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Thought I'd leave it a few days before I posted anything just to make sure I didn't say anything in the heat of the moment given how upset I was Sunday arvo... Since then though have had to read two articles from two players saying they didn't like getting booed to much. Well to those two players I say this - At least those who hang around to boo still cared enough to be there. My family in Victoria went and left at 3/4 time - something that has never happened no matter what. Im in Perth and I wont be bothering to go this week. That, Jones and McDonald is worse than being booed. This team has finally managed to get 3 generations of one family to just stop caring. You want us to turn up and stick around to the end then YOU BASTEDS TURN UP AND STICK AROUND TO THE END.

devastated now will we qualify for a pp?

Good luck Maaia, been choice having you as a Dee bro !!

A couple of things, getting a priority pick is not the answer. I'm not sure anyone is saying that but it is part of range of things that can help move forward. Some are already in place. Jackson, Roos and a new coaching group for example. I don't think you will find one club in the modern era, lets say the last 10 years that hasn't built their success on the back of an advantage given them. Brisbane with extra allowance and the Fitzroy connection, Sydney allowances to give them, extra cap, Geelong under the old father son rule, Collingwood and Hawthorn both with key PP's. I'm not writing JKH or Salem off but I'm not writing them on either. They can't be used as evidence we are on the way up, it's just a ridiculous argument from Quayle. I made a comment of not being sure on JKH and I'm not, too many on here rate players way before they should be, Kent is another. At the moment I wouldn't be thinking we could build a team on these 2 and of course they need time to develop. I hope they get there but the odd glimpse is not enough.

“Hopefully we make a response against West Coast – we have to for the supporters, and we were all very, very disappointed and embarrassed in the way the game went out. http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2014-08-20/home-truths-aired-at-review-gawn McDonald said the Demons “deserved to be booed” by their own supporters and added that “if we keep playing like that, we’ll get booed again and again”. http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2014-08-18/lack-of-fight-hurt-mcdonald “To walk off the ground with the reception we’ve got, the boys are pretty shattered and pretty disappointed and that’s the main thing that hit home – letting a lot of our supporters down.” http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2014-08-18/were-yet-to-find-answers-jones I'm not sticking up for the players at all, but that's a rubbish post not based in reality.

we must punish players who don't seem to………… whatever. minimum 6 changes. WATTS,DOUOAS,GRIMES de-list at the end of the year.

I love this idea, it could generate plenty of additional revenue. Step 1 - the club hires a couple of full time counsellors Step 2 - they set up a full time clinic in the bowels of the MCG Step 3 - MFC members can pay a premium to get free sessions during any game at the MCG.

Or even the Australian attempt at a player.

I used to have some sort of feeling toward the players but right now, I don't really care who we put on the table, as long as it makes us a better side.

Honestly I would accept that, we lost Mitch Clark for nothing who we gave up a first round pick for. You want to talk about extraordinary circumstances surely he's the perfect example of that.

TGR..its not about deserving. The is a facility within the AFL's own rules that can provide one under certain criteria. We qualify. Its really as simple as that. The rest is waffle really. Under the current conditions we could use one. As to taste in the mouth, thats life. edit..Do I think we'll get one ? again not a chance in hell as the AFL seem to ignore there own guidelines half the time and make it up on the fly....to suit.

If Essendon drag it out until their guilty players have mostly all left, they effectively save the club from being hurt by any penalties ultimately imposed by ASADA. Taking the matter to court has in this way emasculated ASADA - and Essendon appear to be getting away with it. Who is going to uphold ASADA's jurisdiction over drugs in sport here? And if the AFL mutely stands by and allows Essendon to treat the regulating authority with such cynical contempt, who is going to bring the AFL to account? The players are not the villains in this - it is (and increasingly so, audaciously and incredibly so) the Essendon Football club. It is up to the AFL to take action against Essendon for bringing the game into great disrepute by using legal means to sideline scrutiny of their misdeeds, using legal means to render any ultimate sanctions irrelevant, and using legal means to dispute the right of ASADA to regulate the sport. The AFL should delicense Essendon. Nothing else will send the message that doping your players is a bad idea. Delicensing may be extreme, but it is the Essendon Football Club that upped the ante making less drastic measures meaningless.

My concern is that I think we've seen the kind of player he is. I don't think he gets better than this. He's the kind of guy that will only improve as the team improves. We need actual drivers and influencers. He is not one of those. I like the bloke but I've thought since 2012 that it's time to test his value and go in a different direction. We drafted him with the idea of Bailey's run-and-gun style and he would have been perfect for that but defensively and one-on-one he just doesn't suit the mould. Since Neeld and now Roos, he has been exploited as the player he is: an outside runner that has no place in a defensive grind, especially one trying to find its feet.

What about if Richmond were awake that day we beat them? What if Carlton kicked straight? What if Essendon put us away in one of the worst halves (the first) of football under Roos? What if Adelaide had Walker? What if... What if we are historically bad and the rule to help the league in this scenario needs to be applied?

From Patrick Smith: Melbourne are being rebuilt by AFL goodwill and money. Roos and Jackson will be dragged back inevitably by the previous rancid culture of the club. It is beholden on the AFL and its league clubs that the Demons are not shackled to their past altogether but given a key to a better future. Melbourne need and warrant a priority pick. Similar comments from CW on FC Monday night.

If all the village idiots, from all the villages, left their villages, and made their own village, of idiots. In that village, you would be the village idiot.

I honestly believe that if Collingwood supporters had dealt with what we've dealt with these past eight years, there would have been at least one murder directly attributable to the players' performance (possibly a murder of a player).

don't like booing? Play like you care about the club, cause we [censored] do, and we PAY for it, not GET paid for it. Skills may come natural, but trying and giving a damn; anyone can do.

Well, he is coming off the wookie list.

I'd give Douoas another year to prove himself.

i will never forget his attempt to justify melbourne's punishment for non tanking in a press interview pure monty python he proved himself as the perfect commiss stooge i think team-afl is in big poo and for once jeffry was right on a football issue

gillom reminds me of one of those upper class ponces in a monty python class skit i never could see what the commiss saw in him other than someone easy to manipulate. smile and make them look more youthful

Sir Paul Roos offseason - Pick 2, 3, 21, 39, 57, 72, 90 Trade Jack Watts and pick 21 to the bulldogs for pick 6 Trade Jack Grimes & Jack Fitzpatrick to Richmond for pick 11 Trade Pick 6 to Sydney Swans for Tom Mitchell and Nick Malceski 2- Draft Christian Petracca 3- trade to Gold Coast Suns for picks 9, 15 9- Draft Paul Ahern 11- Draft Liam Duggan 15- Draft Tom Lamb 39- Draft Billy Stretch 57 - Draft Oscar Mcdonald 72 - Upgrade Alex Georgiou Delisted Free agents: Ryan O'keefe Out: Fitzpatrick, Watts, Grimes, Tapscott, Strauss, Clisby, Byrnes, Clark, Frawley, Blease, Nicholson In: Mitchell, Malceski, Petracca, Ahern, Duggan, Lamb, Stretch, McDonald, Georgiou, O'keefe Pretty decent upgrade and talent injection without priority pick

Spot on, Scoop.

Gillon McLachlan should be telling Evans to shut his trap. If he has indeed made commented on the likely outcome of our application, the club should show some strength and confront the AFL about one of its officers preempting the decision (which might open up a challenge if the outcome is adverse to the club). The situation is made more unpalatable by the fact that he is a former employee of the club. We have had enough problems caused by disgruntled employees in the past - I hope he's not another one.

this is the most relevant question continued failure of melbourne hurts the whole competition as well as just melbourne having a merger or relocating solves little economically for the whole competition does anyone really think having a dedicated team in tasmania would be an improvement? it would just be another broke team drawing sub 20k crowds and being propped up by the afl a merger just creates more byes and less games for the tv rights if the afl believes in a fair equalisation scheme it must do something that impacts on melbourne's player list in the short term i have little confidence they have the will to act independently or effectively as they are too blindly beholden to other "infuences" i expect no more than the same piddling snake-oil spin they gave last year

I’m a big fan of Emma’s work in general. Aside from her coverage on draftee’s, she did some excellent work on the Kurt Tippett/Adelaide salary cap saga. This may be a case of my MFC supporter hat being on tight, but I don’t agree with her assertion that Melbourne don’t need assistance. In most cases, the high end draft selections we’ve had were used on players who were generally picked where they were rated (by Emma and the wider draft focused media). We didn’t take many flyers with those selections (Lucas Cook being an exception), so we weren’t the only ones that saw the talent. However, something has gone wrong along the journey with a lot of those guys, and the problems may not be repairable. Emma’s working on the assumption that the kids she listed (and saw a fair bit of when they were promising juniors) will all magically develop and lead the team forward. Is Emma basing her judgements on what she saw of them as juniors? I hope she’s right, but how much of Grimes has she seen lately? Does anyone know how Trengove will bounce back? We sat in a relatively similar position last year, told that we’d be better when Clark was back, what if we’re sitting here next year asking the same questions of JT and the same questions of the list in general? How long can we wait? How long can the competition afford to wait?

That's rich coming from the bloke that cannot get over Josh Kelly and What We Did Last Summer...

Murphy is an intelligent and erudite individual who also happens to be an excellent footballer with a great knowledge of the game and an even greater ability to impart that knowledge through his appearances in the media and his writings in the Age; he has a gift that is very rare in football/sporting circles. Why must he need to have been an All Australian?

They apologise every week. Don't you read the weekly articles on melbournefc.com.au. "We didn't come to play" "We're embarrassed" "We didn't want to win" "We didn't play it out" I'm just waiting for the headline that reads: "I don't know why I'm getting paid to be honest"

Your first paragraph and last line are somewhat ironic because I want a PP because it helps build a list - not because I want some kid to save us. Case in point was last year with the trade that got us Salem. We had a top 2 pick and we may have taken Billings or Salem (from what I have heard) but because we traded down we managed to get Tyson and still snag a kid we targeted. That would not have happened if we did not have the capital of Pick 2. We simply need more capital.

It would make more sense for the AFL just to eliminate the priority pick system.

I liked this bit the best "But the 18-gamer has told his manager, Justin Reid from Elite Sports Properties, he wants to help lead the club out of the mire". We need more of this from every single player on our list. Maybe if we did we would not be so inconsistent in our performances. I know the jury is out on Toump at the moment but this is a bloody good mind set to start with. We are crap and have been for 8 years but he still WANTS to stay. Go for it Toump.

Mark Evans is a total joke

This kind of post I find pathetically simplistic. How about we get 5 Friday night games. We deserve them. How about we get blockbuster games, We deserve them. How about we get a decent stadium deal like Geelong that makes $750k with 20000 at the ground. We deserve it. We deserve as much as the other 17 teams in the comp. Its as simple as that. If you are going to have equalisation policies then make everything equal. Its not a level playing field. Stop acting like it is. Until the playing field is actually level then inequities will exist. Stop perpetuating the 'we are the only one who gets handout' myths. The whole AFL is handout based. Its just not equal.

you are kidding yourself he's played 33 games and he consistently racks up 30 touches and doesn't mind a goal either basically the only bloke on the list who actually looks the goods

We need a proctologist to extract the players heads out of their arses

If I was a negative, cynical, aggressive point scorer I'd point out that Roos took a couple of weeks off in the middle of this pre-season. But I won't do that.

Jazza you are showing your age "3 feet" Half the forum has no idea mate. a metre for all you youngsters Also can you re word JW's ---- I have no idea?.

Standing 3 feet from her when she unloaded.Her comments are as follows. "If you guys improve JW will be a better player". "Has anybody seen the shadow of JWs heart,he dropped it on the ground somewhere". Then she said "thanks for listening'.

So Freo practically get a free first round draft player while dees lose one. Nice equalisation.

Given Evans is now telling the media we won't get one, perhaps we should adopt the Barrett method and fight. I would start mentioning the above and more in press conferences to get it all out there. We now have several of the media heavyweights behind us. If we are to not get a PP so be it, but we need to fight for an even playing field. The rigged competition together with our incompetence in drafting has combined to put us in this position.

What's this bs Evans has come out with now? Players have to basically die before a PP will be awarded? Making it up as they go.

They're not doing what Tyson is doing and they're not good enough to be tagged yet. Pretty early in the year most AFL coaches realised Tyson was our most dangerous player and started tagging him. Those that didn't, did by the end of the game. Don't kid yourself this kid is well on the way to being a A grader, reminds me a lot of Boak the way he goes about it. No nonsense, hard at the footy and can kick a good goal when the team needs it.

This we don't deserve it thing irritates me - the supporters do deserve it. We have a right to follow a team that is reasonable to watch and competitive. The supporters didn't make the mistakes in recruiting and development so it is a specious argument to claim that we as a group should be made to suffer. The AFL has an obligation to ensure that each clubs members get a reasonable bang for our buck. Very few could argue that this has happened, not just for 1 year, but for 8 years now.

Good to see the Toump sticking fat. Shows some decent commitment and character. Yet to see the best of him. Well done Jimmy.

I'll keep it simple for you Stu. 1. You accused DD of "making it up". 2. Moonie demonstrated that he wasn't making it up. You are wrong. Fess up.

It's a part of the rules that perennially bad teams will be helped via the draft. The effing rules. To call us weak for asking for the rules to be applied is nonsense. You can't on the one hand say that we are the worst club since Fitzroy that will be dead in 6 years and then say we shouldn't apply for the rule that attempt to mitigate this situation to be enforced on the league.