Leaderboard

Spoke to Brendan McCarthy today while he was shopping in Geelong. Known him a while now. Two things stuck out from our chat. He thinks the Dees are 18 months off where the Doggies are at. When I mentioned Dangerfield. He smiled and said "We're certainly having a crack!".

Anyone who thinks Paul Roos has not performed exceptionally well is forgetting how far behind the pack we were when he took over. In 2012 & 2013 we were the worst team the competition had seen since the last year of Fitzroy. We won 2 games in 2013, one against a bunch of 18 year old kids from GWS who were 4 goals up at 3 quarter time and ran out of puff. On the return bout late in the season GWS easily beat us. We also beat Essendon in the upset of the century (last beat first) but since we have learnt that this was the week that internally the Essendon doping crisis began. Dank was sacked, players were not whacked up for the first time in 18 months. The Essendon players smelt a rat and were physically and mentally off. Most games were lost by over 10 goals and we lost a staggering 6 games by more than 15 goals. For us to be a competitive, out of the bottom 4 less than 2 season later is a miracle. Thank God for Paul Roos.

Our player culture gives us no hope of knowing how much better the WB and STK lists might be than ours. Those two teams tend to go at 100% intensity most of the time, and our players don't. We have made and allowed excuses for these blokes forever and it has now become so acceptable that the media don't even bother pointing out the insipid individual efforts by Melbourne players anymore. Even if the WB are more talented, they aren't so much more talented that they would [censored] a competing side by 98 points. MFC players lack pride in the club (always have) and don't even appear to show pride in their own individual performance most of the time. Easily pushed aside. And yeah the intensity was great the days when we beat Rich, Geel, WB, Coll. I wonder if that told the players anything?? Gee when we compete as hard or harder than our opponents we win football matches. The thing about professional sport is, there's a fair chance your opponent might be very hungry to win when they play you. So, they might just lift their own intensity when it looks like you might be challenging them. They might not be prepared to simply roll over. Never does the MFC stand up when this happens. The Bulldogs tackled manically on the weekend. They were obviously annoyed that they lost to us earlier in the year and wanted to prove a point. What would be nice, just once in an MFC supporters lifetime, would be to see our players lift their own intensity to match when that happens, because they don't want to be embarrassed by the fact that they can lose a game simply because their opponents are tougher and hungrier than them. The WB looked streets ahead of us on the weekend because they wanted to compete more than we did. That's it in a nutshell. I would consider that disappointing if it was an occasional thing, but I actually think it's contemptuous that it happens regularly. I thought that being individually competitive would have been the one non-negotiable message that Roos, through his high standing in the AFL, would have been able to get across to this group. Not even he seems to have been able to change these guys (maybe they sense he hasn't bought in so they aren't listening, and hey we've allowed all the other excises over the years so why not allow them that one too).

To be fair, that's how a normal cycle in AFL should go. Only incredibly poorly run clubs like ours get stuck on the bottom of eternity. Bulldogs lost a lot of good senior players, but were smart enough to replace them and use the draft well. We had 5 years of poor leadership, poor coaching and poor drafting... not to mention poor off field management. That we are out of the bottom 4 is a bloody miracle in itself right now.

I am waiting for Tanya to find him on Ashley Madison.

Those second rate Bulldog kids might just get their team to October...

INS: Newton, Salem, Stretch OUTS: Jetta, Bail, M. Jones I like these ins. Much needed class and skill.

A meaningless match in a season whose mediocre results are a foregone conclusion = "biggest loss in our history". Hyperbole, much?

Doesn't take much to get you going.

If people had said after two years of Roos tenure we'd have knocked off Collingwood and Geelong in the season and moved ahead of Carlton and the Dons in terms of premiership windows doubled our wins (almost every year) stabalised the clubs losses and introduced and properly developed genuine new talent and set up a development environment such thats it's as good as any in the AFL etc... then they'd have been right about what he's done. I think 2016 could be a "Cinderella Story" but am keeping those thoughts on the down low...

You have a bar mark, my good friend, tell me more?

For mine we keep Fitzy. Tall, fast, can kick a goal, can play Ruck, forward or back. No star but he is a keeper. We have plenty of others who can go before him like, Bail, Terlich, M. Jones, Jamar, McKenzie, Riley and maybe Michie. Howe could be traded and Garland could leave under FA. If they all went that is 9 changes.

We'll all be really pissed off about it for at least a week In reality, we will not be any better or worse than we were prior to the match The sun will rise the next day

Now I am really worried

It is always a bit odd to see this kind of thing in writing, presumably written sincerely. "At the risk of being called misogynistic or sexist"... it is as if you don't understand yet that to say 'some things are for men only and some things are for women only', against all evidence to the contrary, is the very definition of sexist. Benefit of the doubt, I'll assume you aren't misogynistic. That you don't hate women, it is just that you only like them when they are sitting neatly in the box you have allocated to them. Personally, I'll take Daisy Pearce's opinion on women in football over yours.

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2015-08-21/players-looked-in-holiday-mode-roos: - Roos indicated he'd be open to staying at the Demons in a part-time capacity after Simon Goodwin transitions into the senior coaching role. Delighted to hear this! A few months ago Roos was making noises that he would not hang around after 2016. So it looks like there has been a rethink and perhaps he has already arranged for 2/3 years part time say to end of 2018/2019. Would love this to have happened. Gives the players and the club a greater period of consistency, on and off the field. If he has arranged a part-time gig, it would certainly have helped players extend contracts and attract new players to the club. Whatever his coaching weaknesses may be, we still need the Roos cred and stature at our club.

The only reason you'd be accused of being misogynistic or sexist base on that comment is because it is clearly both.

Bomberblitz thinks?

Roos greatest assets will come to light in his last year. I honestly believe we are right in the mix for some great footballers who are being hypnotised by PR in these last weeks of the season. I agree he seemingly has a blase match day look and Ive nearly given up the ghost but I think there will be great signings at the end of the year. Ive never made claims before.

Riv was good player, good reader of the play, forced to take best or second best forward when with us, played his heart out and I didn't begrudge him leaving.

Decided to leave when we couldn't afford to lose him...Chasing September on the back of other peoples work Not in the same category as Frawley who gave up whilst still being paid But ultimately a deserter...That is how i view Free Agency... Yes we got new Young Talent in return....But who is there to teach them?? We do not have a leadership group......

I'm at the game at that kick by Butcher was one of the worst I've ever seen at any level of football.

= Robbi Wingard.

Well my wife, the first time she saw him on Footy Classified around a year ago, asked me if he had a serious medical condition

Find them before paraphrasing what is said in them. This is how garbage gets such a long half-life - he has said in the past that he wants to balance his life more with the wishes of his family but I have never, since he came to the club, have developed the impression that he would 'love us and then leave us.' He has never been the personality to do that. When he talks about the future - we want to hear involvement, but he knows that Goodwin wants to hear separation and a relent of control. Different audiences will interpret different scenarios to the same words.

My single malt stock would suffer a serious reduction.

"We'll all be rooned!" A win is better than a loss but losing to Carlton would be embarrassing. But embarrassment is an unfortunate expectation around this club so it won't hurt too much. Such embarrassment will hurt more when we have built up some consistent pride in our performance that we can subsequently lose. And the fans that you are worried about not signing up next year? Yeah, they are not watching anymore. The painted on fans like us are the only ones still with their eyes on the footy.

It would make us 6 & 14 that's what would happen in pure cold hard one game at a time footy.... It's another game, they're all good to win and they're all bad to lose. I would have thought the '58 GF was probably the greatest loss in our history and personally I wasn't too thrilled with the '87 prelim and the '88 GF.

I I hope this helps to silence those who question Roos commitment to the Club. He is not perfect nor the Messiah but I believe he is emotionally invested in our future success and we will be all the better for his long term involvement.

Call him up, ask for $1.5 million and do a better job then.

Pity he missed the Demons golden years while he was at Geelong.

Rivers took the chance that was offered, to leave a workplace that was in turmoil. I'm sure a lot of people here would take the same offer if in a similar situation with their place of employment. Don't blame him for leaving and really enjoyed watching him play at Melbourne.

Jared probably took one look at Neeld and ran. Who could blame him? Why would anyone stay in that situation. Yet we have these idiotic posters that are so quick to turn on our players and call for them to be sacked and traded, one of which is as big a lowlife as to refer to Aaron Davey as a dog for holding out for a four year contract! These idiots have the nerve to attack Jared for moving to another club, one where one of his mates from school was playing and a club that wasn't a train wreck. Pathetic (that's not Jared...). Frawley was playing under Roos, said if Roos will sign he will yet he ran. Don't compare the two.

Sunday has the Essendon game written all over it Away game at the G Opposition coming off a horror performance We'll come in cocky and arrogant despite putting in a shocker as well Opposition will fluke a 6 goal quarter while we bury our heads. We'll play our token 1 good quarter of footy in the last qtr and lose by 6 points just to remind our fans that if we were switched on for more than 30 minutes we would've won easily.

We currently run: - 9th for contested possessions - 18th for centre clearances - 9th for stoppages - 14th for clearances The addition of Redden would - theoretically - assist the improvement of all of those.

FFS The Crown Paladium has them all reserved for the AFL clubs, you can move your dates dependent upon your season and they would start locking some teams in when it is clear they will not make finals

Disappointing approach to his footy this year. Look at how someone like Danger approaches his game in what may be his last at Adelaide and Ablett in his final year at Geelong. Great players but also professionals getting on with the game.

I'd have thought that if you actually knew him, you'd know his name was McCartney...

Ha! It's all good. His wife is best friends with my mum. We've talked a lot before.

Poor Brendan. Just trying to do his shopping. Still, go on him for chatting.

Trenners like Scully were both very very good as debutants in 2010 and both RS nominees that season

Holy crap, who in the hell is running the ship at Brisbane?? No wonder players want to get the [censored] out, what a total basketcase.

I was a huge fan of Riv. Played on opponents much bigger then him and was rarely beaten. Great reader of the flight and a great mark. Also showed himself to be capable of kicking a goal in the 2nd half of 2012 when he was forced to play forward after Clark went down. Didn't have any hard feelings with him leaving as we all knew he only had a small time left in the game. 10 years & 150 games was good service. Wish him well post AFL.

Very good player but he's as vanilla as they come. We need some speed/class/skill.

One of our better draft picks. I'm thankful for small mercies.

Every pollie: "Does this have the potential to bite me in the @rse somehow?" Yes = meddle manage it; no = doesn't register as an issue.

He sounded drunk and like he had half a schnitzel in his mouth.

Heard from the inner sanctum at Hawthorn that they're confident they have got a big fish this off season. How would the football world react if true? If it were Dangerfield? A lot of people tell me FA won't have an impact on unevenness of the competition.....It's the environment created within football clubs that attracts players..... I maintain that FA when used strategically prolongs the strong sides to remain strong for longer. And makes it harder and longer for bottom sides to regenerate and climb sooner. And the AFL are all for even competition? BS. There will always be a handful of teams only winning 3/4/5 games a year. Sign Jesse for 12......

On the inconsistency week to week: Internally they are setting Melbourne up for a sustained period of success and believes its going well. Relying on the younger players to perform too much on game day, thinks fatigue is an issue. On Hogan: Comparing him to Josh Kennedy on the type of player he will end up being (big on chasing and forward pressure) Very driven to be the best he can be, good understanding of the game. "He has some frustrations he needs to temper, not always going to get it on a silver platter as a forward" When asked what he would be most worried about if he had to play on him he said his ability to always be moving, his agility and his quickness off the mark, thinks he needs to work on his leading patterns. Tom McDonald feeling confident going into the season after spending the pre season defending against him On Lumumba's year: Thinks people judge him too much based on his possession count, happy with his contested game. Gives a lot of energy on field. Getting used to a new role on the wing. Thinks his best footy for Melbourne is ahead of him. On Roos: Game plan when he first came in was very similar to his Sydney game plan, game had evolved and Roos has made changes this year to reflect that.