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Give it a rest.

Frawley did the whole session, asked him, said he was ready to go and looking forward to it Last 20 minutes of session, midfield group stood in a circle in middle of ground with lots of discussion , pointing, repositioning think the coaching group are still not happy with some of the centre bounce setups, all playes seemed to be allowed input as well...Stafford did a lot of talking interestingly Spoke to Nev Jetta as to why he had pulled out of Richmond game, said he had a bit of gastro but thought he would be ok to play, but concerned that if he had a bad game he would let the team down and may lose his place, preferred to do the team thing and pull out Spoke to quite a few players just to say hello, one thing that struck me is that they are all really looking forward to the game on Saturday, and it is not just empty words, you can sense the renewed belief Watts was sublime in the kicking drills today, most drills consisted of spreading from stoppages, and full lenght from kickouts Believe Casey have some sort of praccy match in next couple of days so some left early, leaving the team that played Richmond plus Jetta, Nicholson, McKenzie and Georgiou, so that may point in some way to emergencies If you have any questions feel free to ask

Being dropped may have done Toump a favour by sparing him more of the inevitable comparisons with Wines.

Tippett and Franklin are just ripping the cats apart tonight. The fact The Swans are able to recruit both players is a disgrace. Salary Cap Bullshite. I am dreaming of Roosy beating the Swannettes on the last saturday in September. The wine is kicking in!!!

our average points against is 80. That ranks us 10th best defense. BUT if you can indulge yourself to consider it an anomaly and remove the Eagles game our average points against is 75 75 x 9 = 675 lowest scores against Sydney - 659 Freo - 660 Port/WC - 685 so we'd be the third hardest team to score against in the league

According to SEN last night, Champion Data have a stat they have been collecting for 3 years on who wins and loses one-on-one contests. Of 18 teams Geelong is best losing only 17% of one-on-ones. We'ré next losing only 20%, or in other words when a Melb. player is up against an opponent by himself, in 2014 he wins 80%of the time. Ahead of 16 other teams. Roos effect was Ox's conclusion and he expressed pride in the result as well as a proud former demon

On a sad note, Rivers looks a quarter of the player he used to be. I thought he'd be a huge beneficiary of the 'zoning' off Geelong system but he looks completely lost. **** Sydney are good though. Start talking to Tom Mitchell now Demons.

It would be ironic if Riv watches us rise up the ladder as Geelong slips down.

Interesting and articulate. Pity it doesn't compare the average number of changes for 2014 to date with the first 9 rounds of 2013. I dare say last year the number was somewhat higher than 1.63 per match. Perhaps this is an appropriate time to suggest that Dave Misson might actually be doing a good job (contrary to the opinions of some more inflammatory posters who blame him for every injury we have).

I think Neeld would have been fine in the short term, but starting to show serious cracks now. Neeld seemed perfectly capable of running Malthouse's ship, seeing as they were already at the point of operating just how he wanted. The environment there had already been built and he'd just have to maintain that standard. At MFC he had the problem of how to get a club from being a bottom feeder up to the level of Collingwood. How do you instill that professionalism and not get the vast majority of players offside? How do you get from point A to B, when you've only ever dealt with player groups that had already been taken to point C by Malthouse? It's a difficult question, one Neeld couldn't answer. I don't even know if Roos would have been able to. I think it may have been necessary to have a sacrificial lamb like Neeld to come in for a short time and raise standards, before someone like Roos could do the real work.

If Tom Mitchell continues to get overlooked in Sydney, I'd be throwing the sink at him. Absolute gun!

The fixture and uneven salary cap just make this game such an awesome experience.

i bloody hope he doesn't. We are ridiculously far from being out of the woods yet, in every club aspect on field and off field. Although some posters with their hyperbolic posts, rants and praise would have you believe otherwise.

Says who?

Just issue the infraction notices. FFS we all know they did it.

Here's the beauty of the current line up - if the above 3 don't work out on schulz we have a pretty handy full back in Frawley and another by the name of Pederson who can swing back and Dunn can go forwards we have built in options. To change the dynamic if it comes to that. The real hope is the sliding back line and backward running mids will help out and it won't be too many 1 on 1's with Schulz regardless

Mentioned it on another thread, but I'll mention it here as well..if Dees win this, I'm in for a donation to Demonland. $30 if they win plus $3 per goal regardless of the game's outcome.

Thought Salem may have been due for a run at Casey, but not displeased. Happy with selection, as I have been all year really.

With Monfries and Hartlett out, it does bring us closer, but can't see a win coming. Great to see Jetta straight back in, along with Frawley. Respect for Roos is also really building. Nothing diverts him from the principles he believes in. It is not so much that Toumpas is dropped, but rather the player who earned a spot - Jetta - is brought straight back in to fill his earned role. Love it.

Gee, Monfries, Hartlett and Cassisi are good outs for us...

Let's see what happens.

I think Demon17 meant that the stat has been kept annually for the past 3 years, but this particular year we are second. The stat re-sets every year.

I think we should target the players we actually really want and go after them hard. If it's undermining another club, then so be it.

I think you will find it was Burgo who wrote that, I asked Nev this morning at training, and he said he is in the frame but they are not allowed to confirm Said if he was, he wants a crack at Chad Wingard, another one who has great self belief and confidence now

Who is this guy and why is he making sense? Why is it that so many cannot see the damage this whole sorry debacle has caused? How can Essendon still be trying to defend their actions? Can they not understand what sort of message it would send if the AFL gave in to their demand for salary cap relief? Is it okay to write a post consisting solely of questions?

disgusting that the bombers have asked the afl for salary cap relief for legal fees for their players. lets remember that fat scullys had to go into the cap Saad had to pay his own fees

And it appears some are taking on roles they are not necessarily familiar with as part of a learning exercise. We have to stop thinking about Casey's success purely in 'win/loss' terms and think about it as a development squad for the MFC. As much as I want Casey to win, in reality Casey losing every game is a cost I'm prepared to put up with if it results in ongoing improvements to the depth of the MFC squad.

Geelong as a team has only lost 17% of all one-on-one contests, clearly the leaders in the AFL - the Dees are next, losing 22% of contests Tweeted by the Run Home yesterday

We smashed Richmond 15 to 6. Done.

Your thread title describes every news article ever written.

You are a muppett PF. You are nothing but a troll who enjoys drinking in your own bath of negatively and constant criticism on basically any young player on our list. Go back to supporting Carlton.

a night out at the gat with biffo and bbo

I remember thinking at the time we struck absolute Gold with Trengove because I thought he was a clear number 1 draft pick ahead of Scully. His first two years had us salivating at the thought of a future star on our hands. I dont know what happened after that but I think one obvious why his form halted was because of the captaincy. He was just way too young. I also reckon he tried to play through injury aswell. He just lost the power and speed off the mark. I really he comes back fit and firing next year because he showed traits of a seriously gun midfielder. If Roos can turn Pedersen, Bail and and Mark Jamars career around I have full faith he can do the exact same to Trenners

Don't forget we pinched Tom Gillies out from under their noses Weren't we clever !

JUGGERNAUT by Whispering Jack The Port Adelaide juggernaut which has cut a swathe through some of the AFL's leading lights in recent weeks takes on a different direction this Saturday. Their last three outings at Adelaide Oval have produced wins against quality opposition in the form of Geelong, Fremantle and Hawthorn (somewhere in between there was also a routine away victory over GWS Giants), but this week the Power head into uncharted territory in the centre of the country to take on a rested Melbourne team in Alice Springs. Ken Hinkley and his men will need to remind themselves that whilst they are taking on opposition that is nowhere near the quality of those his side has beaten of late, this is not the same Melbourne that it faced and gave a spanking to when they last met on the day he officially took the reins at his club a season and a half ago. Paul Roos has installed more than just a sense of belief into this outfit and, if you look at its season to date, there seems to be a definite pattern emerging. In the first three games, there was still some hesitancy among many of the team to fall into line with the new regime and players lapsed back into some of their past habits. Lacking the best of their tall forwards and ruckmen, the team performance was only marginally better than in its past couple of seasons with the result that it sat at the foot of the table with a 0 - 3 record and, thanks to a massive capitulation at the hands of the Eagles, a percentage in the 50s. Although it was early days, many were suggesting that the club would struggle to win a game. The coach was able to see the positives of these early games and when the team beat Carlton in Round 4, they had the support of most of the football world. It was a sympathy vote for the downtrodden but most had little belief that they could sustain winning form for very long. They did make a fairly good fist of things in the next couple of rounds against the Suns and the Swans at the MCG, both definite top four contenders. The infusion of tall, strong players - first Chris Dawes as a key forward, then Mark Jamar in the ruck - saw to it that the Demons were now becoming more than just competitive for long periods of time. The second group of three matches matches to date yielded a 1 - 2 record and the team was off the bottom. The trip to Adelaide saw an inspired Melbourne produce one of its best halves of football in years in the first, topped off with a gritty, determined battle to hold on and win its first game after a dozen barren years in that city. They were unlucky to lose an arm wrestle against the Bulldogs a week later but followed it up by winning a scrap of a game against Richmond. That made it 2 - 1 in the last group of three games and for a brief period the team found itself out of the bottom four. The scalps to date include two of last year's finallists and a team that was strongly touted to be there in September after also making top four in 2012. There should be no illusions for the Demons about the road ahead or the fact that they are about to face some tough challenges in the coming month but, for the first time in years, a clash against a top-of-the-table adversary doesn't fill me with as much apprehension as it would have done in the very recent past. Nor does the memory and the pain of Round 1, 2013. And that feeling is based on more than the mere fact that the team suddenly has belief in itself ... THE GAME Melbourne v Port Adelaide on Saturday 31 May, 2014 at 1.40pm at TIO Treager Park, Alice Springs HEAD TO HEAD Overall Melbourne 11 wins Port Adelaide 15 wins At TIO Treager Park Melbourne 0 wins Port Adelaide 0 wins Past five years Melbourne 3 wins Port Adelaide 5 wins The Coaches Roos 0 wins Hinkley 0 wins MEDIA TV - Fox Footy Channel Live at 1.30pm RADIO - Triple M 3AW SEN ABC ABC Grandstand THE BETTING Melbourne to win - $8.00 Port Adelaide to win - $1.08 THE LAST TIME THEY MET Port Adelaide 19.19.133 defeated Melbourne 8.6.54 Round 1, 2013 at the MCG The Demons were hit with a sledgehammer on its home turf in the opening round. They were woeful with only a single goal after the main break, the only bright lights being the tireless work of Nathan Jones and the debut of Jack Viney. THE TEAMS MELBOURNE B: Colin Garland, Tom McDonald, Dean Terlich HB: Neville Jetta, Lynden Dunn, Jack Grimes C: Daniel Cross, Dom Tyson, Bernie Vince HF: Rohan Bail, James Frawley, Jack Watts F: Cameron Pedersen, Max Gawn, Jeremy Howe FOLL: Mark Jamar, Nathan Jones, Jack Viney I/C: Matt Jones, Jay Kennedy-Harris, Aidan Riley, Christian Salem EMG: Jordie McKenzie, Daniel Nicholson, Jimmy Toumpas IN: James Frawley, Neville Jetta OUT: Chris Dawes (suspended), Jimmy Toumpas (omitted) PORT ADELAIDE B: J Hombsch, A Carlile, J Impey HB: M Broadbent, J Trengove, J Pittard C: J Polec, T Boak, K Cornes HF: A Moore, J Westhoff, M White F: R Gray, J Schulz, C Wingard FOLL: M Lobbe, O Wines, B Ebert I/C: K Mitchell, J Neade, P Stewart, A.Young EMG: K Amon, S Gray, B Newton IN: P Stewart, A Moore, J Neade OUT: D Cassisi, A Monfries, H Hartlett A TOWN LIKE ALICE The location of this fixture, the first match in VFL-AFL history to be played for premiership points in Alice Springs, is at the heart of the AFL's Indigenous Round. Both clubs are well represented by indigenous players and the game also recognises the MFC's initiative in entering its partnership with the Northern Territory during the time when Jimmy Stynes led the club. Without wishing to dwell too much on the lamented Liam Jurrah as he languishes in prison (and rightly so because of his guilt for a serious offence) the circumstances, the place and the recent timing of racial taunts against Adam Goodes and Neville Jetta all highlight the fact that so much more work needs to be done in relation to the issues that divide this nation's community of peoples and in particular, problems in remote Aboriginal communities like Jurrah's home of Yuendumu which is down the road (give or take a few hundred kilometres) from where this game will be played. Melbourne welcomes back James Frawley who has some big shoes to fill in the form of those that belong to Chris Dawes who symbolised the team's revival his great physical presence earlier in the season. It's a big task but Paul Roos has faith in him as the primary forward target this week. "Dawesy has been in good form and we're going to miss him, there's no question, but certainly having Frawley come back you almost get a like-for-like [replacement]. They're different types but they're going to play similar positions," Roos said on during the week. Neville Jetta replaces Jimmy Toumpas (omitted) and will be relied upon to stop one of a few important opposition goal sneaks. Port Adelaide didn't get to the top of the table without reason and, as Roos pointed out, the "strength of Port is their evenness ... they don't have too many weaknesses." He will need to be able to identify and exploit any weaknesses this team might have if the Demons can proceed on their slow march forward. Port has lost Cassisi, Monfries and Hartlett but although this will help the Melbourne cause, it remains the outsiders to win. However, I expect that it's going to be another tight affair and, in those circumstances, anything can happen.

if he can get over this injury..he will become the elite player we hoped. This new game plan suits him to a tee, he is an endurance runner who loves the contested footy and is clean in tight. If he gets fit, watch him get to contest after contest as the others tire off through out the game and use his clean hands to extract it and lets not forget his tackling, he's no slouch in that department. He will thrive with the enthusiasm generated from the rest of the team (no wonder he looked so flat, imagine being a 21 year old captain with that sort of team morale). Another if, but if he gets that burst power back then he could be anything. We never got to see him play this game plan, just watch him run all day every game contest after contest, where his lack of speed won't be shown up as much. Could be a luke ball type. Hate to use the word but the potential of him and Hogan coming into this team next year is just massive so don't be as surprised if we are not as aggressive come trade time as you all think.

I just assumed the vote givers couldn't spell properly. There's no other logical conclusion.

While it's a bit off topic, you just need to look at all AFL clubs and the relationship they have with their "reserves" teams to see that we are a long way off where we should be. Of the 10 Victorian-based clubs, 5 have standalone reserves teams, two more have had their VFL affiliate change their nicknames to give some recognition of the partnership, leaving the last three clubs (us, St Kilda and North) as the only clubs not to have a clear "connection" to their VFL affiliate. Even North's affiliate has "Roos" in their nickname, but that probably doesn't assist with my argument! For me personally, I think it's as plain as day that we are doing this as a cash grab marketing/brand development ploy, but at the same time respecting the Casey team, and recognising their best interests. I think we have totally stuffed the business model up by going this way first, rather than focus on what's best for the development of players which in turn will improve our onfield performance. I can only look at our onfiled performance since the Casey alignment was implemented to support my argument. I would really like to know how many new memberships we have generated from this alignment to see if it has actually been successful offield. I'm doubtful, but hope that it's something the club is looking at.

Unfortunately Zoe looks more like the male than the female.

Dead set, surely in the COC there's something about continually causing conflict. I don't mind posters who try and debate whether a player is done but this clown drops a bomb in every thread and runs. Our threads go so off-track, let's start making these posters aware this forum isn't a place to make a mockery of supporters who actually want to talk Melbourne footy.

Really? Id rather Treloar and SHiel Two gun midfielders easily outweighs one gun mercurial forward Nathan Jones Jack Viney Dom Tyson Bernie Vince Jay Kennedy-Harris Adam Treloar Dylan Shiel Daniel Cross Jack Trengove Christian Salem Jimmy Toumpas Dean Kent Has the makings of a great midfield not just immediately in 2015 but would set us up for the next decade And we would still have Hogan, Watts and Dawes up forward with Gawn coming through too

Would be amazed if the Kings did not win it all, they look a step above. Hawks as someone said as the playoffs started just step up when the beards come out. Habs rangers game today was nuts.

The boil over of the season will take place this weekend. We're primed. Port are due to drop an easy game. These things happen.

Without Dawes we'll only scrape in by 17 points.

So can we call him Old Man Jazza?

But he is into so much weird stuff, who really knows?

He was actually the year in front of me!

Sooner we can have our own stand alone Reserve side the better. Too much compromise at present. For Senior players fighting for a spot in an improving MFC team, losing to Coburg is totally unnacceptable on many levels. I don't blame Welsh for reading the riot act at all. Big trade period at years end looms. Clearing out players just not up to it.

I have always rated watts as a forward ( just my opinion ) would like to see him become a key forward down the track, geez Hogan really Is a man child isn't he

This will be a season defining game imo. We take on the ladder leaders and if we take the contest to them and push them all the way, we will gain so much from it going into the back end of the season. We just know Roos will be demanding effort and pressure, its a given now which is what im enjoying most about the season thus far.