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Just received a call from my father today. Dad is in his nineties and has been a longtime MFC member until he finally let it lapse this year because he is not steady enough on his feet to battle through the crowds from Richmond station. Last Sunday my brother picked him up in a cab and took him to the Dees vs Pies game and he had a ball. Imagine his surprise today when he received a MFC membership package in the mail recognising his many years of membership and telling him that a MFC staff member had paid his renewal on his behalf. Thank you Melbourne Football Club!

"We feel like every week, we have the game plan that stacks up," Watts said. Wattsy's comment got me thinking on a number of levels about Game Plans. Firstly, seems to me Roosy has been taking a bit of a bum rap over what he's done with the Game Plan since he arrived. He made it pretty clear the first year was about fixing the defence and stopping the whopping loses. The second year was about fixing the midfield and clearly it follows that the third year was about fixing the final stage of the attack. Many commentators seem to only see the ultra defensive first year and are now only crediting Goodwin with the fast ball movement and improved attack in the third year. Lets not forget Roosy is still the Head Coach and ultimately he sets the Game Plan. Assistants in many Clubs are responsible for different parts of the Game Plan but you don't hear commentators saying it's their doing not the Head Coaches. It's Roosy's vision and he's put people in place to execute it. From what I've been reading Jennings sounds like a massive secret weapon with our ball movement and understanding how to stop the oppositions. Secondly I wonder how often a playing group as a whole decide a coach's Game Plan is a dud and is never going to work and they give up. Is this part of a coach losing the playing group. I spoke to Flash at the 2011 B & F and he told me that Bailey was trying to get them to play a Game Plan they couldn't execute. (By the way, this was essentially two way running. So probably the right Game Plan, he just didnt' have the players to execute it.) Roh Bail in a conversation with me after Neeld had left the building (a membership drive call) agreed that the players as a group probably were going into games thinking that they weren't going to win executing the Game Plan Neeld was getting them to play. So how refreshing to hear the players now believe in the Game Plan. And its working. Thirdly, the Pies and the Toigs both seem to be still playing Game Plans that are about getting possession and slowing the game down while other teams like us have moved on to getting the ball and doing very fast transitions into attack. I wonder if the playing groups at those Clubs have also lost confidence in their Game Plans and therefore their coaches. Fyfe mentioned Freo is struggling with a new Game Plan. Perhaps Lyon has them going through a transition to a more attacking Game Plan. That would run against the grain of what they've been doing since he arrived there.

If you get the don't argue - argue back..

There for an hour. Salem, Oliver, Kent, Grimes seemed to be in a rehab group. Garlett training separately with Crossy but being watched by a few others. Kicking really well off of both feet. Hard to believe how hard and low he kicks. Much better than the easy floaters you see so often. I don't understand why Kent & Tyson aren't told to practise kicking with their right foot. It's such an obvious shortcoming in their game. Pedo, Weed & Hulett (I think) were in a group practising goal kicking. Great to see how competitive they are and how much pleasure they get from the others' misses. Did not see Vandenberg. Spencer, Petracca, Trengove all look fit.

A very sane poster on here started a thread a couple of weeks ago titled: INSIGNIFICANT in a description of the club... Two weeks later and we demand to be in the finals conversation? When we are 8 and 6 after beating the crows at home in Round 15 - then we can earn a discussion of being included in September...

Was at training before I head to Sydney for the weekend, I spotted all regular players but vanders. Obviously king wasn't there. Garlett looks good to go. Petracca bouncing around like a 5 year old on red cordial.

just keep floating under the radar.....

These jokers tonight posed the question: "Can Melbourne make the 8 - real or overreaction?" Gerard Whately laughed his head off at the mere suggestion - "steady on! Just steady on!". I normally rate the guy but this really annoyed me. His reaction is plainly based on historical bias rather than a proper assessment of where this club is at and its performances thus far this season. This club has been ahead in every final quarter it has played this year. And in respect of the two games it has lost: - we absolutely deserved to win the game against the Roos, but umpiring, inexperience and bad luck cruelled the end result, and we lost by less than a kick after being 42 points down - both bozos rate the Roos highly, which has to be a relevant consideration as to our performance in that game; and - we did not deserve to beat Essendon, but we should have beaten them despite being pathetic for the entire game and still nearly jagging it. In short, we've not been that far off winning 4 from 4 - that means top of the table. Early days, but yes - top of the table. So why the comedic reaction to the mere suggestion that we COULD POSSIBLY make the 8 based on our performances thus far this season? We've shown a lot more than many better fancied teams to date. Really hope we pump Richmond and the Saints in the next fortnight. Win these games and it simply can't be such a stupid suggestion that we might be in the mix for the 8. C'mon Demons - it's time to prove these journos with their cliched and highly patronising opinions about the club wrong.

We are the short, fat, nervous, pimply, picked on kid at school who has a late growth spurt. A few years later we rock up to Gerard's 21st a muscled up 6' 4" with a couple of super models in tow. "Steady on. Just steady on," says Gerard as we step over his drunk friend Mark and chat up his sister

I don't think we will make the 8, but I saw it and the overreaction and laughing at the suggestion [censored] me off. Maybe a sign of the times, I would've laughed last year too. I don't know if gimmicky things work or not in coaching and inspiring, but I'd be showing it at a team meeting to show the players what people still think of us. I'm guessing none of this team would take it too kindly.

Do you mean type of dog or membership? The dogs are both miniature schnauzers and the membership is $35/year. You get some sort of gift for the dog. This year it was a travel water bowl. Both dogs were rescue dogs and one came with a well chewed small Collingwood football when we bought him home. That went straight into the bin and he now sleeps on a red and blue rug.❤️?

Volunteers were in Monday and Tuesday nights doing usual renewal calls and achieved 50 odd new renewals so we hopefully we will have the record beaten by the Richmond game. Would be great to announce a new record on Sunday night. I would hate to suggest it might announce a renewal of the the mighty MFC. We should not though be satisfied with just breaking the record so all you Demonlanders who are able to purchase an additional membership, even an armchair membership($69), for a longsuffering supporter or a Collingwood supporter looking for a winning team to support, ring the Club on 1300 336 667 or go on-line and sign up another member.

4 pages on this?? I was watching it, and I thought the laugh was more about the fickle nature of people's opinions. Two weeks ago we lose to Essendon, and then win one game and all of a sudden they are being asked if we will make the 8. Hardly controversial, or incorrect. We need to put together a larger body of work before we expect people to take us seriously as a finals contender.

I thought that I would insert a GIF here, so stupidly I searched analGIF. Might have to delete my search history.

I'm always amused that people get so shirty over things like this. I saw it, and I agree with him. FFS, We won against GWS by 2 points when they missed every shot in the second half pretty much and were missing their best forwards, we lost to Essendon... We lost. To. Essendon. We then did well against the Roos and with a bit more class and poise we win, then we beat Collingwood who aren't exactly doing well. So after beating a club like the filth why would we suddenly be finals bound? Perspective, we have proven nothing and with our draw and teams we are yet to play. I believe Whateley laughed more at the question being asked at round four than the actual chance of Melbourne making the eight.

Just to get you even more excited for Petracca. I texted my mate who plays for the Collingwood VFL side and obviously played against him on the weekend, asking how is he to play against and this was his reply: "honestly, he is a beast of a human. He could play inside mid and a mid forward as he was taking pack marks and also getting clearances. Honestly he is something you should be very excited about, he is very hard to play against." For the record, that last Melbourne player he played against that he sent me a text message like that about was none other than Jesse Hogan. Not long now boys and gals.

I wouldn't have thought so.

The only way Duh-Wayne would be put in his place is with a dirty big punch in the mouth. PS - Mods, I am not condoning violence, but rather, trying to be pragmatic.

Good OP. Importantly, let's look at some key indicators that have previously been letting us down. In 2015 (and the years preceding) we defended too close to the opposition's goal and couldn't get the ball inside 50. And when we got it there we couldn't keep it there. This has changed in 2016. It's a small sample size (4 games), but our new game-plan is starting to work. We're pressing much harder and getting turnovers in much better positions. Average I50's 2015 44.5 (16th) ~ Average 2016 54.3 (8th) Centre clearances, which we've been hopeless at for years is now becoming a strength. This is due to Gawn, Viney, Jones and the emerging Oliver. General clearances are also improving, but not yet a strength (9th). Average centre clearances 2015 10.6 (16th) ~ Average 2016 14.8 (4th) In contested possessions we've gone from 12th in 2015 to 5th. Uncontested possessions are still a work in progress, which means we're still not spreading hard enough with quality outside runners, but we've improved from 17th to 12th. The only stat going backwards is tackles, but I put that down to getting in first to the ball more often. Right now I reckon we're either the 9th or 10th best side in it (along with Gold Coast). But we're trending in the right direction.

On top of that, skills looked sharp and the whole group was really up and about. They almost look like a country club, with how well they all get along and encourage. I can't see dawes being far away from returning to Casey. Trengove also looking quite good!

Having a near full list to chose from is enormously advantageous. Especially given the number of injuries and underdone players Richmond have. I also believe our list is ahead of theirs in terms of talent now and really we should win comfortably as long as we bring the same intensity as we did last weekend. I would love nothing more than for this game to be a statement game for our club. I can't remember the last time we've beaten up on a big Melbourne based club at the G. We're pretty close to playing four quarters of hard-nosed and skilled football. Always hard to feel confident with Melbourne, but at some point we'll see a switch flick with this group and we won't look back. May this be the game. Dees by 45 +

Ron, you hit the nail with this word: "patronising". That's exactly what it was and why it was offensive. There is no excuse for Gerard. No team, or player, ever deserves to be patronised. Also, the correct answer was: "on current form, it is possible — but there's a long way to go".

I don't know where else to dump this, but I happened across some highlights of our win in Geelong last year. How's this for list improvement - these names played in that game: Jake Spencer Daniel Cross Jeremy Howe Rohan Bail Jimmy Toumpas Chris Dawes Aidan Riley I reckon Dawes is the only one who would get close to a game this year. And we beat Geelong. In Geelong.

Whilst I am pleased with our progress, "steady on" is an appropriate response until we win two games in a row.

24 touches, with 3:1 kicks to handballs as a minimum? Not one player in our side has achieved anything close to that even once this year. The only players to have more than 24 touches in a game are Viney x3, Jones N x2, Vince x2, Oliver and Bugg - and in all cases other than Vince, the ratio of kicks to handballs was either close to square, or heavily favoured handballs. To really spell it out, these are the players who have had 18 kicks in a game this year: Vince in round 2, and Vince in round 3. That's it. It'd be nice if we could check that what we're demanding as a par performance was at least semi-reasonable, especially when applying it to a developing 20 year old playing off half back. Sheesh.

Whip a chopstick out and stick it in his neck

Who cares what that vacuous nonentity thinks. Close thread

What a trooper your Aunty is. We done to her. But seriously Boss, you sell her your card?

My aunty is 94 years old and still goes to the G every day game (Nights to much for her now) I sell her my MCC guest card and off she goes with a group of friends for a lunch and a few wines before the game......She has been going to watch the dee's for the past 70 years, dragging my family and me along in my youth. I visit her 2 times a month in her retirement village for lunch and the conversation is always about the footy.

Pretty sure every time I see that footage I watch it 3 or 4 times in awe.

It must be really hard for opposition analysts now when looking at Melbourne. I mean if we're all struggling to identify the correct ins and outs with our new found depth, they'd be tearing their hair out. The only constants so far in terms of danger signs from an opposition POV is trying to curb Gawn's and Viney's influence in the middle and limit the supply to Hogan/Watts. I still think Maric is short of a gallop, and he has to be recalled due to Hampson. Deledio would still be a risk not being able to kick 100% last week, and would lack match fitness. But the Tigers have to roll the dice at 1 and 3 v the Dees. I really hope we give 'em hell.

I did this and had us playing the Hawks in the GF and we smashed them.

My guess is Richmond complained to the AFL that playing Melbourne more than once would be unfair and that they should be given the double-ups against easier competition.

I'm now a bit less positive than I was to Huffington Post given its use of "less" when it would be better (ie, correct) to have used "fewer".

C'mon Todd, you could have picked a more anonymous username.

That was fantastic, absolutely hammered Mav Weller. Whoever made this surreal clip out of it is a God:

Viney grabbed the arm brilliantly once against St Kilda. Completely nullifies it

No Vanders, no Oscar, no Mitch King. Spencer out there training which is good, getting towelled by Gawn though so don't expect much if we need him. Matt Jones I only saw briefly before he left. Unsure if he did much more than walk laps. Everyone else was there. Lumumba, JKH and Joel Smith doing some handballing, the 4 mentioned above doing their lighter stuff and despite only doing kick to kick and some other stuff with Cross it looked like Jeffy was moving pretty well to me.

Robbo was more laughing at Gerard's gesticulation, rather than the concept of Melbourne making the 8. There's no doubting it was a patronising response and taking into account the question was "CAN Melbourne make the 8?", it wasn't an overly considered response to that question because the answer frankly is yes. It's certainly possible. But I think what Whateley was saying, albeit not communicating it well, was that it's too premature to even be asking the question. Which is fair enough. There's still a lot of ground to cover and a lot to prove.

I made a bet for a rather excessive amount of money with a richmond supporting mate, roughly 10 years ago, that we would make a grand final before they did. In the last 2 years he has been telling me that i better have it ready for him and i keep responding that Richmond are in the process of a fake rise and really need to look at their list as a whole and start pretty much from scratch. Nothing sweeter than beating Richmond and further highlighting to him that at this stage in both lists development I am more likely to see one than he is.

* touché

I hate this. We weren't "lucky" at all. Their pace and spread was amazing but we defended superbly. Their inaccuracy was a product of our defensive awareness, pushing them to the flanks and pockets, forcing them to kick for goal at an angle. We deserved to win.

I like letting the Casey players retain the low numbers. Give the MFC players their MFC number+50 (so Petracca 55, Trengove 59 and so on). It means doing a quick subtraction in your head, but it's better than total randomness. Besides, who *wouldn't* want to see Terlich running around in number 96?

Haha, this sums up that idea.

How would one get into the business of d..k farming? I mean with all these bagfuls being thrown around surely there's some money to be made? On a serious note though, mods, what's the chances of a thread titled 'The Eat a Bag of D..ks Thread'? I mean Howey's happily munching away, now Whateley has his hands full, and I'm sure Cotchin or Dusty will be lucky enough to win a freebie bag this weekend. It's not PC obviously but it's all in good fun. Do-able? I'd even give KJ the honour of starting the thread.

I hate this argument. If we flipped it the other way, we'd have won about 12 games last year. 'Lucky' doesn't come into it. We beat them because they played badly.

Krazy, is that your son again?

Try these (MFC listed players who took part):- 49 Sam Weideman 50 Colin Garland 53 Max King 54 Jack Trengove 55 Liam Hulett 58 Mitch White 62 Dean Terlich 63 Viv Michie 70 Ben Newton 72 Alex Neal-Bullen 74 Oscar McDonald 78 Christian Petracca 79 Joel Smith 80 Jack Grimes

A draw for me.