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Correct me if i'm wrong but am i to understand that our number one draft pick, (who has been nothing but under whelming since the day we drafted him) is waiting to see if the club (who has been patiently waiting for years for him to actually fulfil or even look like coming close to fulfilling his potential) is able to sign a coach that is up to HIS liking before he even considers putting pen to paper?!!!??!!! Excuse me, i just need a moment to myself here:

Think it's a good job for Tommy Mc.

I disagree 100% If anything Casey helps. At the very least our juniors get to feel what winning is like.

Just watched the replay of ON THE COUCH. Loved Jackson's comments RE: Melbourne have too often looked to employ Melbourne people, rather than simply appointing the best people for the job. Thankfully someone said it. If anyone gets [censored] off with that comment, I want them as far away from our footy club as possible. Further, really enjoyed the mentality of getting the footy team right and the focus on the need to develop.

I cannot agree more with this. It's diametrically opposed to CS and his approach, talking up the fact that key MFC admin people support the Dees.

He [censored] slapped Connolly on national TV, and then in the same sentence remarked that the club doesn't need the best former red 'n blue people, it simply needs the best people. It was breathtaking. I also loved the irony of Gerald making the remark about red 'n blue people under the guise that loyalty should be rewarded. Under that logic I believe our footy club owes Gerald a public flogging and a 10,000 foot restraining order.

Dear season 2013, [censored] you. Love, Jaded.

"Too much reliance on Red and Blue" doesn't mean you ignore everyone who used to play for the club. It just means you don't give them jobs ahead of more qualified outsiders. A club that doesn't embrace its history and previous champions is not a club.

Full interview here (previous link to Fox Footy was on 5mins) -

First time poster. Love the [censored] off look on Healy's face when he read between the lines that his good mate CC is GONE!

The only quote - which is from his manager and not Watts himself - just says they're waiting for a coaching appointment. It says absolutely nothing of the sort regarding threats to walk. But by all means, jump the gun, accuse him blackmail, call him names etc.

I'll be there but only because I promised myself that if Melbourne gets to see some September action this year, nothing would keep me away.

Nothing will.

yes but one of them keeps turning it over to the opposition

You sure Toumpas isn't the Cotchin of the draft, while Wines isn't the Rhys Palmer? We could make these stupid ill-informed comparisons all day.

We don't have a cue. Every team is in the pub and has a cue (GWS has a pencil). The MFC has a trout.

I have been meaning to come on here for some time to discuss where we are at re Roos. Simply there is nothing that has happened that has changed the view of where we are at. Roos is still seriously considering, the club is rightly putting a back up plan in to place, however the club still remains more than hopeful, but confident he will become our coach next season. Roos needs to see we have our house in order, this is a major issue, and from what I hear this why he is not confirming interest. AFL concessions also likely to be a reason. It remains telling that he will not declare no interest. He may also have issues with interstate movement with his family (not confirmed with me), this is something I have only heard on Demonland. Interesting on OTC tonight. Jackson was very clear about football department spending remaining at least at this seasons levels. He seemed to be driving this point. Maybe there is something to be read into this. Regardless, nothing Roos said suggested to me things have moved positively or negatively at this stage, everything remains in process. As I have said before, a decision will be made seasons end. Lets not sugar coat the alternatives, they may be good, but Roos is our man. Again I can confirm the board remains confident. Roos continues to leave the door open. He is not one to play games, he would not be doing this if there was no chance. I hope the MFC, MCC, board and all other stake holders create the right structure and environment to bring him to the red and blue.

We could also throw in a pair of shorts that fit...

I think it a good idea we wait till the end of the season to see if we want to make him an offer over to you jack, play well we offer contract, play bad and we look for a trade simple really

Love D'landers in this thread bemoaning the issues with constantly employing past MFC people yet saying in other threads saying 'Let's get Junior back as a coach' and 'What's Neita doing these days?'.

Well, I taped it and watch it just before going to bed (slept well) and I also got a great deal of satisfaction out of the interview. Jumbo has said he only has blame and no vision, and I understand the frustration in hearing these uncomfortable truths, but if you do not correctly diagnose the problem then you cannot treat it. We have relied on where we have picked in the draft. We have spurned experience in lieu of the high risk potential of mass youth. Our culture has been near-enough-is-good-enough for my entire life as a Demons supporter. My satisfaction comes from the words said and not the deeds done, so Jackson has to back up what he sees with action to do something about it. We need to build a culture from scratch pretty much and, hopefully, that will entail a competent, proven Footy head, either Eade, Craig, Williams, or Roos as coach, and the targetting of some senior players from other clubs that can help our emerging players onfield. I didn't want to hear a few things that he said, but I know that he is a proven Administrator in an AFL environment and that he knows best practice. And he is right - we are fueled by nothing but hope at the minute. Thankfully, it's a renewable resource.

Immediately after last night's On The Couch, the Fox Footy Channel aired the Open Mike interview with Mark McLure. One of his jobs in life after his playing career was as an assistant to Malcolm Blight during his short-lived and ill-fated coaching stint at St. Kilda. He said he initially took the position at Blight's invitation. McLure made it clear in no uncertain terms that Blight's tenure was a failure for all the wrong reasons - that he had taken on the job for the money. I want a coach who takes us on because he wants us to succeed where his predecessors failed, who wants to lift the club up by the bootstraps and who has the means, the enthusiasm, the courage and the commitment to do the job. I'm not sure Roos is that person.

What i liked about the interview PJ spoke well and told it like he thought it was , how he discovered it was and how it should be Sheahan asked a question that he already knew the answer too Healy asked a question that he wishes he hadn't as he sure didn't like the answer Body Language of Roos when PJ spoke was interesting IMO Roos is still in the mix What i didn't like about the interview Far too short

You are one strange cat, jumbo. I'm assuming you didn't watch the interview. "Big deal" lol His ultimate vision is to make the MFC great again. He mentioned this several times. To do this, the football club needs to make football its main focus. To put reopurces into player development for the next two years, both on and off the field and go about establishing a strong, lasting footballing culture in the guise of Sydney and Geelong. He acknowledges that the only thing to sell right now is hope, and there needs to be more to sell than that. He has identified a near enough is good enough mentality, and a total lack of understanding what it takes to be a ruthless, professional sporting organisation, and this has permeated through the club. He's here to correct it by setting up an organisational structure filled with the best people he can find with his knowledge of the industry. Big deal.

I have heard Peter Jackson is building it with his own hands (with the help of James Magner of course)

In two years time when Toumpas is delivering lace out passes to clark, dawes and hogan opinions might be different, and we already had Viney a more highly rated inside midfielder so i can see why some don't agree with the decision, i don't think it's as bad as say the decision to recruit, gillies, byrnes, rodan and pederson.

WYL before you let your Messiah complex get completely out of control, yes I liked what Peter Jackson said last night, but the proof is in the pudding..I'll wait and see....also see if you find some posts/articles from Bombers supporters/journos/bloggers towards the end of Jackson's tenure at Essendon....what you read may surprise you.....as I have said before I get all the facts and information I can before I jump on or off

It's also refreshing to hear the existing contacts he has with other well-credentialled operators. Case in point: Geoff Walsh. I like the idea of being on the inside track for once.

When a captain of the Melbourne Football Club hoists the Premiership Cup is when I will say "Well done, you meant what you said."

More like a far cue

Frankly, I agree with the sentiment that you only coax a person so far and then give up. However, as I have said a couple of times - why should Roos commit when we do not have the stable essential ingredients that would make-up a club looking for a coach; we don't have a President and we don't have a head of the FD for next year. In what world would anyone capable of resurrecting this club agree to come to the club when two positions are not filled? If Roos is the kind of person I think he is then he will wait until those two positions are settled, the Board is appointed, and the AFL has given approval for the club's direction. And as a fan of the club, I have no right to expect an outsider to show as much blind faith as I do - nor would I want them to. As Jackson noted - our culture is nowhere near those of the best clubs. Hiring a coach before we have a stable Board, a President, and a FD head is not a move in a forward direction in my opinion.

That'll be a huge blow. I think maybe we could get a 2nd rounder (hoping the AFL sympathises with us) but he will leave a gaping hole we will absolutely need to fill with a senior midfielder. Having said that though, I'm beginning to think Sylvia will stay with us.

N Jones. Absolutely AFL standard. B+ player who could be A grade Viney. Will probably we A grade in the Scott West category. Toumpas. Will be a B - B+ midfielder Evans. Might be a B grader, but he cannot stay injury free. Sylvia. What a horrible waste of talent. A+ at best, C grade most of the time. Trengove. B grade but sliding away. I still really believe in this bloke but something is wrong/missing. Bail. Too many goes, too many injuries and a poor skill level. C grade. Rodan. B+ at best, C- at worst. Gone at seasons end. Blease. Could be anything but has not been developed. C- or D at present. Other players like Tapscott, Kent, M Jones have not really been played as midfielders. At best we have 1 current top line midfielder, 1 potential A grader, and 2 potential B - B+ midfielders. What a horrible outcome after 6+ years of high draft picks.

Taggert doesn't deserve a game, one good game doesn't mean you should be selected, the guy was dropped to the development league a couple of weeks back because he couldn't get near the footy. Since returning his form is better and he is cementing his spot in the Casey 1sts. If he can string a couple of good games together then he will be considered. I'm amazed by the Taggert love, I know we are desperate for Midfield talent, he doesn't play in the midfield at Casey, last week even in the comments played Half Forward with some time in the middle. Davey had a stinker on Saturday, but he has been on of our better players this year, doesn't say much for most of our players.

Agree with this wholeheartedly. I personally haven't felt all that good about the Paul Roos ego stroking that has been going on since the start of this saga. I feel like Williams is the best fit for us (if he is truly interested in getting involved). He is a passionate man with a record of getting the most out of young players. Just seems like the sort of person who might finally be able to start to erode away the inherent lack of real professional standard commitment to that has been allowed to fester within our playing group for as long as I can remember. I feel Williams would be more likely to dig in for the long haul and his motivation would be winning games of football as paramount.

Sometimes 2 players are different types of players, develop at different rates, and are both very good. Sometimes you need 1 type a lot more than the other. Sometimes supporters are impatient, ignorant and wear blinkers.

He said it's about finding an experienced coach who can build a decent footy culture. And, in this regard, Choco Williams absolutely has to be our man. He'd be perfect for this club right now. Paul Roos doesn't want the job IMO - it's been clear all along, just not to certain Demons wish-thinking supporters and certain media shock jocks trying to create headlines. We're the ugly nerd on the dance floor who keeps asking the hot chick for a dance, and refuses to accept that she doesn't want to go there.

Here's an interesting take on how the media can and do affect the way the issues are presented to their reading public. Reporters angles make it very hard to get a line on the truth I think that much the same applied to our circumstances during the tanking saga in the way that certain aspects of the tanking debate were suppressed and why we were constantly under attack while Carlton which was the paradigm for tanking remained quarantined from harm.

I didn't say that. Six years of failure isn't knee-jerk. But a hasty, ill-considered reaction in one draft to six years of failure would be. It was the OP's contention that we must trade pick #2 without establishing any criteria. No other club would think about giving up pick #2 for anything other than the best of elite players.

Everything he said was spot on. Removing leaders from the locker room Relying on high draft picks for success Poor player developlment The old boys club mentality I love PJ. I hope he gets us Geoff Walsh.

as it should be

Blame Gerard Healy, more interested in his old mate Chris Connolys future, rather than asking a more relevant one about Craig. Disappointing and selfish by Healy.

We now have a top grade training venue at Olympic Park, eventually. WTH would we move, yet again, further away from the MCG? PS...to a venue that has a soccer pitch incorporated into it?

Just because you put something on a list does not mean you will get it - trust me I speak from experience.I would have asked Santa 10 times for a rocket ship and I am still waiting.

God we love burning our own dont we. Dunn was one of our better players on the weekend, he got possibly the hardest job running with Thomas and did it well. As for Davey he has been a standout player for the team for years, he is getting slower but still has a lot of class, I thought he has been running hard in the last few weeks. His game on the weekend was not great but he did not stop chasing, his problem was that North had a spare man in defense so he was running from one to another all day trying to cover over laps. Brynes tried again he was meant to be a small forward, if you look at his stats you will see he gets more of his kicks on the half backline than the forward line, he should be down the other bloody end, but we just cannot get the damn ball down into our 50 where he should be. When we do get it down there we are outnumbered time and time again and the opposition just runs it out using the overlap. God every other side sees we are hopeless at the spare man in defense so why do we still do it. Pederson his stats were pretty good for him, he will get better with time, it was not long ago everyone was bagging fitzy now he is hitting some form, we like him, Pederson has the potential to do much better, unfortunately he may need another pre-season to get him fit, but then the same could be said for the whole side they way they capitulated on Saturday after half time. I would like to see our ruck coaches work more with our rucks, Gawn is getting first touch often enough but the ball is not going to our players, needs to work on that with the mids. We need to use Dunn's long kick down the center more often, it has worked several times this year, surely we should be able to pull oppositions sides away from the centre and then have players double back to take the long kick down the middle. Bleese is such a disappointment so much pace but cannot catch a cold. He is just obsessed with running and kicking for goal, he needs to get a defensive side to his game, i.e. put into the backline and have him man up on someone and be accountable, learn to be defensive and see if he can use that pace off the back flank, see if he can at least find the damn ball. Trengrove should either be playing VFL, or on a half forward flank as he is a bit of a liability in the midfield. Down forward he can take a mark and kick reasonably well, if we could only get the ball into our 50.

That's absolutely not what your contention has been until now. You've continually said that Wines is able to impact games right now, and as such, is the player we should have taken. Nonetheless, if you want to say that both are long term prospects, then why are you complaining? If you're happy to admit that both Wines and Toumpas are going to reach their prime in future years, why does what Wines is doing right now matter? It doesn't. I wonder if backing up from Geelong in the wet and Darwin in the past fortnight took its toll on his clearly underdeveloped body. You'd hope, with the coming pre-season, his fitness improves next year, as that's definitely something (along with his strength) that he needs to work on to get the most out of his skills and smarts. I'm with you on the positioning and running. He has what most of the players on our list right now don't have - footy smarts.

Dunn: You can't be serious. I thought he was our best on Saturday. Dunn was on a very dangerous player in Lindsay Thomas who is Norths leading goal kicker with 45, and kept him goalless despite endless inside 50s and opportunity for Thomas. He was the ONLY Melbourne player to beat his opponent on the day. Further Dunn's form has been consistently good. He is given a role each week and this season has almost always completed his role with distinction. Dunn made one poor error which cost us a goal, but outside this was excellent in an awful performance. I can't understand the Dunn haters on here. He is doing his bit. He goes in hard on every contest, wears his pride on his sleave, shows controlled aggression and usually wins his position. He has been close to our most consistent this season, behind Garland. With the roles that Dunn is given he will never be BOG, but due to the ball constantly being in Norths 50, he was our best on Saturday. Clint..... watch the game on replay and spare your frustration to those who do not go hard enough and lose their position every week.

I don't think any club has successfully traded many early picks for a mid-field. They may have traded later picks for some top-ups, but the best midfields have always come from developing draft choices. Even Sydney's much-vaunted midfield has come largely from draft picks, many of them quite late: McVeigh #5 2002 Hanneberry #30 2008 O'Keefe #56 1999 Mitchell #21 2011(F/S) Malcejski #64 2002 K Jack Rookie elevation 2007 Goodes #43 1997 B Jack Rookie Draft #58 2013 Jetta #13 2009 Kennedy, Bolton and McGlynn have been trades. Bolton came to them for #8 to Geelong, but it was way back in 1998. Richmond's best (Deledio, Martin, Cotchin), and the basis of their rising strength, were all draftees. Judd is the only midfielder in recent history I can think of that has warranted a high first-round draft pick, so if we were going to trade #2, a player of that level is what I'd want. I doubt there will be any available. The last thing I want is to waste a valuable draft pick with some knee-jerk reaction based on impatience about progress.

To the OP: There are a few issues to consider. What do you expect to get for pick two? What could pick two become? And why would a current gun mid from another club want to be traded to Melbourne? A club won't cast off a gun mid for pick 2 if said mid doesn't want to leave his club. The better clubs understand how important the fabric of a club is and how easily it can be compromised. The only way they'd do it is if the mid was willing to go. In what world would a present gun mid want to leave a top 8 club to come to Melbourne? And if they did I'd be second guessing myself if I wanted them. You really need to name names if you want your thread to be taken seriously. Also, just because our development and drafting has been a disaster I still realise where the bulk of the best players in the AFL come from. Invariably they are very early picks, or Father/Son selections. Franklin, Roughead, Hodge, Riewoldt, Selwood, Bartel, Griffen, Cotchin, Murphy, Deledio, Judd, Pendlebury, Pavlich are all top 10 picks, most top 5. O'Meara would have been top 5 (1), as would Hogan, Jeremy Cameron, Martin (GCS), Crouch. Not withstanding our bad luck, or ineptness, the best talent is invariably taken early. I'm loathe to give another club a leg up and miss out on what should be a great talent. Especially when I don't believe we'd get what you hope for. I'd give up pick 2 for Beams, but why on earth would he want to come to Melbourne? He wouldn't and Collingwood wouldn't do the deal. I think most of us understand there are no quick fixes. Essendon traded out Blumfield, Heffernan and Caracella, who were all premiership mids. Guess what? You would have thought at the time it was hitting the jackpot to get all three. In truth they looked good in a great team. There are many good AFL mids that would suddenly look decidedly average wearing red and blue. It's far easier to play well in a good side than a poor one. Imo, we must stay the course and draft the best young mids we can and hopefully a PP will aid that cause. If I supported GWS I'd be excited. Yes they usually get a belting, but this young team will grow together to become a force. They drafted too many young kids, whereas the Gold Coast were lucky enough to get Ablett, plus a few other solid senior players, but their talent will grow and bond together and their youthfulness affords them time. It has to be the youth path at Melbourne and if we recruit and develop them right our long-term future will be so much better than trading away precious early picks for more immediate gains. Give me "substance" over "seeming" any day.