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Watts is better than any of the players playing in the VFL and adds more to the team. No matter how much he may frustrate some people with his style, that's the only thing that will dictate his selection. Those that want him dropped to "send a message" or whatever need to move on from the 1980s.

I am clearly to bias as on paper I like our team so much more than what the tiges have put together. Dawes and Hogan would be licking there lips with Chappy out. I rate Rance massively and it will be interesting who he goes to. We all think it will be Jesse and I agree. Whoever doesn't get him would want to perform big time! Hopefully we play a very attacking game and get it forward quick as they look very soft down back. Vince to Cotch, Cross to Dusty (if he turns up), Watts redeems himself with 4, Jeffy starts kicking straight, McDonald proves he's as good as Frawley and holds Jack goal-less and we are up. Dees by 18

Give it a rest, mate. You don't need to pick apart other people's training reports every single time someone else starts a training thread. I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish, but doing this discourages people from sharing what they saw at training. People, including myself, enjoy reading your reports and input, but when you carry on like this it makes you seem really petty.

This is interesting - of course, nobody is exactly the same as anybody else. If another player is suggested, there will immediately be a whole lot of quite correct objections on the basis of differences between them and Watts. But then what about Brian Wilson who used to go down in a heap with an "injury" more than a lot liked? "Ah, ya down again son!" in a Foghorn Leghorn voice... He was a discard from two clubs at the age of 20, but a star for us for years after. Great contributor - with this downright cringey peculiarity. What about the great Allan Jakovitch, who was not entirely trusted I'd say, because of his idiosyncracies - never fit, was one of them. We kept him in the Reserves, kicking huge bags of goals, for far too long before he got into the seniors. How can you be a footballer if you won't get fit? But he proved you could. Plenty of others come to mind, lacking a presumed non-negotiable. Tiger Crosswell was considered odd. Doull certainly was. Actually, think of the history of discards - people who didn't quite fit the moulds. Diesel Williams, or Ablett senior, for example. Brett Lovett. Even the great Robbie Flower was told yes, he could train if he liked - but really we were looking for good players - the presumption being that without the physique or the mongrel you weren't going to be up to much in AFL. I know that was before we saw what he could do, but it is a true fact that Melbourne supporters in the outer were calling for him to be taken off - and a lot more than once - before half-time in his first game. People looked at what was there and when it didn't fit their mental image they scorned it. So, what should we be looking for in a comparison, a precedent, to justify our having faith in Jack Watts? (Experts that we are... ) Hawkins keeps getting mentioned - Geelong persevered with an over-sized underperformer for a long time while they were right at the top. But, obviously, no-one is going to be exactly like Jack Watts. What can be said is that Watts is involved in goals more often than a lot of other slow-developing players have been. His so-called softness does not prevent his contributing, no matter how much it sticks out in the minds of supporters. But everyone's unique - knowing that was one of Paul Roos' great attributes, and thank goodness we got him! Neeld must have virtually destroyed a lot of individuals at Melbourne. Why don't we just trust the Roos as an authority on the value of Watts? Spectate, take notice, and learn what we don't already know?

Let's get rid of the sub rule! Go Roosy!!!

Another perfect example of the type of thing Watts gets criticised for but for every other player in the side, it doesn't even get mentioned All of a sudden being a hotheaded chimp and going in for some jumper punches is a quality that is so important it turns games Give us a break please

oh, how much i wish Viney was playing

Take your chances Viv!

You really are deluded. With the possible exception of Watts for Yarran, no-one in their right mind would accept any one of those trades.

Why? Are you hoping we lose? We scored 55 points last game. Watts directly created 3 goals with assist, so a third our score and was involved in 2 other goals. And you want him dropped. What about Dawes? No goal assists, few meaningful plays and it would be more of a shock him marking a ball than dropping one

Yes, but you should look at why that is, (though not sure where you got your figures ...) and why, for the most part, the reasons for that don't apply here: a) the vast majority of sports do NOT have this extra layer that we have in Australia. In nearly all countries, it's the equivalent of ASADA who prosecute, and as they act as WADA enforcers in each country, WADA don't need to step in as their job is effectively already being done for them. Also, it's worth remembering, that it appears that the only reason ASADA aren't appealing themselves in this case is that they would have to go back through the AFL system, they can't go directly to CAS. b) WADA have done enough of "reading the riot act" and "coming over the top" with the national organisations and regional sports bodies, that they now all toe the line. Mostly. c) It's not only WADA who can appeal to CAS, it's the international sports organisations. e.g. when Alberto Contador was cleared by the Spanish anti-doping committee, (Clenbuterol), it wasn't WADA who appealed to CAS, it was the international cycling organisation, the UCI. There's no international organisation above the AFL, so it falls to WADA in this case, but that's unusual. In brief, WADA are the overlords, and it would be very wrong to assume that they're somehow powerless or reluctant to act. In most cases, WADA don't need to get involved because someone else will do it for them.

Good luck Viv, give em hell.

Burgo's easiest interview ever? Ask the question and away we go! Here's someone who won't have trouble communicating on the field. Refreshingly informative, respectful and appreciative, and loved the "we" including in references to previous years. T (p.s. Go the hyphens!)

Caught up with a mate this morning who said he saw a bit of training yesterday. Said that for the bit he saw a group of about 8 players were doing tackling training. The goal was for players to either avoid the tackle or be the tackler. He said the group included Jamar, JKH, Bail, McKenzie, Watts and three others. He said by far the best at the drill at both avoiding being tackled and then laying effective tackles was Jack Watts. JKH was good at the evasion bit, too (hardly surprising, I would have thought).

Killa Watts is ready to rumble!

Here we go again!! http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-premiership/afl-sets-up-taskforce-to-tackle-imbalance-between-power-clubs-and-perennial-battlers/story-e6frf3e3-1227315879385 Another taskforce, Another talkfest! Get this line: "The league’s football operations boss Mark Evans said the league did not want to encourage tanking, but was working on solutions". That line makes me seethe! The more the AFL try and manufacture outcomes they more they distort the game. A bit like the tax office changing rules...someone will always find a loophole or a way to exploit the change. AFL: Leave the game alone!! If this talkfest results in a priority pick for St Kilda (Gil McLachlan's team) or Carlton (Mike Fitzpatrick's team) in the next few years I will go ballistic...that won't be a pretty sight Call me a cynic but the timing of this coinciding with StK and Carlton 're-builds' raises my suspicions.

While I can understand that the tribunal was not comfortably satisfied of substances injected into players, while they were comfortably satisfied that Danks did handle drugs, as there are no records, and no player or support staff has revealed any evidence as per Armstrong, WADA must act to ensure its relevance. To allow this defence when the Brownlow medalist admits having injections under a regime that publicly espoused "whatever it takes" directly confronts its authority to ensure no performance enhancing drugs are to be used to gain an advantage in sport. The intention of the players and the club are obvious. The AFL appears to have been complicit in the failure of the case wether by incompetence or design. WADA will need to devote greater rigour to obtaining evidence than shown by the combined ASADA/AFL process. Do they have powers to force Danks, dr Reid, Hird, Watson, Demetriou, the pharmacists chemists etc to appear? Do they have powers to examine police and government claims of criminal activity? Can they impose international standards including intent in the Australian internal sports jurisdiction? Until and unless they do the game we follow is sullied. We must remind every follower and every commentator of this and that Essendon have provided an example that can be claimed by every club at every level and can provide an example to society at large. It is no wonder we have av Ice problem in the country. Drug use occasioned by no records but plenty of players with intent can draw great comfort from the Essendon model of success. I am beginning to appreciate the original claims of the blackest day in Australian sport commentary. This situation has the potential to undermine the reputation of sport within the society.

Counting chickens before they're hatched is what supporters do. So leave me in peace with my delusions.

Garland has been excellent this year, the majority of us (including me) were wrong for doubting him.

Watts is a very important player for us. Many here would probably prefer Simon Godfrey - but I want the class, vision, speed and skills that Jack possesses. That said, I don't want 22 Jack Watts' in the line up each week - although I think it's good to have one. He'd be in virtually every other club's best 22. The two drop marks weren't as a result of softness - intensity perhaps - but I just think he lost concentration about marking the ball as he was already thinking what next to do with it. And he is loyal to the MFC - I respect that.

Regarding Neal-Bullen I have spoke extensively with another teams recruiting manager and he thought "Neal-Bullen was the steal of the draft" Kid is a running machine, very teachable and perfectly suited as an inside mid able to run both ways all day.

It's amazing how stable our side has been so far. Michie is player #25 used, on all changes listed today only Sydney have used fewer (24), and GWS, Freo and Adelaide are equal (assuming the Crows don't pick Matt Crouch in their final side). I can't remember an MFC side so settled. This is a very good sign in my opinion. Obviously few injuries comes down to luck, but only two players have been omitted so far and one of those returned the next week. You know Michie has been forced to bust a gut to get in. Best of luck to him.

don't set yourselves up for disappointment. Keep your hopes low, Charlie Brown.

We're at good odds as well

Dawes has always taken at least two or three games to get his touch back, when he has an injury interrupted period it makes his game stop and start, he has now had two games back, yesterday at training he looked really sharp, hopefully this Friday he will be on all cylinders, at least he has still been crashing and bashing

jesus people are asking Campbell Brown his opinion? Who next? Aker?

Now, look here, Ernie!! Just because most of the posters on here are barely out of nappies and wouldn't have the foggiest idea about us great players of the past, it doesn't give you the right to rewrite history! I was CLEARLY far more talented than Bobby, a far better goal kicker, and WAY more important to the team! And, if there's anyone on here who really is so old that they remember us, and disagrees with my comments, then they are obviously suffering from senility! So, just to put it clearly, Barrie Vagg was the greatest half forward flanker in the history of the MFC! (Written without even the slightest hint of modesty...)

Hogan was continually against 2 opponents last week, they kept dropping players back. The opposition know that Dawes isn't a threat and disregard him. If we want structure we might as well get a statue for all the benefit he is giving us at the moment.

I will see you all there. I will be wearing a MFC scarf, come up and say hello.

Although I have contributed to the discussion on Watts, it really is becoming tiresome. He has to play on Friday night particularly after last weeks game. He is obviously going to play so lets hope he has a good game and justifies his spot. However, the match will be a test for the whole team not just Watts. I respect the views of Roos and the coaching staff in regard to his selection. I have great faith in Roos man-management.

Cranky 31, are these the stats that don't support your argument or the stats that do? Watts is in front of Boyd on most stats he is on $1 mill pa Watts is in front of our old mate Mitch Clark on most stats this season. Watts is in front of Kurt Tippet & Nic Nat on most stats (not hitouts) this season Watts is in front of Jack Darling on most stats for carreer He is a different dude, he will be better in a better side.

They've had a couple of big wins, lets hope we don't go back to the sugar coated reviews of a few years back. I know some didn't but I really liked Brett Allison's no holds barred reviews.

happens every week, we get beaten and [censored] supporters scream in unison "drop Watts" idiots all of them!!!

The fact he isn't playing is not because he isn't up to AFL standard. It's because he plays in the 2nd best side in the comp. with a deep midfield.

Forget last year, the problem at the moment is that Dawes is not giving us anywhere near enough. He will probably get another chance this week. lets hope he stands up.

you could say the same about 5,6,7,8 day breaks between games but there is a huge difference between some inequality and gross inequality even with 22 rounds there is heaps of scope for more equality and fairness in the draw

We won all of our premierships under the banner of the MCC Since the MFC left the MCC we have failed. Other than that you are still wrong, in the last 50 years the MFC have won nothing and Victoria cricket have won 10 shields. I personally would be happy with another 10 flags. 22 premierships sounds great to me.

I saw that too and thought it was absolutely hilarious, 3-gamer getting control of the captain

I agree with all that you have said, I think "toughness" is often misconstrued by alot of supporters of football and Melbourne in general .... but I was happy to see the little tangle that happened because it showed a little bit of passion from our players and I loved seeing Dean Kent absolutely rag doll someone, but what I was most impressed with out of it all was that Angus Brayshaw walked in and dragged Nathan Jones out effectively diffusing the situation.

Neither should be drooped and people saying that Dawes should be dropped are equally as stupid as those calling for Watts to be dropped. Structure is vital for a good team and the fact that we are able to play Dawes in a key post directly protects Hogan from playing on two opponents. Whilst Dawes does not mark, he does a hell of a lot of grunt work and looks to compete and bring the ball down extremely well, but at the end of the day we have no better replacement for either of Gawn or Watts and not even by a short margin, by the length of the straight, so why would we bother dropping either. At the end of the day when it comes down to the first 10 players named on a week by week basis Dawes and Watts would be up there or there abouts. In my opinion this did not significantly change the game, the fact that we were outscored 6.4-0.1 or something similar from stoppages is what changed the game, and the fact that we had the same amount of scoring shots from the ball being in our forward half for a massive chunk of the game was what caused the result.

I'd say the cheque would go to Richmond but next year it's our turn (if it becomes an annual event) I believe there are now trigger points (crowd numbers) on how much money a home team receives for any home game at the MCG. It's also been stated here that we receive at least 100k for every home game that we play at the MCG (of course, 100k for a home game is a virtual loss in real terms) Let's hope there's a big crowd so that we can establish this game as a traditional annual event Not sure what they'll do with this game if ANZAC day falls on a Tuesday or Wednesday but it might solve the problem that the League has with the short rest that the Pies and Bombers can sometimes have ... just match up the Demons & Bombers (another rotating home fixture?) and the Pies & Tigers the weekend before or the weekend after (depending on which day ANZAC day actually falls) In theory that in turn can (in some years) give us 3 big drawing home fixtures in the space of 6 weeks (when we include the QB clash) A flow-on effect as such.

Gonna be wet, cold and turning very yucky weather wise. A low to the ground Michie would be my prime choice.

It was around 11.15-11.30 and it was Chris Dawes or an identical imposter wearing no. 6. I wasn't taking photos or chatting with players/staff or checking out guns, just watching training for the time I was there.

As I have written here before, there was a WADA global conference in South Africa in December 2014, when John Fehey was still President, which considered drug taking in team sports in detail. It was scheduled to last half a day, but was taken up almost entirely by considering Essendon and Cronulla, mostly Essendon. The consensus of the conference at the time that the issue is incredibly important, and given Australia's power and importance in world sport, if anyone can solve it we can. The result of that though is that the world IS watching the outcomes. We cannot hide behind our perceived backwater status in this. Interesting it is only some of us who consider us a backwater. The rest of the world certainly doesn't when it comes to sport, particularly in governance issues.

It does not surprise me at all that ASADA are not appealing. In fact I have been predicting this for over a year now. Why should ASADA spend their very scarce resources appealing to a local sports tribunal when they have been all along biased and highly influenced by the local sports culture, dominated by vested interest publicity machines with unlimited fundsI think it is a really smart move for McDevitt to hand the whole issue over to WADA in Switzerland where he knows he will get an objective hearing. He also knows that WADA tribunals are dominated by Olympic sports officials who take a much tougher line on drugs in sport than commercial team based sports like the AFL. In fact the Chairman of the CAS tribunal is none other than John Coates, the President of the AOC, and Director of the IOC, and he is on record as being appalled at the leniency under which Australian professional team sports have been administered wrt drugs. The Essendon case being the worst of the worst, you would expect them to come down on them like a ton of bricks.

Dawes did not work with the ruck group when it was separated and with Stafford, he had stitches in his face, so they were trying to avoid contact, the ruck group consisted of Jamar, King, Gawn, Spencer and Fitzy at the start, if he was with the rucks on some other occasion then I must have missed it coz I was photographing something else They seemed to be, he wasn't doing the usual hop step and jump, maybe trying to change it Garlett always works on his goal kicking I don't know what the fuss is about they have 11 goals between them in 3 games, if they stick to it we will have 2 guys with 40 goals each minimum, I want the scoring spread across the board, I am sure Roos does as well

It wasn't weak at all. He realised he was up against two players and would be better placed using their momentum against them and bringing the ball to ground. Don't believe everything you hear on Fox Footy telecasts and make up your own bloody mind. Seriously, the ridiculous Watts bashing makes me pretty disgusted to be a melbourne supporter. So he's not the hardest player going around, so what. He's doing his best and he is improving year on year. Almost every time we win the inside 50s, Watts plays well. Why? Because he gets OPPORTUNITIES to play well. It's pretty hard imposing yourself on a game as a forward when the ball's in the back pocket the whole time, which, let's be honest, it has been a lot during his time at the club. Loved Wayne Carey backing him up in the media this week. Yes we all know he has faults, so does every other player on our list. They don't get theirs highlighted in the paper every second week though, otherwise they probably would have retired.

Nothing against Viney, but I think Deledio offers more to the Tigers than what Viney does for us.

Roos on Watts: Roos revealed that Watts had fronted up to his teammates following his display, but said he believes the former No.1 draft pick will learn from his errors. “Anyone who has played footy has done this,” Roos said of Watts’ mistakes. “Now you’re looking for a response. I’m looking forward to how he responds to it this week. “Jack put his hand up today and said ‘look it wasn’t great and I’m not happy with it’, but absolutely, he will play this week.” It takes courage, maybe not the 'macho' type, to front your teammates and fess up. Its the type of courage that earns respect and may well be the making of the man. Roos' leadership is exceptional. He stood by his team after the GWS collapse. Says he is proud of his team after the crows game. Doesn't excuse Jack but is unequivocal in his belief of him. This is the stuff that builds belief in the players heads. Roos must have realised last year that the mental demons were very deep. No knee-jerk reactions from Roos and he seems ready to risk a few losses if the reward is players having confidence and belief in themselves and each other, What we are seeing is Roos' rebuilding their mental psyche. Its awesome to witness. When their belief finally clicks in each of their minds we will have an awesome team. Expect Jack Watts to be part of it fully equipped with the addition of a bit more 'macho' courage.

We were up for 50 and almost lost. 5 minutes into the last, my girlfriend asked if we were safe. "Yeah it's game over." Nek minnit...