Leaderboard

It's funny, with 3 minutes to go I still thought we'd lose. I had forgotten how to think we might win. My highlights: Winning. Carlton losing. Jack Viney. He was as elusive as Cyril at times which is refreshing, I'm so over the get it at the stoppage and quickly dispose of it thing. There are times to create your own space, he does it so well. Chip and Dawes. Chip will be too quick for most CHBs and his disposal was very good. Dawes is a beast, looks like one, plays like one. Like others have said you won't see many better 8 touch games. Dale Thomas $750,000 Daniel Cross about $4.95 JKH not celebrating his goal because he didn't do the team thing first. We need blokes that get it, he gets it. Will be a gem. Spencer's 12 degree kicks that miraculously hit targets, his mongrel, tackle, heart and loveable spazzyness. Heaps off stuff, but I'll finish with Nathan Jones. I honestly don't know how he can be [censored] doing it every week. One of the fiercest competitors I've seen in my time watching, he seems to take a step forward each year and is now a player every team in the comp would love to have. I've never wanted any sportsperson to taste success more than this guy, he [censored] deserves some joy for all his efforts.

Dawes called Misson and Roos, stated his case, wanted to play as he knew the team really needed a forward. Pleased that we could give up 3 goals and then catch them and pass it when in years gone by it would have been the end of us. Says Roos ability to know when to give a hard direct speech and when to back it off a bit without giving in on the non negotiables. Eddie said the club handled the Clark situation extremely well. Dawes relieved, borderline happy that Clark retired as he believes it would have killed him. Said the confidence is up, Suns are ripe for the picking, and it is great the players have to prove themselves in the VFL prior to getting back into the seniors.

Heard Roos being interviewed on MMM yesterday....made some interesting comments on recruiting and the current list. Very happy with Salem and loves Tyson. I'm so glad he's coaching this team.

Something funny I saw yesterday after the game... there were two fellows, typical Carlton supporters, walking in front of me towards Wellington Parade and they were talking rubbish about why we won and we were lucky and excuse after excuse, blah blah blah. Then they started talking about Melbourne supporters and inevitably a joke came up along the lines of 'Oh, it mustn't be time to go to Mount Buller yet'. I chuckled to myself and continued to walk behind them up to Wellington Pde where they promptly jumped in a cab and said 'Lygon Street mate'. Classic.

After 23 games, my partner of three years who is Italian, grew up in France and Singapore, has finally seen her first win. Yes, she has sat through 22 loses. This morning she rushed to get ready at the last minute after initially deciding not to come. "I feel bad for not coming and I'll be so angry if they win and I'm not there." This was the first match she's been to where she wasn't on her phone during the match. She is officially converted. Melbourne could lose every game and it wouldn't matter: she got to hear the song after the siren. She was very happy. As was I She's already talking about next week's game!

He also is a bit of a kent, and I like that.

He's a natural footy player with confidence and skills. Who knew that that was the type of player to draft?

Basically said that they would not haven taken Kelly at #2, but didn't elaborate on who they would have taken. Rapt with Dom and Salem....ie, two for one deal. Maintained that the group needed to get to every contest - scoreboard doesn't matter, but supporters need to see effort. Scrutinised his own performance as a coach and was quite self deprecating. Spoke to Mitch and sensed relief in Mitch's voice...moving on to a different phase of his life. He challenged Cross, Vince, Dawes and a few others to lead the playing group out of what he called a 'cultural abyss' Can't remember much more, but he sounded like a true leader....

"Loveable spazzyness" - sums Spencer up perfectly. I've come to terms with the fact that he'll kick it straight to the opposition at least once a game, it's the tradeoff for his serious aggression and tackling. Up to the boys to make sure he has a better option; if he's forced to kick it, we've set up around him wrong.

I was sitting directly behind the bench today and what many don't see is Dawes giving advice to our players coming off the ground, and they listen to him with upmost respects. He also, funnily/awesomely enough, was giving crap to the opposition players coming off the ground and those sitting on the bench. Great to see!He is worth more to us than just shows on field, trust me.

Good to see that applies to everyone except him

"The day I loved Football Again!!!" Yesterday is a day I'll never forget. Im 39 years young and have seen many , but I wanted to share my experience albeit doesnt probably do justice of my stirring emotions late yesterday afternoon. Well it started as an exciting day with me, my wife and son deciding to go to the footy together after 12 months since there last outing when MFC beat GWS. My dad was also coming which in itself is a rare sight. A man who changed from being a Nth supporter in 64 and follow the team that won the flag that year (because all his mates did, at the time to the mighty MFC (NTH win 5 flags after that). So we all packed into the car, full of optimism of just watching a game of attrition and hope that MFC might take the chocolates. Driving down the Eastlink, head of time and then having another 1hr than expected in the car (Accident @! Chandler, No parking at the G, wifes broken foot, getting a 1hr park, and then having to go sit up in 'the heavens' level 4 (im a member, family aint) finally sitting 20min into the 1st qtr, my son asked 'whos winning dad'? i pointed out that we were down by 4 pts but playing well, my wife immediately nudged me to turn back and look at him a few moments later to see some red teary eyes, as he knew something was wrong or did he........? So at half time, daddy bolts to the car and has to relocate, missing the first 3 mins of the 3rd qtr, thinking I go to almost every match and just couldnt get into the groove with this one, let alone I wanted to be with my family at 1/2 time to have a kick and a play in the G Playground. Albeit we settled into the 3rd qtr, and when KH snapped truly the feelings of rushing to the car, up and down stairs to level 4 were clearly a distant memory and this was the game we couldnt lose. Well you know the rest of it, and the story goes I went from hating the afternoon for everything outside to settling into 'its a grand old flag' holding my son on shoulders high into the heavens singing encores and chanting all the way down the ramp, with smiles from Carlton & MFC supporters alike, very satisfying. i was the one left with tears of joy .. Is my son coming next week..... you betcha!!!!

Can't understand the want to drop Georgiou, has allowed Chip and Dunn to play forward and is a defender who actually defends. Not all backmen need to make an impact they just need to do their job and defend.

Jonesy ( Nathan) plays with the same passion as the great Ron Barassi. What higher praise can I give this lion hearted man?

Melbourne wins, Carlton loses, Richmond loses, Essendon loses, doesn't get much better that that.

....and isnt it rather fantastic that 3 or 4 other clubs were on the end of 100pt thrashings and one of them wasnt us!!

Has anyone noticed how confident McDonald has become at (legally) pushing his opponent off the disputed ball, gathering and dishing it off? Sometimes he still gets caught on the run through hesitation in the middle but it's happening less and less.

12 pts DV. We are now firmly entrenched in the 8.

Viney was a bull out there today I absolutely love that kid. Has pretty good disposal as well, drilled a couple of passes inside 50. And on disposal, you really can't say enough about Nathan Jones and the way he has developed since his debut. Was always a tough player but used to get caught and throw it on the boot too much with up and under kicks. He still gets caught trying to break packs/tackles but generally now because he is trying to find a better option to use. He no longer kicks up and under either, today he drilled a couple of low passes hitting his teammate on the chest. The way he continuously improves on his game, chipping away at his weaknesses makes me proud that he wears the red & navy blue (and sometimes white).

Great photo

Jus got back home. I loved Viney's work today. His skills were on show. T Mac Vs Henderson was good to watch. Salute captain obvious but Nate Jones is a star. JKH was all effort and a two pronged forward line is the structure we need. We didn't always look for the perfect option. On occasion we just banged it forward which is what you need to do sometimes and it worked. Is it a two horse race between Dunn and Jones for the Bluey? Also kudos to Greg Denham who said on friday that playing Dawes was a stupid decision and would hurt us more then help. You sir are a [censored].

Don't try and enjoy the smell of our win. You go back to Punt road and burn some membership cards.

Righfully so Song, but in Trengove's case I really hope he does find that form and win back his place. I believe he is one of the players who has put his hand up and made sacrifices to try and drag our club out of where it is. Taking on the role of captain was not something he should have been asked to do, taking on the responsibility of setting an example that your senior team mates can't is something I will always admire him for. I hope that he can regain a love of the game and find his feet with some basic form at Casey and develop in ways that were denied to him over the past 3 seasons. Whatever happens I believe his experiences will hold him in good stead for life after footy, but I think he deserves the chance of redemption at our footy club. It will be a great story if he can pull it all together and play for another 8-10 years. Don't forget he won't turn 23 until the off season; if/when he puts it together he still has the potential of a long career ahead of him.

the kid just turned 20. He will reach his potential, but we need to let him develop. He has played ok at senior level, and now has had 2 games in a row at VFL level where he has had 25+ disposals. i think he is tracking just fine.

All the footy media is like this now - they'll focus heavily on the losers with some token comments about the winners. It's in their interests to manufacture or give oxygen to crises and for guys like Hutchison and Barrett it's far easier than analysing the game where they would be caught out for the utter morons they are.

Probably his most important attribute is that he takes ownership of the problems. The insisting on being selected, then kicking those big goals at critical times in the game when he probably had every right to pass it off. This is what true leadership is to me.

The Number 1 thing I took from this match was with about 5 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter when JKH snapped the goal over his shoulder. What I saw was; 1 - JKH take a shot over his shoulder and kicked an awesome goal, 2 - Dawes, who was clear about 5 metres away, giving him a MASSIVE spray for not hand-balling to him and having a 90% chance of goaling rather than the 5% option that JKH took. 3 - Little, or no, celebration from JKH in kicking a miraculous goal. JKH knew that he did the wrong thing. There is no doubt 99% of all other players in the competition would have run around like a headless chook celebrating, but he immediately accepted that he did wrong - incredible maturity from the young bloke. This just showed me the 'culture' and 'rules' that Roos and the team have set - it's all about the team, not individuals. Love it!

Next week all depends on the bald little master. This bloke never gives up,is hard as nails and his skills and leadership are top notch. If a big game comes his way the game is over. Every player should be watching this guys tape every week to look and learn. Gee I'm glad he wears red and blue.

Just watched the Roos presser and he mentioned that on the Thursday he and the other coaching staff were most likely going to play Dawes in the twos but he said Dawes was telling him and ringing him saying he wanted to play in the seniors. He was desperate to play in the seniors Roos said which shows to me anyway how committed he is to the demons and it's not just $$$$$. Good to hear about his determination to play in the seniors.

Today was nothing? If we lose next week, next week will be close to nothing. This week will be last week - and evidence to the players that they are capable. Today was not nothing no matter what happens next week.

Never really noticed before but Dawes is an incredibly cerebral and team oriented footballer. His little tap to Bail everyone will remember, but he is so clever at creating space, running angles to block for team-mates and to open pathways for runners to pick up lose footy. Just a very smar footy brain.

Anyone who can read lips will know that Roosy messed up the words to the song. Don't worry pal, you'll get 'em right before long.

Dawes is gold in our forward line - those 2goals he slotted outside 50 were team lifting and 2 other goals resulted from clever tap ons. Stats belie the value of his game yesterday

yes he won the Jack Clarke Medal as best & fairest in WAFL Colts, Kent missed out on under 18 selection which was made in the early part of the 2012 season. I know with him being a country boy there were issues with him getting all the training in over the pre-season but as the season went on he got much better and thankfully for us he slipped under the radar and probably down the pecking order. I was told after he was drafted that this kid could really flourish in a full time professional environment

That show is the most painful pile of rubbish I've ever seen. It perfectly sums up Channel Seven's AFL coverage, more interested in celebrity and social media than presenting a professional sport.

Dare I say Dean Kent may have arrived. He's a big bod, loves the physicality, a stonking kick, and a much better mark than I've previously thought. Very very handy....

Kicked a cracking goal, had 2 more direct goal score involvements, 1 great run down tackle, 3 fantastic spoils that he had no right to get to. Played the type of game you would hope a kid playing his first full game might play yet people want to drop him. We made no change when we lost to StKilda yet people are expecting 3-4 changes when we win for blokes that are not proven to perform at senior level. I expect Clisby in for Terlich due to his hammy and Evans to play sub again. I doubt you will see another change.

I got the feeling from Dawes's interview with Burgs up on the website that he had had a big say in his own selection as well. He's one player who can stand up and say "I'll play thanks - the team needs me even if I may be underdone" without leading me to think he is full of himself. It was obvious to all of us how desperately we needed him, it was obviously apparent to Roos and Dawes himself as well.

get sick of the tossers who continually get stuck into Watts, never [censored] satisfied you [censored]s

Nathan Jones ranked 109 in the AFL player rankings absolutely destroys Marc murphey ranked 28 as well as collecting BOG honours again, shows just how underrated our skipper is

I agree about only paying the obvious ones. But I'd like to see them change a couple of interpretations: When holding the ball is paid against a player at the bottom when the ball is being held to their legs and there is a pack of players on top of them so there is nothing they can do, don't pay holding the ball. Instead, pay holding the man against the players 'who tackle the tackler' if we want to stop the multi-play scrummage. I don't understand why a third person is allowed to hold the tackler, so ping that. "Shepherding in the ruck" has been paid the last couple of weeks in poor decisions imo. Both times there was phyiscal body contact between ruckmen, then one ruck tapped it down. Shepherding surely only occurs if you are holding one person out so a third man up can get the ball. This should however, be paid in marking contests more often too, when someone is stopped from contesting a mark by an opposition player. The 'in the back' marking decisions where the player holds them out with their body (i.e. the toumpas one in round 1), should not be paid This 'accidental head clash' rule is the pits. It is a contact sport for god's sake. I don't want injuries, I don't want people cleaned up with excessive force or without expectation of contact (off the ball), but surely if a minor head clash results in a cut eye that isn't worth 2 weeks? Surely if the tackler/bumper has a duty of care to protect the player, the player has a duty of care to protect themselves by turning sideways and bracing for contact etc.

Kent - Hit Ellard hard ! Kent's attack on the ball is ferocious and the way he collected Ellard wow I felt it in the members

Absolutely spot on. It's the same with Bail and others, don't lead into the middle for a pin point pass from Bail, know our limitations and play smarter. We took the right option far more today. I only aged about 3 years rather than the regular 8-10.

Loved this quote from the Herald Sun match report: Jack Viney has been solid so far in his career, but effectively announced himself as a star in the making with a tireless performance yesterday. He shone when the heat was at its most intense yesterday. Couldn't agree more. As a poster said elsewhere, he's probably our only mid who can genuinely emerge from a pack through sheer brute force and then dispose of the ball cleanly. That's not a knock on Jones, or Tyson, who was down a bit day, but they tend to get caught when they try to force their way through a pack. Jack's second and third quarters were sensational today.

30 odd thousand there today and i reckon we had a fair share for an away game. good to see (and hear)

We'll be a better side when he is not in our starting 22, that's for sure.

We dodged a bullet with Warnock. Thank the heavens he chose Carlton over us.

Another random thought: Tom McDonald seems to be playing better now that the responsibility for the backline has been dropped squarely on his shoulders. No Frawley or Garland and he's really stepping up and dominating games for us. Really good to see from him.

we are off the bottom! Brisbane on the bottom now and we are above carlton and Adelaide. How was your 113 point thrashing Beamer? Back on the bottom.

Amazing feeling. Winning against anyone is great. But beating Carlton, and Malthouse, is just another level. Malthouse clearly dropped Waite and Garlett because he thought this was the week he could get away with it - EAD Mick. And as for us - we weren't great, but we were a lot better, and there is a future there to be seen. JKH has silken hands, his touch is superb. Dawes changes everything for us, thought he was grand. Cross was outstanding too. We took a big step forward today. And we took it right on Carlton's head. Perfect.