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They also operate under the best father-son rule of all time.

Performance issue. Apparently couldn't finish a pack of Winnie Reds and a block of VB cans all in one night.

Need this ferocity back. Still my favourite tackle.

We're too short and too poor kicking in the backline - Hibberd is the ideal remedy for this. Vince and Melksham are too similar IMO and Vince is a far better competitor, Melksham needs to be a great kick to be of more value and he isn't - too many turnovers. I really like what Frost offers - size, incredible closing speed and aggression. We need Hibberd in for Melksham if they think he has enough game time under his belt. We're also too short in the forward line. I think T.Smith was removed far too hastily and just doesn't seem to be figuring in people's "ins". I wouldn't have replaced him with Bugg last week and would have him straight back in - he's a genuine marking option, a reliable kick despite missing an easy one against St.Kilda and a forward pressure demon who tackles to maim - 11 tackles for Casey. I'm a Hannan fan, he's clean and skillful in the air and on the ground and is a very nice kick - he just needs more game-time. I see people have him out too making us even shorter in the forward line! Weed is just being used as a decoy and that was crazy against Freo when we left Smith out. I'd replace Weid with Hogan and bring Smith back in. That gives us a lot more flexibility to use Hogan and Watts up the ground on occasion and still have some marking power deep. I thought Watts' contested mark to set us alight in the last was one of the best I've seen in years - sure people get higher vertically but he had enormous pack splitting forward motion and height - I haven't seen that in an MFC jumper since Schwarz regularly did it 5 times a week. I can't see the value in having ANB, Harmes and Bugg in the same 22 and ANB and Harmes currently offer considerably more IMO. Petracca provided a spark in the centre last week and I'd use him more in there, with Brayshaw out of form we need more midfield classy depth. There's little chance of it happening but I'd go: In: Hogan, T.Smith, Hibberd Out: Weid, Bugg, Melksham B: Jetta TMac Hibberd HB: Hunt Frost Vince C: Stretch Oliver Salem HF: Hannan Hogan Petracca F: Garlett T.Smith Watts R: Spencer Jones Viney I: Tyson Kent Harmes ANB

*bumped reply I made last night on the 'changes' thread* Garry Lyon on Classified: 'Monday night will be the most important game for the MFC since they last played finals'. I agree. This is put up or shut up time.

About as much chance of Hogan not being picked vs Richmond as there was for Watts not being picked in Round 1.

Saty your comment, "There must have bee reasons for them to act at the G " clearly assumes that crowd members were at fault and security personnel were acting correctly. I don't know the details of the incident but my assumptions would be the opposite. The training of security personal is currently a joke. Essentially if you turn up everyday to a course which you pay for through a private provider you get your ticket. Have a look at the number of bashings, assaults and over the top responses from security people that have been reported in the media over the last year or two. And what about that clown who was parading around the Bourke Street Mall with a handgun on his hip. He was unlicensed yet employed by a security company. In general ( and I will admit that) they are cardboard cops and wannabes - disgraceful.

Hit them hard and early and never let up, and we will win. The Tigers play Adelaide the week after and you know they are already looking ahead to that game as they already think they are kings due to their 4-0 start. Richmond are soft, always have been always will be.

Our spies have gotten hold of the audio of the MRP meeting after round 2. No individuals can be identified but here is the transcription, without further comment .... Morning, boys. Morning. Good weekend? You bet. Went down the beach with the missus. What about you? Not much. Mowed the lawn. Did you read the Herald Sun this morning? They reckon Hogan will get a couple. I reckon he'll get a couple too. Did you see it? No. I just heard he might get a couple. I wonder what the MRP will do to him. Knackers, we're the MRP. Are we? I thought we're the match review panel? We're that too. Are we? Well, i hope we're getting paid double! Alright. First case. Player Hogan. Number one for Melbourne. What'd he do? Dunno. Let's play the video. So what are we looking for? Where's the incident? Can't see anything. Play it again. It must be where that Carlton bloke falls down. Rewind it. Yes ... there he goes. See? Where he falls down. They're suspending Hogan for that!? That's just a love tap! You can't get suspended for that! It's not netball! That newspaper bloke doesn't know what he's talking about. Now here it is from a different angle. Jeezus! Did you see that big bloke drop that Carlton bloke? That's gotta be four weeks! You doofus, that's the same incident from a different angle. Oh, is it? It's a contact sport but those deliberate rushed behinds are sacrosanct. What are you talking about? I heard Gil McLachlan say that. He didn’t say that. He said the head is sacrosanct. Yeah, something like that. Reckon Hogan's in trouble then. That's four weeks if it's the head. Reckon that newspaper bloke must be right after all. Alright boys, tick your boxes. Let's see now ... hey, does anyone know what "negligent" means? Nup. Nup. I'll tick it anyway. What have you got? Low impact, medium impact, high impact, negligent, careless, ... What? Give us a look ... you've ticked every box, you [censored]! You're only supposed to tick one in each section! Oh, are you? Where's it say that? Right on the top. Oh, so it does. You know what, that's very clever of the AFL. What did you tick? Accidental, deliberate, negligent, severe, and dog act. Dog act? Give us a look ... you numpty, you can't write down your own categories. Well, you should be able to. Every week there should be one dog act. It's not netball, you know! Alright, what do we give him? You can't get suspended for a love tap. Too right. Our game's not netball. But gee, the way that other bloke hit the deck ... How about two down to one? Done. Done. Alright. Pub? Yep, pub. Hang on .... what's this? "Doctor's report?" Doctor's report? Since when has Hogan been a doctor? He deserves weeks for staging as a doctor. Shut up, I’m reading ... blah blah assessment ... considered opinion ... consequently ... That sounds serious. Are all doctor's reports that serious? Well, when my doc reported that me old man had cancer it was bloody serious! We'd better give him a couple to be safe. That would be the responsible thing to do. The what? I dunno. That's what that copper said when I told him I’d walk home. Are we agreed? Three down to two? Three down to two. Yep. Alright. It's been a long morning. Pub? Pub. I thought you'd never ask. Anyway that Hogan ... You reckon he's in trouble?

Up front I wouldn't mind ( if just once ) seeing our 3 marking talls ( aho CAN actually mark ) as Pedo, Smith and Hogan. Reckon thats a handfull for an opposition. Id have Jeffy , Kent , Truck and ANB rotating as the ' smalls' Play Watts off the wing with carte Blanche licence

Oliver scored more AFLCA votes last week: http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-04-18/aflca-votes-round-four With 20 votes he sits 6th, 4 behind the leader (Wines) and slightly ahead of the captains of the current top 3 teams on the ladder. The top 10 players is a roll call of the best AFL players. Huge achievement for Oliver. As Macca said a few weeks ago Oliver was an inspired choice by recruiters. Can we please sign him up for a 10 year contract extension

If Viney does just one thing this week I hope it is to grab that arrogant bikie offspring by his outstretched hand and pull out his shoulder. That would be a big contribution.

Do Eagles players ever get suspended? Can't remember the last one. Le Cras gets off with a fine because of 'low Impact'. Because the player he collected to the head got up and played out the game it was classed as 'low impact'. Now, didn't the Hogan and Lewis 'victims' get up and play out the game? Problem was they were not wearing a blue and yellow jumper. Talk about inconsistent penalties.

'Important' is a complex and nuanced term, isn't it? Not only is 'what is important' subjective, but even what people mean by important. In the sense that it will be highly scrutinised, and a lot of people will judge us on this game, it is definitely very important. Probably will have a financial impact, on future attendences, viewers and memberships. Will probably be the only Demons game that certain media spuds actually watch, so it will become the reference point for all their pronouncements about our problems and potentials. McDonald kicks reliably for 120 minutes? All Australian discussion. Stretch has an off day? Still not ready. Viney has a big day? He's been holding this team together and Jones is past it. But the most important thing, in the end, is that a win keeps us in the 8 and a loss puts us back in the general pack. Which I hate to say, looks like the situation we'll be in most weeks this season. It's gonna be a stressful ride. .

Sadly i 100% agree. The 3rd Q fadeout was so bad. The fact that it lasted the entire quarter means that the Leadership on field and coaches failed. The comeback in the final quarter was ultimately of no use and should never have been necessary in the first place

Welcome to Senior Coaching Simon Goodwin

These medical report suspensions are clearly open to abuse. I can see this easily happening. Club X plays Club Z in final round. Both have secured a finals spot. Superstar from club X whacks tagger from club Z who continues playing with no ill effects. Club X doctor says tagger has suffered from delayed concussion. Superstar misses finals games and impacts club Z'd chances.

Craig Hutchison was all over this on FC: Saints should have picked Bontempelli instead of McCartin. Hutchy - the accurate one!

Melbourne supporters are just scarred. We have no idea whether or not Viney's form over the first four rounds has anything at all to do with the captaincy call. The only thing that we know to be true is the following: - Viney had hip surgery pre-christmas and has therefore had an interrupted pre-season. If not for the captaincy call, this would be the next excuse in the barrel. Without a doubt. - As history suggests, many players can have a less than satisfactory season following their best and whilst that is not a great sign, it's definitely been a trend for many players at Melbourne. - We're four rounds into the year. He wouldn't be the first player within the AFL to end up having a great year after an average start.

The use of 'consequences' in grading penalties is ridiculous. I can see it now, police pull an erratic driver over, do the breath test.. "oh, you should probably be in hospital with that blood alcohol level, but everything is fine, you didn't hit anyone today". Meanwhile, at the MRP - "Oh, you threw you weight into someone's head while they were looking the other way? No problem, they got up. We'll check again next time to see if you've killed anyone." And up on the peninsular - "You launched a spread of nuclear missiles at Seoul and Tokyo? Oh, they all failed to detonate, so it's fine, just promise not to improve your fuses."

Mate, it was a goal. Could clearly see it graze the end of his boot. Let it go.

Agree with Pro Dee on many topics, but not on Pedersen. We need him in the side, not because he will kick multiple goals necessarily but because he affords us the possibility of a) taking the ruck chop-out allowing Watts to stay forward and/or b;) being the KPF target allowing Hogan to roam in the midfield (either to get him in to the game if he's struggling or to support our somewhat spluttering midfield). Weideman offers neither of these options in the current configuration of the team and the overlay of his form makes it clear he must go back to Casey and regain confidence.

I don't know what to think. I just hate the fact that Lewis and Gawn are out, and that had we had both of them (with Hogan) we'd probably be at least 3 wins and 1 loss. Richmond will be a tough game. The absolute 'in' must be 4 quarter white hot intensity. No more 10-15 minute lapses.

My letter to the club this morning: Hello, Our family attended the Fremantle game on Saturday, and I am writing about the role of private security post-match. My daughter begged me to sit down near the fence both times we have been to the football this year so we sat three rows back right near the cheer squad. This gave us a real insight into what the AFL calls 'game day experience'. One one hand it was great to sit near the cheer squad and for my daughter to hear the real passion for the game inspired by the chanting and barracking. Not so the role of private security, who after the drama and disappointment of the last goal decided that they would swarm this area post match and move in on patrons because they had allegedly heard some 'abuse' from the crowd. From our vantage point the cheer squad was in excellent spirits all day and the intrusion of a private 'flying squad' of bouncers was totally unwarranted. The club is often criticised in the media for lack of passion at games, I wonder what security would do if it was a Richmond, Essendon, or Hawthorn cheer squad member had allegedly berated the goal umpire. There was no indication of racial or sexist abuse. If the AFL, or the club, or its sub-contracted security want us to simply turn up and jog on the spot for some inane 'run like a demon' at quarter time, and act on any other of the various queues of the ground announcer, and allow members and patrons to be pushed around by glorified bouncers then I can't really see the point in bringing my family up from Gippsland - a 250k round trip, we could just watch the game from home. I hope that the club liaises in this instance with the cheer squad and find out what, if any provocation there was that required a squad of private security to intimidate paying patrons in this way. If the alleged misbehaviour was trivial and no more than disappointed barracking at the goal umpire, I sincerely hope that the club makes its feelings known to the ground managers at the MCG and ensures that sub-contracted crowd controllers can not act in such an unrestrained fashion in the future.

Melbourne has been crying out for more prime time FTA/marquee games - and you're suggesting supporters will stay home because it's going to be a little bit cold and because they're upset the team got rolled by less than a kick last week? We should get 25-30k there, Richmond will probably get 40k-odd. If there's not at least 25k Melbourne supporters there then we don't deserve these slots and don't deserve to complain about the AFL fixturing.

Neither Jones nor Goodwin are very articulate in front of the media. Jones is just regurgitating exactly what the coach says. The "journey" thing is just them trying to tell you that we're a work in progress. It might be tedious to listen to, but it's pretty hard to disagree with the point. I wouldn't take the absence of those key words to mean an absence of commitment, it's not the point they're choosing to labour in front of the mics. I'm a big supporter of our coach and our skipper, but I think you could just as easily skip the pressers and you wouldn't be any less informed. They give donuts.

Good grief. Did you read the article or just stirring? There is no doubt in his mind that the centre circle would be drawn on the oval, but he added it is up to the grounds staff.

Tbh. I never bother listening to players or even coaches. They all do the REAL talking gameday. I 'listen' to that only. Just like for mine the only real Stat is the scoreboard.

A lot of Richmond supporters on BigFooty are saying the same thing. Like us, their confidence has been pulverised through years of mediocrity. Tough to tell the quality of the opposition at the beginning of the season anyway.

Certainly haven't paid overs !!

They're European aristocrats, you could pick any two at random and they'd be at least cousins.

Are they related though looks like different DNA to me!!

Jones supports both Hogan and Pedersen being in the team - twitter feed: https://twitter.com/melbournefc?ref_src=twsrc^tfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.melbournefc.com.au%2F Jones: "Next week's game is an opportunity to put our brand on display against a red-hot Richmond". Huh!! The club's song book: 'our brand being on display' and our 'system' and 'not relying on specific personnel' is now full of platitudes and is becoming tiresome. I would like to hear our coach and leaders talk about intent, bringing the right attitude and giving a 4 qtrs effort. Win or lose but please commit to those 3 things. Right now Richmond are playing 'our brand' a lot better than we are. Jones' interview does not fill me with a lot of confidence for this week.

It's certainly going to be hot - both sides credibility is on the line, and it will happen on a big stage. Richmond are flying and we're buoyant - the 'G will be packed and nousy. I can't wait. "Biggest test in years" is just silly hyperbole though. At our stage of development, every game is winnable and losable. Every week is a test - it's just that this week, more people are watching.

As if... ( Hogan not straight in ) Sorry chunk...best pick your moments ti utter rubbish.

It's not just this week, it's the next 6 rounds that are huge. They determine if we play finals in 2017 and if we have improved at all. Leading up to the bye we play: Richmond Essendon Hawthorn Adelaide North Melbourne Gold Coast The AFL handed us a really easy draw for the first half of the season. They basically handed us finals for 2017. If we [censored] it up we don't deserve to play finals and questions need to be asked why we haven't improved. We should win 4-5 of those 6 matches. Anything less than 4 wins and finals are likely out of the question for 2017. No finals in 2017 is a failure for the club in any way you look at it. Yes we're a developing young side, but we also haven't played finals for 11 years now and have enough talent in our team to win more often than not. The only times we lose are the times we don't turn up. No teams have really beat us yet, we've only lost games. We need to turn up to play every week for 4 quarters and do what should be done. It starts with Richmond this week. They've beat up on 3 crap teams and one decent team who struggle away from home. If we turn up with the right attitude to play, we will beat them. Even if Dusty gets 40 touches, we'll still beat them because we have a far better spread of talent across the park and better coaching staff.

While I get where you're coming from, a lot depends on what you expected from this year For what it's worth, I don't believe we can win the flag this year. It would take a massive Bradbury performance from a few other teams for us to do that. We ain't good enough yet. So my view is that if we can't win it, we should continue to develop the team towards a position where we can. So for mine, if he's fit Weideman plays. To say Weed "cariried the load" is I agree a bit over the top. But he did try to perform some of Hogan's role without much success. I think it was Old55 that commented on Weed's positioning on Saturday. I'd suggest it was largely because he was caught betwixt & between as he tried to play a role higher up the ground. When Hogan returns to his rightful CHF position Weed will play mainly deeper forward. This allows him to lead towards the ball carrier again and attack the ball drop in contested marking situations. Much like R1 which I think most supporters found acceptable. Casey play a team who were flogged by 30 goals. While he can go back there and kick a bag, what will it teach him ? What does it add to his development and that of our team ? If you want to build towards a flag winning team, I'd suggest that Weed plays most weeks (he's 19 and at some stage will need a break - not after 4 rounds though). If you want a few years of finishing 7th and 8th, bring in the likes of Pedo My 2 cents

Carried the load? More like he filled a slot on the team sheet. While you may be right that he performs better when Hogan is there, the fact that you said he carried the load indicates you are very biased on this issue. Weideman may well be the future, but we need to win games now.

Not good one on one suggest you look at Geeling game, he dragged down Hawkins and saved a goal He is not being dragged back, he is playing defence coz Lewis gave himself a holiday and Hibberd is not quite fit yet If the forwards and midfielders vaporize for a quarter like they did in the 3rd, then all the defenders will be under the pump, he made the last mistake so it stands out, we didn't lose because of that mistake, we lost because of the 3rd qtr where most of the team went missing

Having a three game losing streak to our name just five games into the season would be awful.

Maybe a jolly good flogging BBO?

I still don't really rate the Tiges and will be very disappointed if we don't come away with the points....

If the MRP had any involvement, we'd eventually see someone penalised for being sober and not crashing/killing someone.

The system is an absolute farce! It has zero credibility and must be changed before next season.

Nah, the problem was they weren't playing Carlton, so the opposition doctor didn't put in a report of delayed onset concussion. They are using the consequence as a factor of determining impact. I can see the logic in it, but it can lead to inconsistent, obviously bulldust outcomes, because it comes down to the word of the club doctors, who are going to exhibit varying degrees of conservatism (to give them the benefit of the doubt).

The problem is your average Joe will flick to channel 7 to watch the footy and if it's not on they'll think it's a Foxtel game. Most people still stick to 2, 7, 9, 10 and SBS, the secondary channels are still just that - secondary. People don't really scroll through them when channel surfing.

He's a strong mark, reliable set shot, hard tackler, aggressive and can help in the ruck. Right now, what can Weed do? How does he help us?

Is Trengove at the huddle yet?

From what I saw of the game Frost looked far better than O. McDonald.

The Jarrod Lyons hit on Liam Shiels was the exact same as Jordan Lewis's hit on cripps. They were both wrestling and exchanging punches and then one slides off the arm and hits them in the jaw...the only thing is Liam shiels isn't a piece of s*** and didn't drop to the ground like cripps did, also didn't receive a hairline fracture but cripps was fine to play this week without even a head guard. But the exact same incident and the exact same lead up and exact same mechanism... one bloke gets a fine and one bloke gets 3 weeks... Go figure