha 11,240]

Saying that says u have no faith in melbourne and by the way i have been a supporter of melbourne since August 14th 1991 the day i was born. TJ is lacking in confidence and form in a couple of weeks he will be bak 2 his best!!

Have we even seen his best? How do we know? His personality matches his game; uninterested and lack-si-dazy. He is one of the biggest disappointments in the AFL over the past decade. It has nothing to do with faith. It has everything to do with me being logical; based on the MFC history and past, I cannot see him lifting next week, or anytime soon. In saying that, Melbourne will lose again next week. Don't come here and say I don't have faith. I have hope and in some cases, it's more acceptable to have that then faith, because you can believe in something although you have absolutely no logical way of showing it will happen. For 10 years, TJ has come out and always seemed like he is playing below his best. Always. You can't argue that. 3rd or 4th or whatever in the brownlow or not, he has the kick, the abilitiy and the strength to be the best player in the league, but he plays for money, not for success. His a gambler, always will be; he gambles his money, and he gambles our hope and support.

And don't talk to me about having "faith" in the mfc. I'm at EVERY melbourne game and get to interstate games when I can. You're more of a fan to admit the wrongs then you are if you can only admit the rights.

[praha 11,240]

At how many other clubs would he still be in the seniors this week. I have absolutely no doubt if he was at the Swans, Lions, Eagles, or Crows he would not be playing in the seniors in Round 3.

Yep, I totally agree. And he shouldnt be in the seniors at Melbourne. And the fact that Yze had to come foward and ask to be dropped before Daniher even got to do it says alot about nothing.

[Guest baysidedave]

At how many other clubs would he still be in the seniors this week. I have absolutely no doubt if he was at the Swans, Lions, Eagles, or Crows he would not be playing in the seniors in Round 3.

crap, he's a class player who's out of form and like everyone else is sick of the coach and listening to him

[Lord Travis 10,730]

A very very flawed genius is our Travis. When his kicking and brain are switched off, he may as well stay at home and play PS3.

Travis has a PS3 already?! No wonder he isnt paying attention

He doesnt have any hard midfielders to protect him

When Brock, Sylvia and Pickett are back in the team Travis will shine. Sad, but true

Hit the nail on the head. Not saying he's scared exactly, but he is getting no support whatsoever. Everyones jumping on him for a poor game yesterday, and while he did have a poor game, I don't think people realise how badly he was being harassed. I counted at least 3 ball up contests where he was sandwiched by 2 hawks players illegally blocking him from the contest. None of his team mates helped him out, and it got to the stage where he'd be focused on the contest, get drilled by bumps from both sides, look around at his team mates who were standing round hands on hips, and he'd just sink his head. There is no comradere in the midfield at the moment. The hard work that the players did last year, the running, the chasing, the 1%s, non-existent thus far this year. Shows how important Brock really is to us. As soon as he left the field in round 1, our midfield has been lost since. Soft, lazy, losing.

When Brock, Pickett, Sylvia, the harder players return and take some of pressure off Travis, he will shine. He's too good a player not to. But it's abit hard when you're being tagged by TWO players at once. There was no Mclean, so all they had to do was take Travis out of it and the match was theirs. Travis is good, but he's no Judd unfortunately.

[Rhino Richards 1,467]

Lazy, insipid and uncommitted. For a player in his 10 th year he has not delivered consistently on his potential. Pathetic.

[Choko 493]

Yeh, I think it's pretty hard to defend him to be quite honest.

Sure, he would look a lot better if he had big hitters to support him, but after 10 years of footy, he can look after himself.

The issue with Trav is that he doesn't want to do the hard things - defensive running and taking a hit when it's his turn. That's why it's unacceptable. That's why for all his class he has been Melbourne's biggest disappointment. But to say he's a class player is to damn him with false praise, because it's all the more reason he is so disappointing. Courage and hard running are mental things more than physical. He isn't 100% committed to football, and it's all going to pass him by.

[Adzman 2,154]

He is soft. What more do you want. he has always been soft. He is a great finisher, but without enforcers like neita, chooka and byron there is no way he can be that majestic finisher.

I hate to say it, but trappers star is falling.

lets hope he snaps out of it.

[Choko 493]

Yeh, it's not dissimilar to how Des Headland is at Freo compared to when he had Voss, Lappin, etc at Brisbane. Or all of a sudden Nick Stevens when he doesn't have the Port midfield.

There is no doubt Trav is the cream on the cake. I can accept that. What I don't think abny of us can accept is that he does not run, will not "take his turn", or to use MFC's 2007 catch cry, he "duds a teammate".

[Demon15 0]

Lazy, insipid and uncommitted. For a player in his 10 th year he has not delivered consistently on his potential. Pathetic.

His kicking HAS become lazy, but i wonder, unfortunately if time has passed and a midfielder of his physique is now not suited to the bursting type of game.

Look at Jones, Moloney yesterday. They will always attempt to break through a pack, with the ball and one or two hanging off them. Moloney has made this his trademark very effectively, and Jones will by the seasons end.

IMO Jones came of age in the final 1/4 yesterday in the leadership stakes by taking on the Hawks. ND dragged him only when he couldn't go anymore.

Add Mc.Lean and Sylvia, and youv;e got the new prototype midfielder needed today. JUdd has perfetced this style. McLean will do likewise.

Apologies to JMac. he can do whatever he likes and I'd still pick him first.

[Anders 14]

If anyone personifies our team for the last ten years it is Travis. Capable of brilliance but of showing glimpses.

I have to say Trav was pathetic yesterday, I hate to say it because he is one of my favourite players. It pains me to see someone with so much talent, lets face it, embarrassing himself against ordinary opposition. He is someone who has to step up and take the blame for the position we find ourselves in now and blow them apart this week.

[Choko 493]

If anyone personifies our team for the last ten years it is Travis. Capable of brilliance but of showing glimpses.

I have to say Trav was pathetic yesterday, I hate to say it because he is one of my favourite players. It pains me to see someone with so much talent, lets face it, embarrassing himself against ordinary opposition. He is someone who has to step up and take the blame for the position we find ourselves in now and blow them apart this week.

100%

[gOLLy 401]

Anyone else notice his finger pointing of late?

[CARN THE DEES! 14]

Anyone else notice his finger pointing of late?

Yeh its gettin a bit out of hand

[Rhino Richards 1,467]

........

I dont think it is a matter of physique but more of attitude and commitment.

TJ has the ability to make space with wonderful lateral vision. None of that has been evident the past two weeks.

The Hawks made a number of skill errors but you had a real sense that they were committed, strong team ethic, prepared to work for each other.

Do I get that feeling from gifted players like Yze and TJ?

Nup. Not at all. (P.S. They arent the only ones but two supposed key drivers).

IMO I think Yze is past it to be a player of consistently justifing an AFL berth.

This is the TJ of 3 to 4 years ago and FCS he should be through that and we should be getting more than the half arsed efforts we are witnessing.

[rissy 0]

Anyone else notice his finger pointing of late?

I think he is finger pointing is direction his team mates on where to go for the set ups. It looks like he knows them a lot better than most of our midfielders. He has bulked up a fair bit and looks fitter then ever. HE missed most of the pre season with a broken toe and will take time to hit full tilt, needs guys like bruce and green to take control of the midfield to help break his tag. Sides know if they stop trav they will stop melbourne! Clearly shown in the last two weeks. I also i think he has 'toughened' up alot, he laid 7 tackles last weekend nearly the most i think, which is a big improvement.

[Scoop Junior 3,472]

I actually think his offensive running is the problem when he is heavily tagged.

He gets into these silly mind games with his tagger. When a Melbourne player marks it, he tries to fake run through the mark in the hope that his opponent will follow and cross the mark and give away a 50m penalty. He also gets into little pushes and shoves that do nothing and stands there whinging about the umpiring.

Instead of worrying about crap like that, he needs to work his butt off to make space when we have the ball. Taggers don't like playing on blokes who continually run to space and keep moving and work hard. They want to play on a bloke who gives in to close attention and loses it mentally and refuses to make the tagger work hard to keep up. That's TJ at the moment.

Very immatures performance from a 10-year player.

[Ash35 425]

Anyone else notice his finger pointing of late?

I'll tell a story about that.

I took 3 English friends who are out here on holidays to the MCG on Monday. They knew nothing about football but they loved it. Anyway, one of them said to me at one stage "All that No. 16 for the Demons does is stand there with his hands on his hips and point alot telling his teammates where to go". I tried to explain to him that he was actually one of the better players for Melbourne who was just having a bad day.

But I thought it was an interesting observation from someone who doesn't know anything the sport.