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Good times!! It was a great year - the Night Granny, the late charge home, the first two finals. Wonderful memories. I still don't think Northey is fully appreciated by the broader footy community for the job he did at Melbourne. I know the Club has a requirement of 10 years service for life membership, but I really think Northey deserves this honour at the MFC. By far and away the best Melbourne coach in my lifetime, and certainly our best since Norm Smith.

Fast forward to 2012: Trengove - Co-Captain of the MFC. Scully - 'passionate' GWS player. Just how important will Jordan McMahon's kick be in the history of the MFC?!

I don't "sweat" anything. I make casual judgments along the way. And there is no such thing as "spelling diversity" when it comes to surnames. It's lazy and disrespectful. If you say "to" instead of "too", or "there" instead of "their" I couldn't give a rat's toss bag. If you spell "definitely" as "defiantly" I'll live with it. If you come up with "he's instead of "his" I'll cope. If you type he "could of" instead of "could have" I'll survive. And what's more I'll remain silent. But FFS don't spell my captain's name incorrectly.

Yes, it's interesting how two guys that were successively drafted to the same club at similar ages can now be so far apart in so many ways due to different outlooks and descision based thinking. Whilst not bagging anyone, one player has made selfish and clandestine decisions, and may continue to do so, versus the other who it could be argued makes more selfless descisions, signing longer term contract when not needed etc. The contrast as the years and individual descisions roll by will be an interesting study for us onlookers. There exists even at this early stage an ever widening gulf of respect between the two.

Don't EVER compare that pathetic, stand-for-nothing, franchise to our great club who has stood the test of time for over 150 years and invented the sport we all love. When GWS have 12 premiership cups and some of the best players in the history of the game to boast about, then talk to me. Terrible comparison. Hope Scully is feeling sick with jealousy watching his old teammate receive the captaincy today. While Trengove will be leading his proud traditional club onto the G each week, Scully will be running around an empty unfinished ground with 3 fans and a dead possum on his head.

Maldonboy, i am reporting you for implying that Morton has anything resembling a positive quality. Mods! MODS!!! PS: Thanks for the writeup!

are you a Mason?

Who cares?

We forget how young some of our players are. Bennel has all the right skills. Pace, good hands, neat kicking skills, explosive, atheletic. He has had no consistency though, but that can change. He is at the age where that can start to change as he matures. Should be a best 22 player. There is an opening for him at half back, and i hope he takes it. If Bennell, Grimes and Strauss could be our running defenders, that could be pretty decent. Allow Bail and Tapscott to be permanent midfielders.

From the training reports so far, Jamie seems to have made significant strides this pre season, but IIRC, he was doing similar things at this time last year. There is no denying his talent, so lets hope that 2012 will see him cement a regular spot in our best 22. He has the class to be an excellent player imo, and I'm hopeful that our new coaching panel will bring out his best.

Thanks to all who have posted training summaries........ Being up here in Sydney, all the reports are great to read to get some understanding of what is going on down there. Cheers guys!!!

I would make an effort to spell anyones name correctly, i agree with you there, but i wouldnt pull people up on their mistakes just for the sake of creating contention. We are all here to discuss issues relating to the MFC, not ridicule people who may make a typo here and there. we all lead busy lives and perhaps individual posters are doing other things at the time. Lets just keep the discussions to the crux of the posts, not people typos. not a big deal

Love this appointment(s)...... I have been away for quite some time and come back to this kind of excellence. A wonderfully bold move from a club that hasn't been renowned for it. Although I have never been a fan of the co-captain regime in theory, I love these two and understand why (age & inexperience) they have been anointed to the role. I have such respect for both and have thought for some time now, that Grimes in particular was a future captain. His class in the press conference was truly brilliant. As for the past players not in the leadership group. I can understand the disappointment of some, but these guys failed as leaders when needed. This unfortunately includes Green, on who's shoulders the captaincy never sat well and he (we) suffered because of it. Hopefully we will get the old Brad back (circa 09-10) now that the burden has been lifted. Not to mention the class he has shown (Twitter response) after being replaced proves the kind of man and Demon he is.

i just realized who Grimes reminds me of...please don't howl... Steve Waugh

On that basis OD, I should be the second last person to be wishing my life away, but I'm with you 100% old fella! I think I even detect a hint of anticipation / excitement in your post about the coming season, which is great to see.

I was initially disappointed for Beamer, but does he deserve to be in the leadership group? On reflecting on the fact he put his hand up to play that game (186), is a much greater sin that going out being a [censored] while drunk IMO. A leader puts the team first, Brent put himself first in Geelong, something that tells me he is not the leader I had thought he was. Back on topic, I'm thrilled with this leadership group and gives me more confidence towards our coaching brains trust than anything over the last decade

Looking at the photo in this thread i have to agree. A sad waste of a pick.

Interesting there has not been much said this pre season about my boy, Michael Evans. I still hope that he can be a big improver this year. He certainly showed something in his few games.

So I was having a beer late yesterday at the Royal Saxon in Richmond (not a bad pub) with my Brother when we decide to toast the new captains and leadership group. We also decided to write down our best 22, which we usually do on the back of a coaster about this time every year. Alas, they didn't have any coasters, but we were able to improvise. We started at the back pocket, but, for my Brother Bartram wasn't a consideration. I said, you better pen his name down because he'll be in the team. He was horrified because as some others here point out his kicking is most definitely a liability. But I persisted. I said to my Brother, how often do you see Bartam lose a contest ? He said, not often. I said, how often does he get beaten one-on-one ? He said, not often. I said, how often do you see him get goals kicked on him ? He said, not often. I said, what's his pace like when covering small forwards ? He said, pretty good. I said what sort of tackler is he ? He said, yeah good. But then he said, you can't have someone with his kicking skills coming out of the back-line. I said, I agree that it's an issue, but I believe that Neeld's game-plan will be far kinder to Bartam than Bailey's. Bailey relied on low percentage pinpoint passing that was hardly conducive to Bartam's game. Neeld's game-plan relies heavily on winning contested footy, dishing it off quickly to play makers, or scrapping a kick along the boundary line and starting again. Neeld's game-plan relies on protecting space and dictating where the game is going to played. Far more than ever Melb will be attempting to play the game on their terms. Neeld is far from stupid and he knows Bartam's deficiencies, but he also knows his strengths and the coach and player will work to utilise those strengths and minimise those weaknesses. I'll reserve judgment until the season proper, but I can see why Bartram could be a valuable and tough little bastard under Neeld's direction. Pound for pound Bartram is also one of the strongest at the club. Some, including Range Rover, think he'll be a club leader, but mainly down at Casey, I disagree.

They are starting to look like Melbourne from about 1965 until 2010.

Not quite true. There are some AFL strongholds just North of the Murray. Good point. I was just using a rhetorical flourish. I guessed as much... Are you trying to create enemies, here? I know you like that. Whatever...

FYI. The moderators have deleted a number of posts from a number of posters which have frankly been personal (and often puerile) attacks on Tom Scully and those associated with him. Please resist from falling into that trap. No player whether he plays for MFC or not should be subject to that sort of language on this forum. Warnings will be issued for further unacceptable posts and the thread will be closed. If you still feel angst towards he who shall not be named, then take it elsewhere from here. Thanks

#8 "Jesus Voldemort what the fcuk happened to your head" #9 "When Dipper said he wanted to play "Cowboys & Indians" I didn't realise he was going to try and scalp me" #8 "You were lucky he didn't suggest "Doctors & Nurses" or he would probably have torn you a new one"

I all for anything that stops every thread becoming an excuse to slag off whipping boys. Some people need whipping boys to justify their own warped views of the game, but I find it very tiresome to watch. How do we do it? I don't care. A 'locker room', cleansing threads, cleansing posters .... I don't care.

It's no mystery. The frontrunners for the captaincy according to Caroline Wilson are standouts for the leadership in a large group of mostly immature footballers. Voldemort might have been an early contender but stories of his aloofness while at Melbourne and his public performance during those "dark cloud" days hardly indicate the qualities of credibility and integrity one expects of a leader. The only attribute he has that might commend him for the position is a modicum of ability and an abundance of coin for the toss at the start of each game.

Just needs to really believe in himself and how much talent he has. Good coaching should bring out self belief - hopefully. He could become a very dangerous player - he has x factor.

Does that mean we shouldn't invest in any more non-indigenous players?? I could mount a case to say they have been equally if not more inconsistent than the indigenous players. How about we pick the best players we can irrespective of their background and back our systems to make them the best they can be.