SaberFang

Agreed, he's winning the disposal count for the entire league for crying out loud. Might not be 100% disposal efficiency, but he's doing everything in his power to get that ball in his hands and move it forward.

The coaching group can only do so much. It will be up to the playing group now. And fortunately we've brought in established winners, leaders and ball magnets to help pull the playing group up to a higher standard. There's nowhere to hide now if you're not going to give your all.

The only reason high draft picks should excite us anymore is that Roos will use them to get established players, not draftees. He'd probably on-trade picks 2 and 3 just like the Dyson trade (expect another GWS player at minimum), and keep 1 for the draft.

What a leader. This is a brilliant interview. So spot on, and it's great to see another man in the MFC leading by example. I really hope he stays on as a player with us for a few years, and a development coach after. Glad to hear that spot-on sentiment about supporters is filtering through the playing group. You'd think Roos would be using it as ammunition to rev the boys up. http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2014-04-04/dees-must-be-hell-bent-on-winning-cross

All the commentators banging on about us regretting Kelly.. well, you can't judge it until you see Salem's debut. Dyson has well and truly proven himself already, and Roosy's plan with Salem is spot on; ease him into the VFL and give him a couple of AFL games this year to get rid of the nerves. We need players with elite kicking and vision, which Salem has. I trust Roos knows what he's doing, and if he felt two great players (one established) was a better deal than one potentially excellent player (unestablished), I trust him.

Bit late to the party here, but never seen this video before. Is it just me or does Ollie Wines throw his hands up in celebration when Jack kicks the goal? Wingard has his hands up too so maybe it was just signalling to teammates, but found this quite amusing if so. EDIT: Oh, think he was just claiming it was touched to the ump. Haha :/

Well he can only get back to WA via trade, so if we can't lock him in we'll make whoever wants him pay overs for his services. If this year goes the way we're all dreading, I can't see us locking in any contracts. Likewise, we'd be looking at picks 1, 2 and 3 and Roos would have a field day. If he can't turn this club around with picks like that, nobody can. It's potentially 3x more Dyson/Salem trades, plus grabbing anyone we can via free agency.

Come on guys. In the words of Paul Roos "I'm sick of talking about the past." What good does it do lamenting all day long that we missed so and so in that draft or this draft. You can't assume those players we missed would've become the same players in our guernsey. For all we know some of the high draft picks we picked that went nowhere may have flourished at other teams. Equally, players we passed on may have ended up duds with us. The thinking here that we simply picked wrong and missed out on ready made superstars like Wines, Darling, Naitanui, Grundy, etc. is exactly the line of thinking that got us into this mess. Good drafting helps, but it's not everything. Reality is, we didn't choose them, and those we chose could not flourish in our team. Accept it, let's move on.

All I can assume is this was a scare tactic by Roos and he still wants to see how the players perform against a team ranked lower than West Coast. We'll have a better idea of where we're at. Remember the Saints beat both us and the Giants. Better match up. I think we'll start seeing big changes around round 5 when players start coming off injuries and Roos actually can make big statements to players without weakening the team.

Money talks. Bomber might like the idea of 5 years on 1.2 to 1.5mil. He would know a fair bit about Melbourne's list given he's working with Neil Craig now at Essendon. And you can clearly tell he and Roosy have been talking off camera Monday nights on 360. They probably spend at least an hour in the green room before the show. Their discussion Monday night was thrilling. Even Robbo said on air they need to extend their segment.

Could this looming cloud be having an impact on Trenners game? It's like he's been replaced with a shell of his former self.

4 to 6 weeks doesn't add up to 4 to 6 weeks. I'll be surprised if we see him by June.

He said it on 360. Outlined what Free Agency was intended to do (help skilled players who can't get into their club's best 22 go to other clubs where they could play), and how it's been abused and turned into a money milking exercise by the game's best players.

I think it's safe to say the idea of getting an untried senior assistant coach to take the reigns at the end of next year may well have gone up in flames last Sunday. I don't think even the AFL will let that happen now. It leaves too much to chance, especially considering the last assistant coach put us in this position.

Yet Freeman did his hamstring in his first NAB cup match.

Keep Watts on the wing and drop Trenners. He's either underdone or struggling horribly with his recovery. Or the captaincy just broke him. Probably a combination of all 3, because his "highlights" were utterly embarassing and what they showed on Footy Classified was an utter indictment of where he's at.

Agreed, I'm a little frustrated by all the vitriol against Pedo. He's not the most skilled, but he works his butt off and although might not be close to BOG, he at least gives his all. I'd rather 22 average players on the field giving their utmost for the MFC, than 22 underachieving players who don't give a [censored]. Must do wonders for his confidence when he goes forward and nobody wants to kick to him, and all the media commentary (during and after the match) laments our zero forward options. Likewise for Byrnes. Fans can whinge about him all they want, but he's putting in a tonne more effort than certain other leaders at the club. Ones who just lower their head and go "here we go again, not going to bother today."

Would be nice if we got just one draft period with the kind of red carpet treatment they give to expansion clubs. Can't see many others clubs supporting it, but ultimately it would be extremely bad news for the AFL if we didn't improve this year. They need us to improve and they need it to look like their appointment of Jackson & Roos has been a raging success. The damage to the game, supporters, broadcasters and stadiums is enormous if teams get flogged every week. It has a potently damaging effect on the AFL brand itself, and more importantly their bottom line. In short, they really can't afford to let us fail this time. If nothing else, they're contractually obliged to have 18 teams until 2017.

Oh no doubt, I can't read much into a five second glance of the guy, half of which was me double taking to make sure it was him. I don't think the world's best psychologist could.I'm just glad he's still in Melbourne, and was possibly on his way to/from the club.

And his name is....?

A couple of good trade seasons can be the difference between bottom 4 and top 8. We need only look at the brilliant recruitment at Port and emulate their success. The pickups they got over two off seasons have put them where they are now. Getting Polec was icing on the cake.

Grimes speaking tough reiterating players will get dropped if they don't deliver the basics. Jones saying heads will be on the chopping block if you can't execute the fundamentals of the game. Grimes denying the Roos contact has one iota of impact on the playing group. Got to stop using excuses for not performing.

Today Roos has said Dawes is a couple of weeks off, Jamar is going to play VFL, and Hogan says he is finally feeling ready to take on a heavy load again. But the aim for him is now... you guessed it... 4 to 6 weeks. So round 10 at the earliest for Hogan

We don't play the Saints again this year. And unlike us, they are doing their rebuild properly by teaching their new players through the wisdom of their senior players. We just turfed out our senior list and threw all our expectations behind draft picks. But the AFL must shoulder some of the blame here. Their five years of compromised drafts has deprived struggling teams of the talent.

If we are a two win side or less this year, we will get a priority pick. Surely the alternative is simply unacceptable in the eyes of the AFL.